Week 4 is officially behind me. In only 4 weeks, on foot I’ve covered over 45 miles. And according to my Workout Calendar on MapMyRun, I’ve burned over 3800 calories!! Holy crap!
Last week we changed up our routine a bit, running Tuesday & Thursday instead of Monday & Wednesday. I think this was actually very beneficial to me. Mondays I’m usually dragging – after coming off the weekend, working a full day… By the time I finally get home around 6pm on Mondays, the last thing I want to have to do is run! So knowing on Monday that I didn’t have to do that after work was great!
Tuesday I got tied up at work later than usual, so when I was finally walking out at 6pm, I told Suzanne she could go ahead without me, and that I’d run alone that night. By the time I got from my building to the parking garage to home and out the door, it was 6:45pm. I’m not sure if it was (1) my late start (and therefore a strong desire to get home), (2) the fact that I was running alone at night (albeit on busy streets), or perhaps (3) the fact that I really AM starting to feel like my training is working, but I pounded out a pretty darn good run – 3.5 miles in 43 minutes (with a few minutes of walking in there).
Wednesday morning we got up at 5am. (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little – I HATE getting outta bed that early!) to do our cross-train workout. We set out on “The Fruit Loop” as I call it, our 2.7 mile loop that we’ve been walking/jogging on-and-off for months. By the time we got out the door it was 5:18am (so, I move a little slow in the mornings!). Once we rounded back onto Osborn, Suz suggested that we run home, mostly because she was on a time crunch. We walked in the front door just before 6am, which was perfect for her since she had to leave for work no later than 7am that day.
Let me tell you how amazing it was to get to come home from work Wednesday evening & not have to run!!!! Ahhhhhhh, sooo, sooo nice! But what do we end up doing? Going to the mall, of course! Which means we were walking around for 2 hours anyway.
Thursday evening we had to run 3.5 miles again. I felt good the whole way, but Suz’s shins were hurting her, so we walked a little bit here and there. I knew exactly how she felt when she said that she felt as though she was wearing flippers on her feet as she ran. It sucks! That’s how I had felt the week before when my shins were hurting me! No bueno. Despite this, we still finished in a decent time, though.
Friday was “rest” day! I didn’t get out of work until after 6pm Friday, so I was glad that we didn’t have to do anything! At this point it’s merely a faint memory, but we sat in front of the TV all evening and watched Dirty Dancing and Hannah Montana: The Movie. Yeah, that’s right! Do. Not. Judge.
Saturday was our second 5-miler! Nick, Beth, Steve, and I ran at the Tempe Town Lake again. Since Ironman Arizona was hosted at the Tempe Beach Park on Sunday, there was a lot of activity around the Town Lake this weekend. There were LOTS of super-duper-fit men and women buzzing around, getting ready for Sunday’s event. I was a little worried that this may be intimidating, but I actually found that I didn’t really care that they were around.
This Saturday’s run was pretty decent! I still had to walk for a minute here and there, but overall I felt really good. Nick even commented about halfway through the run that I was keeping up a lot better than I had last week. WAHOO! My body was definitely kinder to me this week. My knee did not bother me at all! I had a little bit of an issue with my shoe rubbing my foot, but that wasn’t until the last mile(ish), so I just ignored it until we were finished. I did struggle a little bit on the last quarter-mile (or so) stretch. Beth and I were running and chatting and suddenly I felt like I was NEVER going to finish. I get this feeling sometimes on shorter runs too, but this time it was really bad! It makes me nervous about Race Day. If I feel like this on a 5-mile day, what is Race Day going to be like?!?!
The last two weekends, I feel like all I’ve done is eat! After our run on Saturday, Nick and I stopped at Einstein Bros. and got food to go so we could go back to my place to watch the Ohio State v. Iowa game (wow, was it a close one!). I was actually hungrier AFTER I ate my wrap than I was before. Luckily only about an hour and a half later, Suzanne said she was hungry, so she volunteered to go on a Subway run for us since we were watching the game. Even after that, I was STILL hungry! O.M.G.!!!
Suz & I did a little shopping Saturday evening – stocking up on the necessities since we’re cooking Thanksgiving dinner! After we finished shopping we agreed to go to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Mmmm… Red meat! Surprisingly I didn’t eat as much as I thought I might, but it was OH. SO. GOOD. Yum!
Since I LOVE food, I’ve always joked that I wished I exercised like Michael Phelps so that I could eat like Michael Phelps (He eats 12,000 calories a day when he’s training!!! So, so jealous!) But now that I feel like all I do is eat, I think I’ve changed my mind about wanting a diet like that. It sucks to constantly be hungry, and considering that I’m not exercising THAT much yet, I can’t even imagine how he must feel. The poor guy must, literally, ALWAYS be hungry!!!
Looking ahead to the next week… We run 4 miles, cross-train 2, run 4 more, and then finish off the week with 6 miles on Saturday! Working all week, plus increasing our mileage, plus cooking Thanksgiving dinner? This week’s gonna fly!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING, FRIENDS!!!!
You woke up at 5?? Wow, good for you, I can't even do that! Looks like things are going well with the training, I keep wait to read about the big day (how is time passing so quickly btw??)
ReplyDeleteSigh, I havent been to Roadhouse since Motown, I think Im due for a trip! Are you all cooking everything for Thanksgiving? I have to bake something and I'm scared.