Weekly Workouts – spring into training

7 more weeks to go until the Glass City half marathon.  This past week started the kick off of the 5K spring training program and I’m one of the coaches!  Because of this commitment I have to shuffle around my half marathon training to fit in the two in person meetings we have for the 5K program.  One of which is on Saturday, my typical long run day.  The first week worked out OK and I’m confident that I’ll figure out something to get all of my training runs completed.  I ran 30 miles this week, had some bike rides and trips to the gym.  Here’s what went down…

One item of note from last Sunday, we took our new Trek bikes out for their maiden voyages!  We only rode for 30 mins, but I could tell I need an adjustment/bike fitting, gel seat cover, or something because ouch, my butt!!  It’s my sit bones specifically. I know I need to ease into biking when it’s been a long time off, but this is a bit more pain than that.  The bike seats are so minimalist! Other than that it was fun to learn new technology like the wireless shifting and the power meter.  Fun stuff!!

Mon – 5 miles, treadmill.  Ghosts UK anyone?  Watching all of the shows on my DVR has been fun.

The weather was great so I wanted to get a few more miles in on my bike.  I knew as soon as I sat down that this was not going to be a comfortable ride!  We did ride for 50 mins, but still, ouch.  Here is the mandatory picture of me holding my new bike.  So light!!

Tues – 7 miles, “pace run”.  The long run and these “pace mile” runs are the most important on my plan, so this typical Thursday run is now a Tuesday run!  I got to see the sunrise.  Miles 2-6 alternated between race pace and tempo pace.  It was a great workout!

Weds – 3 miles.  Weds night will typically be our track night for the 5K program.  Tonight was a 1 mile time trial.  There are a few faster runners in the group so I just planned on a 9 min mile so people could get an idea of how fast they were running.  We also learned the basics of a good warmup and good running form.

Thurs – 10 miles, long run!  Can you believe that we have walleye fisherman in the river when it’s 40 degrees out?  Brrrrrr  I  ran down to the river to see them.  As I ran back my last three miles got faster as I noticed a hot dude chasing me (my husband!).  I figured he was trying to race me back home so I sped up.  Turns out he is just faster than me and was purposely not speeding up.  I made it home first, so I won, regardless if we were really racing.  haha!!

Fri – Rest day!  A rest day on Friday is weird, so I went to the gym.  Some light weights and the hydromassage chair.  My daughter is just finishing up her spring break, and we played some MarioKart after dinner.  I completely suck at MarioKart, but it was still fun to spend time together.

Sat – 5 miles, fartleks.  The 5K training group has speedwork on Saturday mornings and we lucked out with the weather.  It was raining hard last night, but it was pretty decent weather this morning.  I ran with two people who turned out to be my neighbors!!  Super small world.  We have been in our house 20 years now, but a lot of the houses have different owners so I don’t know as many people as I knew when we first moved in.  I got a big Starbucks in celebration of my first week of coaching, but it really felt a bit too much.  I will save those drinks for days when I do my long runs 🙂

In the afternoon we went to a travel talk at the metroparks with our friends as the guest speakers.  Very interesting talk about the Havasupai Falls.  And…. my son came home for spring break.  Happy happy joy joy!!!

Sun – 30 mins elliptical.  I think everyone should strive for at least 30 mins of activity every day, so even though I wasn’t running I did the elliptical instead.  And a Caroline Girvan ab workout.  I will be feeling that tomorrow!!

I hope to have some fun adventures while my son is home from college this week. I can’t even remember the last time we stayed home for spring break. Not sure what we’ll be doing yet, but I’ll make the most of his company while I’ve got it!!

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: Any Ghosts (TV show) fans? Do you like the UK version?

I thought the UK version was weird when I first watched it, but I like it now. They are both good!