Comments (45)

By kilax, April 4, 2018 5:37 am

To thank you all for reading my 5K training posts for months on end, I’d like to reward the person who guesses closest to my 5K finish time (over or under) with a gift card or donation of their choice!

Here’s what you need to know!

• I am shooting for a finish time of faster than 21:45 (6:59 minute miles or faster). If you guess slower than that I will NOT be offended – seriously – no worries!
• I weigh four pounds more than when I ran my 21:45 5K PR, and am two years older.
• The race is this Saturday, the 7th. The course is flat, with a few turns (including two 180s). You can check the weather here. (I won’t check until Friday, but I did get an email last night from the race saying they’re predicting high winds, yay.)
• I ran my last 5K in 23:08.
• You can see all my training here. Hint: click on the links for workouts that included speed or tempo to get a better idea of the paces I’ve been training at.
• There is obviously some strategy to how you guess, compared to what other people are guessing… I will leave that up to you.

The Prize:

A $20 gift card to either Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, or Starbucks, or a donation to the charity of your choice.

IF you guess the time exactly right, I will add $5 to the $20, for a total of $25!

IF no one guesses correctly, but two people are the same amount of seconds off (over and under), I will split the gift card between the two people (each will get $10).

Guess my 5K finish time GIVEAWAY RULES:

1. One OR two reader(s) will receive a prize (see above) for guessing the closest time to my 5K finish time, over OR under.
2. REQUIRED to enter the giveaway: leave a comment telling me what you think my 5K finish time will be. Read the comments above yours so you don’t guess the exact same time as someone else. One vote is allowed per person.
3. Updated to add: only guesses submitted on this post in the comments will be entered.
4. Guessing is open until 9:00 PM CST on Friday April 6. I will announce the winner(s) on either Saturday April 7 or Sunday April 8. GUESSING IS CLOSED.
5. This giveaway is open to all readers, in all locations.
6. This is not sponsored.

Comments (18)

By kilax, April 2, 2018 6:23 am

Thanks for reading these long arse weekend recaps! I enjoy writing them and appreciate you reading them!

There was no reason for last week to feel as long as it did. I was glad when it was finally Friday night!

FRIDAY!

We kicked the weekend off by going out for MOD Pizza. MOD’s a build-your-own-pizza place (think Subway or Chipotle style) with unlimited toppings! And they have vegan cheese!

MOD’s one of the very few places I like to get pizza out. I prefer Steven’s homemade pizza, or no pizza at all – I’m actually not a much of a pizza fan! But MOD… drool.

We ran an errand after dinner and picked up Pitch Perfect 3 to watch. It was silly, but entertained us a lot more than other movies we’ve rented lately!

SATURDAY!

On Saturday I got my run in before the wicked winds hit (25 mph winds with 40 mph gusts, no thanks), did an indoor bike ride, then taught a fitness boxing class. The class had an egg hunt theme – I put the workouts on little slips of paper in the eggs, and the students “hunted” for them to find out what workout we’d do!

It was fun for me since I had no idea what order the workout would be in. It ended up being a high intensity class, and the students liked it, yay!

I handed out goodie bags too. I had goodie bags for twelve, but I had two cancellations an hour before class, and three no-shows. I typically have a cancellation (and sometimes a no show) for every single class I teach, but when it’s a big number like that, it makes me a bit frustrated/disappointed. Oh well. That meant I had leftover goodie bags for my boss’s kids!

I ran errands after teaching – Aldi and Walmart pickup. This pickup did not go as well as the last one. It  took a long time, and the employee seemed overworked and was rude to me (about being there “early,” when I had received a notification my order was ready…?!). Hopefully the next time I try it, it goes better. I did have a good reality check NOT to be too upset about this FREE service while I was there, when I saw another customer who’d been waiting since before I arrived, leave, in her car, without her pickup, with her window down, screaming at the employee. Eek.

After food prep for the week, and lunch, we ran MOAR errands – Target and Kohl. Why so many errands on Saturday? Because I’ve been burned before, leaving shopping for Sunday, only to have everything closed because it’s Easter.

