Heartland Series Training Week 3

I was hoping that the snow would all melt sunday.  It was sunny and roads were super slushy.  I had commented to my hubby that now would be the time to blade them and get all of that slush off.  Well, I have no clue how  much it costs to run that machinery or pay someone to run it, but it must be a lot because it wasn't done.  Now, our road and many others are solid sheets of ice where the water froze back.  Not good.  Here is how the week went.

Monday;  Had hill work planned for this day, but did the old switcheroo with another work out, and moved my 5-6 miler to this day.  My ankle and foot were a bit sore from rolling my ankle during my long run, so decided not to push it with high intensity.  Plus, I was just tired from my long run.  For whatever reason, after my long run sunday, I just wanted to sleep.  Of course that never happens, and I didn't even get to bed early thanks to a well rested toddler who thought bed time was for the birds.  I am being very careful about recovery, so not sure why I was so tired.  We ended up doing 5 miles with half of our run being into some pretty stiff and intense wind.  Thanks for the extra resistance training Kansas. 5 miles

Tuesday: Unplanned rest day.  I had the dates wrong on when one of the BNG service guys was coming to service our genome mapper, and he was in the lab bright and early Tuesday morning.  We always take them to dinner and show them a good time when they are in town, so dinner and a few beers and no work out happened.  Glad my schedule it flexible for moving runs/work outs around.

Wednesday: Hill repeats.  8 to be exact.  If you want to do some killer repeats, have your speedy friend run in front of you while you dog, who is attached to you, tries to frantically run up the hill to catch up.  Those were killer and speedy, and I am glad I survived without face planting.  5 miles total with warm up, repeats, and cool down.  I tried a salt bath after this run and wow, I felt great.  Those really work! 5 miles

Thursday: Strength training!  I secretly think my coach is trying to kill me.  Don't tell her, but I substituted push ups for the burpees.  I just HATE burpees, as they kill my shoulders, hands, and wrists, even when I do them on my mat.  Plus, I have to go super slow to get form right so I opted for some good form push ups instead.

Friday: 5 miles planned.  Decided to take both dogs because this run is about taking it easy.  It wasn't a good run from the beginning.  My legs just felt heavy, and I was sore from my work out Thursday.  2 minute wall sits had trashed my quads.  Oh well, we got it done and the dogs had tons of fun running and playing in the mud and muck.

Glad they are dry and brush.  They were pretty muddy!

Saturday: 10 miles planned.  This was one of those mythical runs that just felt wonderful from the start.  I try not to look at my pace while doing long runs, unless I am doing race pace miles during.  I was not this time, but I just felt like I was jetting along.  I peaked a few times, and was pleasantly surprised at what I saw.  I was actually running at my marathon pace with ease.  It put a big smile on my face for sure.  With the latest weight gain, I had been struggling with this pace so it is nice that I am back at it and a few pounds lighter:)

We are being blessed with some great weather this week, so I am not sure if that was the case for the wonderful run or what.  I don't care, I will take the good runs when they come, and not over analyze them.  Listened to several good podcasts along the way that got me fired up for this racing season. 

Post run, got little red out and walked while he rode his bike.  After a few miles riding, we headed to lunch at Toto's tacos and then hit up the Oz Museum.  Our whole little tiny town is Oz themed and it is so much fun.  Little red had watched the Wizard of Oz the other night from start to finish so the museum meant so much more to him.  We enjoyed staying in town and spending our money locally.  Now we are all chilling and contemplating naps (i so hope).  

Total miles for the week: 25

image courtesy of National Weather Service Topeka Kansas

Next week will be interesting.  We have a massive snow storm headed our way that could either dump a foot of snow on us or nothing.  So far the track is indicating a foot for our area, but that could shift.  While I never mind a snow day, I do have a full week of experiments that I would like to get done.  I also am sure that this will be the week that two day a week speed work might return.  Gah!  Not a fan of speed work on the mill, so this could get interesting.  Have a great week!