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Monday, February 01, 2016

Paradise Coast (Naples) Half Training Week 13

Saturday morning sunrise

Welcome to another Weekly Review linkup with Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. My training cycle focuses on the Paradise Coast Half Marathon on Feburary 14. You can read about the race here

Week of Jan 25-31

Monday
: 5 miles, treadmill, 9:20/mi
Tuesday: 3 miles, 9:08/mi
Wednesday: 5 miles, 8 x 300m hill repeats
Thursday: 1 mile, 7:58
Friday: 2.6 miles, 8:56/mi
Saturday: 12.1 miles, 10:26/mi
Sunday: 5 miles, 9:06/mi

Weekly total: 33.7 miles
This cycle: 314.5 miles
Streak day: 92

First off, I had my highest milage month ever!! January = 126.66 miles

Right before my phone died on Wednesday
We were still in Chicago on Monday and I opted for treadmill miles. The gym at our preferred hotel is hot-hot-hot (71°) so I figured it would be good "warm weather" practice. It was tough. I'm not very quick on treadmills and I started to overheat, so I slowed down around mile 3 for a walk and water break. Luckily, the Property Brothers kept me mostly distracted.

Tuesday's run was uneventful and slower than normal.

I followed my interval plan Wednesday and did 8x300m hill repeats in the middle of my 5 miler. I chose one of the biggest hills in the area and took breaks at the bottom when I needed them. Phew. It kicked my butt, but I did it! Unfortunately, it was so cold my phone died when I took it out of my pocket to take a photo. Bummer because I was listening to an audiobook.

Thursday was a quick-ish mile with Alex. My legs were tired from the hill workout, so I'm pretty surprised we went sub-8. I meant to run before work Friday, but slept terribly so I went before sunset. It was my worst run of the week. I was tired and stopped at 2.6 instead of finishing the full 3.

Paying tribute to the late Afroduck (the article has some great photos).

Saturday was 12 with my training group. The fulls had 10 miles and I was able to get the remaining 2 with a running buddy. I felt pretty meh about the whole thing at the beginning, plus we had to dodge so much ice. My group takes water breaks every 2 miles and there were a few busy road crossings, so by the time we hit the turn around I felt like we'd stopped way too many times. I looked at my Garmin after and we had a total of 10 stops (!!) which equated to almost 12 minutes of dead time. My legs would get super tight during those stops (it was cold). On the plus side, when the fulls split from the halves we took a few less breaks and did a fun tour of the Ohio State campus, including the Afroduck stop above. We also picked up the pace. My group is 10:45 and I don't think a single mile of my run hit the correct pace. I guess we were all in a hurry.

A new bridge along the route


Mid watch restart. Shorts weather!
Sunday is normally a mile recovery day, but the weather was amazing (61°) so we had to take advantage of it. After seeing The Revenant in the morning, Alex grabbed his bike and escorted me along a section of the Alum Creek Trail. The trail used to be a bunch of disjointed sections, but a few connector bridges were finished earlier this year. It was a lovely trail, but I'm glad I had an escort. We saw at least 5 dudes that were totalllllly high just chilling along the path and enjoying nature. Back to the run: My legs were tired from 12 on Saturday and I took a few breaks for bridge photos, but overall I felt pretty strong. I tried to pretend the last 2 miles were the end of a race and my last mile was my fastest!

This was my last long week before Paradise Coast. Normally I feel relief when I hit taper, but this time I'm thinking those crazy thoughts I've seen other bloggers mention: "Well, maybe I need more speed work. Am I fast enough?!" "One more long run would make me feel more prepared!" etc. But I know deep down taper's here for a reason and I'll make it to the finish line. The potential humidity and heat still freak me out (OMG it was 70° with 80% humidity at 7am today!), but if I just keep running I'll be ok.

How was your week?
What's your goal for February? (Mine: make it through race day without melting.)


13 comments:

  1. Great training week! Love the shorts weather! My february goal is to continue to build my base and get stronger in preparation for my training season which starts 2/29.

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    1. Thank you! That's a great goal! I see you are very speedy -- wishing you the best in your next training cycle! :)

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  2. That's a lot of running ! wow. Glad you were with your man while running on trails. I completely freak out when I see weird dudes hanging around. I will turn around, cross the street or even go way out of my way to avoid something I am uneasy about.

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    1. I have never seen so many dudes just hanging around a trail. They didn't look particularly dangerous, but you never know and it was nice to have someone with me! I will also go out of my way to avoid suspicious characters.

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  3. Yea! So glad you are feeling positive about your race. I loathe those miserably hot hotel gyms. I haven't been in one in a while but when I was traveling a bit for work, I used to just prop the door open. :) It helped a little. Great week of workouts, Elizabeth!

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    1. Thanks! Good idea on propping the door open. I figure people who don't workout must control the temperature! ;) I definitely understand not wanting folks to mess with the temps too much, but it's way too hot!

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  4. Wow it's a good thing Alex was with you, that can be scary. Out where I run sometimes which is where there is usually a lot of people walking and running. Every once in awhile you'll see males without the correct shoes to be exercising. You just stay aware but they can make you nervous. Better safe than sorry right? You had a solid week of workout so great job on that! Bet it was nice to be able to wear shorts but I'm afraid it's just a teaser. :) Thanks for linking up.

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    1. The trail was nice besides the dudes -- luckily they were teens/early 20s so not too intimidating, but still very odd. haha I'm ready for spring!

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  5. Congratulations on your highest mileage month ever! I couldn't help but read the article on Afroduck. His death is certainly bringing people together. I have a thing for bridges and the first one you have pictured is very lovely. At this point, I would relax and trust my training. You've done the hard work and now just enjoy the taper. Thanks for linking with us Elizabeth!

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    1. Thanks for the taper advice! :) I love bridges, too, and this section of trail had 5 new ones-- all unique with great designs. Very cool.

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  6. Congrats on your top mileage in January! That's some impressive mileage. Good luck on your upcoming race!

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