I wonder if everyone else had the same idea, or it was just normal Saturday shopping, but GAH there were too many people out and it made me anxious and stabby. Sigh. I needed more of this on Saturday:

and less people.

Happily, Saturday night was quiet. We made tacos, watched The Beguiled, and I read a bit before bed.

SUNDAY!

When we saw on Holey Moley Doughnuts’s social media page that they were going to be open on Easter, we knew it was a sign we had to go. Three months after making it a goal to get there, we finally did!

It was overwhelming when I got there, and saw they had THIRTEEN (not an April Fool’s joke!!!) different vegan donuts I could try. AHHH!!!!!

We got seven flavors (including one we’d had before and knew we like). Clockwise from top left: chocolate cake with vanilla glaze, cinnamon sugar (have had before), banana bread, s’mores, raspberry, samoa, and apple fritter (under chocolate cake with vanilla glaze).

We didn’t try: blood orange, chai, maple pecan, passionfruit coconut, peanut butter, or grasshopper.

These are all cake donuts, and the flavors are phenomenal. We both liked samoa the best, and couldn’t get over how the banana bread donut tasted just like banana bread. Yum.

I like these a lot, but they sit a bit heavy (um, could that be because I ate about three of them…?! nah), which just reminds me yeast donuts are my favorite! Which is why they only have 3.5 drooling faces below.

State	Date	Name	Flavor(s)	Rating (0-4)	Photo
Kansas	1/15/18	Mud Pie	Cake Chocolate Frosted
Illinois	2/7/18	Do-Rite	Chai Maple
Illinois	2/17/18	Holcomb Hollow	Lemon Vanilla
Ohio	3/23/18	Holey Toledough	Blackberry Hibiscus & Cinnamon Roll
Wisconsin	4/1/18	Holey Moley Coffee + Doughnuts	Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Glaze, Cinnamon Sugar, Banana Bread, S’mores, Raspberry, Samoa, and Apple Fritter

The rest of my Sunday was just as amazing as the morning. I took a nap when we got home (less than six hours of sleep both weekend nights had me yawning and rubbing my eyes all morning), we ate lunch and played with the cats with the toy the Easter Bunny left them,

Ha, I had to include this one first cause it makes us laugh so hard!

Data played a little, but mostly watched

then I did my donut fueled long run, and we made our Easter dinner!

Now, to recover from the weekend…

(I usually don’t mention what Steven is up to during the weekends when I am exercising and doing errands without him. This weekend he was working and installing a security camera at the house. He’s usually working a bit, and doing some sort of project!)

Comments (2)

By kilax, April 1, 2018 4:52 pm

Highlight of the Week: Tuesday’s awesome run/my students enjoying the fitness boxing workout!

