Xmas Week

Monday 🎄🎅

Did: 10.11 mi @ 9:29/mi 

What has become a traditional Christmas morning 10-mile sunrise run was once again a lovely start to the day!

TR Xmas lights!

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Sunrise over the...abandoned shipping container.

Tuesday

Did: 6.25 mi negative split run (first 5k in 32:16, second 5k in 25:48) + 12 min strength

I'm loosely doing some of the 12 Days of Yeti challenge and one of the assigned challenges was a half and half negative split 10k. Sandbagged a bit on the front end and picked it up for the second half. Challenge done. 

Did some pushups/bodyweight exercises afterwards.

Wednesday

Did: 1.1 mi run + 50 min sandbag workout + 1.2 mi pup ruck

Quick neighborhood mile before doing a ridiculously crazy sandbag workout. Was covered in sand and sweat by the end of it. Finished off with 1.2 miles with the pup around the neighborhood.

Me and my 40# sandy friend

Sunset ruck

Thursday

Did: 3.07 mi run + 3.87 mi ruck hike

A little neighborhood 5k before heading up to Dupont State Forest for a morning in the woods. Scott biked with friends while I took D and the pup on a waterfall hike. We saw High Falls (from the top and the bottom) and Triple Falls on our almost-4-mile trek. I took the 20# pack along for the ride.

Friday

Did: 1.4 mi run + 60 min Power Vinyasa + 1.5 mi pup ruck

Quick mid-morning loop in the neighborhood and a lunchtime yoga class - perfect midday treat! After dinner got out for a 30# ruck with the doggo.

Saturday

Did: 12.02 mi @ 8:33/mi avg

Early morning with the running buddies downtown - solid run! Happy with the pace although my lack of fuel showed up in the last couple of miles where I went from a steady 8:15 pace down to 8:30s. Still, happy with the miles!

Sunday

Did: 9.04 mi @ 8:43/mi avg

Another early group run today, this time to celebrate running buddy Matt's 9th full year of run streaking (at least 1 mile run every day). Fun group of folks went for the run and then enjoyed coffee afterwards.

Pre-Christmas Week

Monday

Did: 3.07 mi @ 9:20/mi + 60 min Vinyasa at Soul Yoga

Morning run after school drop-off. Last one of these until 2024!

Did an afternoon yoga class at Soul - needed that stretchy goodness.

Tuesday

Did: 6.7 mi @ 8:41/mi + 20 min ruck strength + 1.6 mi ruck @ 15:27/mi avg with 30# dry weight

Track Tuesday with Matt & Christy this morning. I did a ladder of 400 - 800 - 1000 - 800 - 400 and kept a pretty good consistent pace of 6:20-6:30/mi for the 400s, 6:45 for the 800s, and just sub-7 for the 1000. It was a cold morning, sub-freezing temps, but felt pretty good once we were moving around the track. The breeze was unpleasant but not awful.

At lunch, I hit the work gym for a ruck WOD - this one was tough! Took the 30# pack for a walk around the perimeter loop afterwards.

20# pack, 40# sandbag
Did 2 full rounds + half of the third suitcase carry

Wednesday

Did: 1 mi treadmill run + 5.5 hours of skiing

Fun day of chasing an 8-year-old down snowy mountains!

Thursday

Did: 5.21 mi @ 8:29/mi

USC Loop at lunchtime - what started out as a super cold morning (mid-20s!) turned into a gorgeous sunny day. Almost an identical pace as the previous week on this loop. Pretty amazing the consistency!

Friday

Did: 2.15 mi @ 9:14/mi avg

Did some hill repeats at the very end of the day on the Riverbend climb. Pretty to watch the sunset change with each repeat!

Start of run

Last repeat

Saturday

Did: 6.3 mi run + 7 mi ruck + 2.4 mi pup walk

Lots of activities today! Started with an hour run with friends from the Swamp Rabbit grocery, then put on the 20# ruck for 7 miles. Longest ruck I've done in a while and need to get some more mileage added. Later in the day did a pup & kiddo walk.

Ruckin'

Kids in the woods 💚🐾

Sunday

Did: 1.5 mi run + 7 mi mountain bike ride + 2.4 mi pup walk

Got in a quick neighborhood run before heading to Issaqueena for the annual Xmas Eve group mountain bike ride. This year was D's first year going on the ride, so we had a sub-set of folks do a shorter family ride apart from the larger group who did a few more miles. Ended up having a great time hanging out in the parking area after - sort of an impromptu potluck lunch! Great times. 

Tired after biking

Took the pup out for a walk once we got home since she'd been in her crate all morning. Maybe next year she can be trusted to do the Xmas Eve ride, too. 

