Mile Markers: Birthday Week Workouts

Mile Markers: Birthday Week Workouts

Last week, I entered my final year of competing in the 25-29 age group. My birthday was on Tuesday, although this week ended up being such an exciting and busy week that my birthday already feels more than a week ago. 

I didn’t quite get in the mileage I hoped this week, nor the strength training I wanted to, but I did complete two stronger workouts. When life gets a little busier or stressful (even good stress), I tend to opt for quality over quantity. 

Mile Markers: Birthday Week Workouts

Monday: 8 mile easy run

We briefly had plans for a last minute holiday weekend trip, but plans changed when we couldn’t find a kennel for the dogs. I took advantage of the holiday to get out on my run extra early at sunrise- which was actually a good call, since I quickly realized the route I picked was part of the course for the Labor Day Half later that morning. Ollie and I cruised along for 8 miles at a comfortable effort. 

Mile Markers: Birthday Week Workouts

Tuesday: 2 x 9 min fartlek (7 miles)

Birthday run! I had never done any sort of special run for my birthday, but I wanted to this year. I wasn’t in the mood to run 29 km (just about 18 miles) but 2.9 miles was too short. But I wagered that 2 x 9 minutes could be a good birthday workout. After a 20 minute warm-up, I ran the first 9-minute interval at a comfortable 6:54/mile pace. For the second interval, I picked it up for a 6:42/mile pace, which felt challenging yet good. 

Wednesday: Rest day

A late night meant sleeping in, and I ended up not doing any formal workouts, just a long walk. 

Thursday: 5 miles easy & Pilates

I split this run up between the two dogs, running 4 miles with Ollie and 1 mile with Charlie. Later, I did Pilates and took the dogs on a walk. Ollie had to take his current favorite toy on the walk with us!

Mile Markers: Birthday Week Workouts

Friday: 11 mile long run

Unlike last week, this long run wasn’t one of those smooth and fantastic feeling efforts. This long run was work, but training is after all meant to be hard work. I was short on time, so I trimmed the warm-up to 2.5 miles. The main workout was 5 x 1 mile at half marathon pace with 2 minutes easy in between, followed by about a 2.5 mile cool down. I managed 7:10, 7:15, 7:11, 7:12, and 7:15 for the repeats – and considering how lackluster I felt, I’m really happy with those splits!

Mile Markers: Birthday Week Workouts

Saturday: Unintentional rest day

Ryan and I intended to run and strength train, but some things came up in the morning. By noon, we decided to not worry about going to the gym and instead focus on some household tasks, including donating our old sofa. But apparently, in the metro Seattle/Everett area, you can drive around for hours to multiple thrift shops (who promised you over the phone they were accepting sofa donations) with no avail. 

Sunday: 3 mile hilly run & Pilates

Ryan and I took both dogs for a short run along the neighborhood hills before church. After church, I did a a Pilates workout focused on the legs and glutes. A good workout to wrap up the weekend before a busy week to come! 

[Tweet “Recapping a busy week of birthday workouts via @thisrunrecipes #running #weeklywrap”]

Linking up with Weekly Wrap

Do you prefer to focus on mileage or intensity when life gets busy?
How was your week in running?

Sign Up for My Newsletter for More Running Tips

* indicates required

Share this post

8 Responses

  1. Happy belated birthday! I hope it was a good one. When things get busy I just try to get in what I can. Sometimes that means more running and less cross training because I tend to turn to running when I’m stressed.

  2. Happy belated birthday my friend!!! I love that you’re moving to a new age group. It’s always exciting to be back at the low end of the AG, right?
    And omg to the sofa delivery!! I’m having a Salvation Army pick up in a few weeks because I want to avoid that exact thing. Maybe you can check out their site and see if they pick up in your area, if you’re still trying to donate it!? Good luck!
    And WOW to those splits when you weren’t really feeling it!!

  3. So weird that you couldn’t find anyone to take the sofa! What are the alternatives? People here just put them out for the trash, which I think is so wrong.

    Nice work this week–those splits on your long run were amazing! It’s so hard to squeeze everything in, isn’t it?

  4. Happy Birthday! I like your solution to the birthday run. You still had a great week of workouts even though you didn’t hit your planned mileage! Here, you can just place a sofa on the curb ( or literally ANY item) and it will be picked up within a few minutes. One of our son’s has a girlfriend who is a dog sitter. Now, we have an easier (and more economical) alternative when it comes to travel — especially last minute. Thanks for linking!

  5. Happy belated birthday!

    It would depend on whether or not I was training for a big race as to whether I’d focus on mileage or intensity if pushed for time. Normally, I’d go with the mileage, but if my time was limited and I had a 5K coming up next, I might focus on some repeats and a shorter workout.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *