GHS Swamp Rabbit Half training - Week 6 of 12

Miles run this week: 21.6
Plus, I actually finally registered for the GHS Swamp Rabbit Half (i.e. my goal race for this training cycle... derp).

Monday - home workout
stroller walk 1.8 mi
P90X Ab Ripper
strength routine
Starting off the week with a challenge: daycare is closed due to icy roads, so I'm at home, working, with a toddler... and I'm supposed to get in a workout? Yep, we make things work.
Took D out in the stroller (bundled up 'cuz it's in the 20s) for a neighborhood walk. He lasted almost 2 miles before he started to fuss - it was his naptime anyway, so we hustled back to the house and got him into the crib. Once he was asleep, I headed to the basement for a little workout routine. First did P90X Ab Ripper DVD for some good core strengthening, then did some bodyweight and light dumbbells exercises (3 sets of everything)
10x curls
10x reverse fly
10x jump squats
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10x pushups
20x jumping jacks
10x side arm raise
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10x walking lunges
10x chest fly
10x OH lat pull
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20x high knees
20x butt-kickers

Not too shabby for just making do at home! Just goes to show... when you want it, you make it work.

Tuesday - #10kTuesday
6.22mi w/ 3mi @ race pace (-ish)
Daycare was open today (yay!) so Scott and I were both at work. I headed outside for 10k Tuesday around 11, was met with bright sunshine and cold air with little to no breeze. Perrrrfect. Planned on 2mi warmup / 3mi race pace / 1.2mi cooldown.

Splits were off... but they got faster as I went, so... win?

Still can't seem to hit my 8-min/mi splits quite right or consistently, but these didn't feel quite as hard as last week's (also too fast). I'll chalk it up to a nice #10kTuesday and leave it at that.

Wednesday - XT
bike ride with Megan, 7.6 miles
Megan and I went out for a road ride through the USC Upstate loop. It was chilly, cloudy, and roads were quite wet, but it was a nice ride! I had to head back in early due to a meeting scheduled immediately after lunch (grrr), so only got a short ride in, but it was a nice 7.6 miles at average 13mph.

Thursday - #speedworkThursday
40 min tempo
An abnormally gorgeous day outside, so headed out on my standard tempo route. Warmed up with 1.5 miles at easy pace, then did 3 segments at gradually increasing paces, peak for a minute or two, then easy for a nice cooldown to round out the 40 minutes.

Appears that I was about :30 off of my target paces (in my head) for my 3 gradual increase segments... I was hoping to do 9/8:30/8 but for some reason I have a really hard time hitting an 8:30 pace. Grr! Still, it was a nice progression and the peak was on the right target pace. More work to do, but overall happy with the workout.

Friday - yoga
#yogaFriday
Did the lunchtime yoga class at work, as usual was a nice relaxing stretch session.

Saturday - long trail run
13 11 miles at Paris Mountain
Had 13 miles on the training plan for this weekend's long run, but since I have done zero long runs on trails, I gave myself a break when I pooped out after 11 miles. I started at the bottom ranger station parking lot at Paris Mountain right around 8:30am. I woke up tired after being stuffed up all night - it's weird, I'll feel fine throughout the day, but at night I get all kinds of stuffed up and end up mouth-breathing all night. It's been happening for like a week now! Ugh. Does not make for restful sleep.

Anyway...

Headed out on the Mountain Creek trail towards the climb up Sulphur Springs. I had to take several walk breaks during the climb but made it and felt ok. Continued up towards Firetower & Kanuga trails, then around the far side of North Lake.

Crossroads

North Lake with Paris Mountain in the background on a misty cool morning

It was about 50-55F with a slight fog/mist in the air. Very quiet and peaceful. I wish I'd felt better physically and more "into" the run, because it was really a beautiful morning. After a quick snack break on the other side of the lake, I continued on Pipsissewa and Brissy Ridge - Pipsissewa is probably the most technically challenging part of this entire run due to the large rocks on the trail. Again, several walk breaks were taken. Finally I started heading back down on Sulphur Springs and by the time my watch buzzed at 10 miles, I knew I was not going to make 13. I finished out the run and got back to the car just as I hit 11 miles and decided to call it good enough. Whew.

A couple little hills. Maybe I don't feel so bad about cutting the run short!

Sunday - Upstate SORBA Ladies' Ride
13.5 miles mountain biking in Pisgah
So, this morning started off rough for multiple reasons and I wasn't sure I was going to make it to this ride that I'd been looking forward to for weeks, but I was determined to make it so I put on my big girl panties and headed up to North Carolina this morning for the ladies' group ride organized by Upstate SORBA. We met at the North Mills River campground and started off with a hell of a climb up gravel roads - about 1000 feet over ~5ish miles of near constant uphill. Yeah, that was the first hour of the day. Woof.

While we were taking a break at one crossroads, there was a group of guys also taking a break and waiting for one of their friends. Look closely at the guy in the bright yellow helmet... that's retired professional cyclist George Hincapie out for a ride on the trails. Celebrity sighting!!

After all of the climbing at the beginning we got to do some fun downhill sections. The first was quite rocky and some slanty ("off-camber") roots which got me a little shaky, but after that section I was fine and was able to enjoy the other two big downhill sections. Overall total of 13.5 miles with 1600ft of elevation gain. Felt pretty good at the end, but definitely tired!