Motivation Monday and the Weekly Rundown

Monday:
A great spin class to start off the week! 19 miles in 45 minutes with LOADS of sprints and hill climbing.  The Monday night class is definitely my favorite!

Tuesday:
Off

Wednesday:
Wednesday my brother in law came to let the dogs out during the day which allowed to me run for an hour!  Thank goodness. I'm starting to get cabin fever.  In the summer.

7 miles

1:01:43

8:49/mile

Thursday:

5 very easy miles

44:27

8:53/mile

Friday:
Off!

Saturday:
A very rainy Saturday turned into a treadmill run.

1.88 miles outside, 4.12 treadmill miles

51:56

Sunday:
I rounded out the week running 3 miles with Peyton before going bridesmaid dress shopping for a friend's wedding!

3 miles

22:16

7:25/mile

Miles: 21

Strength: None. Again.  Yikes.

Happy Monday!

A Boredom Busting Treadmill Workout

Saturday was a very rainy day.  On and off pouring rain made it hard to sneak in a run.  I did try, but made it less than a mile away from home before darting home to avoid getting drenched.

1.88 miles is not a long enough run for my endurance loving legs.

I sadly made the walk of doom downstairs to the treadmill, turned on an episode of Orange is the New Black, and turned the treadmill on.

It took almost a mile for my legs no longer felt like death and were accustomed to the treadmill belt.

One of my favorite ways to cure treadmill boredom (besides watching a "treadmill only" tv show) is to complete an interval pyramid workout.

This is a super flexible workout that can be changed to meet your needs! I vary this pyramid often but including different speeds and different interval lengths.  It is my go to treadmill workout.

I continue to repeat the intervals until I have reached my goal mileage.

Saturday I ended up with 6 miles total (4.12 on the treadmill).

The rest of my gloomy, rainy Saturday was spent the best way possible. With puppy cuddles.

How was your weekend?

Do you run on the treadmill? How often?

6 Things For This Friday and There's a Ryan Gosling Meme For EVERYTHING!

These first two weeks of school have been an absolute blur.  Between getting used to a whole new school, attempting to see all my kiddos (30+!) and TWO new evaluations, I'm exhausted.  Is it fall break yet? ;)

Coffee has made these past two weeks much better.

Wednesday was #NationalDogDay!  These two crazies definitely make my life a lot better.

I managed two whole runs this week.  I miss the time freedom of the summer.... This weekend while hopefully be full of long runs!

Sam Adams Oktoberfest is back.  Costco has a 28 pack for $25. Do it.


And not it's almost time to bust out the pumpkin!

Do you like the fall?

Tell me about your dogs!

Monday Motivation and the Weekly Rundown

This week started off rough to get any sort of miles in.  Monday was my first day back at work after summer break and finding a good schedule was tough.  I also experienced a lot of guilt when I couldn't or didn't run.  I find it strange that when I'm not following a training schedule it's harder for me to miss runs.  

This week my goal is to write in my schedule on an hourly planner so I can see where I have extra time to fit in a workout.

Monday:
Off.  I took Augie for her last round of shots at the vet which made me miss spin.  I was very sad about that one.

Tuesday:
I had planned to run to the track for some speed work, but that plan was cancelled by the band practicing on the entire field and track.  Whomp whomp.  I ended up with a to the track and back moderate run.

5.5 miles

47:26

8:33/mile

Wednesday:
Off

Thursday:
I took the pups to the dog park for an hour before I went for my run. Another easy, slow run as my body is still not digging the real work schedule.

5 miles

43:47

8:45/mile

Friday:
Off

Saturday:
14 miles!!!! I needed a long run and a long run was what I got.  I definitely went into a flow during this run.  I felt so good during the run that halfway I decided to run the second half at race pace.

14 miles

1:55:08

First Half: 8:25/mile Second Half: 8:01/mile

Sunday:

The forecast was for rain Sunday morning and I had planned to turn around if it became too bad.  I ran this run easy and fought the urge to speed up.  I got lucky and it didn't start to rain until 10 minutes after I got home!

9 miles

1:21:15

9:01/mile

Total Miles: 33.5

Strength: 0 ...whoops....

Do you feel guilty if you don't run?

How were your runs last week?

Motivation Monday and Our Trip to San Fransisco

Last week was a complete whirlwind. 

