Busy week

Monday

3.4 mi @ 11:23/mi avg

Ran in the gorgeously chilly morning sun with Ivy - our favorite Gold Line route! Lots of pee stops but moved pretty good in between.

1.2 mi afternoon pup walk

Tuesday

6.26 mi @ 8:50/mi avg

Got up early at home to run before the kiddo and pup woke up since the day and evening were occupied. Felt good knowing this was done and out of the way before the day inevitably took over.

1.4 mi run/walk

Walked mostly with a few runs at the Double Stamp Cinco de Mayo event with URC. Little dude and Ivy went with me.

Wednesday

nada

Thursday

4.1 mi @ 10min/mi XC run

Lunch run on the XC trails. Nice and easy.

1.8 mi baseball walkies

Friday

1.9 mi walks

Two walks, about 1.5 mi each. More pretty sky. 

Saturday

1 mi warmup + Caputo Studio Saunter 5k in 23:28

Local 5k race - new on the Corporate Shield roster - was a great event! Perfect weather (cool and cloudy) and lots of challenging hills. Managed 1st Female Masters award, and little dude dominated those hills to get his 5k PR over a minute faster than the Run for Babies just a few weeks ago!

Milliken team pic

Sunday

3.6 mi walks 

Just walks, no time for anything else today. 

Busy week, lots of walking miles but not much else. 

Steady as she goes

Monday

1,300yd swim

In the office today so went to the community center for a $3 swim sesh. Felt really good and smooth, was averaging about 4:00-4:10 for each interval of 200 yds. Planned on 5 reps but ended up adding a sixth!

3 mi @ 8:53/mi run

Ran at the Eastside Run Club hosted by Beerded Cork for the "Rockers Invades Other Run Clubs" event. Probably ran a little too fast for what was supposed to be more of a recovery run, but ah well! Fun times with cool peeps. 

Tuesday

6.6 mi @ 9:28/mi avg with speedwork

Garmin suggested a speed workout of 3x3x15s @ 5:10, so I said ok why not. Ran at Furman in the early hours and ran loops around The Mall doing the 15s surges along the way. It was a challenge but a fun way to break up the 6+ miles, and finished by looping out around the lake (and included The Hill!). 

20 min strength

Quick sesh in the work gym, not as much time as I would have liked but got something (better than nothing).

Wednesday

60 min Vinyasa w/ Wednesday @ Soul Yoga

Been a minute since I made it to hot yoga, and man this was so good! Good message, good stretches and strength. 

Also, holy crap my abs are sore... I think from sprinting yesterday morning??

2 mi walk

Walked to and from the Greenville Drive baseball game with D and the folks!

Thursday

3 mi XC run

Meant to do more, but the day got away from me and the pizza I had at lunch sat a little too heavy. But hey, one loop of the XC course was better than none!

Friday

1,100 m swim

Long lanes (50m) at the pool today but got a steady 1,000m done in about 25 minutes. Stretch goal was 20 minutes but obviously I'm not quite there!

1.3 mi walk 

Walked to and from the Greenville Drive game in the evening. 

Saturday

16.2 mi @ 9:00/mi avg

The annual Tap 2 Tap run was this morning, and I decided to run from the finish to the start before the event... so it became Tap 2 Tap 2 Tap! Felt good and strong on the way up although I found a couple of friends doing the same route along the way and they were going muuuuch faster... pace certainly picked up after I met them!

Blue = before, Yellow = after 

Got to the Tap in TR with about 15 mins til the return run was to begin. Lots of folks there!

Good group!

The return trip was a bit more chill pace, although still pretty strong. Splits for the two directions were 1:11 up and 1:14 back. Great morning and the weather was perfect!

Sunday

2.5 mi pup walk

After such a big day Saturday, I decided an easy day was the best idea even though I wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous sunny but cool weather! Had lots of walks at baseball practice in the afternoon.

20 min yoga

Really needed to do some stretching so found a good Yoga with Adriene routine on YouTube to get done right before bed. This one was specifically for hamstrings and felt quite nice!

