One more week until the Columbus half marathon. This was training week 11 of 12 weeks. I had stacked some questionable workouts at the end of the week, because 1) I wanted to run with my friend, 2) I wanted to sub coach, and 3) I had a free race bib! But in the end they all worked out quite well (which still shocks me!). I ran almost 32 miles this week, and biked 16 miles. It was a super busy week at work, and equally busy out of work. I have realized that the reason I feel so overwhelmed lately is because I’ve been working super hard on a work project and skipping lunch away from my desk. That must stop. I need the break!

Mon – 5 miles, easy miles. A dark neighborhood run in which I discovered a neighbor’s house had been toilet papered.  Must be Homecoming week at the high school!! (it is)  This was also a progressive run.  I run these “by feel” and apparently it takes me 5 miles to warm up because each mile got a bit faster!

Tues – Club run 5K. We attended the Toledo Roadrunners Club 5K. It’s a night of running, seeing running friends, drinking beer, and eating pizza! Oh, and there was a club meeting with voting and such, but that’s really not the main draw 🙂 The members ran a 5K in the park. I had no plans of racing it, just an easy run. But when I started running, I was doing pretty good. Mile 1 was 8:15, which I thought was a little slow (seems like I always start off way too fast), so I stopped looking at my watch. By the time I hit the finish line, I saw a “25:” in the time. What?? Based on my effort, and it being an evening run (ugh), I figured I was going to be in the 27s. Woohoo! I haven’t run that fast in a long time (many years!). And hey, I ran negative splits too – 8:15, 8:03, 8:02 and 7:58. Yippie!

Weds – 5 easy miles. Oof, a little sore (my lower abs) after last night’s run. Kept it easy though, right around 10 min mile. Nothing special here – I only have a picture of the kitten for today! Notice her short little whiskers? I guess they will grow longer?

Thurs – Rest day! On a running related note, I’m participating in the Mileage Maniacs challenge throughout the year and last month was a Saucony sponsored challenge. I won a really nice hydration vest! It’s got a zillion pockets, stretchy things and hooks.

Fri – 8.34 miles. I ran along the river today with a friend and tested out my vest. I still have to adjust it more, but so far it’s a winner! The river was so peaceful. You might notice the odd mileage today. We were going to run 9 miles together, but my friend had some pain which stopped our running 🙁

After running I met up with a couple of friends and we tried out an iced coffee flight. Yum!!

It was homecoming weekend for the high school, which all kicked off with a parade.

Friday night football was pretty wacky. The game was delayed an hour due to lightning, and then another half hour of delay during the game. It was a really late night! Our team won again – 35 to 0. They scored their first touchdown just 12 seconds after the game started!

Sat – 7 easy miles. I sub coached again. It was a crazy foggy morning! Paced at 9:57 avg, right on target!

Sun – 5K race day!! The MacQueen’s Run for your Life race. There was a 10K also, which I normally run, but this year I had a comp bib from helping out at the Glass City marathon way back in April. It’s taken me that long to feel like I was “healthy” enough to race, and even now I wasn’t sure! I still have a tug, or pain, when I start running. (sport hernia). After the start it goes away for the most part, but I still feel something a bit odd. For this race I also volunteered to help with parking. That meant getting there at 6:30am even though my race started at 9:30! I really did enjoy the work though. It was fun to talk to the runners, help them find parking spots around the orchard and wish them well. This is the place we picked apples recently!

As for my race – was I ready? Apparently so! I got a PR!!! (by 20 seconds!) I didn’t think I would ever say those words again. Last night my husband told me I was going to crush my PR (24:48 in 2016) due to my performance earlier in the week. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to push it due to my half coming up soon. But even so, I set my watch for “estimated finish time” and watched it while I raced. Early on it was iffy. I was either going to match my PR, or be a little over, but as I got closer to the end I was going to break it! Hell yeah!! Finish time was 24:28 (Garmin time for 3.1 miles… 24:24 race chip time). Splits were 7:59, 7:55, 7:50, 7:39. Negative splits AND 7’s? happy happy happy! And I won a huge pumpkin 🙂

I do have to give some credit to my shoes too. This is a true testament to me that the new “plated” shoes have amazing technology in them and it works well!!! You should try a pair. Pretty much every manufacturer has a pair now!

Our daughter was home for the day (yep, again!) and we had one last trip to the ice cream stand before it closes tomorrow.

We have less than a week left with our foster Petunia. She’s heading back to the Humane Society on Thursday and will continue her journey to finding her forever home. We’ll really miss her. She’s an ugly duckling no more!

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!

I’m looking forward to having a day off on Monday (Columbus day) and watching (or just tracking) my fellow runners in Boston!!

Q: uh… I’ve got nothing. Tell me something fun you’re looking forward to in October!

