Week 15 Recap

Oops! I'm a bit behind on my blogging. I think I've just been focussing so much on work and training that I haven't felt like writing. Anyways, better late than never!

By the way, how great was Hubby's guest post!? I loved it! Who knew he could write so well. His description of my Lululemon knowledge made me laugh because it's SO true! And his thoughts of my running journey warmed my heart. Love him!

So we were a week short on the training program and decided to skip Week 14 since it was very similar to Week 15.

Monday: Strength Training, Weights and Squats at home

Tuesday: Yoga

Wednesday: Speed Training Intervals, 3 x 1km, Average Pace 5:36 mins/km

My least favourite day! I mean who likes to run faster than your comfort zone that you feel like puking!? Not my first choice for a fun activity. However when we finish I always feel so great and accomplished. It's a love/hate thing really.

We warmed up for about 1.5km and the goal was to run the 1km between 5 - 6 mins/km then rest for 2 mins by walking or jogging in between? I was feeling a bit tired so would have been a lot more comfortable closer to 6 but just went with how I felt. The first km was 5:22 which felt fast for me. The next was 5:39 which was fine but tired me and the last was 5:50 where I just wanted to be done.

As much as I hate gasping for air, I know it's good for me and will help with my speed. Yep, love/hate.

Thursday: Yoga

Our regular teacher was away so we had a substitute and it was a nice relaxing class. 

These cartoons totally make me laugh. This was us at the beginning!

We were supposed to do a 9k on Friday or Saturday but it never happened. I think it was the weather? Yeah it was the weather......I think it poured? Yeah we'll go with that : )

Sunday: 20k Long, Slow Run, Pace 7:06 mins/km

Since we didn't do our moderate run yet, the plan was to do a 9k run and see how Jeff felt with his knee. In my mind I pretty much decided I wanted to do the 20k instead. I figured if I got the 9k done with Jeff, I would only have to do 1/2 of the 20k by myself and not have to worry about having to do a full 20k the next day and carry water. If I was going to do 9k, I might as well do 20k. Wow, I never thought I would ever say that sentence in my life! Lol! 

I'm really enjoying doing loops right now as I know exactly where I am distance wise and know how much more I have to run. So to do 20k we had to do about 4 loops of our fave road. If Jeff had issues he could pack it in after 2 loops. Well 2 loops passed and he decided to continue on. He was stopping to stretch out his knee a lot so I wore the Garmin and would just carry on and he would catch up. I was running a nice comfortable pace with nasal breathing and felt pretty good. I was happy with the decision to do the 20k and skip the 9k. I knew that a 20k would be a big confidence builder. I really had no issues the whole run. I had a blister band aid on my one bothersome ankle and didn't feel it all, my legs were feeling good and because I breathe through my nose I don't have to drink a lot of water. I also don't feel the need for a lot of fuelling lately. My energy doesn't seem to deplete. If anything it seems to pick up.  A couple of Cliff Shot Blocks seem to do the trick for the most part. 

My legs did start to tire at about 18k and felt a bit heavier and my feet got a bit sore, but it was nothing compared to the tiredness I felt at 18k at the SeaWheeze. When I got to 20k, the time was 2:22 and in my head I was thinking it was so much better than the SeaWheeze. In hindsight I should have just done the 1.1k and I would have gotten a PR and been under 2:30 which is my goal for this race! Damn! Oh well, I guess it's a bit more exciting to PR at an actual race.

Jeff didn't expect to be able to run a full 20k but he did!! He did have some pain and had to stop to stretch a lot but he was able to do it and now he can just rest up until the race. Fingers crossed for the 1/2!

I was really happy with the pace as it was comfortable and there is still room for me to push the pace a bit for when it counts. HOWEVER, the race route is supposed to be very hilly which I am kind of freaking out about. Based on this I will have to be realistic about my goals which I will talk about another time.

Only 2 weeks left!!