Felt good with this week's consistency and variety of exercise, although missed being on the bike... need to get my tire fixed this week and get back on it!

Lots of dog walks

Monday

1,400m swim

Went to the pool today and they had the lanes switched to be competition-length of 50m instead of the usual 25 yd across. Whew, that's a long way! Easy to get distracted and forget which lap you're on. 😄 I decided on a steady 1,000m swim plus a few lengths of speed at the end. Longest total swim this season! Somehow Garmin tracked me at like 2x the distance I actually swam...no clue what it's picking up but it's usually not THAT far off. 

2.7 mi dog walks

After a walk to the vet for her annual appointment, Ivy was told she needs a little more activity and a little less food each day. So cue the MOAR DOG WALKS.

Got 2 walks today, 1.3 and 1.4 miles respectively... plus a walk to and from the ballfield that I didn't track, so probably add another half mile to the total.

Tuesday

6.26 @ 8:12/mi avg

Lunch run at work, I had been defaulting to the 2x XC loop a lot lately so decided something different was needed. I wanted to get some good road miles in but wasn't sure if I wanted to do a "workout" or just push the pace a little. Started off and naturally ended up steadily progressing the first 3 miles, so decided to hang on to that and push for 5 miles of progression. 

🤌*chef's kiss*

No doggo walkies today, but she did go to doggy daycare!

Wednesday

~3.25mi dog walks

Busy and shortened workday means only dog walk time. 3 separate walks throughout the day, little gal was tired!

She did not appreciate the fit of her free baseball jersey from the Hub City Spartanburgers.

Thursday

3.2 mi run @ 10:34/mi moving avg

Pup run while we still have some cool mornings! Ran our favorite, the Gold Line, with some beautiful morning sunrise through the trees.

1.4 mi walk

Lunchtime walk with the pupper.

Honeysuckle in bloom! 

Friday

30 min work gym + 25 min walk

In the office on a Friday, finally had time to make it back to the gym! Did mostly upper body with a little bit of squats mixed in. Headed outside for a short walk around the XC trails because the sun was soooo nice.

Saturday

10.03 mi @ 9:40/mi avg

Took a long hilly loop through the home turf which I hadn't done in a while... felt so great to cruise the hills at an easy pace and just enjoy the morning!

Big hill climbing past Paris Mtn Country Club

Tried new fuel source - I like it!

Sunday

16.4 mi @ 11.7 mph avg bike ride

Intended this to be a ride on the road bike, but discovered a completely flat tire when I got my bike out of the storage unit in the morning! Almost let it derail the plans entirely but decided to hop on the mountain bike instead. Mostly cruised the swamp Rabbit trail but took a few side quests onto actual roads for variety. Felt pretty good! Now to get that tire fixed...

Tried out D'CAFE in TR... delicious empanadas!

Pretty happy with the consistency and variety of workouts this week! Feeling good!

Back to our regularly-scheduled training

After way too many events in the past few weeks, it's time to get back to regular training.

Monday

1,100 yd swim

In the office and went to the community center for a $3 lunch swim - perfect! Not feeling super motivated and didn't have enough pre-swim food so felt a little woozy/dizzy at the end and during the afternoon. 

Tuesday

6.4 mi @ 9:09/mi avg

10kTuesday at Furman this morning with Christy! We didn't feel like speedwork so just spent the hour meandering around campus which was just perfect. 

Wednesday

16.5 mi @ 14.5 mph ride

Bike ride with the Easley Cycling Club! I'd seen some of their posts about group rides and was excited to learn that they are now every Wednesday, so no more guesswork. I packed my bike and got out to Easley in plenty of time (I'm either ridiculously early or 5 mins late for everything, there is no in-between). I'd planned to ride with the C Group (just out and back on the Doodle Trail) but there was a small enough B Group that we joined forces and had a nice pack of 5 riders for a loop on the roads. It has been a while since I've ridden on roads, but I felt ok! There was one ridiculous hill that I felt pretty proud of how I climbed... then of course beers at the Silos afterwards :)

Thursday

6 mi @ 8:35/mi avg

Two early runs in one week, whaaat?? But yep, with the heat already setting in, I'm more motivated to get up and out early to knock out the miles. Met up with Stephanie and again mostly toured through Furman with some out-and-back on the Swamp Rabbit. 

