Weekly workouts – decision made

One of our “must do” races will be happening soon – the Churchill’s Half Marathon.  It’s a local race which starts right by our house, so what’s not to love?  Well, sometimes the weather is pretty bad (cold, rain, wind!) but besides that, it’s the race everyone around here does.  I delayed signing up for it not knowing how I would feel after Berlin.  After things felt good last week I decided to be on the lookout for a cheap bib – and if I found one, that would be the sign that I should run it.  With only a few weeks to go until the race there is usually people selling bibs because they can’t run.  I pulled up a training plan and decided to follow that.

Mon – 4 miles. It is really dark out, but I’m going to try to keep running outside while the weather is good.  The moon and star viewing is worth the effort!

2.25 mile walk with my Mom.  “Feels like 76 degrees”.  A beautiful day for a park walk!

Tues – 7 miles, with 5 tempo pace miles.  Ok, I don’t really know what “tempo pace” should be for me, but I thought I could at least try some faster miles and tempo miles seemed much safer than trying to do intervals.  My April injury was most likely triggered by going too hard at intervals, but I feel OK with a steady state effort. I was very pleased when my faster miles actually had an “8:” and were consistent.  I haven’t seen that number in quite a while!  To be fair, I was also using my plated race shoes 😉  I even got brave and ran over to the bike trail, which is completely dark at that time.  I loved the sun rise views!

My daughter, her boyfriend and my husband will all be running Churchill’s half.  The other day my daughter mentioned “don’t run the half, I need someone to cheer us on!!”  I thought about how much it means to me when I see a familiar face on the course so I decided to run the 5K at the race instead.  That would leave me time to volunteer at packet pickup (I do love to help at this race!), run the 5K, AND cheer on the course and be at the finish line.  Perfect. 

As the day progressed I noticed that a tight feeling in my groin muscles was now turning into a dull ache that wasn’t going away.  WTF?  Of course this happened because apparently “being injured” is my thing for 2024.  Really?? Ugh. If I needed any additional reassurance that the 5K was the better choice, this was it.

Thankfully it didn’t bother me while biking because we went mountain biking after work.  With 78 degree weather you just can’t stay inside!  And, for the first time ever, I rode across this wooden skinny thing without falling off.  Woohoo!!!  Do you like how our outfits unintentionally matched our bikes?  haha

Weds – Rest day! I took my ice pack to work for the groin pain which helped. After work I toured the metropark mansion which is decorated for Halloween. Last year it was just seasonal decorations for Halloween, but this year it was more scary. Loved it!

Thurs – 3.5 miles walking. We went to the park and I walked while Alan ran. Then we went to the gym. Two strength training sessions this week. Yay me!

We took one last trip to Cedar Point. It was a good night – not too crowded and not too cold! We rode coasters and went into haunted houses and scare zones. Sydney and her boyfriend was there too. Aren’t they the cutest?

Fri – 4.5 miles. An easy run to see if the pain was still there. It was almost gone, so that’s good news.

Friday Night Football! It was the last regular season game for our high school and they crushed it. Undefeated all season, moving on to the championship now. It was senior night for the band and they picked favorite songs from the past. They sounded great!

Sat – 8 miles “long run”. As my family asked, “why are you running 8 miles?” Ha! It just felt like the right thing to do. And more importantly, it felt good.

What wasn’t great feeling? Sitting on a stadium seat again for hours. But it was fun, so it’s all good. It was the big “Battle of I-75”, University of Toledo vs Bowling Green State U. Sadly, this year it was not a win for UT. Fun facts, Alan and I met at UT our senior year, and Sydney was wearing my old sweatshirt at the game!

We also met up with some friends at a brewery which happened to be having a Halloween party! Forest Gump was there. Ironically this guy doesn’t run but it was a great fit because that’s his real hair and beard! Such good costumes that night.

Sun – Rest day! A catch up day and sleeping in 😉

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: Do you have any Halloween happenings on the calendar this year?

Q: Do you prefer college football or high school football?

I prefer high school games. Televised games really drag on, so I’ll take the fast action happening at the high school level!