Two Weeks To Go!

Week in Review:
73 miles
15 mile long run
2 doubles
2 track workouts
2 runs with SHORTS (in January!)
1 Nailed the Yasso's

It's hard to believe that last week we had two snow days and this week we were wearing shorts all weekend! There's only two weeks until the big LA trip and if the snow could hold off until we return, that would be great.

Last week was supposed to be one of my highest mileage weeks, but I fell short of 80 miles. On Tuesday, the roads were super icy. My commute took about triple the usual amount of time and I did slide off into the ditch once, but was able to just drive back up to the road. The truck really sucks with those kind of conditions. And dummy me, didn't bring treadmill clothes to run at work.

So I got up early the next day and put in 6 miles on the treadmill on Wednesday morning. Then later that evening, the roads were pretty much clear so Marshall and I put in 10 miles in the Hood (short for our neighborHOOD). I did notice from the very first step of this run that my right calf was feeling unusually tight. I pushed it to the back of my mind, but by the last mile it was really starting to bug me.

Snow run!

Thursday morning came and we woke to about 2 inches of snow. No biggie, it slowed us down but we made it out for a 5 mile run with hopes of another run later that evening. Again, the calf was feeling odd and about half way through we hit a sharp little uphill which pain seared through my calf. I thought about it all day and we decided to nix our evening run that day. Instead Marshall started treating me with ART (ART is awesome. . . check it out!) for about a week and each day I started to feel significantly better.

Finished our longest run of the training cycle - calf didn't feel the
best, but made it through

24 miles

So, to summarize. . . I dropped two days off this week and still made it to 75 miles, so I'll take it :)

This brings us up to this past week. We had hill repeats scheduled, but decided to do the track workout we had scheduled the day it iced. I really wanted to get on the track before our Yasso's on Saturday. The workout was mediocre, but we managed to get most of the work done before it got too dark. Next up . . . Yasso's.

2+ warm-up
Goal: 10 x 800 @ sub 2:40 w/2:40-3:00 recovery
Actual: above - all 2:38 and faster
1+ c/d
11 total miles

We nailed our Yasso's!! Yay :) It's been a month or more since I've felt that I'd really nailed a workout. Don't get me wrong, I haven't had bad workouts, just none that I've walked away from feeling like a Bad A. . . until now!

Saturday morning was beautiful! After the warm-up it was warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt. Almost perfect track weather, better than anything I could have imagined for January. It almost felt awkward wearing shorts; no tights or gloves needed.

With the Drury men's soccer team as our audience, this workout went off without a hitch. It felt good to really run fast. I kept the recovery honest as well, which is really hard to do with this workout. We even surprised ourselves with the last one. As usual got carried away with only one to go ;) Last one fast one, right?

Enjoying our morning at the track

Now only two weeks to go! Mileage will start to drop this week, but intensity picks up. I'm ready to head to sunny and warmer weather :) Now off to plan our trip festivities.

It's starting to feel like winter

Week in Review:
75 miles
1 double
18 mile long run
1 workout/race

With the wind chills dipping into negative degrees, it's been hard to get my doubles in. I'm not hitting as high of mileage as I would like, but for winter I'm doing pretty darn good for myself. I broke down and got some hand warmers which have been a tremendous help this year. I managed to get through a 22 mile long run last week with them with degrees in the teens (thank goodness it was sunny!) I wish I was in the kind of shape I was in before Grandma's Marathon, but I'm not too far off.

This past weekend, Marshall and I signed up for Cabin Fever 20k in Rogersville. We had a long workout scheduled, so figured signing up for this race would be a good way to get our butts out of bed and get the mileage in.

Goal: 4 miles marathon pace (MP)/1 mile half marathon pace (HMP)/4 mi MP/1 mi HMP for 10 miles total, then a down mile followed by a fast mile.

Actual: 10 miles at 59:50, followed by hard mile which was way off pace

Cabin Fever results

The workout didn't go quite as planned. It just so happened that the miles that were supposed to be at HMP were uphill and into a northern wind, so the workout ended up just feeling like a fairly long/hard tempo. Nonetheless, we got to run on some rolling hills which probably ended up being better for us long term. I'm still taking this workout as a success. I could see this being a fairly fast course if it was run in the warmer months.

Freezing! We were first overall :) Awesome snowflake

I also have to say that the race director did a great job with this race. Considering it was so cold, there were volunteers at every turn and the race was very well marked. Another plus was that this was a CERTIFIED course and was very accurate. Sadly, short courses have become much to common in Springfield.


ALSO. . . only 4 weeks to go until the trials! Ahhh.

2015 in Review

What a year it's been! Marshall and I have been slowly doing renovations to our house. We've been here nearly two years and the projects are starting to slow down. Stay tuned for pictures. . .
We also celebrated our 5th year of marriage (WOW! has it already been 5 years?), bonus that we haven't killed each other yet ;)

Christmas 2015

We actually got to take a vacation. This was the first vacation we've taken since our honeymoon 5 years ago. We went to Gulf Shores to see my sister. What a blast that was. We went with my best friend which made the trip even more fun. While there we got to hang out at the beach, go on a dolphin tour, and ride the go-kart through their homemade track. I can't wait to go back. . . hopefully we can make this a yearly thing (fingers crossed).

First time to go to Gulf Shores! 

We also can't forget. . . THE ROYALS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!

Go Royals

In the running world, things have been great also. After running an Olympic Trials Qualifier (OTQ) last year, I decided to go for the A-standard this June at Grandma's. I needed a sub 2:37, but ended up with a mid 2:38. So close, but it was hard to be disappointed when that was over a 3 minute PR :)

I also improved slightly in my half marathon PR at Rock the Parkway in Kansas City (1:16:26). This was a pleasant surprise as I wasn't really expecting to run that fast just based on where we were during our training.

Year in Review:
2951 miles
2:38:34 marathon PR
2 trips to Minnesota for races
Olympic Trials qualifier!

January is off to a good start. Marshall and I are beating the cold and staying motivated for our upcoming marathons. . . ONLY 5 WEEKS LEFT! Ahhh! I've been hitting decent mileage for myself. I don't consider myself a great winter runner, which is why I never plan to PR or be in good shape for early spring events. Well, the Olympic Trials are in February, so we have no other choice. But I'm excited for the next 5 weeks and ready to just enjoy myself and live up a week in Los Angeles :)

Aren't they cute!