Mile Markers, 10/26/15 – 11/1/15

Mile Markers: Running in the Seattle rain

Congratulations to all NYC Marathon and all other race finishers this weekend! 

Don’t forget that all readers receive a 15% discount off of all Brew Pup clothing items through this week! We ship free to the US and Canada, and 25% of proceeds are donated to dog rescues across the US, including ones in Seattle/Bellevue, Portland, Saint Louis, and Valparaiso (Indiana).  

Mile Markers: Brew Pup Logo Sweatshirt

Charlie and I tried to take some cute photos of one of the sweatshirts for you (it’s so soft and comfy!), but Charlie refused to look at the camera. Such is the puggle life. 

This week’s training was just another easy week of base building running and some strength training. Nothing special, but it still is quite nice to just run for the sake of running after following a program as rigorous as the Hansons Marathon Method

Monday: 5 miles easy on the treadmill, 1% incline, 8:53/mile.

I woke up on Monday morning and felt the lingering effects of hiking with a heavy backpack on both Saturday and Sunday. My back ached with fatigue (I need to improve my upper body strength!) and my legs felt heavy from lack of a rest day, so I kept my pace nice and easy. 

Tuesday: AM: 7 miles easy, 8:20/mile. PM: 30 minutes of kettlebell strength training. 

Another foggy run! This one was humid—the fog felt like a thick blanket in the air and was almost spooky as it hovered over the river. I actually enjoy running in the fog, probably because less cyclists venture out and I’m less likely to get plowed over by a Microsoft employee on their commute. 

Mile Markers: Running in the Sammamish Fog

In the evening I broke out my kettlebell for the first time in months and did a short strength training workout of random exercises. Using the kettlebell for one of two strength sessions a week will keep me from getting bored with my workouts and prevent my body from plateauing; not to mention that kettlebell workouts are hard! I’m tempted to break out my old Jillan Michael kettlebell DVD from college, because that always, always kicked my butt in less than 30 minutes. 

Wednesday: 5 miles easy on the treadmill, 0.5-4% incline, 8:4x/mile and 25 minutes Pilates.

I can’t recall my exact pace, I just remember it was in the 8:40s. I did a progressive run, starting out at 6.7 mph (8:57/mile) and increasing the speed each mile so that I finished at 7.1 (8:27/mile). The cleaning staff at my apartment gym decided to clean while I was there and the small gym stank from chemicals, which was exacerbated by the fact that they turned off the fans. The worst was when the cleaning man actually sprayed my treadmill with disinfectant while I was running on it. I should have just run at the trail. 

After my run, I did 25 minutes of Pilates back at home. Pilates always burns, and coming back to it after a month or more off made the burn in my core even more noticeable.

Thursday: AM: 4 miles with Charlie, 8:53/mile. PM: 25 minutes of strength training.

This was Charlie’s first run in about a month and he started making his special puggle noises of joy when he realized we were going to the trail. I let him set the pace, except Charlie is the king of positive splits, so after the first mile at 8:15, we slowed down significantly until we were just at a trot over the last mile. 

After Ryan got home for work, we half-heartedly went to the gym. I really wanted just to sit on the sofa and drink beer while watching Fringe on Netflix, but I also know I need to work on building strength. I did this circuit from Eat Spin Run Repeat, with a few modifications of single leg squats instead of regular squats and I added a bridge with reverse fly because I need a stronger back for backpacking. 

Friday: 7 miles in the rain, 8:22/mile. 

Even with wind gusts in the 20-25 mph range, I loved every minute of this run. The first half was out into the wind, so I felt like I was flying for the last half and neared my goal marathon pace with very little effort. The rain was just noticeable enough to enjoy it, but steady enough to drench me. My shoes, shorts, and jacket were all soaked by the end of the run. I think I’m actually eager for rainy season around here, as long as it doesn’t get TOO rainy to interfere with hiking. 

Mile Markers: Running in the Seattle rain

Saturday: 4 miles on the treadmill, 1% incline, 8:07/mile.

No hiking today. The entire region was under a flood warning and, combined with the high winds, it simply would not be prudent to hike in this weather. So, instead, we worked out at the gym in the morning. I felt sore and stiff still from strength training so much (for me) throughout the week and an easy run on the faster end of the pace range helped shake out any stiffness. 

Neither of us dressed up or did anything special, beyond handing out Halloween candy, but we did dress Charlie up as a unicorn. It was mortifying for him and hilarious for us. It took us several attempts to actually get him to look at the camera. 

Mile Markers: Charlie the Unicorn Halloween 2015

Sunday: Rest day. 

We woke up early to stream the New York City Marathon (they’re 3 hours ahead of us!), which is one of my favorite races to watch each year. Since we were unable to hike, we drove through Snoqualmie Pass to see the autumn trees and some of the snow that was falling on the mountains (you get beautiful views even from I-90 through the Cascades). After not having a rest day last week and being gone for most of last weekend, it did feel good to rest and spend most of the weekend at home. 

32 miles running | 0 miles hiking | 3 supplemental workouts

[Tweet “Base building, Pilates, and mile markers via @thisrunrecipes #fitfluential #sweatpink”]

Goals for Next Week:

  1. Keep up with the strength training and include at least 2 sessions of Pilates.
  2. Run 30-35 miles.
  3. Add in a small fartlek workout! Now that I’m well recovered from the Portland Marathon, it’s time to add in a tiny amount of effort work. The fartlek will probably total no more than 10-15 minutes of harder running (so less than 8% of my total weekly mileage) over the course of a 5-7 mile run, so it will not be a huge increase in intensity – just something to add variety and a bit of speed to my legs. 
  4. Increase my “long run” to 10 miles (not that it will actually be a long run, since I cover 10 miles in less than 90 minutes,  but it will be my longest run since the marathon).
  5. Read more. I am working my way through Brad Hudson’s Run Faster from the 5K to Marathon and I also want to pick back up The Fellowship of the Ring and resume the habit of reading for leisure. 

Questions for the Day:
Tell me about your training last week! What was your best run?
What are your goals for next week?
Did anyone race this weekend? How did it go?

Sign Up for My Newsletter for More Running Tips

* indicates required

Share this post

17 Responses

  1. Looks like another good week! That fog seems pretty intense. That only makes the dark mornings around here worse. My goal for next week is to get in most of my runs and workouts even though I am going to be pretty busy at a conference. At this point I know I have put in enough work that 1-2 missed runs is no big deal, but its also my stress relief so I feel like I’ll be better able to manage life if I can run:)

    1. Thank you! The fog does make the dark mornings seem even darker – I’m so glad the time change brought some light in the mornings. I hope you’re able to get in some runs at your conference – it sounds like you’ll be busy!

  2. My best run was probably my trail half marathon on Saturday- I surprised myself big time. I also had a nice confidence building 16 x 400m workout on Wednesday at the track. It looks like you got some great workouts in as well and cool that you train with kettlebells. I have a few friends that do and I want to try one of my friend’s classes in a few weeks after my half.

    1. You ran an amazing half marathon! All of your training is definitely paying off. 16 x 400 meter sounds so challenging! And thank you! Kettlebells are such a fun and effective workout – you should try your friend’s class! 🙂

  3. I can’t even believe that the guy sprayed your treadmill while you were ON IT!!!! Hahahahahaha! That’s absurd. Charlie’s outfit is so cute. I love the pic of you two.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *