Weekly Wrap-Up: 3/31/14 - 4/6/14

Here's a look at what happened during Week 7 of Grandma's Marathon training:

Monday: planned 4 miles; actual 4.04 miles. This is the second Monday in a row that just was not a good run. I felt tired. My legs felt heavy. My hips felt okay, but my shins took forever to feel warmed up. I was "forced" inside due to rain. (yes, I know rain won't kill me and I could have tried outside. I was more concerned that thunderstorms were a possibility.) So it was another slow, Monday run. I didn't run Sunday, like I had last week, so I was a little surprised I felt as tired as I did. I am a little nervous at this point that a full week of runs (which I haven't done in at least three weeks) will affect how strong I feel on my long run. If that happens, I am seriously considering cutting down to three runs a week. For now, I am going to plan to keep going with planning to get 4 runs in and see what happens. I am hoping by the end of the week, this update will have a more positive tone to it than it does tonight! At any rate; 4.04 miles in 47:40 - 11:48 average.

Tuesday: planned Interval Conditioning/kettle bells; actual IC/kettle bells and Day 1 of my 30 day arm challenge (5 push-ups, 5 chair dips, 10 bicep curls, 10 punches - yes, I counted 10 rather than doing 10 seconds). Overall, class was good. The main part seemed to be a pyramid. We started at 10 and had to make our way down to 0 of  front and reverse lunges per side and high pulls/snatches with the kettle bells per side. (a partial swing that you pull up by your shoulder is the high pull part, going quickly into a press is the snatch side). I counted my lunges 10 forward and 10 backward - I think that is what we were supposed to do, but I felt so slow! I don't know how many people actually made their way through the whole pyramid in the 10 minutes, but I only made it through 7! Yikes. To be fair, I know I am super slow at lunges. After I got home and watched Chicago Fire, I did Day 1 of the arm challenge. It took less than 3 minutes total; 4 if you count that I had to go upstairs for my weights!


Wednesday: planned 7 miles, actual 5.41 miles. Two of the houses we have on our "short list" had open houses, so we went and looked. I didn't get out for my run until 6:45, and wasn't keen on pushing it as close to 8 as I would have had to and face the dark. I probably could have made it before it was pitch black, but better safe than sorry. I didn't get all the miles in, but it was a good run. My legs felt more tired that they did on Monday (likely due to Tuesday's lunges) but the run went much better! My average pace was 10:44, and I was doing bursts in the high 9s. So fairly speedy for me. Final stats were 5.41 miles in 58:08. I also did Day 2 of the 30 Day Arm Challenge (8 push-ups, 8 chair dips, 15 bicep curls, and 15 punches with weights). Fairly easy so far, but I know it won't be as the reps keep increasing. Again, finished in less than 4 minutes.

 

first try at using fitsnap! couldn't remember my exact time, but I was only :08 off!

Thursday: planned 4 miles and Interval Conditioning (kettle bells); actual Interval Conditioning (kettle bells). We had an appointment with our realtor to look at a couple more houses, thus not having time to fit my run in before hand. It was a decent class; some swings, box jumps, jump roping, ab work, and some other moves thrown in for good measure! I will say the jump rope Gods had it out for me tonight, and during those intervals I spent more time tripping over my rope than jumping. I finished the night with Day 3 of the 30 day arm challenge (10 pushups, 10 chair dips, 20 curls, 20 punches).

Friday: planned rest; actual REST!

Saturday: planned 14 miles; actual 11.7 miles and Day 4 of the 30 day arm challenge. After several great long runs in a row, I shouldn't be surprised that I had one not go my way. I am disappointed that it happened on a week as momentous as this! It was supposed to be my longest run to date! Ugh. The first 6 miles went off without a hitch. After 6, I started to feel uncomfortable. I pulled it together for the next couple of miles, but was spent by 9. I took an extra long walk break, which may have been my mistake at that point, because I never pulled it back together. I still had it in my head through mile 10, I was going to finish and feel crappy about the run instead of feeling crappy about not finishing. By the time I hit 11, I knew I was heading home. There are a few things that I think contributed to the run: I woke up feeling like a cold was starting - head and chest felt heavy; I was likely not hydrated properly and I didn't bring water with me on the run. I was using Gatorade chews which seemed to help until I felt thirsty - then they just made me more thirsty. And finally, I didn't have a strong mental performance. When things got difficult that is what I focused on, so need to keep working on positive thinking and using a mantra! Overall, disappointed. But - I did still finish 11.7 miles! Final stats were 2:21:53 - 12:05 average. Day 4 (not counting the rest days as days) was 12 push-ups, 15 chair dips, 30 bicep curls, and 25 weighted punches.

Mile	Time	Change	Avg Pace
1	12:10	--	12'10"/mi
2	22:55	- 1:25 (11%)	10'45"/mi
3	33:43	+ 0:02 (-1%)	10'47"/mi
4	44:46	+ 0:15 (-3%)	11'03"/mi
5	56:15	+ 0:25 (-4%)	11'28"/mi
6	1:07:27	- 0:16 (2%)	11'11"/mi
7	1:19:34	+ 0:55 (-9%)	12'07"/mi
8	1:31:01	- 0:40 (5%)	11'27"/mi
9	1:43:59	+ 1:29 (-14%)	12'57"/mi
10	1:57:47	+ 0:51 (-7%)	13'48"/mi
11	2:11:22	- 0:13 (1%)	13'34"/mi

Sunday: planned cross training; actual rest! It was a pick-up the house, do the laundry, go look at houses, visit with Chad's aunt and uncle, play outside, get ready for the week kind of day. At the last minute, I did fit in Day 5 of the 30 Day Arm Challenge (15 pushups, 20 chair dips, 40 bicep curls, 30 weighted punches).

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Weekly Totals:

21.15 miles of running in 4:07:41
2 Interval Conditioning classes for 80 minutes
5 days of the 30 Day Arm Challenge: approximately 20 minutes (50 push ups, 58 chair dips, 115 bicep curls, and 100 weighted punches)

Total: 5:47:41 of training