Friday

3.1 mi @ 9:35/mi avg

Thought about swimming at lunch today but opted for a few easy miles in the sunshine instead. Happy with that decision. 😎

Saturday

3.1 mi @ 9:16/mi avg - Run for Babies 5k

I took D and the pup with me to the March of Dimes Run for Babies 5k in Spartanburg this morning and went in with zero expectations. Actually considered wearing sandals and walking it because it was warm and I just didn't approach this like a race. We got there in plenty of time to find parking, sign Ivy in, use the restroom, and got some sweet superhero MoD capes.

Super Pup

Got lined up and decided on a post-race meetup point in case we got separated. Countdown and off we went! In the first 50 yards, Ivy decided to poop 💩 so I calmly waited for her to finish, cleaned it up, and thankfully had a trash can just a few feet away. D waited around the corner for us, then we were really on our way!

It was pretty fun all running together with the "kids" in their capes, and both D and Ivy kept a really strong and consistent pace. I figured we'd be walking within the first mile, but everybody did so great especially up and down the hills!

When we got back within view of the stadium, I realized D was within pretty confident reach of not only breaking 30 mins for a 5k but setting his PR. I told him that, and cheered him on as he took off for the finish line down the 3rd baseline in the Spartanburger stadium. I had to veer off through the parking garage with Ivy since pets were not allowed on the ballfield. We met up back on the concourse and celebrated his success!

Heros! 💜

Super proud of everybody today 🥰

4th age group!

Sunday

2mi walk 

Made a lazy Sunday into an adventure with an afternoon walk starting from Trailblazer park. Started on the trails around the woods near the park and ended up wandering down the Swamp Rabbit into TR. 

Lazy

Adventure!

No long run or bike this week but getting back on track with at least being consistent. Always room for improvement. 

Country Mile Recovery & V2V Week

Catching up on this a couple weeks late because life got busy again... 

Oddly, my legs did not feel all that bad following the hundred at Country Mile!

Took walks each day and did 10k Tuesday on the XC trails, but no other exercises so that I could be as ready as possible for Ville to Ville on Saturday.

My Garmin approved of this training plan

Saturday was Ville-to-Ville Relay with Team Quest in Peace. I've run this race every year since its inception in 2018 except for 2023 (Boston year).

All previous race shirts

Our team decided to pay for our start time this year and we selected 6:30am. It was still early enough to feel like we weren't the last ones finished but not have to wake up with an alarm that started with a 2:xx

Start Line

I took legs 3 and 9 this year, and unintentionally ended up with the longest total distance of any runner. I'm not sure I was the strongest one for these, but I did what I could and our team isn't highly competitive anyway!

First Leg: #3 - 6.4 mi @ 8:23/mi

Started at a winery and it was still in the 40s - chilly, but great for running! I warmed up quickly and enjoyed the rolling hills with beautiful mountain views. 

Goats!

Felt good about my pace and was excited to head to the next exchange zone where I had my favorite thing of the day - breakfast burrito and coffee blonde ale!

There was almost tragedy when they ran out of wraps, but one of the workers hustled to the store and was able to get back and make more burritos before our team had to continue. Hooray! 

The sun came out and it got WARM over the next few hours.

Second Leg: #9 - 8.8 mi @ 9:44/mi avg

I knew this one would be slow, and I walked a lot of the hills, but also knew I didn't want to overexert myself and ruin the rest of the day! It got super warm but I put on sunscreen and carried water with me so I was able to stay steady.

Long hot road

Temps on the church sign

Was super happy to be done with this one, and on to Swamp Rabbit Brewery!

A few more runs and we made it to the finish with a time about 5 minutes faster than last year - go team!!

And yes, as always... we're already signed up for 2027. 😎