Monday | March 26, 2018: 15 m ride + 6 m run (incl. 8 hill repeats) + teaching strength class
Indoor Ride Time: 58:21, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 42°/43°, Time: 55:04, Pace: 9:11 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Strength: body bars & resistance bands, Felt: good
Tuesday | March 27, 2018: 12 m run
Loc: Lake Andrea/Outlet Mall Loop, Temp: 46°/46°, Time: 1:48:22, Pace: 9:02 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: really great
Wednesday | March 28, 2018: rest
Thursday | March 29, 2018: 7 m run (incl. 4×800, 4×400)
Loc: Lake Andrea, Temp: 41°/40°, Time: 1:04:07, Pace: 9:09 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: angry
Friday | March 30, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,218 yd swim + 10 m run
Strength: box, kettlebells, & boxing, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 26:05, Pace: 2:09 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: to VP Woods and back, Temp: 41°/37°, Time: 1:38:06, Pace: 9:48, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent, but tired legs
Saturday | March 31, 2018: 4 m run + 10 m ride + teaching fitness boxing
Loc: hood, Temp: 40°/40°, Time: 38:05, Pace: 9:31 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Indoor Ride Time: 39:12, Pace: 15.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: whole body moves, boxing with gloves, Felt: great!
Sunday | April 1, 2018: 11 m run
Loc: ML/VP Woods Loop, Temp: 32°/33°, Time: 1:48:08, Pace: 9:50 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• Whoa, Tuesday’s run. I don’t have my pace showing on my watch for most runs, just the split per mile. So I was surprised to notice my pace kept dropping with each mile, and I decided to go for negative splits! I started with a 9:44 pace for my first mile, and ended with a 7:56 pace, each mile being the same or faster than the one before. Wheeeee!!! My stomach felt that ALL night. Worth it though – it was fun.
• Thursday’s workout, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster. It was my last “big” speed workout before my race and I thought it would go well. No. I got a bloody nose during my first interval (that lasted a few miles) and the wind really screwed up a few of my splits and made me angry. Sigh. Oh well.
• I’m glad my weather app let me know we were going to have crazy winds on Saturday, so I did a longer run on Friday instead of Saturday, to avoid being too miserable outside. I don’t want hot weather to get here any faster… but I am a bit sick of all the layers and of course… THE WIND!
• I did a fun Easter themed workout in fitness boxing on Saturday. It’s cheesy, but I love that crap.
• Sunday’s run was in the late afternoon, after sampling seven vegan donuts in the morning. I didn’t feel the donuts until the last three miles of the run – success! Ha!
• This is my last 50 mile week (the last five weeks have been 50.5, 52.4, 54.5, 51.2, and 50). Time for a short taper before the 5K on Saturday!
• Monthly recap time! In March I ran 230.6 miles (my highest mileage month since January 2016) (27 runs), cycled 145 miles (10 indoor rides) and swam 5,544 yards (5 swims). My coldest run was 17°F and my warmest was 51°F. I did 4 hill workouts, 4 speed workouts, and 4 tempo workouts. I taught 8 strength classes and 3 fitness boxing classes. I did 1 strength workout at home.

Link to Training Week 440

Comments (2)

By kilax, March 25, 2018 11:40 am

Highlight of the Week: Running with Anne!

Monday | March 19, 2018: 7 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 39°/40°, Time: 1:04:29, Pace: 9:12 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great!
Strength: body bars and resistance bands, Felt: great; loved that the students were having fun!
Tuesday | March 20, 2018: 11.2 m run (incl. 10 hill repeats)
Loc: Walmart Loop, Temp: 33°/32°, Time: 1:45:48, Pace: 9:27 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good until the end (wind got to me)
Wednesday | March 21, 2018: rest
Thursday | March 22, 2018: 15 m ride + 11 m run (incl. 2×2 tempo)
Indoor Ride Time: 58:28, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Loc: VP Woods reverse loop, Temp: 40°/38°, Time: 1:40:46, Pace: 9:09 avg, Difficulty: mostly easy, Felt: really good!
Friday | March 23, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,218 yd swim + 7 m run (w/Anne)
Strength: body bars and resistance bands, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 25:59, Pace: 2:08 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 36°/33, Time: 1:28:38, Pace: 12:39, Difficulty: easy, Felt: too cold
Saturday | March 24, 2018: 16 m ride + teaching fitness boxing + 3 m run
Indoor Ride Time: 1:02:15, Pace: 15.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: ankle/hand resistance bands & gloves, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 37°/38°, Time: 25:33, Pace: 8:30 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Sunday | March 25, 2018: 12 m run
Loc: DPRT/Kilbourne Loop, Temp: 29°/31°, Time: 2:01:04, Pace: 10:05 avg, Difficulty: easy enough, Felt: fine

Notes:

• The theme of this week was WIND! All of my runs were windy. The wind irritated me during all of them. I know this is typical weather here, I’m just sick of hearing the wind in my ears, and feeling it pushing me around. Maybe I’ll get a break soon.
• Now that I have a new phone, I can start using Glympse again with Steven so he knows where the hell I am when I’m running (we don’t use find my friends or whatever that creepy app is called). I wasn’t using it before because it would drain my phone too much, but that is no longer an issue. Yay, safety!
• I got to run with Anne on Friday, yay! I/m so glad she came in early for her race and we got to hang out. And have a cold and windy run together, aww.
• I skipped intervals this week. See here and bullet #1 above. Ha.

Link to Training Week 439

Comments (12)

By kilax, March 24, 2018 3:35 am

Gawd, I’ve been training for this 5K f-o-r-e-v-e-r (and you’ve been hearing about it F-O-R-E-V-E-R). “Focused”* training started in the middle of December.

