This week was a hot one. I mean, compared to last week, and it being September. I was all ready to get going on fall, and then we went back to the humidity and warm temps. 37 miles this week of running this week, and 10 miles of bike riding. After all the bike miles last week I just wasn’t into riding. Hopefully I’ll get back at it next week because I do love riding! I have 4 more weeks of training for the Columbus half marathon, and then another half in November. Here’s how my week went!

Last Sunday we went to DTE Energy Foundation Trail, which is a fun mountain bike trail.  We rode for 1 ½ hours.  I forgot how hard the hills were!  I walked up several hills with my bike.  Phew, what a workout!

Mon – 5 easy miles.  Oh hey, the warm weather has returned!  70 degrees at 5:45am and this easy run was super sweaty!

Tues – 6.5 miles, speedwork.  Holy sweatfest!  Those temps from last week were such a tease.  70 degrees again and I was soaked by the time I got done.  It was a fun speedwork session – a ladder of 1600, 1200, 1000, 800, 600 and 400.  It’s encouraging to know the next speedy rep will be shorter than the last.  My goal was to be faster than 8:00 and I did it!  Woohoo!  I’m always excited to see a “7” in my pace. And, there was no lingering pain of my sports hernia today.  It’s just the oddest thing!

Weds – Rest day!  Didn’t do a group ride tonight.  Needed to get stuff done around the house.  Whomp whomp. #adulting

Thurs – 8 miles, pace miles.  This had 7 half marathon pace miles.  I really need to start incorporating hills into my weekly workouts so I combined hills and my pace miles since the hills are part of the race course in November.  I was super pleased when I nailed my paces! Oh yeah! I know this doesn’t look like it, but this is a steep hill that is at the end of the race. I promise, it wears out many of the runners so I want to be prepared!

Fri – 5 easy miles.  Testing out some new shoes today.  I like them!

#kayakfail  My husband and I put the kayak in the river at a different place and quickly found out that the water in the river was only knee deep!  DOH!  

After that hilarious fiasco, we went back to our normal boat launch and went out for a bit before it got too warm and we needed lunch.

Sat – 12 miles long run, 9:10 pace.  Ok, this was a bit too fast.  I was going to sub coach, but then I wasn’t needed.  So I ran on my own, and was trying the pair of Brooks test shoes that I just got.  Going for a long run in a pair of new shoes sounds like a great idea, right??  The fit was fine, but a bit too speedy!  A good problem to have I guess. Then I got a huge drink to rehydrate. It wouldn’t be a long run day without my Starbucks! Actually a huge coffee wasn’t the best idea either as I was kind of out of whack all day (or was it because I didn’t eat breakfast??), but I was thirsty after my run!

Sun – 10 miles biking. A quick ride to start my day. I think it will be a Cedar Point day. They are now doing Halloweekends, which is a fun decoration of the amusement park and night time haunted houses and such.

Ending with a kitten update… we got a foster kitten this week! Her name is Petunia. This little cutie is less than a pound, maybe 5 weeks old. She’s kind of like an ugly duckling right now (her eyes look so big!), but her personality alone makes her a very good adoption candidate! She’s very well behaved yet so spunky!

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: Has the heat returned to your location?

Q: Would you prefer a ladder workout, or intervals?

26 thoughts on “Weekly workouts – so we’re not done with summer?”
  1. Yep, summer came back to DC too. LOL on the knee-high kayaking. I’ve been sticking to flat routes to baby my Achilles. Hills will be a real wake up call!

  2. Ooh, one of my first cats was a calico so I always have a soft spot for them.

    I can’t believe that you ran 12 miles with no breakfast. I swear a 3 mile run feels hard for me if I haven’t eaten!

    Today is cool, yesterday was Summer!

    1. Oh – I did eat half a bagel and a GU for the run, but then didn’t eat my 2nd breakfast at all, drank that big coffee, and had lunch around 1pm. I was starving!! We are loving our little foster. Petunia really is a sweetie.

    1. I probably shouldn’t have run so many miles in the new shoes because my shins are feeling a little odd today, but they are cool shoes! Hopefully a bit of stretching will take care of my shins.

  3. ACK!!! I’ll be right there to pick up Petunia! I’m a total sucker for cats- seriously, if I lived near you she would be mine.
    Doing that speedy long run and then drinking a huge coffee looks like so much fun- it would put me out of whack for sure, but I think it would be worth it.
    Glad your sports hernia did not hurt! Maybe it’s gone for good.

    1. So you’d end up being a Foster Fail? We’ve been really good so far. I think we’ve had fosters for almost 6 seasons now? There was one kitten who my husband said he would have kept, but she went back to a person who was fostering her before got her!

  4. It was definitely warmer and much more humid here last week than the previous week.

    You’re smart to add hills into your training if you’re going to be running a hilly course. I did the same while training for my century which had over 5,000 feet of elevation gain.

    I like both ladder and interval workouts, especially once they’re done. LOL 800 repeats were always my favorites, though.
    Debbie @ Deb Runs recently posted…Weekly RunDown: September 12 – 18 / Hard Work Pays OffMy Profile

    1. I’ve done so much avoidance of hills lately it was due time to get them done. I’m pretty sure every race recap of mine says “should have trained on hills more”!

  5. No breakfast! I would pass out 🙂 I get hungry after long runs!

    Petunia! My goodness, she’s so tiny! I love that you guys foster all these sweet kitties.

    1. I was a little nervous when they said we’d have to feed her every 4 to 5 hours with a syringe, but within a day she was eating mushy food on her own. She’s been the perfect guest so far!
      My lack of breakfast was a poor choice on my behalf. I decided to spend my time getting coffee and totally forgot about breakfast. Who does that?? Usually not me.

  6. These past two weekends, I’ve been doing the early morning long run/late morning tailgating/afternoon football game scenario…and it has not been the best combo of activities LOL I eat before the run, and have something (quick) when I return home (light food and rehydration), then it’s a hot afternoon of football and I’m practically nodding off in the 3rd quarter. Obviously, I’m dehydrated, but I can’t seem to get the hydration replenished, nor am I the least bit hungry. I know…first world probs. Little Petunia is adorable 😉 I can relate to your hill being much bigger than it appears in the pic…I feel like I have to justify my exhaustion from my hilly rides because the hills never look as big as they really are.

  7. It was pretty warm here this week too. I am hoping that we will transition to more Fall type weather soon!

    I love that you had a great long run in your new sneakers! I’m a huge fan of Brooks sneakers too.

    Petunia is so small and cute!

  8. Aww what a sweet kitten. I would never give her back.

    What a fun bunch of activities. Biking running kayaking.

    Our weather is back n forth. It seems the best on my rest days. Lol.

  9. Oh my gosh! Petunia is the cutest!

    I think I need to get some Starbucks. Maybe that will set things right.

    We are having a little cooler weather right now. It’s in the 60s when I go out, which is a huge win, even if it does bump back up to the 80s.

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