Hanging up my running shoes

[DopeyBadger]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Keels]

Oh, Gisele (and @Chris-Mo, obviously!) - I am profoundly sorry for your loss. I'll be keeping your family in my thoughts, but I'm happy to hear his passing was as peaceful as could be.

 

[KSellers88]

So so sorry for your loss.

 

[Bree]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[girliea]

So sorry to hear this. Thoughts and prayers to you both.

 

[michigandergirl]

Very sorry for your loss.

 

[ZellyB]

Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and wishes. We both appreciate it very much.

Solid work!!

​

Training update 6/25/18 – 7/1/18​

Trying to get back into a normal flow of life again, so it was back to your regularly scheduled training. Did pretty well this week I think, although still going too fast often.

Monday 6/25 – 3 miles at Easy Continuous run. I’ve kind of given up on actually hitting this pace at 12:29. It feels incredibly awkward to try and run at that pace, so we just do our best to go easy, but we failed miserably even at that this time. Overall pace 11:00.

Tuesday 6/26 – Scheduled for 4 miles, but ended up just doing 3. Chris had gone back up to KC to help his mom some, so I ran with another friend but I’d forgotten I needed to have my daughter, Paige, to school early for cross-country practice, so we cut it a bit short and ran too fast! Oops again. Overall pace 11:36.

Wednesday 6/27 – Rest day

Thursday 6/28 – Daniels T pace day. This one was pretty challenging. 1 mile WU and then 3 x 1 mile intervals at T pace with 2 minute rest intervals in between and then 1 mile CD. It was 77 degrees at 5 AM and crazy humid. We hit the paces fine (in fact too fast again on the first 2 mile T paces), but easier to hit on the 3rd one because I was so freaking HOT! UGH!!!

We did just a half mile at CD since it was getting late and Chris had an early retirement breakfast for the superintendent. Still it felt pretty good even if a bit difficult in the heat. I did send a message to Coach to get the T+D adjustments though and to confirm that we need to do it for all paces and not just LR pace. I really do enjoy these T pace runs though. I like pushing myself more on them.

Friday 6/29 – Rest

Saturday 6/30 – Galloway group run and we did 5 miles at our Easy/LR pace. Overall pace 12:20. It was so hot. BOO!!!


Spent a great lazy day at the pool today because it was too hot to do anything else. I got more sunglasses in honor of the 4th. Love them!



Look at my pretty flowers!!




We had a really nice relaxing day.


Sunday 7/1 – Chris official first day as superintendent. Let’s celebrate by running, shall we? 5 miles again at Easy/LR pace. Overall pace 12:25.




My son recently moved back in with us from his apartment. It’s temporary (hopefully ) but that also meant his puppy moved in with him. SIGH. Because he does such a good job of taking care of himself, why not add a puppy to the mix. Meet Henry.



Border Collie mix around 4-5 months old. He actually is a sweetheart and smart. We decided to try running with him today to get some energy off him. He really did great for his first time. But we definitely wore him out. That’s a good thing though right?

We leave for Disney in less than 2 weeks!! YAY!! I also realized that in a few days it’s the 180 day mark for marathon weekend. HUH? I haven’t even registered for the race and I need to figure out where we will eat? SMH. On the plus side though, we have decided we want to run both the 10K and the full. Because we are runDisney suckers. Take all my money, Disney.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Congrats on a great week. Surprised that you're having such difficulty hitting that slow pace. And you honestly feel like you're barely trying and could run at that pace for forever* (*well not actually forever, but it's pretty darn effortless). That 11 min/mile super easy pace is like someone capable of a 4 hr marathon, 1:56 HM, 52 min 10k, and 25 min 5k.

 

[ZellyB]

Congrats on a great week. Surprised that you're having such difficulty hitting that slow pace. And you honestly feel like you're barely trying and could run at that pace for forever* (*well not actually forever, but it's pretty darn effortless). That 11 min/mile super easy pace is like someone capable of a 4 hr marathon, 1:56 HM, 52 min 10k, and 25 min 5k.

Well, I mean, it feels pretty darn easy. We carry on lengthy conversations while we are running and I'm certainly not feeling fatigued at the end at all. Now, we are doing this on 3-4 mile runs though, so ya know. I've always felt like my trouble is not so much the speed at which I can run for relatively short distances but rather my ability to sustain it for longer distances. So, I don't know what to make of that really. This morning we did our EC and were at 11:17 (and we actually walked a couple of times briefly to give the puppy a break) and it felt like very minimal effort.

I think I have mental fortitude weakness when it comes to long distances though or the fire it takes to push through on difficult races. When I begin to get tired, I'm not so good at forcing myself to keep pushing. I'm hoping this training program as we begin to get into more and more of the T paces and M tempo will convince me otherwise.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Well, I mean, it feels pretty darn easy. We carry on lengthy conversations while we are running and I'm certainly not feeling fatigued at the end at all. Now, we are doing this on 3-4 mile runs though, so ya know. I've always felt like my trouble is not so much the speed at which I can run for relatively short distances but rather my ability to sustain it for longer distances. So, I don't know what to make of that really. This morning we did our EC and were at 11:17 (and we actually walked a couple of times briefly to give the puppy a break) and it felt like very minimal effort.

I think I have mental fortitude weakness when it comes to long distances though or the fire it takes to push through on difficult races. When I begin to get tired, I'm not so good at forcing myself to keep pushing. I'm hoping this training program as we begin to get into more and more of the T paces and M tempo will convince me otherwise.

Well if that's the case, then I've got a feeling big things could be in store. Just continue to keep the effort easy. Looks like starting with the run on 7/22 you'll really start to be challenged. So let's see how it proceeds from there.

