Sunday, January 12, 2020

Weekly Sweats: Humble Pie Edition


A tale of 23 miles and frustration with my work life.  Werk has been pretty heavy duty lately and my first full week in the office after Christmas break came down hard with no mercy.  The only way that workouts happen in weeks like these is when they happen at dark o'clock in the morning.

I'm not really training for anything except life right now.  I don't need to start training for my April half for a few more weeks (and anyway my half marathon training plan is just "run a lot"), so the goal now is to start increasing my mileage a bit.  In full transparency, my body was not impressed with the treadmill this week, and you'll see that a few of my workouts came with a side of humble pie.  That's life friends, I wouldn't have anything to write about if everything was easy.

I'm linking up with the Weekly Run Down, please head over to Kim and Deborah to check it out.

Monday: 3 treadmill miles easy with strides, insane work day so just some quick body weight stuff for weights.

Tuesday: 4 treadmill miles and a slice of humble pie.  That's a one mile warmup, 4 x 5 minutes fast with 2 minutes recover.  I hadn't done a workout like this in a few weeks because oh yes I've had races on Tuesdays for the past few weeks (Christmas and New Years).  My body was like "whoa, excuse me, what are you asking me to do!?!"

Wednesday: no running, was able to get away from work for 20 minutes at lunch for some weights.  Yay!  And it felt so good, so note to self, stop skipping weights over Christmas break.

Thursday: more humble pie.  5 treadmill miles, and I was aiming for 6 x 400 with 2 minutes recover but after the 4th interval my legs started to feel tight in an "uh uh don't do it" kind of way so I bailed and ran easy to finish the workout but my body pipped up and said "hey I'm bored, just go a little bit faster but not that fast and oh by the way I want some distance so keep going for a bit" and I ended up feeling like a Real Runner by the time the workout was done.

Friday: my third piece of humble pie this week with a 3 mile treadmill hill workout.  My body took to the 3% intervals like a champ but balked at 6%.  I couldn't get away at lunch for weights so I got some quickie body weight in later.

Saturday: Humble pie be gone! 8 miles outside, which is the longest run I've done since my last half in early November and my body was ready for it.  I'm trying to push myself a bit on my long runs instead of just letting my body plod along but I really didn't have to push to get some fast-for-me paces.  I don't want to read too much into two consecutive sub 12 minute paced Saturday runs - my fitness story is unfolding week by week, so all we're looking at is a chapter and not the whole book, but I like what I'm seeing.  The weather was unseasonably warm but volatile, and I had a severe headwind pulling me back on the last half of the run and still had a nice overall pace to show for it.

Last week I quipped that outdoor runs in January are not to be taken for granted, and I must have appeased the weather gods, because this week my quip is that outdoor runs in shorts and a tank top in January are not to be taken for granted.  The weather forecast says that the rest of the month is going to be more typical for January.

Sunday: off!

Best Fitness Post of the Week: you tell 'em Meredith! 

20 comments:

  1. Looks like a great week of running to me! I cannot believe how warm some parts of the country are now while we sit here freezing.

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    1. Yes, don't worry the cold is on it's way here. Lots of brrrr in the forecast.

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  2. I had some humble pie this week during 2 of my OTF classes. Sometimes my legs are just like "girl, what are you doing?" LOL

    We had crazy weather here this week - super cold on Thursday and then 60 degree weather all weekend.

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  3. Looks like your week ended on a high note. The holidays and races do take it out of us don't they!? Have a great week ahead

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  4. Way to get back into training after the holidays. BTW, all of my treadmill runs humble me. LOL

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  5. Shorts and a tank in January, my goodness! And it's single digits here in Minneapolis :) Lucky gal!

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    1. I know! We could have split the difference in temperatures and still had good running weather.

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  6. Sounds like you got it all done, though! I hope things lighten up at work.

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  7. The wind was a beast everywhere this week, at least from the blogs I've been reading. Hey, a little humble pie serves us well (see what I did there?), and usually indicates a great run is just around the corner. Glad to hear that run paid you a well-deserved visit on Saturday :-)

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  8. Our weekend weather was balmy too - freakishly so, but I still enjoyed it. It sounds like you are going for hard workouts every day. That’s tough to do!

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    1. Eh, not *hard* but I am trying to fit in a bit of an effort most days - sorta fast long intervals on Tues, fastish shorter intervals on Thurs, hills on Fri.

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  9. Sometimes I really struggle with treadmill runs. Hopefully you will be feeling back to normal soon! Shorts weather in January is such a nice treat.

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  10. That's great that the Saturday run went so well! It was a bit crazy to be running in short sleeves in January, but I was happy about it :)

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    1. I welcome that kind of crazy! All of the 60 degree days in January please.

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  11. Treadmill runs are soooo tough. I've noticed a trend that many runners seem to be running faster on their long runs. I think it used to be that long runs were slow-- like at least a minute per mile slower than goal pace. But so many people (myself included) are going faster on them now and seeing benefits. So good for you!

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    1. Hey Elizabeth! I'm a huge fan of your blog and your book and I'm honored that you stopped by. Obviously I'm not doing an all out sprint on the long runs, but it really feels good to push them a bit.

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  12. Aw. It sounds like you ate that humble pie and then served it right back! Way to go!

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  13. I had such a great year but my first run of 2020 was a huge dose of humble pie. I nearly cried it was so bad! I usually go slow on my long runs but I've found it quite fun to push towards the end. Sorry to hear you've been frustrated with work but well done for getting those 23 miles done. Solid effort I say!

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  14. I was going to try to get a "strong finish" of 10 mins on my long run last week, but I ended up coaching a pace group kind of last minute, so I couldn't. We need to all stay on pace for that! I've been really torn lately if going slower is going to be beneficial for me, or putting in some of those faster miles mid-long-run. The jury is still out on that one. Hooray for us both going 8 miles!

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  15. I am going to start running on the treadmill. I am kind of looking forward to it. More because I want to run even if it is on the treadmill. :-) Which half will you be training for?

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