My cousin passed away last Sunday morning and between the wake, funeral and our San Fransisco trip, there was barely time left for running.

I postponed my flight out until Thursday morning leaving 3 days to jam in as much San Fransisco as we could.

Thursday night we had tickets to see the Giants play the Nationals. 

AT&T park is gorgeous and located on the water.

We also visited our friend's work where they had Happy Hour and Indian street food.  How cool is that? He is able to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at work, and they also have a gym for the employees to use!

Friday we took a tour to Sonoma and Napa Valley.  Our first stop was at the Golden Gate Bridge for pictures.

Our tour took us to two wineries in Sonoma and one in Napa.

Chris and I joined the wine club at Nicholson Ranch.  We are anxiously awaiting our six bottle shipment coming in September!

I love wine.

Friday night we ate at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant.

We ordered a couple of appetizers and then split two crabs between three people.  Whenever we are by the coast we like to eat the fresh and local seafood.  Fresh seafood from the coast > Midwest Seafood.

Saturday we spent the day in Muir Woods hiking through the Redwoods. 

When you're not able to run, hiking is the next best thing.

#treeontree

We arrived home yesterday around 6 pm and I fell asleep on the couch before 8 am.  Apparently this past week really knocked me out.


Today was my first day back at school and the students return Wednesday!  Seriously, where has the time gone?

How was your Monday?

Have you ever been to San Fransisco?

Motivation Monday and the Weekly Rundown

Monday:
Back and tricep strengthening exercises followed by a 45 minute spin class.  I wanted to keep my legs as fresh as possible for my track workout on Tuesday.

Tuesday:
Track Tuesday returned with 6 x 1 mile repeats.  Honestly, I loved this workout.  I was able to push my mile time knowing I'd have about 2 minutes to rest before doing it all over again.  My warm-up and cool down rounded out the workout for 12 total miles.

Wednesday:
My legs felt good about the tough workout on Tuesday and I wanted a medium distance run.  My goal for 8 miles and I ended up with 10.

10 miles

1:25:04

8:30/mile

Thursday:
Following car trouble in the morning (I'm apparently consuming lots of oil) I wanted something short and slow.

5 miles

44:32

8:54/mile

After my run I got my haircut and it's the shortest I've had my hair in about 3 years.  I love it.  The best part is no longer having long hair stick to the sweat on my back while running. 

Friday:
Rest!

Saturday:
We went to the dog park in the morning meaning I ran later than I had planned. It was a warm and humid run, but luckily I fell into a rhythm and this run flew by.

8 miles

1:07:40

8:27/mile

Sunday:
A family emergency came up and my long run and all other workouts were scrapped.

Total miles: 35
Strength Training: 1
Spin: 1

Time for Monday Motivation!

And in case you were wondering....

How was your weekend?

Did you have a race or a long run?

In Running News....

Your weekly dose of running news!

Liliya Shobukhova was stripped of three Chicago and one London title due to doping.  Her pesonal record of 2:18:20, second fastest behind Paula Radcliffe and which won the Chicago Marathon in 2011, will be removed.  She is currently banned until March 23, 2016.

An Austin woman wants to make catcalling ticketable.  Anna Alridge has been followed down the street on her runs by a catcaller and wants to at least create awareness within the Austin Police Department for street harassment.

This 9 year old is running a marathon in memory of his father who passed away when he was three.  Alfie is raising money for a bereavement charity, Winston's Wish, while running the race with his stepfather.

Elite runners were dropped from the Athens Marathon due to the economic difficulties currently faced in Greece.  That gives us mortals a chance to win it, right?

Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Alan Arkin shoot a running scene from the new movie Going in Style. 

I'm pretty sure this happened.

Thursday Rambles

Summer break is quickly coming to an end! I have less than 2 weeks left! It's been fun hanging out with these two bums.

How many apricots is too many apricots?

I went to the farmers market and got all this for $12!

These are my new favorite shorts.  They are definitely worth the Lululemon price tag. I used them for Track Tuesday and they didn't move and have a nice compression feature.  I am going to have to work some overtime to get them in different colors.

Chris and I have a goal of eating more meatless meals.  We tried this Coconut Sweet Potato Curry and it was wonderful.  Chris even liked it and he's not a big fan of beans.