 

[Ariel484]

HENRY!! I love him.

Happy first day of work @Chris-Mo!!

I love that you're doing the 10K + marathon, if I return to marathon weekend that would for sure be my pick. Mickey and Minnie medals!

You are rocking those sunglasses!

 

[ZellyB]

HENRY!! I love him.

Happy first day of work @Chris-Mo!!

I love that you're doing the 10K + marathon, if I return to marathon weekend that would for sure be my pick. Mickey and Minnie medals!

You are rocking those sunglasses!

Henry really is super cute, but I really don't need another dog in my house. Oh well, at least he has potential as a good running partner.

And, yeah, I'm pretty happy that we opted to do the 10k was well. It's an awesome course!

Thanks regarding the sunglasses. I'm loving them!

 

[SarahDisney]

See you on 10K and Marathon mornings! Also, I love the new sunglasses!

Enjoy your Disney trip! I can't wait to hear what you think of Toy Story Land!

 

[ZellyB]

You say it's your Birthday!!!

Oh yeah, and training went well too.
7/2/18 - 7/8/18
​

It was a really great week with both a holiday to enjoy and my BIRTHDAY. I may be 54 now, but I had a great training week. Let's review, shall we?

Monday 7/2 - Easy continuous run that went quite well. Felt good the whole time and subsequently went too fast as I mentioned earlier. 11:17 overall pace.
Tuesday 7/3 - Daniels T run. I was kinda dreading this one because it was a lot of T intervals. 1 mile WU + 8 x 0.5 at Daniels T (30 sec RI) and then 1 mile CD. So ended up with 6.5 miles total and it was pretty hot and muggy at 5 AM, but happy to say we managed them fine. A bit sick of it by the end, but otherwise a good solid run and no difficulties hitting pace.
Wednesday 7/4 - Rest day and Happy Birthday America!!

We had a lovely relaxing day with a lot of time spent at the pool and then a cook-out for dinner with brats, burgers and garden fresh salads. Delicious!!


Thursday 7/5 Back at it! Easy/LR run 4.5 miles. Overall pace 11:57. Felt good - too fast.
Friday 7/6 - Rest day. Worked through lists of everything we needed to accomplish this weekend because it's our last one at home before we go to DISNEY next Friday!!!

Saturday 7/7 - Galloway group run. 5 miles at Easy/LR. We got a blessed break in the temps and humidity this weekend and it was amazing!!! Great run average pace of 12:01. Chris ran with Paige in one of the faster pace groups. She's been itching to run faster, so he jumped up with her to see how she would do. She did a great job and loved it!
Sunday 7/8 - It's my birthday! What better way to celebrate than to start with an early long run?

So, I had to message Billy for some adjustments to the schedule since there was a long run with Marathon tempo in it while we are at Disney. I worried being able to fit that one in while on vacation, so he suggested moving it to this weekend, so we did! But, I was kinda dreading it. Our first marathon tempo run on Billy's plan and 10 miles (which is the furthest we've gone since late April/Early May), so yeah...
Luckily, it was a spectacular morning. Just 66 degrees when we started running at 6 AM and lower humidity and a nice light breeze. Fabulous. The Birthday weather gods were smiling upon us.

Plan called for 3 miles at Easy/LR + 4 miles at M Tempo (4 min at 10:00 pace and 30 Second walk) + 3 to finish at Easy/LR pace. I was sluggish during the warm up miles, but by the time we got to 3, I felt pretty good. This ended up not being difficult at all. I think all the continuous running and the work on the track with our T paces is definitely paying off. We were still going too fast on a lot of these (although we were watching pace closely and really try to stay on pace), so the last run interval or so I was starting to fatigue, but otherwise this felt amazing. The 3 mile CD was the perfect end to it. I was tired at the end, but not gassed at all, so very happy with how this went!!

Then it was home for more travel prep and then more lazy time at the pool and a lovely birthday dinner at our house that Chris prepared. We celebrated my birthday and Paige and Sophie's since their birthday will be at Disney on the 17th. Then finally watched The Post. Great movie! And an early bedtime.

It was a fantastic week!! And in just a few short days we will be headed here!!

https://flic.kr/p/27AqmUX

 

[DopeyBadger]

Plan called for 3 miles at Easy/LR + 4 miles at M Tempo (4 min at 10:00 pace and 30 Second walk) + 3 to finish at Easy/LR pace. I was sluggish during the warm up miles, but by the time we got to 3, I felt pretty good. This ended up not being difficult at all. I think all the continuous running and the work on the track with our T paces is definitely paying off. We were still going too fast on a lot of these (although we were watching pace closely and really try to stay on pace), so the last run interval or so I was starting to fatigue, but otherwise this felt amazing. The 3 mile CD was the perfect end to it. I was tired at the end, but not gassed at all, so very happy with how this went!!

Sounds like a great description. Well done!

 

[ZellyB]

Sounds like a great description. Well done!

Thanks, Billy. I really enjoyed this run. It's hard to imagine keeping up that tempo for 26.2, but it's still early in the training, so I have faith we'll be up to the task by October!

 

[run.minnie.miles]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Hope you had the best day!

Great week of training- way to go! That slice tomato looked sooo good! Nothing beats a home grown tomato!

Yay for Disney!! The countdown is on!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

It's hard to imagine keeping up that tempo for 26.2, but it's still early in the training, so I have faith we'll be up to the task by October!

Cumulative Training. I almost never feel like I can keep up a M Tempo run any further than what was scheduled for that day. But if we position everything correctly throughout training, then the tools will be there on race day.

 

[KSellers88]

I hope y'all have so much fun at Disney!!!

 

[Ariel484]

Wrong castle since you're doing to WDW, buuuuut