GCM training recap, week 8 – soooo busy!

Hang on tight, there was a lot going on this week! Week 8 of my training for the Glass City Marathon (April 26) is done.  Lots of miles again this week. My schedule was all mixed up this week.  I was busy, busy, busy! (sorry for all of the pictures!!)

• Miles run = 47.5

Monday – 8 miles, tempo (treadmill).  Getting up to run speedwork on Monday morning was a bit of a challenge in itself!  This went well though. I’ve lowered my targeted race pace so I didn’t get burned out and I was able to complete the pace miles (6 out of 8 miles).  I also tried out some new shorts I have. I decided to go out of my comfort zone and try some “booty shorts”. Ok, they might be named that, but that’s what I call them!  The waist was a little tighter than I’d like (which is why I’m hiding my squishy middle in this picture, haha!!), but the legs did stay in place, so they are a keeper! Expanding my color range too – they’re not black!!

Tuesday – 5 miles, easy.  Paczki run! Well, my training plan said “easy” but I guess the guys I ran with were unaware what my easy pace is!  LOL! We started out with a 9:19 mile and I was huffing like I’d never done a day of exercise in my life!! (you can relate, right??) Phew. After I got warmed up it was a bit better, but this surely counts as my speedwork instead of easy run.  A group of us ran 5 miles, and we met up with a group who ran a 5K distance. Stopped at 4 miles and had a Paczki. Then enjoyed some food and drinks with everyone.  

Wednesday –  4.5 miles, easy (treadmill)  Debated whether I should run early following that run (ouch, feeling so stiff!), but I woke up before my alarm and my body appreciated the movement.  I kept it slow and it went well. My new Kinvaras are blinding!! I guess that’s why the color is named Vizicoral 😉

Thursday – 5 miles easy run.  This run had two purposes: 1) to get outside and enjoy the snow!! (the kids got a snow day, woohoo!) and 2) see if I could run a certain pace so I could take a sub coaching gig.  I didn’t quite get to the pace I needed (11:20-11:40), but it was close enough and I felt good so I accepted the assignment. Side note, I LOVE my Brooks trail shoes (Divide) in this weather. These are my test model, but the production model is out now.

5 miles, track night!  At night I was sub coaching for yet another pace group!  This run was fartleks but the coach told me the fast pace would probably be around 1:15 a lap.  Good news, nailed it! 🙂 It was a good workout. We had a small group, so it was almost one on one coaching tonight.  No complaints there!

Friday – Rest!  Felt pretty whipped in the morning, but was feeling very good as the day went on. Time to celebrate the weekend!

Saturday – Looooong run.  19.2 miles. This was a highly productive run because I got my training miles in, and I also got to help out a training group that needed a sub coach!  I ran over to the group meetup site from my house (got 5 miles in), ran 9 miles with the group, and then ran home (another 4.2 miles). I’ll be honest – the target pace for the long run for this group was 11:20-11:40, and I ended up being closer to 11:00 on average.  I got to chatting with a friend and the pace went a little fast, but then I’d slow it back down. Overall, everyone had a good run and there were no complaints on the pace (at least not to my face bahahaha!).

Then we went to an Olympic Trials watch party.  I really didn’t know a lot of the elites competing, but one of the coaches from the Dave’s training groups was running!  I was also tracking 4 women I know. One of the ladies works at Dave’s Running shop, the other I’ve met up with in Boston.  So fun!!

Here’s our hometown hero Evan Gaynor.  He got some airtime early on in the race.  It was so exciting to see him! He was the top finisher from Ohio with a time of 2:21:46. Way to go Evan!!!

Here’s a picture when we coached together.  

At night we went to the annual awards banquet for the Toledo Roadrunners.  I didn’t win any awards, but I did get to see all my friends, eat all the food (19 miles requires a lot of refueling, right?), and eat all the desserts.

Sunday –  Rest day, gym day.  I was feeling pretty good after all the miles this week.  Decided to get to the gym early.  (photo credit to my husband from Snapchat haha!)

Then I saw a really good sale going on at the produce store.  This store is 30 mins away, but the prices are so darn cheap I can’t resist taking a drive there!  We got all of this food for $24.95. Strawberries and pineapples were 48 cents each, and green peppers and cucumbers were 25 cents each!  Everything else was cheap too – with the exception of the cauliflower that I decided would be a nice treat in my salad for the week 🙂

As a quick update, if you read my post about the issue we had recently with some inappropriate conversations, someone did contact his Mom and she was unaware of what he had done. The family apologized and it sounds like they will be working with him and maybe he needs a change in his medicine? (He has Asperger’s) It was all a very productive conversation and I’m glad it was addressed. I feel MUCH better about it now. 🙂

Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!

Q: Did you have a good week? Buy a bunch of produce perhaps??

Q: Did you know any runners in the Olympic Trials?

My friends all had great races despite those hills and wind!