The run on my schedule was an 8-10 medium pace run.  It was a perfect 70 degree morning and my legs felt good despite the track workout on Tuesday.  I started running on cruise control and my legs were moving.

10 miles

1:25:04

8:30/mile

What are you up to today?

Do you like apricots?  I could eat that whole bowl in a day.

Track Tuesday: Mile Repeats

Track Tuesday shows it's face again!

I prepared myself for this one on Monday.  I skipped all running and walking workouts and only went to spin to keep my legs somewhat fresh.  I have less than 2 weeks until school starts again and I've been working on getting my sleep schedule back.  I was actually up by 6:30 and out the door around 7:30 following multiple cups of coffee.

I have been researching track workouts for my half marathon goal pace and found this awesome article: Workout of the Week: Mile Repeats. The article touches on mile repeat workouts for 5K, 10K, half and marathon efforts which I LOVE since I often am trying to do my track workouts faster than half marathon pace.

 I choose to do 5-8 mile repeats at 10K pace.

Following a 3 mile warm-up and a stop at the grossest port-a-potty I've ever seen, I started my first repeat with the goal of 7:00 miles.

The first mile flew past with a perfect split of 7:00.  I walked a 200 m rest and then started my second repeat.  My Garmin was acting crazy beeping every 3 seconds with a "lap error" message on the screen.  I have no idea what that was about and I also couldn't see my pace, so I ran the second repeat by feel.  I ran a 6:34.

Apparently my body can go faster than my mind thinks it can.

With 2 miles down and hopefully 3-4 more, I wanted to up my pace but keep it conservative enough to finish my workout.  I changed my goal pace to around 6:50 and hoped for the best.  Mile 3 split: 6:49.  My legs were starting to feel the workout at this point.  Mile 4: 6:53, Mile 5: 6:50.  I could feel that I had one or two more repeats in me.  Mile 6 I really started to feel the fatigue in my quads with a split of 6:45.  I felt that I could maybe pull off one more and decided that was a good place to stop.  I didn't want to go for complete fatigue.  I still had to make it home.

A 3 mile cool down to make it back to my front door and 4x 8-10 strides to keep my legs awake.  I spent lots of time stretching and foam rolling before making my usual post-run smoothie.

There were fortunately no soccer boys this Track Tuesday, only maintenance men working on the field.  Which I didn't mind until until one of them did this:

On my last mile repeat. Of course. 


What is your workout today?

Are you a football fan?  Running around a football field is making me miss lazy Sundays watching any and all games.

Monday Motivation and Weekly Rundown

Monday:
I went for a 8 mile walk in the morning and then had my butt handed to me at spin class for 45 minutes.  I upped the resistance I had been using on the bike and saw the difference in the amount of sweat that puddled underneath me.  Am I the only one that drips buckets in spin class?

Tuesday:
My first Track Tuesday! I ran 9 miles total today.  I had a good soreness in my legs after this speed session that lasted about two days.

Wednesday:
I did the first 6 exercises from the p90x arm and shoulder workout.  No running today!

They wanted to play instead of workout.

Thursday:
I really did not want to run after work, but I told myself to at least try for an hour of running.  By the time I hit the 3 mile turnaround marker, I was extremely thirsty and wanted to run farther to the drinking fountain.  That added an extra mile each way but was definitely worth it.  I must not have had enough water while at work.

8 miles

1:10:48

8:52/mile

Friday:
My legs felt fresh today and I ran my favorite 10 mile loop.

10 miles

1:25:38

8:34/mile

The best part of this loop is the amount of shade.

We've been hitting up the dog park frequently this week.  These two are joined at the hip and must do everything together.  

Despite there being a giant yard for them to play in, they lay together.

And they nap together.

Saturday:
I took a break from running today and did 30 minutes of p90x yoga.  I also did extra hip stretches and foam rolling afterward.

Sunday:
I did not have time to run my normal long run and had to condense it to under an hour. 

6 miles

51:16

8:32/mile

We headed to Revolution Brewing in Logan Square for beers and brunch.

 I ordered the sausage and biscuits and Chris got the brisket omelet.  Both were fantastic!

Today's Motivation Monday features the photogenic runner.  The memes people have created from his original picture are hysterical.  If I only I could pull off a picture half as nice as this guy's.  I usually look like I'm dying.

Happy Monday!