2 Weeks Left

Well, less than 2 weeks now, until our first half marathon! Which means we’re in taper mode. But don’t tell my legs that, because they won’t believe you! Here’s the recap of the last week:

Monday:
4 miles (9:16 avg pace)
Rare Solo Run. Since J had just run his heart out the day before, I went out on my own for a solo 4-miler. This was an “easy” run, but my pace doesn’t really reflect that… It felt really easy, though, so I was shocked to see that pace! Where’d that come from? Maybe I was just inspired by J’s super fast race? Or maybe it was Lady Gaga pumping through my head? Whatever it was, it made me feel good! :)

Tuesday:
Free Yoga at Lululemon
This class kicked my butt. And I could still feel that butt kicking the next day! Holy smokes! The class was run by Tiffany Cruikshank-Viehmann, who I think teaches others to be yoga instructors, and has written a book about yoga, so she didn’t take it easy on us! This was J’s first yoga experience ever, and I think it was a positive experience, although it was definitely a difficult session. Hopefully he’ll join me for yoga again in the future!

Wednesday:
5 miles (9:22 avg pace)
I thought it might be a good idea to try a run at Half Marathon Pace. I used the McMillan Running Calculator to calculate a “realistic” pace based upon our 10K PR (although, it seems that race ran a little long). This puts us at about 9:30, but for some reason I thought we’d try for 9:20? (I can’t remember my though process on that one…) Anyway, I figured we’d warm-up for the first mile, then get into the HMP for the next 4 miles. The first mile was a nice warm-up, then we tried to pick it up a little… 8:59. Whoops! Slow it down! The remaining miles were a little better, if I were trying for a 9:30 pace, but for some reason I was going for a 9:20 pace, so I was getting frustrated. Overall the average was what I was going for, but that hadn’t been the goal of this run…Oh well! At this point I think we’ll start with 9:30 pace for the race, and see what happens from there. I usually speed up as the race progresses, no matter what, so no harm in starting conservative!

Mile 1: 9:41
Mile 2: 8:59
Mile 3: 9:31
Mile 4: 9:29
Mile 5: 9:11

Thursday:
4 miles (10:13 avg pace)
Another waterfront loop. Nothing too excited about the run itself, but we did spot Alisa and Jen on their bikes. I love living in my little big city! :)

Friday:
Driving through Memorial Day traffic on the way to Sunriver/Rest Day

Saturday:
9 miles (10:17 avg pace)
We didn’t have any huge plans for this run. I mean, it’s only 9 miles ;) (Amazing how it doesn’t seem so long the weekend after you run 12 miles!) So we just ran from the front door of my Dad’s house, and let Garmin tell us when to turn around. I had seen that the whole of Sunriver was about 8 miles around the outer edges, so I figured we’d stick to that plan. Construction got in our way a little, but we made it back safe and sound, although we were a bit winded. Elevation training! I always have a hard time with the elevation up here.

It was neat to see the paths we had run back in December. I took some pictures as a comparison:

December: May: December: May:Sunday:
Rest Day

Overall, a successful week. Our total for May (after 3 miles on Monday), will be 98.4 miles, which is by far our most ever! (April was 55.7.) Next month probably won’t be as much since we’ll be recovering from Helvetia, but we’ve also got some new plans.

We’re going to be taking part in the Epic Oregon Relay (formerly the Prelay) on June 25-26. There will be 12 of us in the group, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been wanting to try a relay out for awhile now, but didn’t think we were running enough to be an asset. But a lot of the legs on this relay aren’t too hardcore, and I’m pretty sure we’d be getting some of the “easier” legs. (Hopefully)

Also, I’ve been toying with the idea of adding a Marathon to our Race schedule in October. It would be the weekend after the Nike Women’s Half, which we are just running for fun. I don’t think it would be too much to run an easy (but hilly) half marathon the weekend before a full…but maybe someone out there has some good advice? I definitely won’t be signing up for anything right away. And I’m definitely not making any decisions until after Helvetia is over. I’ve just been milling it around this past week.

Anyway, here’s our schedule for next week:

Monday:
3 miles in Sunriver

Tuesday:
Drive back home/Yoga at Lululemon (maybe with Jen and Alisa?)

Wednesday:
4 miles

Thursday:
3 miles

Friday:
Rest

Saturday:
AM: 8 miles
PM: Starlight Run 5k with GOTR (most likely a slow walk, hopefully we make it!)

Sunday:
Rest