Second week of long runs and my first speed work out!

I kind of am feeling back to normal running wise and schedule wise.  I am still just running four days a week (two during the week and a long run and recovery run on the weekend) and I am trying to get two days of cross training in. I was good this week, I did one day of a barre dvd so hoping to put that in the line up for cross training days.  I was fine the day after but holy moly DOMS!  I will start my kettlebell class the week after I get back from my trip this coming week (look out San Deigo, I am going to run you:) and i plan on getting in the pool monday, unless I move my run to monday.  I  am really excited to start out the year right with some cross training and keep that resolution under control.

I had my first speed work session this week after months of not doing any, and I have to admit it was MARVELOUS!  I did some warm up, some mileage, and then got to do some fartlek work for 20 minutes before I had a cool down.  If you don't do speed work, you need to, and fartleks are a fun way to incorporate some speed work in your schedule.  Most fartleks are short, with some recovery period (this time i did one minute at my 10 K pace and one minute of slow jogging recovery).  To me, I can do anything for a minute or two as long as I have some sort of walk or slow recovery after that one minute.

I had another day of long running this week, again the same plan only this time we did three sets of 8 minute walks/2 minute runs and then 30 minutes of running.  Makes my legs so much more happy to get to do the continuous running at the end versus the beginning.

Running with these two make me so absurdly happy!!!!!  The week has been kind of screwy with the days off and the holiday, and then the forecast of a major winter storm.  I ran Tuesday, had a day off with the kiddo wednesday, then ran again thursday when I had childcare, and then did my long run on friday to get it in before the supposed snow hit.  I had misread that little red's daycare was going to be closed on friday, but low and behold, they were open and i was off, so perfect day for me to get my long run done!  To top it off, after our nice long run, my BRF and I went into town and did some necessary stocking up and checking out of sales.  Of course the entire town had the same idea thanks to the forecast, so we had fun battling the crowds.  I kind of wanted to save my recovery run for after the snow so I could try out my yaktrax, but the temp was perfect this afternoon so I headed out and got it done.  

This is my new running coat I got from my mom.  She found it at Burlington coat factory. It's a brand I have never heard of but I took it on a test run today and i am very impressed.  Now to try it out when the wind chills are below zero!  

My mommy is here for the week (she came down early thanks to the storm predications) because we had a wedding to go to today, and because I am taking a business trip all next week for our annual Bionano user's group meeting in San Deigo.  I am beyond stoked.  Last year we had a condo inland, and on top of the meeting, got to do a ton of sight seeing.  My boss really is the most awesome boss ever because this year, she got us a condo right on the BEACH!  Not only are we going to have two and half days of meetings, but we are going to get half a day to sight see, and a WHOLE day to brewery hop.  I really am beside myself.  Last year I did not get to try ANY San Diego beers, and this year it is my mission!!!!  I am also going to try and meet up with some of my favorite bloggers and get some runs in.  Last year I tried to run by myself, and while it worked sort of, I was so afraid of getting lost that the most mileage I got was 5 miles.   Check out my recap of my trip last year here!  I hope I get to see some of my FB and blogger friends on my trip.  I sure am envious of their running weather, and the abundance of really awesome races, plus the breweries sound delightful!  

 

I will end this blog with a story.  Grammy (my mom) got andrew a portable DVD player for christmas.  I had bought over 200 DVDS off of an online yard sale local site, so this was a perfect gift, especially since our newer apple computer doesn't have a CD drive.  I have some movies on DVD from my young adult/childhood collection, and one was the movie Spirit which was about the wild horse and the wild west.  Well, andrew watched it mesmerized from beginning to end, until a very intense part, when Spirit and his native american counter part jump the cliff to get away from the soldiers that were chasing him.  Little red stands up  (we are in bed) and jumps as hard as he can straight into the wall.  It really was the funniest thing I have ever seen, but he was for sure hurt.  It appeared that his nose might be broken, as it immediately started swelling.  He had a bright red crease on his nose and his top lip seemed to be swelling as well.  Tony and I both had to fight back laughter to hold him while he cried.  Maybe this counts as another parenting fail?  Anyway, he seems fine now, and I don't think  it was broken as I had original thought, which is a good thing. He has several scratches on his lip and nose but seems no worse for the wear, thank goodness!!!!!