Running&Eating!

I am going to begin with the weekly running wrap up. This was a particularly strong running week for me. After a rest day on Monday I came back with a 6 mile run on my lunch break Tuesday, followed by an evening track workout on Wednesday, and a nother 6 miler during lunch on Thursday. The weather here last week was perfect for running. I was able to get outside and run without layering clothing.

Wednesday's Speed workout:

1 mile warmup
800M @ 3:16
800M @ 3:24
1600M (about 1 mile) @ 7:41
800M @ 3:36
1 mile cool down

The first 800M time was right where it should be, the other times were a little slow but not bad for my first track workout of the spring.

I ran a little earlier than usual on Thursday to add a few hours of recovery time for my Saturday 15 mile run. Friday is usually a recovery day and was this week as well.

There are mental and physical components to every run. Sometimes the mental part is the most difficult. This week I did everything that I could to make sure that my long run would go well. My plan started with the earlier running time on Thursday that I mentioned and went on to include other little changes. I iced my left shin on Thursday and Friday night because I had been feeling a twinge of pain and feared shin splints. I upped my calorie intake on Friday from my normal 2000-2200 calories to 3000 calories and I skipped my Marine Corps Workout for core muscles on Firday to conserve energy. Friday night I planned out my 5 mile loop route that I would run 3 times.

On Saturday I woke up and had some cereal and a couple of glasses of water. I got together my water bottle and gel packs that I would use between loops and placed them in the garage. And I planned my time to leave so that I would finish up before the rain started. Still the mental part kicked in. What if I can't finish 15 miles? What if my shin starts hurting right away? What if it is cold and rainy earlier than I thought it would be?

Turned out that my 15 miler went great! I kept a steady pace throughout and felt great afterwards. I really felt like I could have take on a few extra miles. I even ran the final mile in 7:00 minutes which is about 2 minutes faster than the overall average pace.

15 miler by the numbers:

3 X 5 mile loop
about 2000 calories burned
2 gel packs of 150 calories (1 between each loop)
43:xx minutes first loop
46:xx minutes second loop
43:xx minutes third loop
7:00 min/mile for the last mile
4:30 xtra 1/2 mile that I ran
6:00 minutes estimated wait time at 2 stoplights on the course

Today I have a 5 mile recovery run scheduled. The pace will be about 8:45 min/mile.

The Eater....

We have been working with Emmeline on using sippee cups and eating finger foods. SHe was a little slow to pick up on these things but is getting better. At first she thought she was practicing for a pie eating contest. Check her out in action: