Life Lately and St. Louis Go! Half Marathon Training (March 2)

Happy Monday, everyone! That cold and icy month of February is finally over, and now that it’s March, spring can’t be that far off! (Although as I write this, it’s currently snowing again for the 100th time this year).  

Life Lately

After flying back from Seattle last Sunday, we spent Monday and Tuesday in St. Louis. Traveling to Chicago and flying out of O’Hare is a nightmare and costs a ton to park overnight there, and we didn’t want to put Charlie in a kennel, so we combined our Seattle trip with a visit to my parents in St. Louis! Ryan had a trade show to go to for work in St. Louis, so we got to spend a few extra days in glorious, snow-free St. Louis! I love getting to visit family. Plus, it felt amazing to get to run outside without dodging ice and snow mountains, even if it still was very cold. 

While in St. Louis, my mom made us this seriously delicious meal of roasted pork tenderloin, beets, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. We even ate the beet greens, which are sooooo good if you’ve never tried them. All these roasted veggies make me so happy.

Tuesday we traveled back to Valpo, and the rest of the week has been a bit of that post-vacation slump for all of us. It didn’t help that it just kept snowing this week. I spent an hour shoveling on Thursday, only for snow to start falling again as soon as I got back inside.

Sidewalks are practically non-existent around town and I’m not about to run in the slushy and narrow sides of the road. I am pretty sure Valpo either ran out of funds or just plain gave up. I tried to run at a 3/4 mile paved loop at a local park and it was covered in snow and ice.

 Charlie is just so done with winter. On Sunday he turned the bed into his own little puggle den. I can’t say I blame him, I’m so done with winter also. Luckily next weekend we’re heading back to St. Louis and it’s supposed to be in the 40s. That’s going to feel like the tropics to us with all this single digit temperature and sub-zero wind chill nonsense.

 We also went to our local running store this week, Extra Mile Fitness, to check out their winter sale, and I got the same Brooks Pulse Lite gloves that I got Ryan for Christmas and have been envying since then. Especially since it seems many days of cold weather running are still ahead of us, I’m way too excited about these gloves. Ryan even got a second pair because these gloves are so great!  

St. Louis Go! Half Marathon Training: Week 2

I hit my first 40 mile week ever! I ran six days this week, and if I could describe my training week with one word, it is adapting. I moved around my runs and changed a workout in order to adapt to the weather and travel. 

Monday: 7 miles outside, 58:39, 8:23/mile average pace. I was supposed to do 12 x 1 min fartleks at 5K pace, but my parents’ subdivision is super hilly, so instead I did 12 x 200m hill repeats. I kept around a 7:05-7:20/mile pace for each uphill portion, and then kept my 200m recovery intervals super easy. My iPhone decided it was too cold after about 2 miles, so I ran without music. Afterwards, I did some bodyweight strength work of planks, push-ups, squats, and bridges.

Tuesday: 3 miles easy on the same hilly loop as Monday, 24:53, 8:18/mile average. 

Wednesday: 5 miles easy outside, 42:24, 8:29/mile average. I intended to do my threshold interval run, but none of the paths were clear enough for speedwork, so I just did an easy run. I spent a good 10 minutes stretching and foam rolling afterwards, since running on icy patches can leave me feeling sore. 

Thursday: 9 miles on the treadmill with 4 x 1.5 miles at goal half marathon pace, 1:11:14, 7:55/mile average pace. I warmed up for 1.5 miles and then completed the 4 threshold intervals at a 7:35/mile pace (7.9 on the treadmill), and then cooled down for 3/4 of mile. I kept the incline at 1% for the entire workout. Afterwards I did some core work, including plank-ups, side planks, reverse Russian twists, bridges, and Pilates leg lowers. This was definitely my best run of the week.

Friday: 4 recovery miles on the treadmill, 36:56, 9:14/mile average pace, and then 25 minutes of Pilates.

Saturday: I did my long run on the treadmill because it was -8 degrees outside when I started. 12 miles, 1:41:55, 8:29/mile average pace. I was able to crank out a 3 mile fast finish near marathon pace and varied the incline between 0%-2% for the entire run. I was feeling fatigued and had to take a ton of water breaks. Thankfully Ryan sat with me and encouraged me, otherwise I might have quit somewhere between miles 7-9.

Sunday: Rest and recover!

It’s the hard long runs that prepare me best for race day, though, since the I-don’t-know-if-I-can-finish runs are the ones that teach our minds as well as our bodies to push through discomfort. That gives me lots of confidence for race day to know I can keep going when that voice in my head tells me to quit.

40 miles for the week with 3 strength/core workouts! 

Charlie helps me to remember to strength train so that I have a strong core and glutes for race day!

Goals for This Week

1. Run a 40+ mile week!

2. Strength train on my hard run days.

3. Eat more veggies, especially sweet potatoes, beets, and spinach, which have so many good nutrients for runners.

4. Run outside more, even if my mile repeats and tempo runs have to be inside for safety.

5. Find a way to return to Seattle. Ryan and I need to live here.

Questions of the Day:
How was your training this week? What was your best run and your hardest run?
What are your goals for the week?
If you could live anywhere, where would that be?