Weekly Workouts: Personal Goals

Weekly Workouts: Personal Goals

The Indy Monumental Marathon cancelled this week and honestly, I am relieved. Since we have a baby, we have been abundantly cautious. We have only attended church virtually, we only do carry-out or delivery, we limit our social circle, and we wear our masks whenever we have to go out (vet, pediatrician). Indiana is experiencing a troublesome spike in cases and I knew if this continued, I would have not felt comfortable and would have opted out of running with the marathon. Now that it is cancelled, I was able to defer my entry to 2021. 

Instead, I’m chasing down personal goals right now. I have wanted for a while to run my birthday in kilometers for a couple years now (miles seems a bit too much at my age). Without races, this is the ideal time to pursue this goal – 31 km (19.26 miles) on the weekend of my 31st birthday. This goal satisfies my desire to train for a long-distance again. After that, I want to try to work my 10K time down some more and venture into more cross-country running for the fall season. 

Maybe I will also work up to being able to do double digits with the stroller (in fall, not in summer) or on the trails. While it is disappointing not to have races, it is fun to chase after some personal goals. 

Weekly Workouts: Personal Goals

Monday: 75 minute walk

Long walks on summer evenings are a favorite in the Norris household. We walked just shy of three miles.

Tuesday: 7.1 mile easy run

I took Ollie with me for the first 4 miles, then quickly dropped him off at home before finishing three on my own. He runs slower in summer than winter, which is fine by me. The more mileage I do, the better it feels to do most of my easy runs in the range of 8:45-9:15/mile. 

Weekly Workouts: Personal Goals

Wednesday: 1-2-3-2-1-2-3 ladder fartlek (8 miles total) & strength training

This workout went very well. I warmed up with 20 minutes of easy running. Each interval had equal time recovery following it (ie 1 minute easy after 1 minute hard). I focused on starting out smooth and controlled, with the 1-min intervals in the range of 6:30-6:35/mile and the 2- and 3-min intervals at 7:00-7:05/mile. (I wasn’t aiming for these paces, I just settled into the consistent pacing based on effort). For the final 2- and 3-min intervals, I let myself pick it up a bit and clocked both of those in the range of 6:50-6:55/mile. 

After the run, I did a strength training circuit using my TRX. 

Thursday: 5.9 mile stroller run

This was a nice and easy stroller run! Especially since the panic limits socialization, I’m trying to work extra on Isla’s language skills. I’ll chat with her about what we see as we run. As a bonus, this habit keeps my runs below aerobic threshold. 

Friday: 4.5 mile stroller

Ryan needed some mail dropped off at the post office, so I packed it up into the stroller and literally ran errands. The post office is along the go-to stroller route. It was already hot when we started and I had a busy work day, so I kept the run short at 40 minutes.

Saturday: 14 mile long run

The temperature was in the 70s by 6:30 AM; high humidity and beating sun only made it feel warmer. By the time I finished just 2 hours later, it was in nearly 80 and I was dripping with sweat.

Despite the heat, it feels good to build up my long runs again. I averaged an 8:47/mile pace. The third quarter took a bit of mental focus, due to the heat. 

Sunday: 3.5 mile recovery run & strength training

I slept in until 7 AM (not counting getting up from 5:30-6 AM to feed Isla). The heat tired me out on my long run and my body needed a bit of extra recovery. (I’m fairly certain the demands of nursing also slow down recovery.) I’ll be honest also: I wake up at 5 AM every day to work or run and it is nice to take a break from that some days. 

Thunderstorms rolled in shortly later, so I opted to run on the treadmill while Ryan fed Isla her solids. I kept a very light recovery pace  (9:45-10:00/mile) and the run achieved its rejuvenation purpose.

Then Ryan ran while I lifted and Isla played in her pack and play. I tried a new program – the vertical force workout from Running Rewired. It featured lots of squats and plyos, along with some hinge, core, and upper body work. I skipped the last two exercises because Isla was ready for her late morning nap. 

Weekly Workouts: Personal Goals

Linking up with Weekly Rundown

How was your week in running?
What running goals are you pursuing now that fall races are cancelled?

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12 Responses

  1. I am concerned about the spike in Indiana. My son is going back to school in Bloomington in 4 weeks. Once all the kids get back…who knows! Running in this heat is tough way to get those longer runs in. Have a good week and thanks for linking!

  2. You logged some great miles this week! We haven’t been quite as cautious as you — I’ve gone to the grocery store in person, and picked up take-out myself — but we aren’t loosening up even though we could. I figured we’ve stayed healthy this long, why risk it now? Although eventually I will risk it to visit my daughter in Colorado ….

    1. Thank you! We have risked it a bit to see family, which is in part why we are so conservative about things like church. Today we went to the running store and that felt like a huge outing!

  3. I’m not surprised that Indy canceled, although I saw a FB friend ran a Christmas in July live half marathon this weekend! There’s no way I’d risk it right now. All my favorite local races have gone virtual–in a new twist, they are going to be held on the actual course. Runners have a month to complete the race. I like this idea! I have to wonder if my trail race will actually happen since Wisconsin is a hot spot right now.

    1. That is a cool twist for a local virtual race! We have local ones happening (I have one in a few weeks, if things do not get worse); the one I saw last week was very distanced and essentially more like a time trial than a race.

  4. It is such a bummer to see almost every race going virtual, but that’s our reality. I (currently) have two 13.1’s still on, so we shall see if they bite the virtual dust as well. That said, having all of my live races taken from me has forced me to get creative to keep the mojo going strong. Not a bad thing…though, certainly not ideal.

  5. I have a friend who runs his age in miles – and I think his last was 46? We keep wondering when he’s going to flip it to KM 🙂 It’s an all day event though where several different friends join in on the run to get all of the miles done.
    Great job on the workouts this week! Solid stroller running too!

  6. I’m glad that the marathon cancellation worked out in your favor. I think I just need to chunk up my time and focus on one small thing at a time.

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