The race is two weeks from today, and I’m at the point where I just want to be running the damn thing. I usually don’t focus on a race for this long, and don’t have the mental energy for it anymore. I’m fresh out of f*cks to give about training.

In this “focused” training cycle (since December 18th) I have:

• Run 581.7 miles, including:
  • 13 speed workouts
  • 13 hill workouts
  • 6 tempo workouts (including one race)
• Done strength: 36 times
• Cycled: 28 times
• Swam: 14 times
• Gotten a massage: 4 times

And how close I am to my previous 5K PR weight? A few pounds over! Do I think I will get there before my race in two weeks? Not really. Ha. But I have lost 20% of my weight since November, so that’s cool. I need to keep going in that direction, and stay there (I am a chronic yo-yoer).

I know some people are anti-scale, but daily weigh-ins keep me on track!

I’m not going to get any faster in these next two weeks. I’m tempted to stop with the focused work now, and run junk miles until the race. I probably won’t. Winky face.

What I do need to make sure I do though, is focus on my eating, and getting enough sleep!

Two more weeks, I can do this!!!

*Focused as in, specific 5K speedwork. I had been doing speedwork once a week for a few years, and hills once a week for about a month+. And I do strength, cycling, and swimming every week anyway.

A bad thing that happened this week. I have this janky 6-port USB charging tower on my desktop, and on Thursday afternoon, I had three things plugged in to it (phone, watch, headphones), and I said to Steven, “I have three things plugged in, let’s see what happens!”

Um, foreshadowing…

Not five minutes later, I look over and my headphones are SMOKING. Smoke is coming out of where the charging cord connects to the headphones.

Oops.

The connection in the headphones and the end of the charging cord both fried.

The good news is, the headphones were over two years old, and they were on their way out anyway. And they were on sale on Amazon Thursday, so I ordered a new pair. And put that charging tower in the garbage.

But gah – that could have been BAD!!!

Comments (13)

By kilax, March 22, 2018 6:28 am

• I hate talking about material things (ick), but I have to mention, I got a new phone this week and it’s made a world of difference. Mine was three years old, slooooooooooooow AF, and not reliable as a phone anymore. So, yay for the upgrade, and no longer wondering if my phone is going to work (at all), or randomly die.

• This is the tenth year of the Wisconsin Marathon and Half Marathon, and will be my tenth year running the half! The race is commemorating ten year runners by giving them “a special, Wisconsin Marathon blanket” (in quotes because I pulled that from an email they sent last week, ha). Neat!
• I don’t know what my goal (if any) will be for the Wisconsin Half Marathon. It’s four weeks after my 5K, so I’ll see how I feel post 5K and decide.
• Did anyone read the Outside Magazine article Why Caffeine Might Not Make You Faster (pdf here)? Apparently what version (AA, AC, or CC) you have of the gene CYP1A2 affects how your body metabolizes caffeine. Generally, if you metabolize it faster (AA), you go faster. If you metabolize it slower (CC), you go slower. Interesting stuff! I get my caffeine from tea and chocolate, and wonder what a cup of coffee would do for me!
• Also from Outside Magazine, did anyone read the article about elite marathoner Jordan Hasay (pdf here)? I love getting a glimpse of how elites train, and I have to say, her typical day (circled in red below, with yellow highlights of the things that sound extra fantastic) sounds awesome to me!

• This post needs more cat pictures!

Ha, I brought my laptop in to the kitchen to work standing for a while and Khali wasn’t sure about me disturbing her slumber! Such RBF. So cute. Very sleep.

Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 171

Comments (12)

By kilax, March 21, 2018 6:03 am

The specific routes for each day of RAGBRAI 2018 (XLVI) were announced last week!

Image from here (and here)

My team (Dad, Gina, Steve, and Andrew) is on board for the last day of RAGBRAI, Day 7. The elevation profile looks much less intimidating than last year’s, but seventy miles (I bet we’ll be at that, if not more) on a bike is no joke! Dad (and Will and Julie) and I did a seventy+ mile route in 2015 and we were BEAT. But that was after we rode sixty miles the day before, which won’t be the case this year.

