Fitness Friday

Happy Friday!

Here's my weekly training in review:

Saturday - since I was in St. Louis and knew Sunday would be tight on time, I ran Saturday morning. St. Louis is super hilly. SUPER hilly. That's ok if you're used to it, but I had an 11 mile run on tap and really didn't want to kill myself doing it. Lucky for me, the brother I stayed with lives just around the corner from the Katy Trail which follows the Missouri River. It is pretty flat, and is mostly a hard-packed gravel trail. It was a beautiful morning, so even though I was out there at 6 am, I still saw quite a few other runners and bikers. Most of the trail is wooded, but offers some nice views of the river and some creeks along the way. Average pace: 9:43 min/mi.

Monday -  I was still tired from my trip on Monday morning, and it seems that I've come down with a sore throat from allergies and general traveling ickiness. So yoga was ditched for an extra hour of sleep.

Tuesday - Great fartlek run. I was supposed to do 1 mile warm up, 5 x 800m at 7:50-8:00 pace with 3 minutes rest, 1 mile cool down. Since I wanted to do this in the AM and didn't feel like driving to the track, I just ran around town and did 1/2 mile fartleks. That's just about the same. It felt great! Paces were: 9:37 (warm up), then 8:00, 7:57, 7:59, 7:53 & 7:58 for the fartleks, and around 9:40-9:55 for the rest periods, then 9:43 for cool down. Math-disabled me figured this would be 4 miles, mayyyybe 5, total. 5.8! Boom!

Wednesday - I finally got up to do yoga. Hooray! Except that I planned on doing the "quick" program thinking it would just be cut clips of some of the poses from the full video. Nope. It was just a scroll through of the names of some poses to do. So I kept pausing it to do a pose, play to get to the next one, pause, play, repeat. In total I think I did about 25-30 minutes, which is good for me. I think I did plank, downward dog, side plank, upright lunge, pigeon pose, a quad stretch, hamstring stretches, IT band stretch, and then ended with Savasana. My favorite.

Thursday - Easy 4 miles. I was really looking forward to hitting the road this morning. It was warm out, nearly 60 degrees! Ok, 55, but that's a lot closer than 25 degrees! However, the skies opened up right as my watch beeped at 3 miles, so my last mile was in a downpour. Literally. I was soaked by the time I got home. So that mile was a little faster. Average pace: 9:28 min/mi.

Friday - Easy 4 miles. As soon as I stepped out the door this morning, I started getting pelted in the face by sleet. After yesterday's run in the rain, I just wasn't having it. So, I went back inside and jumped on my treadmill. Super boring, but I got it done. 4 miles in 43:07.

Here's hoping for better weather this weekend - especially since I have 12 miles on tap for Sunday morning!

How's your training going? 

Quiet Evenings

After all the excitement from my travels, I was so happy last night to have gorgeous weather and an opportunity to just relax with my family. I felt like I hadn't really even had time to talk to Travis or tell him about my weekend at all. Darn life gets in the way sometimes!

We had some steaks in the fridge, so we decided to grill them up. Even though it was around 70, it was still a bit windy and necessitated at sweatshirt.

Emily had to go inside at daycare after she started getting too hot yesterday afternoon. Probably something to do with wearing jeans on a hot day with the sun blazing. But once we got home, I gave her some frozen fruit and she cooled off in front of Octonauts. Then she was totally ready to head back outside.

You can't tell, but she has a french braid in her hair. She has been all about the braids for the past week or so. But my little wild child's braid usually falls out by the end of the day.

Selfies! See the little red mark next to her mouth? Apparently she clocked herself in the face with her swing over the weekend. Her swing is homemade and has a wooden 2x4 seat. Ouch! Dad said she didn't cry or anything. Usually, after falling or injuring herself in some way, she bounces up and says "I'm ok! I'm ok!". #toughchick

Also, please note how straight my teeth are looking. The braces are still ugly, but we're seeing progress!

Steak, sweet potato fries, and a nice glass of red wine. What could be better? After dinner, bath time, and putting Emily to bed, Travis and I went back outside to enjoy the weather and catch up a bit more.

Busy social schedules are fun and exciting, but sometimes the quiet evenings at home really take the cake.

What's your favorite way to relax at home? 

Surprise!

On Friday, I left you hanging when I shared that I was off on a secret trip to an unknown destination. Well, it was unknown to you, but I knew where I was going...

St. Louis!

