Keeping Busy

This week started with very minimal running, but ended up being a higher mileage week than last week. (Both weeks were still pretty minimal. We’re recovering!) Here’s a summary:

Monday:
Hatha Yoga Class
This was the last day of my 2 week unlimited introductory special. I wanted to try a class I hadn’t tried yet, and this one didn’t seem too intimidating. This was an ok class, and was definitely a step down in intensity from the Vinyasa classes I’ve most often attended. This was probably a good choice, anyway, since we were still recuperating from the Epic Oregon Relay. There was a little more movement than the Yin class, but not quite as vigorous as Vinyasa. At this point, I think I prefer the Vinyasa classes for my everyday yoga needs, and Yin for those days when I need a bit more meditation or a gentle day for my body. But hey! At least I know my preferences now! :)

After this class, I went ahead and bought the Summer Special, for unlimited yoga until mid-September. I don’t have any heavy training planned, and this will give me a good idea of how I can balance my yoga with my running, so I can keep it up when I am training! I’m excited!

Tuesday:
Vinyasa

Wednesday:
Power Vinyasa (including Yoga jumping jacks)
My legs were super tired after this class!

Thursday:
First Thursday!
5.31 miles “Fartlek” (11:18 avg pace, with stops for tickets thrown in, estimated without Garmin)
We found out during the day that one of the checkpoints was at the Widmer Gasthaus Pub, on the Eastside. Now, Fit Right NW is pretty solidly in NW Portland. We figured we’d probably skip it, as we usually do for the ridiculously faraway checkpoints, but when we found out most of the other checkpoints were within 1 mile of the Fit Right store, we figured, why not?! J was still hurting from the Relay, so he didn’t quite make it the whole way. (He turned back at the Broadway bridge :( ) We made it over the bridge (lovely), picked up our tickets, made our way to the Eastside Esplanade by the Steel Bridge pedestrian walkway (for a few more tickets) and noted we had only enough time to make it back to the store (with one additional stop) before the raffle would start! We made it back, and got some free beer (our real reason for participating?) and hung out with some friends. Overall, great night!

Friday:
Sleepover Marathon
One of my friends had a really neat idea: Sleepover Marathon. She has a 1.1 mile loop around her house and realized that if she did that 24 times, it would equal 26.2 miles. So she decided to have a Sleepover Marathon where were we would run 1.1 miles every hour, for 24 hours. I wasn’t sure if I could do the whole thing (I’m still a newbie) but I would aim for the half marathon, and see how my legs felt at that point.

There were 3 participants all together (2 marathon veterans, and me). J pretty much acted as our race volunteer (ie. I texted/called him when we needed stuff :). Here’s my progress throughout the race. My watch acted up during the first few miles, so my splits aren’t completely accurate, but they definitely show my progress as the night progressed. Note: We had to run 1.1 miles within the 60 minutes of each hour, so I will label each split according to the hour it was attached to, not the specific time it was run in.

6:00PM:
10:40 (9:42 avg pace)
Phew! I feel pretty good. I was worried that yesterday’s run might be too much for today. Also, I was very excited to eat the Red Robin takeout J was bringing to the house!

7:00PM:
10:15 (9:20 avg pace)
Still doing pretty good. Had to wake up the legs again, hmm… (I’m in the blue shirt in the pic below.)

8:00PM
10:02 (9:08 avg pace)
Finally starting to cool off a bit.

9:00PM
10:35 (9:38 avg pace)
Just taking it easy, I still got a ways to go.

10:00PM – 11:00PM
20:58 (9:32 avg pace) This is when we started our double laps about 15 minutes before the top of the hour, so our second lap would be completed during the first 15 minutes of the next hour, and we could have about 1 hour and 15 min of sleep.
Still taking it easy. Excited for some sleep.

12:00AM – 1:00AM
22:52 (10:24 avg pace)
I’m tired. I would like to stay sleeping. My legs are tired. And heavy. And it’s not getting better…

2:00AM – 3:00AM
24:17 (11:03 avg pace)
My legs are so freaking heavy. Holy smokes! This is hard! There is no way I can go past a half marathon. (Previous to this run, I couldn’t fall asleep for the longest time because my legs were tingling. Yikes!)

4:00AM
22:21 (10:10 avg pace)
OK. I’ve already committed to the half now. I need to finish strong. Then I can sleep and watch the Germans totally smother Argentina (Yay German Team! I’m so proud). It will be good!

Final Time
2:12 (10:00 avg pace for 13.2 miles = Ultra-Half-Marathon! ;)

Lessons learned:
1. It’s hard to run when you are warming up every mile.
2. Nutrition is important when your are running for any distance. We had dinner, and didn’t eat anything all night. Sleep was higher on our agenda at the time.
3. Water is also good.
4. It doesn’t matter if the distance is broken up; distance running is a challenge!

Saturday:
Rest Day, legs are still sore.

Sunday:
Volunteer at the Foot Traffic Flat Half and Full Marathon.
After waiting in traffic (with those poor runners) for 90 minutes (!) we got to our aid station. J decided to stay at the HEED station (gross!) and I decided to hand out some water along with some cowbell! We were only about a half mile from the finish line, so we offered the final encouragement to bring these runners back home! It was such a good time, hanging out with our fellow volunteers and offering encouragement to all these people on the final stretch of their run. It got windy and cold for the latter parts of our volunteering, hence my bundled-ness in the pic below.)

 

Since Helvetia, we haven’t really had a solid training plan. We still don’t have a “plan” at this point, but I do want to focus on some shorter races. I think we’ll be attending a Runner Block Party, where we can check out a bunch of local races, and get some good deals. Since I want to do these shorter races, I also want to get back to doing some track workouts, hopefully starting this week! Here’s my plan for the upcoming week:

Monday:
Power Vinyasa + 2-3 mile run

Tuesday:
Track

Wednesday:
Two Step Lessons for a friend’s wedding (I’m gonna count it as cross training. :)

Thursday:
Vinyasa and/or running, both if I have time! :)

Friday:
Run 3-4 Miles

Saturday:
Power Vinaysa, Long Run, Runner Block Party

Sunday:
Rest day?

Therefore, our training plan is pretty much malleable and will change week by week. We’ll see you it goes!