Anyway, no matter WHAT we are all doing the day before, EVERYONE needs to train to ride seventy miles. Which probably means a few half century rides prior to RAGBRAI. It’s always interesting to see how well trained everyone shows up to ride, muah ha ha.

And most importantly, I will make sure I can satisfy my Mexican food craving in Davenport before we leave town, so no one has to listen to me talk about beans and rice on the long car ride home. (This has happened more than once!)

Comments (2)

By kilax, March 18, 2018 6:10 pm

Highlight of the Week: An awesome Monday strength workout I felt for a few days!

Monday | March 12, 2018: 30 mins strength + 12 m run
Loc: Kilbourne/DPRT loop, Temp: 43°/38°, Time: 1:55:11, Pace: 9:35 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great!
Tuesday | March 13, 2018: 5 m run (incl. 8 hill repeats)
Loc: hood, Temp: 28°/28°, Time: 45:35, Pace: 9:06 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fantastico
Wednesday | March 14, 2018: rest
Thursday | March 15, 2018: 15 m ride + 7 m run (incl. 12×400)
Indoor Ride Time: 1:00:36, Pace: 14.9 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Lake Andrea, Temp: 39°/36°, Time: 1:04:11, Pace: 9:09 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, challenged by the wind
Friday | March 16, 2018: teaching strength class + 798 yd swim + 4 m run + massage!
Strength: body bars and resistance bands, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: FitNation, Time: 15:44, Pace: 1:58 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Loc: hood, Temp: 32°/31°, Time: 37:30, Pace: 9:22 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Saturday | March 17, 2018: 10.5 m run (incl. 3 m tempo)
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 34°/37°, Time: 1:41:30, Pace: 9:40 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: legs tired, tempo in to the wind
Sunday | March 18, 2018: 16 m run (part i and ii (accidentally reset watch)) + 25 min walk (w/Steven)
Loc: Pine Dunes/Outlet Mall/Lake Andrea Loop, Temp: 33°/51°, Time: 2:41:23, Pace: 10:05 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: pretty good

Notes:

• I had Monday off from teaching (I take it off from time to time) and did a strength workout on my own. We do muscular endurance based workouts in class (high amount of reps, lighter weights), but I do muscular strength based at home (low amount of reps, heavy weights), and my body FELT IT the next two days and I LOVED that!!!
• It’s always so windy where I go for speedwork, which I think will be good for me come race day, but man, some weeks are more annoying than others. Like this week. My intervals in to the wind were quite a bit slower than those with the wind at my back. Eh.
• When I first started swimming with music, I noticed my pace got faster. Now I notice I swim faster without it!
• I wanted to get my tempo run done on Saturday, so I could do whatever I wanted on Sunday (JUNK MILES!!!). But I woke up feeling beat up, maybe from my massage? I still did my tempo, and it went fine (with annoying winds, of course), but wonder if I should have waited until Sunday. Eh. Ha.

Link to Training Week 438

Comments (8)

By kilax, March 16, 2018 7:13 am

I’m not happy to only be blogging my “check-in” posts – weekend recaps, Random Thoughts Thursday, and my training recap. I actually have a long list of things I want to talk about, but they’re mostly negative and I’d rather discuss those with my snis or friends, so I keep that stuff off of here. Hopefully that list will turn positive soon, and I will be blogging more, because I MISS IT!!!

My goal 5K is three weeks from tomorrow! Woo hoo!

Beyond the physical training, I’ve begun the visualization portion of the mental training. I imagine myself at the start of the race, feeling calm (HA!!!!). I run through the course in my mind, and see myself with good form, feeling strong while running the tangents and not weaving around too many people. Then I visualize not being completely out of it at the finish!

This course is one I’ve run several times, in a park in my hometown, so I can visualize it quite well! I’ve been working on this each night as a fall asleep, and then whenever I wake up in the night, too.

Visualization is a useful tool, for me. It’s practice of my mental game plan, before race day. I practice my mental pain management during speedwork (intervals and tempos), but this is more about my overall mental state for the entire race. How can I be calm as I start? What will my mantra be? Where will I check in on pace and form? And so on.

