Sunday wrapped up the official week #7 of the training plan for the Glass City Marathon, although technically I’ve had only 2 full good weeks of training. So let’s just say there are 9 more weeks to go! This past week was a solid week of training and I ran all 30 miles on my plan. I also took many walks, went to the gym, and even fit in a trip to my old favorite – rock climbing! Let’s get into my week….
Mon – 4 easy miles. Starting the week out right, with some easy miles in the morning sun. The sun gave the frosty grass a beautiful shimmer. Nice to have the day off work too! Happy Presidents Day!
Tues – 5 miles, 3 x 1600m intervals. Although my interval pace wasn’t blazing, I do see progress and I felt good. For reference, my intervals were 8:30 and I hope to run closer to 8:30 for my race pace! So yeah, a bit of work to do, but this one felt good. Let the record show that I actually completed my workout 10 MINS before work on this day. 😁 So productive!
Weds – Wednesday Wildwood Walk. That’s the name of my walks with my mom. We enjoyed the good weather and got our exercise (so important for mental health as you all know!!). Weds night we cheered on the University of Toledo lady Rockets, who crushed it. Go UT!!
Thurs – 7 miles with fartleks. It was a ladder workout, 2*3*3*4*4*3*3*2 mins on, with 1 min off. Yes, a bit complicated, but I programmed it into my Garmin and it was easy to stick with the plan. I’d say this workout was the highlight of the week. Once again, not super duper speedy paces (close to 8:30 again), but running in the rain gave me extra bonus stars for getting it done. The rain actually felt quite good!
You know what else felt good? A trip to the salon! Sitting around for 2 hours isn’t the most fun, but I felt like a rockstar when I walked out of there.
Fri – 4 easy miles. Trying not to mess up my hair. Gotta get my money’s worth out of a blowout, ya know?
Sat – 9 miles, long run! It was a cold one and we had a dusting of snow. I got to sub coach with the 10:15 pace group again this week for the Dave’s Running Marathon In Training program. My group was running a little faster this week, and although it was my job to keep the pace, we were consistent with 10:05-10:08 miles so I decided to just go with it. We were fueled by the sunshine, and the intent to finish when the cold wind was blowing us around! We had some hot cocoa and treats afterwards.
The climbing gym was a bit busy when we arrived. I picked an “easy” route that was open to warm up. Apparently I was quite excited to get back at it because I climbed to the top of a ledge and then had a bit of a freak out on how I was going to climb back down! I was on a bouldering wall (no ropes) so I had to climb down. I couldn’t find the right holds to make it easy and wondered how long my arms were going to last. I went down just a little bit and then decided to just drop off. It was quite a high fall! My daughter shared my surprise and said “what the heck? Why did you drop down from there?? They are going to tell you to leave.”. LOL!! Thankfully I landed properly and no harm, no foul.
We eventually got over to the ropes and I had fun. After 90 mins my arms were toast. My daughter almost completed an advanced climb that had really small holds (around half the size of an iphone). She felt very accomplished and I was quite impressed! In the picture she is following the pink holds. So small! My route (orange) was fun because it went off the side of the wall 😆
Sun – Keeping it easy today, it’s a rest day!
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’ll finish with my artwork… ta da!! Yes, I made that!!! This was what I made last week in a glass class. I picked the color in memory of our cat Zoe who passed away recently. I think it turned out amazing and I’m shocked how great it looks 🙂 I rolled to color, pulled the ears, shaped the body and the tail. So fun!
Hope you all had a good week!
Q: Do you think I’m ready to enter any art contests??
I kid!! But yes, I am pretty darn proud of my glass work.
Q: Did you know you can add in your own audio recording (a 15 second clip) in Garmin workouts??
I added clips of me saying “Run Fast” and “Time to speed up!” during my fartlek workout. Then I could hear them through my airpods during the workout. It was funny!! Just think of the ways I could use this in future workouts!
Love the glass statue… you are talented.
