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Hello, October! Can you believe that there are only 3 months left in 2017?
For the first time in a couple of weeks, I’m sharing my training updates for the Rock ‘n Roll Brooklyn Half Marathon! It’s coming up in a little over 2 weeks, and I’m hopeful that it will turn out to be a successful race! How have your workouts been going?
Once again, I’m joining Hoho and Tricia for the Weekly Wrap! It’s such a great linkup where dozens of awesome running and healthy living bloggers participate and share what’s going on in their active lives each week!
I’m also joining Courtney for her Weekly Training Linkup! Check it out and see all of the races fellow bloggers are training for this fall!
Sharing my last 2 weeks of training for the @runrocknroll Brooklyn Half Marathon! #RNRBrooklyn #bibchat #runchat Click To Tweet
This past week has been extremely busy – we just got back from an awesome trip to Montreal and then it was time to finalize our plans for our Housewarming Party that took place last Saturday! In addition to that, I had to get my car serviced for a State Inspection, which ended up being logistically very complicated (I HATE being dependent on others for transportation!). I had 2 weeknight conference calls that were productive yet time-consuming, a meeting at work that went until after 5 pm, and of course, training and blogging to do haha! As you can probably guess, I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep this past week!
But the big highlight of the week was our Housewarming BBQ. We finally invited our friends to our home despite living here over a year lol, and we had a wonderful time! I was especially happy to have both my siblings and my twin nephews be there. The party started at 2 pm and we finally had the house to ourselves (and the kittens) at 9. We had a variety of coworkers, new and old friends, and neighbors stop by and hang out. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was fun to give a tour of the house. We had plenty of food to eat and Bret did a fantastic job with the burgers, brats, and chicken wings. I must admit that a lot of the cleaning was done last-minute and I was a bit frazzled with so many people in and out of the house, but we got many compliments on our home and some future dinner dates to plan that I’m really excited about. We hoped that having the housewarming would encourage us to be more social and actually get out of the house lol, so we’ll see how things go! Thanks to everyone who came out!
As usual, I didn’t think to take pictures while everything was going on, but I do have this great picture with my family that is now one of my favorites!
Monday 9/18: 1 hour of yoga class. We did a lot of work on the hamstrings and hips, just what my body needed. I was pretty rusty as I haven’t been able to do as much yoga as I would like the past couple of weeks, but it felt good to be back!
Tuesday 9/19: Rest day.
Wednesday 9/20: Speed work time! 10-minute warmup, then 4 x 5 minutes at 5-10K effort, 3 minutes easy, with cooldown to a total 5 miles. The temperature wasn’t as hot as it had been but it was extremely humid! I really pushed myself to run strong, and it wasn’t easy. My right hip did feel some soreness again from the hills, and I think I was too dehydrated because I was lightheaded to the point of being faint once I got home. I was chewing Run Gum for the first time – I really hope that didn’t cause that reaction!
Thursday 9/21: Running in Montreal! After checking into our hotel and having a delicious lunch, we got dressed and ran to Mt. Royal, which was right near our hotel. It was VERY steep and the first quarter mile nearly wiped me out before we even made it to the park! Once we were there we had gorgeous views of the city and some really nice trails. We ended up running 4 miles,
Friday 9/22: Lots of walking around Montreal and sightseeing – no runs.
Saturday 9/23: Another busy day around Montreal seeing the sights. We walked so much that it didn’t seem wise to do a pre-race recovery run.
Sunday 9/24: The Rock ‘n Roll Montreal Half Marathon – check out my recap in case you missed it! Unfortunately, I forgot my Stick at home so I had no recovery other than my Legend Compression socks!
Monday 9/25: Well-deserved rest day while making my way back to Philly.
Tuesday 9/26: Easy 3.5 mile run around the neighborhood. My calves were feeling pretty sore so I kept it slow.
Wednesday 9/27: 1 hour of yoga at lunch, lots of twisting poses and some shoulder work that was challenging. I’m trying to improve my form in downward dog, making sure my biceps face upwards…tough!
Thursday 9/28: No runs, ended up getting home late…not a fun day.
Friday 9/29: Some really tough speed work! 10 minute warm up,k then 3 x 8 minute at 10K pace, 3 minutes easy before cooling down to get 5 miles. The weather was much cooler (at last) in the upper 60’s. I worked really hard on my intervals, but as always, my knees weren’t the happiest with me. I was pretty dehydrated during this run as well and briefly had a side stitch. Calves were still pretty tight, but I was glad to get this done.
Saturday 9/30: “Easy” 4 miles with Bret through the trails. This time I wore my old Mizuno Wave Rider 19’s because the 20’s are so uncomfortable…but the 19’s didn’t do much better. They have less cushioning than the 20’s so I could feel everything on the trail. I turned my ankles several times…not fun. I made sure to keep it slow, and the hills felt harder than ever. Thankfully the weather again was very cool!
Sunday 10/1: Long run – 13 miles! I ended up running with my buddy Mark since he had 19 on tap. I wouldn’t have made it without him! Fortunately, it was about 48 degrees when we started, perfect running weather! I wore the Wave Rider 19’s again, and my legs were still sore from Friday’s speed work and Saturday’s hill climbs. My glutes, knees, quads, hamstrings – I felt everything. I was so glad to get it done, and I did hit the Epsom salt bath post-run and took an extremely long nap!
Me after my 13 mile run on Sunday!
Week 9 of training turned out to be okay. The heat and humidity were so cruel and it made each run a challenge, but I did the best that I could. I was one run short for the week, but I’m glad I was able to finally go to yoga class at work. I really need to prioritize my post-run recovery. I forgot The Stick at home so I had no way to foam roll my legs after the half marathon. In general, I’ve just been extremely lazy about it as I seem to be getting more and more into injury territory. With that said, I will give Week 9 a B!
This past week of training was challenging because I ended up running 3 days in a row, which I really don’t like to do. The Friday speed work really kicked my butt, and I’m realizing that I’m not activating my glutes the way I should during my runs. My calves and quads were pretty sore on all of my runs, but I’m still slacking off on really hitting the foam roller and getting out the kinks. I’m really starting to think that my right IT band could be having issues…go figure! One bright note is that the weather finally cooled down and my runs were much less miserable than the previous week! Fall finally seems to be here, and I will focus on my goals to have a successful half marathon. Week 10 gets a B-. Time to get serious about my prehab exercises!
And last but not least, I have a friendly reminder: Tunes Tuesday is back for a new month, and the theme for October is Songs for Halloween! We hope that you join Steff, Kim, and me starting tomorrow, and you’ll have the entire month to link up – we look forward to hearing your favorite Halloween tunes!
Has fall finally arrived where you live? How has your training been going?