Visualization is NOT daydreaming about an awesome finish (which, hey, is fun to do, too!). Visualization and daydreaming are different. Daydreaming is defined as an “usually wishful creation of the imagination” and a “pleasant distraction from every day life.” Daydreaming definitely has its uses (during long meetings, amirite?). But visualization is useless without putting in the actual work, to achieve your goal! It’s not fantasy-land, it’s what you’re going to do because you trained for it!

One of my favorite quotes from last year’s calendar, that reminds me of this – don’t waste so much time dreaming that you don’t do the work!

Yes, please roll your eyes over how seriously I am taking this 5K. It’s quite ridiculous! Ha!

Comments (2)

By kilax, March 11, 2018 3:57 pm

Highlight of the Week: Running with Rachel!

Monday | March 5, 2018: 15 m ride + 7 m run (incl. 10 hill repeats) + teaching strength class
Indoor Ride Time: 59:26, Pace: 15.1 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: hood, Temp: 36°/37°, Time: 1:07:38, Pace: 9:39 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Strength: plate circuit and oversized medicine balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, spent!
Tuesday | March 6, 2018: 20 m ride + 11.2 m run
Indoor Ride Time: 1:20:14, Pace: 15.0 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: to Lake Andrea and back, Temp: 34°/34°, Time: 1:50:19, Pace: 9:51 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, glad headache went away enough to run
Wednesday | March 7, 2018: rest
Thursday | March 8, 2018: 5.2 m run
Loc: VP Woods, Temp: 30°/29°, Time: 50:05, Pace: 9:38 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, happy to run on the soft trail
Friday | March 9, 2018: teaching strength class + 1,176 yd swim + 7 m run (incl. 6×800)
Strength: plates and oversized medicine balls, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, actually challenged with some combos!
Loc: FitNation, Time: 25:45, Pace: 2:11 min/100 yd, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Lake Andrea, Temp: 37°/35°, Time: 1:03:48, Pace: 9:07, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, except last two 800s
Saturday | March 10, 2018: 12 m run (w/Rachel)
Loc: White River State Trail, Temp: 17°/26°, Time: 1:58:47, Pace: 9:54 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, legs a bit tired!
Sunday | March 11, 2018: 10 m run (incl. 2.5 m tempo) + 12 m ride
Loc: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 29°/32°, Time: 1:34:37, Pace: 9:27 avg, Difficulty: easy except last .5 of tempo, Felt: good, legs dead after tempo
Indoor Ride Time: 48:15, Pace: 14.9 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, good for the legs

Notes:

• The 5K I am training for is completely flat, but I am still doing hill repeats, because why not? They make me stronger, and there are a few inclines in the half I’ll do in May.
• I woke up just after 3:00 am with a horrible headache Tuesday morning. I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I got up, and once I felt better, got on the bike (because what else would I do until starting work at 6:30?!). Then the headache came back with a vengeance during work. Blah. I had to take the day off, but felt better in the late afternoon.
• Friday’s speedwork was the first time I had race stomach during speedwork. I usually get stomach pain after speedwork. This time, my fifth 800 felt like mile two of a 5K, which makes so much sense, since it was the start of my third mile of intervals, and it was close to race pace. But man, those last two were tough with the upset stomach! Good practice!
• I forgot my headphones for speedwork and survived! Yay! Ha. I used to run without them all the time, then when my training partner moved, I started wearing them again (even though we only ran together on weekdays, I still skipped headphones on weekend runs then too)… and have since.
• Saturday was my monthly run with Rachel! The miles flew by – we were surprised when it was already time to turn at the mid point of our out and back! I know I say this each time we do a long run together, but it really is a treat to run with someone and chat the whole time.
• I did a tempo run again this week, on Sunday, yay! I’m doing these to get ready for the 5K, but I think they’ll help with the half marathon I am running in the beginning of May, too.
• A coworker said seeing my swimming posts on Instagram inspired her to sign up for lessons! Cool!
• I set up a massage for next week! YAY! My legs are feeling all my training and I want to treat them. I also already have my massage set up for two days before my 5K in April.

Link to Training Week 437