Life Lately (January 5)

After nearly a two-week break, today is back to the normal routine! Ryan and I arrived back in Valpo this weekend, and today is back to work for him, back to job applications, recipe developing, and house work for me, and back to naps for Charlie (well, Charlie did that during all of break!). 

We spent the last week hanging out in Saint Louis with family and friends. Monday we went out to a delicious Mexican restaurants that had honest-to-goodness the best fish tacos I have ever had and then to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery with my sister and one of my bridesmaids. 

This time, instead of seeing the lights, we took a tour of the brewery. It was really fun to see how they make the beer, but the best parts were all the cool chandeliers and architectural details that were added from the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis. Plus the clydesdales are pretty! After the tour we got to each enjoy a free beer, and (thankfully) the serve a bunch of craft and foreign beers from other companies they own so we enjoyed some nice English beers.

 We really didn’t do anything special for New Year’s Eve, unless you count drinking Glenlivet scotch and watching a Dr. Who Marathon on the BBC. It was fun to have a laid-back NYE that was spent just with family. Charlie had none of the staying up to midnight though.

Speaking of our sweet puggle, check out this awesome hat my mom got him for Christmas: 

 

My parents got me a new pair of running shoes for Christmas—my first pair of Brooks! These are Brooks Pure Flow and I already love them! They have a similar drop to my old Merrells but more support, which is great for long runs. I love the blue color also—it goes well with all the pinks, purples, and dark grays/black in my running workouts.

On our way back to Valpo, Ryan, Charlie, and I stopped at Turkey Run State Park for a bit of a hiking break! It was so pretty to see the trails in the wintertime, even though there wasn’t any snow down yet. We had to cut our hike short when it got dark. Poor Charlie is so scared of the dark we had to carry him! 

This past week was a low-mileage week. I’m starting up base-building this week (post coming soon on that) so I didn’t mind keeping my runs short this week. 

Why am I starting base-building this week instead of training for a race? We don’t know for certain where we will be in a few months. We could still live in Valpo, move out of Seattle, or move to Saint Louis. I’m not committing to a spring race because I don’t want to sign up for a half marathon near the Midwest only to soon live in the Pacific Northwest, or sign up for a race in Washington state only to not end up living there. So my base-building will include 1-2 effort-based workouts (fartleks or tempo runs) plus long runs starting at 8 miles and building to 14 miles, with weekly mileage in the 30-40 mpw range; that way, when I do settle on a spring race, I can have a shorter training period focused on specific half marathon workouts like fast-finish long runs, race pace runs, and longer speed interval workouts.

For the week of December 29-Jan 4:
Monday: 5 hilly miles, average pace 9:18/mile: 2.25 miles with Ryan, then 2.75 miles on my own. 
Tuesday: 5 miles on a flat trail, 7:48/mile pace
Wednesday: 45 minute of strength training in which I did some kettlebell, some core work, some yoga, and some Pilates
Thursday: 3 miles at a 7:44/mile pace—there was a strong cross-wind that made this whole run hard!
Friday: Rest day with a bit of hiking at Turkey Run
Saturday: 8 mile progressive run on the treadmill, starting at 6.7 and ending at 7.3
Sunday: Rest day.

21 miles total for the week!

 

Fueled up on Saturday with some Nuun after my run! And yes, that is a glass from the brewery. 

Questions of the Day:
How was your weekend?
Is anyone starting a training plan this week? What for?