May 1st was my brother's 50th birthday. My sister-in-law planned on throwing him a surprise birthday party on Saturday, so my whole family got in on the secret. My parents flew up from Florida, my aunt and uncle drove in from Michigan, and I came in from Minnesota. It was a short trip (arrived Friday at 4:30, left Sunday at 2), but it was so worth it!

We all had to pretend that we weren't in town until the party on Sat evening, so luckily my other brother put us up for a few days. It was really hard to make phone calls and text the birthday boy without alluding to our plans!

Saturday morning, we helped decorate for the party. My sister-in-law told my brother that the party was for her boss who also happens to have a birthday around the same time. She even went as far as mailing herself a fake invitation to hang on their fridge, and they brought a present to the party!

Some of the decorations and the cake table.

The cake!

My SIL made this! Turned out great!

He was so surprised. Not only for the party, but when he saw my parents, aunt & uncle, and myself - his jaw nearly hit the floor!

I hope that works! At first he walked away! My mom and I were trying to stand back a little so he didn't see us until he got inside, so that's why I'm yelling at my Dad who ran right up to the door.

It was so great to see everyone and spend some time together, even if it was a short trip. After the party was over, we hung out a bit at Scott's house. Then Sunday morning we all met up for breakfast in downtown St. Charles. Of course, there was a little shopping afterward, too. St. Charles is a historic downtown area right on the Missouri river full of quaint shops & restaurants. It is definitely one of our favorite places to go when we visit!

Some of the crew at breakfast. From the left there's my Mom, Aunt Candy, SIL Karen, birthday boy brother Scott, nephew Jared, and my other brother Keith. Not pictured: Dad, niece Anna, cousin Jake, and SIL Chris. We're a big group!

The weather was gorgeous the whole time we were in town, so we tried to be outside whenever possible. There are so many places with patios there; we never had any problems finding somewhere to sit outside!

Funny side story: we had wine bottles at the party, but no wine opener. Since I always carry my trusty traveling wine opener in my purse, we thought it wouldn't be a problem. Well, the corkscrew broke off in the cork, so Keith had to run off to buy a new one. They got back just in time, except that we then proceeded to break the new wine opener in the same bottle! Eventually we were able to get two bottles open, but it was an ordeal!

When I came home, this huge contraption was sitting on my buffet. It's a giant, antique wine bottle opener. Sure would have come in handy at the party!

I'm not sure where it came from, still haven't gotten the full story from Travis yet. My plane was a few minutes late getting in last night, so by the time I got home and said hello, I was just ready for bed. Great weekend, but exhausting!

How was your weekend? Have you ever been in on a surprise party? 

Fitness Friday

I am so very happy that it's Friday! I'm leaving today for a whirlwind trip this weekend. It's a surprise, so I'll have to share once I'm back.

This week has been chock full of running thanks to a 5K and an altered schedule. I'm feeling a bit fatigued at this point, so I'm thankful for a rest day.

Saturday - ran the HOPE Springs 5K Run/Walk. Here's my recap in case you missed it.

Sunday - I was a bit surprised to have a run scheduled for Sunday, despite racing on Saturday. I normally would have called it good, but the schedule gods at Runners Connect thought differently. It was an easy pace 6 miler though, so not too bad. My average pace was 9:44 min/mile. It was also sunny and beautiful, so I'll take the excuse to get out of the house!

Monday - Woke up early to get a yoga practice in. I went through the Intermediate DVD again, and was happy that it was a tiny bit easier this time around. I didn't go quite as deep into some of the poses (like lizard...not a fan), so I think that helped to make it easier. I kept an eye on the clock this morning though, because my old yoga DVD was only about 45 min. The new one? 1 hour and 20 minutes long! Now I know why I was running late both mornings with the newest DVD. I did see that there was a "quick program", so I think I'll give that a whirl next time.

Tuesday - Basic Tempo Run: 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at 8:40-8:50 pace, 1 mile cool down. It was super windy this morning, but I still feel like I knocked it out of the park. My paces were: 9:47, 8:47, 8:46, 8:40, 9:16. Perfect!

Wednesday - normally a rest day, but because of my super secret travel plans this weekend I had to change things up. So an easy pace 5 mile run was on deck for today. Average pace: 9:44.

Thursday - Another 5 mile easy pace run. I was definitely feeling it this morning, so I just tried to cruise a bit slower. I changed my route up a little and ended up running by a cemetery. I felt very Claire Underwood for a minute.