And hair appts are the best. I try to schedule mine when I don’t run the next day so it at least looks good for ONE day.
Kudos on a nice week of training.
If I recorded my run, it would sound like WTF! I hate this! Am I done yet? Why am I doing this? LOL
I am usually able to stretch my blowouts out for 4 days! I wish I had the skills my stylist does. She can style my hair without a flat iron. That’s an impressive feat!
All that climbing! I’m not afraid of heights, but I would be a little stressed coming back down without a rope! Your glasswork looks so nice, well done! I’ve never tried that, but it looks fun 😉
You are right – getting up the bouldering wall isn’t always the tough part… you have to figure out how to get back down! The cushions are super thick, but landing on a wrist or ankle the wrong way would not be good.
This sounds like a great week- if you completed all 30 miles that were on your plan, i’d say you’re right where you need to be!
Love the glasswork cat!!! You remind me of my son- any time he does an art project he does a depiction of our cat Muffin.
The climbing looks hard and scary to me- but that’s just me being a wimp : )
The great thing about the climbing gym is that there is something for every skill level!
Looks like you had a great week! That is great that you and your mom get to get out for a walk every week, I love that. I hate to sit at the salon for hours as well, but love the results, lol. Saturday looks like a fun group run! Love your glass project!
Salon visits to drag on forever, but yes, the end result is worth it 🙂 Luckily I only go every 13 weeks!
That truck looks dirty, you should wash it for your husband!
Is that your permission to take it through the carwash? 😂
Sounds like you made some great progress towards your goals this week. 9 weeks is a long time in running math 🙂 Have a great week ahead
9 weeks is plenty of time for half marathon training! It feels good to be back at it.
That cat is so cute – you did a great job! Your blow out looks great – glad you were able to keep it looking fresh even with your run.
I did *not* know that about my Garmin– I bet there are so many features that I am not taking advantage of and need to someday!
The Garmin audio clip feature is really interesting! When I recorded my messages to myself they were a bit too low in volume because I did them while I was at work. Next time I will be louder!
Your glass cat looks great, you should be proud!
What would happen if you couldn’t find a way back down or were afraid to drop when you’re on a wall without ropes? Is there anyway they can rescue you?
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If you needed help getting down I think someone would try to talk you through it until you were a shorter (“safer”) distance to jump down. Often you can’ t see what holds you need to use when you are up on the wall, but for someone who is observing from below it’s much easier to get the bigger picture and see what needs to be done.
Your bouldering workouts remind me of my rope climbs at CrossFit! Such great upper body strength builders. I think I would be scared to climb those walls without the security of the ropes.
I love that you walk with your mom every week. I wish my mom lived closer so we could do that. I think it would be good for her.
Love your glass work!! You would get a blue ribbon from me!
I am definitely feeling DOMS from not climbing for a while!! I thought my arms were in shape, but the soreness is telling me otherwise. haha!!
How cool that you make art in glass! And the Wednesday Wildwood Walk is a beautiful name. I suspect the actual walk is just as beautiful, At least it sounds like it!
Sounds like you’re doing well with the marathon training. So glad you landed without injuries from the climb jump! I’ve been indulging in climbing videos on YouTube recently. It’s intriguing and I love watching it but I could never do such things! My husband tried to tempt me since I like challenging myself… but no.
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I bet you would enjoy rock climbing! At our gym there is something for everyone. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment!
Oh, my goodness! That glass cat is so perfect! For your first time, I think it’s absolutely amazing!
Your hair also looks amazing. I forgot to book an appointment, so it’s been a while for me. I get to go in two or three weeks, and it’s going to be lovely!
Love that you go to to go walking with your mom. I’m sure that’s wonderful for you both.
The park walks have worked out quite well for me and my mom. The park is only 5 mins from my office and maybe 15 mins away from my parent’s house.
OMG, that glass cat is so cute! I am in awe of how much you do every week — and now art classes too!
I only recently figured out how to program my Garmin and it is a game changer for complicated workouts. Congrats on nailing yours this week!