4th week of HMR and the #runlovechallenge

The fourth week of my HMR plan and the first week of #runlovechallenge is done.  It was supposed to be an "easy week" - aka cut back on my long run - but it was tough, physically and mentally.  I had trouble sleeping this week.

Tough workout 1 was 1.6 mi warm up, 3 x 1600 @ 6:30 pace, 400 m jog rest in between each, followed by 1.6 mi cool down.  Again I was on the treadmill.  This was really tough for me.  Sweat was everywhere.  Apparently it shouldn't have been that tough, according to my coach.  My 5K could use some work.

Tough workout 2 was 2 miles warm up followed by 4 miles tempo @ 6:50-7:10.  I was doing this outside in the dark on Friday morning.  It was a little drizzly and 90% of the road was fine but that damn slippery 10% had it in for me.  Mentally, I wanted to quit the entire workout.

Tough workout 3 was a 12 mile run at easy pace followed by 6 strides.  True to form, I was nervous about this, but my youngest went down for a nap so it was go time.  I had my ipod loaded with episode 4 of Serial.  I have been taking an energy gel at one hour to train my stomach with them and it seems to be going ok.  I have continued to carry my 16 oz handheld water bottle with me but probably going to have to start stashing one of these weeks.  We had a warm spell on Friday - Saturday so most of my path was clear.  I intentionally tried to chase hills for this run and it worked out fairly well.  Overall this went well.

Total Miles Last Week: 28.95  (Plan Goal: 28.75 miles)

The Oiselle #runlovechallenge officially kicked off last Monday.  My partner for the challenge and I have a goal of getting a core workout in 3x a week - Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays.  We are doing the dirty dozen and a Kayla Itsines workout.  Rough rough rough!  It was easier to run a mile on these days than to do this core workout!  Challenge ends 2/14 - I'm hoping that by then, it will be enough of a habit for me to continue.  It definitely helps to have someone be accountable for this!

14 weeks until Boston!

In other running news, I had the privilege of watching my high school cross country coach get inducted into the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches hall of fame last Friday night.  It was fun to catch up with some of the people I ran with and see him!