Also, listened to my first ever podcast instead of music. It was about the Generation UCAN nutrition for marathon runners, and kind of debunked their claims. Not completely throwing it out the window as far as a fuel/supplement, though. There was a lot of science behind the discussion, which was a bit over my head for 5am. Interesting all the same. Average pace: 9:45

Friday - I was supposed to do yoga this morning, but I knew I wouldn't be able to calm myself enough with all the last minute packing & prepping for my trip. So I got an extra 45 minutes of sleep instead.

Now, off on my little adventure!


How's your training going? Any fun trips planned soon? 

Training For Tuesday: HOPE Springs 5k Recap

I'm linking up with Tracy over at Change of Pace (formerly Tracy Tris) and Alyssa from Alyssagoesbang. We chat about our training on the last Tuesday of every month. So, I figured this post would be great for my 5k recap.

If you haven't been following me at all, I recently signed up for a training service at Runners Connect. I've posted weekly recaps of my training, which includes lots and lots and lots of really slow miles.

These slow miles had me worried. I know the science behind why we run slow (builds aerobic strength), but I was really questioning whether it would work for me.

Then I did a threshold interval workout that was basically a 5K with the target pace at 8:00-8:10, and I knocked it out of the park. So...I was feeling pretty confident coming into this race.

I woke up super early, despite this race being local. I think I was just excited, and I just needed to get out of bed. I went through my normal pre-race morning routine, and we lounged around watching Sesame Street for awhile until it was finally time to go.

I decided to jog to the race, since it's only about 5 blocks away. I made it an even mile by running some of my normal route. Travis and Emily drove there and we met up. They had all sorts of fun raffles, and we had a little time to check those out before the race began. Although I try every year, we won nothing despite spending $20 on tickets. Oh well, it's for a good cause!

Finally, it was time to race!

This year they had signs with projected finish times to line up by. I feel like our little "hometown" race is getting pretty serious! I lined up right behind the 25 min sign, hoping for good things. Then the gun went off, and we were flying!

Despite my best intentions, I started off way to fast. Everyone around me was excited, and the first 10th of a mile is downhill. We were all cruising! I think the most consistent thing I heard from other racers was "I started off to fast!" Thankfully, I was really paying attention to my pace and was able to slow down. There's no way I could continue with a 7:15 pace!

Once I got into a rhythm, I felt good. I realized in the beginning of my second mile that I had slowed a little too much, so I picked it up a bit. I passed by a friend who just ran Boston, so I said hi briefly and asked how she was feeling. Then we hit the third mile and I was able to kick it up another notch. I passed another friend who was struggling a bit. He, too, said he started off too fast. I just said "less than a mile to go, you can do it!" Then continued on.

Some of the last mile was directly into the wind, but I kept it up and passed a few more runners. The end of this race has a long hill that every runner complains about. I dug in deep and charged up the hill. It helped that some of my running group buddies were at the top and bottom of the hill cheering everyone on.

Finally, I rounded the last corner and raced across the finish line to a finish time of:

25:06

Yea buddy! That's an average of 8:05 min/mi. My paces broke down as:
1 - 8:06
2 - 8:10
3 - 7:59
.10- 6:51 (what!?)

I hate that I'm looking down here, but I look determined!

Originally, I thought this wasn't a PR for me. For some reason, I had it in my head that my 5k PR was 25:01. But after looking back at my last 5k's, my actual PR was 25:17. I shaved 11 seconds off that sucker! That may not seem like much, but in such a short race, I think that's great!

I think the best thing is that this pace was comfortably uncomfortable - not something I could keep up for a whole marathon, but doable for a 5k. To me, that speaks volumes for my overall fitness. I'm getting there!

Our running group won for largest team, and fastest team! I'm behind the guy in the blue jacket, to the left. Mr. Blue Jacket won the race with a time of 16:55, and is the whole reason I started running with Runners Connect. Go Range Runners!

How's your training going? Have you ever run with a running group?

Link up with us and join in on the conversation!

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday!

I have a very exciting weekend coming up, so I'm hoping this week speeds by. Oh Monday, treat me well!

This weekend was chock-full of activities for my little family.

On Friday night, we went up the street to the new private school for dinner. They were hosting a "Rigatoni Feed" as a fundraiser and pre-race dinner for the HOPE Springs 5k Run/Walk that was to be held on Saturday. It's not my typical pre-race fare, but it's for a good cause. Also not my typical pre-race fare:

The free wine I got for volunteering. Yea baby!