Busy start to December

Whoopsie, got off track on the ol' blog here. The busy-ness of early December took over! Some weekly summaries and highlights...

Week of 12/4-12/10

Scott was traveling for the entire week, so it was a lot of working things in when they could get done. Plus, Dargan ended up being home sick on Tuesday which threw an additional wrench in the week!

Got in a little over 27 running miles, an hour of rucking, two strength sessions, and one yoga class. Not too bad for balancing it all!

Morning run

Pup walkin'

#10kTuesday views

Pup bath

Drenched rainy miles

Week of 12/11-12/17

Only a partial solo week this time. 32 miles of running this week, including an epic Saturday of 15 miles! Also a sandbag strength session from Monday that left me sore for an ENTIRE WEEK. Omg.

 

This hurt SO MUCH. But SO GOOD.

Morning miles

Pup walk in the woods

Saturday's runs are worth writing about.... started off a little after 7am, and at varying intervals looped back to the start point to pick up or drop off more and more friends. It was such a disjointed and random run, but ended up being so much fun! The final 5 miles was to go run down Earle Street to see the 60+ inflatable santas in nearly every single yard. 

Santa Street group run!

60+ inflatable Santas on one street

After finishing those 12+ miles, I headed down to the Preserve at Lakewood for the Tacky Sweater 5k. A silly good time and got to see another group of friends... not to mention ran better than I expected and placed 1st in my age group & 3rd overall female!

Tacky Sweater 5k!
(and run #2 of Saturday)

Podium!

Sunday night was also an adventure... I completed my first Rucking Challenge! This was December's Silent Night challenge. 4 miles, in the dark, at least 1 in total silence... I ended up doing all 4 silent, except for saying hi so as not to be rude to a group of neighbors who were walking. :) I added extra weight (30lb dry weight in the pack, plus hydration bladder) just to make it really feel like an accomplishment. It was tough, but I also managed negative splits with each mile! 

Patch = earned.

Feeling good about the accomplishments the last couple of weeks!

The week with 2 Altamont climbs

Monday

Did: 2.94 mi @ 9:07/mi + 1 mi pup night walk

Got in a short neighborhood run mid-morning, then took the pup for a walk after kiddo bedtime. 

Tuesday

Did: 10 min sandbag workout + 6.24 mi @ 8:29/mi

Did a quick sandbag workout in the morning before heading to work. 

Lunchtime got out in the chilly but lovely sunshine for a #10kTuesday. Pretty good pace but definitely was feeling tired legs.

Wednesday

Did: 1.4 mi run + 3.7 mi ruck

Early morning freezing loop in the neighborhood and a ruck on the 5k course at lunch while at the office.

Thursday

Did: 6.0 mi @ 10:01/mi run

Got talked into an Altamont climb this morning and turned out to be pretty alright! 

Moon from the mountaintop

Friday

Did: 2 mi pup walk + 9.37 mi @ 11:04/mi run

So, on Thursday afternoon we had a holiday social at work. There was some wine. Then there was a conversation in the run group chat about "hey what if we did something crazy and ran the Paris Mountain Road Race 20k route on Friday night to beat the rain this weekend". And next thing I knew, I had said, "I'm in!" 😂

Friday morning I got up and took the pup for a walk after morning school drop-off. 

For the crazy run, most folks were meeting up at one person's apartment and running from there (about 3.5 miles from the base of Altamont Road, along the run course). I decided I would start at a similar time but from a location closer to Altamont to get a slight head start, knowing the group would catch me eventually since those running were much faster than I am. I had Scott drop me off at a church near the base of Altamont road and I started running from there a little after 5:30pm, just at dusk. Also, this is when it started sprinkling rain. (remember, this run was to beat the rain)

So off I trot, up the mountain, taking my time since I was hoping the group would catch me. I reached the top just before 6 and saw a message that the group had just left from their starting point. I waited around for a few minutes, but the rain started coming down even harder and it was getting chilly, so I decided to keep moving. 

I got absolutely poured on as I descended the CVS side of Altamont... like, couldn't hardly see the road in front of me due to the rain and fog. Just tried to keep the white stripe on the side of the road in view. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic, and I could just keep trucking down the mountain. 

Made it to CVS and saw another message that the rest of the group had just made it to the top... so at that point I knew I would be running the full thing solo. I decided to finish the run all the way to our finish point at the Travelers Taproom and really had a strangely enjoyable time since the rain had stopped by this point. I loved running through the quiet dark roads and seeing all of the houses lit up with Christmas lights! 🤩

Saturday

Did: 2.3 mi pup ruck + 1.1 mi run

Sunday

Did: 3.0 mi @ 9:38/mi

Legs were tireddddd today.