24 thoughts on “Weekly Workouts – a PR!!”
  1. Very well done, Lisa, on those PR”s!!! I think I’ve only broken 25 once (?) and just barely at that (oh, did I mention it also was a slightly shortened course? LOL). Sweet little Petunia…she was a lucky little gal to have spent some time with you and your family 😉

    1. I was pretty surprised at my race PR! It gives me confidence going in to the half marathon next weekend. I’m sure this new PR will probably be my last at that distance!

  2. I’m so happy for you and your shiny new PR! Let’s face it, as we get older, PR’s are much harder to come by! I got my half PR when I was 56 years old, but only because I’d always used halves as training runs for my marathons and never tried racing one. And because I was older, my average pace on my half PR is 46 seconds slower than my marathon PR. LOL

    Awww, I know you’ll miss Petunia. She’s lucky she had you for the last few weeks.
    Debbie @ Deb Runs recently posted…2021 Virtual Kickoff to Kinnick 5K Race RecapMy Profile

    1. Thanks! Petunia really has been a pleasure to have. We sometimes get kittens that dig in our plants, or go potty where they shouldn’t, but not Petunia. She’s been a great guest!

    1. I’m still surprised by my PR! The age group win was icing on the cake for sure – but I bet it helps that some of our speediest runners are in Boston this weekend. No matter what, I’ll take it!

  3. Congrats on your PR PLUS negative splits! Wow!

    Sweet Petunia. 🙂

    We had planned a little daytrip for tomorrow, but it’s looking like it’ll have to be postponed, unfortunately. I’ve also got nothing!

    1. Negative splits? Who am I?? haha! Hopefully you’ll get to take that daytrip soon. I’ve got some fun trips on our agenda coming up soon. I can really use a break from work these days!

    1. A couple of coffee shops are offering the flights around here. It’s the latest trend I guess! We sampled a vanilla cold brew, S’mores, pumpkin chia, and caramel macchiato. I didn’t care for the vanilla drink, but the others were delicious! It was expensive ($15), but we stayed and chatted for 2 hours, so we paid for our seats 😉

  4. Congrats on your PR! My 5k PR was when I was in my early 30s, lol. I’ll never run that fast again! Looks like another busy week for you. Good luck on your half this weekend!

  5. What a great week for you and congrats on winning the Saucony hydration vest. It looks really cool!

    Awesome job on that 5K. Those are the runs that I love the best – you don’t start with any expectations and then you get pleasantly surprised 🙂

    1. Thank you, my race really was a surprise success. That hydration vest is a really nice prize! Other people won backpacks and hats, so I consider that one of the big awards. Lucky me!

  6. Love that your family fostered the kitten for a while. We just adopted a puppy from the shelter – I’m going to train her to run with me which I’ve never done before, so let’s see how that goes! What a decisive win by your football team AND what a fantastic PR for you! That must have felt so amazing! Wishing you a great week and best of luck at your Half!

    1. I hope you are able to train your dog to be a new running partner! My coworker just got a dog (her first!) and I’ve never had a dog. It’s fun to learn all of the things that go into dog ownership.
      Our football team is crushing it. They just won again last night and are the champions of the league!

  7. Congrats on the PR! Have so much fun in Columbus! I ran the marathon there in 2009 and it was such a great city. Kisses to sweet Petunia. It must be hard to say goodbye to her.

    1. It is hard to say goodbye. Luckily I am the tough one. My husband said we would have 24 cats now if it wasn’t for me being so strong with the process 🙂 Some lucky family will be getting a wonderful kitten!

  8. What a week!!! Congrats on your PR- i love the prize you won. You really fit a lot of extra things into your week, especially being so busy at work. But it sounds like everything is going great.
    Noooo! Petunia! Will they take good care of her at the Humane Society? What will happen if she doesn’t get adopted? I’m realizing that I should never, ever be a pet foster mom- I would end up keeping them all.

    1. For sure Petunia will get great care. I used to volunteer at the shelter and I know they go above and beyond with their care. It’s a no kill facility, and the kittens usually get adopted fast. You do have to be tough, and it’s sad when they leave, but I know she will find a new family! I hope they have more kittens for us to foster after she returns.

  9. Congrats on the PR and your football teams win! Those are always exciting things!

    I love the plated shoes, but unfortunately since my stress fracture I’ve had a hard time wearing them. Whenever I do, I feel pain in the area I had the fracture again. Pretty sure I’m not going to be able to use them for some time. I do enjoy some of the lighter weight non-plated shoes, like the Brooks Hyperion Tempos though.
    Montana @ Pretty Lil Mudder recently posted…Norfolk Harbor 10k Training Week 2: 10/4-10/10My Profile

    1. Oh that’s interesting that the plated shoes cause an issue for you. I had a stress fracture in my heel, and I remember feeling some ghost pain after I got the boot off. It was weird!

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