But you only live once. I figured since it was only a 5k, I was probably pretty safe imbibing a little.

I'll do a full race report in another post, but it went well. Emily ran her first "race": a 50m dash. She was pretty excited after seeing all the other runners and getting to cheer for mom.

Uhm, how cute is my kid!?

However, after toeing the start line with the rest of the kids and getting off to a pretty good start, things fell apart for her about 25m in. I think because she couldn't see me or Dad anymore, she got scared. She stopped and started crying, so mom swooped in, picked her up, and crossed the finish line with her. The tears stopped after she got her finisher's ribbon and a cookie. Cookies solve everything. Didn't I promise you that there would be cookies?

We celebrated our runs by a victory dinner at a local place called the Sawmill Saloon. They are supposed to have really good walleye tacos. Well, they're pretty good, but I'm ok with sticking to our usual haunts.

Sunday, we were treated to glorious weather. Glorious! Sunny, a high above 60...it was amazing. Emily basically played outside all day.

Ok, so it was still chilly enough for a light jacket. But look at that blue sky! Not a cloud in sight!

We ended the evening by cooking up some black bean burgers and sweet potato wedges. Travis is on a super low-carb kick right now (uhm yes, you read that right), so I attempted to do lettuce wraps instead of buns.

It was kind of messy, but good! Although Emily told me that she didn't want any "salad". Ok, whatever kid.

So that was our weekend!

How was your weekend? Have you tried bun-less burgers before? 

Fitness Friday

Happy Friday!

Last night I attended my United Way's Flavor of the North event. Last year, Trav and I got to go with company tickets. This year my company didn't get tickets. Sad face. At $50 a pop, it was a little out of my budgeted spending for the month. So, I opted to volunteer instead. Best decision ever!

I got to help out with the wine & beer tasting table. There was also a rep from the liquor store hosting the table. He had me try the wines first - hey, all in a day's work, right? I think he was pleased that I was slightly knowledgeable of the wine world to begin with. We had a great time chatting about different wines & wineries.

I also got to taste all the food. Because, hello, that's really why I was there. I felt bad that I kept leaving my table partner, but he didn't want to eat and was totally cool with me jetting off a time or two. I'm still in a food coma from all the good food. Walleye cakes, garlic & coconut shrimp, cranberry meatloaf, artisan breads, desserts as far as the eye can see...

Let's just say that it was a good thing I ran 6 miles yesterday morning.

With that said, here's my latest training recap:

Saturday - simple circuit training workout with 1.5 mile slow jog. I like this workout because it keeps the heart rate up, burns some calories, and gets me moving.

Sunday - we desperately need rain, so I couldn't complain all that much when my long run was rained out. Thankfully, it was a cutback week for me - meaning I only needed to do 8 miles. I'm comfortable doing this on the treadmill, so that's exactly what I did.

Monday - skipped yoga for an extra hour of sleep. Hey, sometimes you just need to sleep! Did hip and lower leg strength exercises after work though.

Tuesday - The workout on my schedule was a fartlek run - 1 mi warm up, 10 x 1 min @ 7:50 pace with 1 min rest in between, 1 mi cool down. I work up to 13 mph winds & snow...not exactly prime conditions for speed work, and the winds were just supposed to get worse throughout the day. So I did this on the treadmill instead. Warm up & cool down miles at 5.5mph, with my fartlek intervals at 7.5mph/4.0mph. My treadmill is kind of wonky, so I have no clue if the paces were too fast, too slow, or right on. But I felt like I was flying at 7.5mph! Overall, I call this a success.

Wednesday - I bumped up to Christine Felstad's Yoga for Runners intermediate version. Although I was able to do all the poses, it definitely was more challenging than the beginner's version I've been doing. But I'm proud that it didn't kill me, and I definitely can tell that my fitness is improving. But my shoulders, upper back, and hamstrings were definitely unhappy with me by that evening...

Thursday - Easy 6 miles. Given my hamstring soreness from yoga, I was very thankful for an easy run. Average pace was 9:38 min/mi.

Friday - another easy run, this time only 3 miles. Slightly difficult to get out of bed after my fun evening at Flavor of the North, but I got it done. Average pace was 9:46.

Tomorrow is my first race of the year, the HOPE Springs 5k. It's local to me - like I can jog to the start line because it's only about 5 blocks from my house. It's a fun event, with tons of awards and raffle drawings. I'm really looking forward to it!

Are you racing this weekend? How's your training going?