GHS Swamp Rabbit Half training - Week 7 of 12

"Whoaaaaa we're (over) halfway there... " 🎵

Miles run this week: 33.3mi (highest weekly total yet!)


Fitbit's got me working on my daily steps. I've decided my daily Fitbit goals are 2-tiered:
Baseline: 10,000 steps daily
Target: complete steps before noon each day

Monday - MLK Holiday
10,000 steps before noon - done (11:39 a.m.)
5.2 mile run
Today is a holiday at work, but daycare is still open. This rare treat happens only 3 times each year (MLK Day, Good Friday, and Christmas Eve observed), so typically Scott and I will take the opportunity to do something active together, either mountain biking or road biking, and then will do something involving beer - exploring some new breweries or visiting some old favorites. Today, however, I was unfortunately interested in neither because
1) I had a challenging mountain bike ride yesterday with the Upstate SORBA ladies, and
2) Saturday night we had a "date night" at home and I over-indulged in some beverages 🍺🍺🍺
Oops.
I waffled around the house for a while this morning trying to get my butt in gear and motivated to do something... anything. Finally I decided to run the Green Valley out-and-back route, a good 5-miler from the house, some nice hills, and a route I don't get to do when I'm stroller running. I told myself I could walk if I wanted to, pace didn't matter... just get out and do it. So I did, and I didn't walk at all! It wasn't a fast run by any stretch (9:45 avg pace) but I'm glad I did it.

Tuesday - #10kTuesday
10,000 steps before noon missed by 15 minutes! 
#10kTuesday run
This was the run I've been missing! Went out with the "just run whatever" plan and ended up with 8:22/mi average pace for the full run. I felt good and steady throughout but enough like I was pushing myself that I knew my pace was pretty good. I joined up with a friend by chance for mile 4 which was a nice distraction, and ran with him until my turn-around point to come back for the final mile. Great run!

Mile Splits (and 0.2 last split) on point!

Wednesday - XT
bike ride w/ Megan
10,000 steps before noon
I can't get over how gorgeous the weather is today! I rode in just shorts and short sleeves and felt great. Megan and I did the USC Upstate loop (which was busy busy due to riding through right at class change - oops!) and then finished with the hill loop. It was tough to do the hill at the end instead of the beginning like usual. Total 10.5 miles at average 14.3 mph.

Thursday - #speedworkThursday
10,000 steps before noon missed by just a little bit again
8x400 @ 5k pace
Man, this was a tough run. I did not fuel properly and speed was harrrddd. I'd originally planned to just slog these out on the dreadmill so that at least I didn't have to put much thought into it (just "don't fall off") but because it was unfathomably gorgeous outside once again (like yesterday but slightly cooler - perfect!) I couldn't pass up running outside. I had to manually press my lap timer for every segment, which required far more brain power and attention than I was wanting to pay to every 10th of a mile. Still, I hit target pace (I consider anything under 7:20 to be "5k pace") for 6 out of 8 intervals, and the other 2 weren't terribly far off. Not pleased with how difficult this run was, but the results are there so I'll take it. Hoping for good stuff at Saturday's 5k race!

Friday - yoga  rest
10,000 steps  7,000 steps
Little Man woke up with a fever, so I stayed home from work with him, hence no yoga. We took a short walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon but it was a nice quiet day.

Saturday - race day
10,000 steps before noon - check!
Greenville News Run Downtown 5k

Sunday - long run
12mi neighborhood stroller run
10,000 steps before noon - check!
I figured this would be a slow run, but man, I didn't anticipate how tired my legs would be from yesterday's race! Still, I was determined to get the miles done. I headed out with D in the stroller right about 9am. We ran from the house because I didn't feel like packing us up in the car and driving 5 minutes away. Plus the Swamp Rabbit trail sounded boring to me today. So, I traded for the convenience and difficulty of running in the neighborhood - it's hilly! We went up and down side streets and did loops around and around, climbing a total of 1,700ft throughout the 11.75 miles. It was hard and we walked a lot of the uphills, but felt good to get the mileage in. Woohoo!

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
-----
10x pushups
20x jumping jacks
10x side arm raise
-----
10x walking lunges
10x chest fly
10x OH lat pull
-----
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!