Week of July 20th Training
Monday July 20th—Another Monday is here! My legs are always thankful for this day off. I decided to get out on my bike after work and ride. I ended up riding for a little over an hour and clocked in 12.3 miles. I did ride over to the track that I normally would have used and found that it is unlocked again! Super exciting because it’s a bit closer than the other one I have been using. I knew I had some speed work on the calendar for tomorrow so this is where I was going to head.
Tuesday July 21st—On the schedule was a 9-mile run with tempo miles. The specifics were: 2 mile warm up, 4 x 1.25 miles (goal was to have them be between 7:00-7:20), with 400m recovery in between each, cool down to 9 miles. Tempo is a pace where you are not running ALL OUT but more of a feel of just outside of your comfort zone. That pace where you are pushing it but not to the brink of death. Hope that makes sense. I never used to even know what tempo meant until another coach that I had been using explained it to me. This run felt great and everything clicked. It’s the best feeling in the world to nail a workout! I’m going to share my actual stats with you below.
Wednesday July 22nd—Now that I am back to running my normal schedule since the relay challenge is over, I am looking to bike more. My goal is to ride 3-4x per week. I made sure that I got up early enough to get a run and a bike ride in before working hours. I find it easier to get the biking done before work so that I can focus on the kids, or house stuff or my husband in the evenings. Luckily my scheduled run for today was only 4 miles…. That allowed for me to then get out to ride for an hour and clocked in 12.26 miles! Love a good brick workout. One of these days I will do it in the reverse order where I’m biking first and then out for a run. I can’t seem to let my run go second!
Thursday July 23rd—Ahhh, Thursday… the day that Garmin crashed😫. Today’s scheduled run was 7 easy paced miles. I unfortunately did not wake up early enough to get the biking in my run. My mother in law comes on Thursdays with her doggy and stays over and watches our kids for us both days which has been so helpful. I was getting excited to run with Daisy on Friday morning but noticed that the forecast was calling for rain and thunderstorms all morning long.
I decided that once I got home, I’d take Daisy for a run in case that Friday turned out to be no good weather wise. We made it 3 miles but we stopped home mid-way so I could get her a drink of water. It’s been a heat wave where we live, and I didn’t want to overheat her. She did great and loved it! But that put my daily miles to 10! My coach always says if the miles are easy paced running more is ok as long as you feel good. Once we got back, I then decided since I was already covered in sweat I’d get out on my bike for a little bit. So, clocked in 6.40 miles in 31 minutes. What a day!
Friday July 24th—It turns out the weather man is never right.. LOL. It was not storming or raining when I got up. Usually when I go downstairs to make my coffee Daisy will get up immediately but she must have been so tired from our run the night before that she never woke up. I got out for my scheduled 5 easy miles. Once I got back I had a little bit of time before I had to get ready so I took her out for 1.25 miles.
Saturday July 25th—Today’s run was a doozy. And one that I was completely scared of since I laid my eyes on it. It was 14-mile-long run with the first 10 miles easy, then last 4 to be sub 7:30. I know that I can run sub 7:30 miles. But to do it after running 10 whole miles? That seems tough! I headed to the other track that I have been going to because it’s a little less crowded than my original one. And I made sure to bring 5 water bottles and my salt stick chews. I didn’t end up getting there til after 10am so I was thankful for the sun when it was tucked behind the clouds. I also had to add in 1 mile all out to this workout to do part of this track challenge that I am a part of. My colleague asked me what I thought I could run this in and said I had hoped 5:55. I ended up running 5:59 for it. So, I was thrilled. I know I can get down to that 5:55. So my run was 2 miles easy, 1 mile all out. Once I was done this, I was actually ready to head home. I was toast! How the heck was going to run 11 more miles. Seriously!! I decided that I needed to take things 1 mile at a time. I had to run 7 more miles easy paced and then the last 4 fast. I don’t know how but I got thru this and crushed it! Best feeling ever!!
Sunday July 26th—Another hot day for running! I got out for my scheduled easy run but while I was out felt like running an additional mile and made it 6. When I was done, I was so sweaty that I looked like I had jumped into a pool! Love it! I got home, made a protein shake, drank it, changed clothes, added deodorant (HA) then got out on my bike for a ½ hour ride. I still can’t believe that Garmin was down again today, day 4. Craziness!! I could still see that I was ending the week on 49.5 running miles and 37.5 biking miles. All in all, it was a great training week!
The Marathon Mom 
Your graph looks like interval running. I always called intervals the weightlifting of running. Mailing intervals is tough business but they make you faster and more confident I think. Great work!
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