Weekly Running Report: June 20, 2021

 Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all doing well! 

How's training going? Any races (IRL or virtual)?  

Hopefully, you saw my recent announcement that I have been selected to be a Philadelphia Weekend Ambassador! If you missed my announcement, you can check it out here. Or here on Facebook! 

Reminder, if you're just skimming my blog, lol..  reminder that I also have gear and race discount tabs/pages on my blog site to check out as well. :) 

My Week in Training:

Monday: 7 miles. So.. the previous week, I did 60 miles, including 28 mi Sat/Sun. Usually do a rest day Sunday, but my sched may be off towards the end of this week, decided to get a few extra in while I had the time. Sunday, hydrated very well, ice bath, foam roll/stretch, but did offset hydration slightly with SundayFunday drinks. And of course I didn't want to go to bed on time. Dreaded end of weekend feeling. Up just before my alarm and a little tired. Coffee, 38 min strength training (arms/shoulders/core), hydrate, roll my back out and out the door by 6. Planning on going with a comfy pace today, we shall see.. Started out a little better than expected, still not going to over do it though. Inclines as I approach the hills. fading closer to what I expected to do today. Countdown was on, for sure! Legs feeling it a bit, but not horrible. 

Tuesday: 7 miles. Monday, hydrated well, foam roll/stretch, legs starting to feel extra mi/lack of rest. Was sure to at least ice my shins. Intentions of getting a better night's rest. The intentions were definitely there. Thunderstorms on/ff throughout the night. A couple cracking thunders woke us up multiple times, and then up way before my alarm. Up, might as well get a good workout in. Coffee, 45 mi workout (arms/shoulders/chest/core), thought about heading out a few min early, but tummy said no. Out by 6. Today, it was my calves that was sore. Felt a bit like slow motion and calves burning a bit, but pace was better than expected until the last few hills. 

Wednesday: 7 miles. Yup, another 7 miler! Wed is supposed to be rest day, but you know.. May be missing a few miles in a few days, a few extra till then. 

Tues, hydrated somewhat ok. Met my goal, but faded later in the day. Foam rolled/stretched, iced my shins. Shins are ok. Tight, but ok. Decent rest and up before my alarm, but waited it out a bit. A little groggy, tried to get a few min more rest. Have been getting consistent rest, but up early each day. Coffee, 35 min workout (chest/core, and got 10 more min later in the day). hydrate and out the door by 6. Legs overall soreness and calves, planned on going comfy. That was the plan. Weather was great. Temps nice and slightly lower humidity. Felt refreshing. Pacing ended up being better than expected again. Pacing 8ish. Figured to fade to 8:15+ by the end of the hills, but maintained sub 8:10. Not sure if it's the nice weather, but better than expected for how I felt. Not sure if it's the focus on breathing and form (when it's rough I may focus a bit more on a mental countdown of each min, lol), etc, but not over doing it. And the weather was enjoyable. :)

Thursday: 7 miles. Day off work, yay! Road trip in a bit. But enough time to do my normal weekday schedule. Up before my alarm. Coffee, 35 min workout (arms/shoulders/core), and out the door by 6. Weather was wonderful! Backlogging a bit, didn't write today today. Not many notes, but my calves were still sore (might be ongoing for a bit, lol). Not sure if it was due to the great weather or the fact I had plans in a bit, but best run pace wise for the week. 

Thursday hike: road trip to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia! We have traveled through WV several times, but never actually visited. WV is my 30 state visited. 3 hour drive for us. Today's hike, Maryland Heights. 4.6 mi, 1100 ft elevation gain. We drove to the National Historic Park. Bus from the park welcome center to the historic town. Small town. Walk over a long bridge across the river. approx half mi on a flat gravel walking/cycling path to the trail head. The path would be great for running and goes at least 61 miles (according to the mi marker we passed). Starting from the trail head, incline that looks to just keep going up through the woods, lol.. The hike was not very technical. Some rocky terrain, but not too technical. About 2 mi up, you go down a path about .4 to the vista. So, leaving the vista, it's not just downhill. Have to go up a bit before your descent. A little tired on the descent. The vista overlooks Harper's Ferry town and the rivers. The Potomoc and Shanandoah rivers are on either side of the town and merge just below us. Vista was well worth the journey.

Pics on IG, (will update with link to FB)

Friday: 7 miles. Was only planning on doing a few since I did a run and hike yesterday, but once I got going, felt decent enough to do 7. Thu, hydrated plenty, especially after that hike. Failed to stretch or foam roll, didn't event pack my roller.. Googled some walking/cycling trails, didn't really find much. There is a long trail in the next town over, but didn't want to travel too far. Concierge mentioned a nearby park. Jefferson County Memorial Park. Went over to check it out. Did a loop. .5 mi loop around the park. Narrow paved path, winding, with a few steep incline/declines. Declines hurt a bit on the knees, probably more from yesterday's hike. Could also vision wiping out if going to fast down if there was any dew/moisture. Off the trail I go. The neighborhood streets didn't have sidewalks, but wide enough to avoid any traffic. Zigzagging I go. Of course I found the few inclines to be had.. lol.. Also found a decent sized cemetery, did a couple loops around there as well.

Saturday: 6+ mi. Was planning on doing 5, for real this time.. Previously, when leaving our hotel, we didn't see any safe streets to walk/run from our hotel. Highways. Yesterday, we saw the exit on the other side, after a few hundred yards, there is a sidewalk. Just have to cross an exit from a highway. Once crossed, sidewalk goes down the side of a nearby Casino/ horse race track. Ran by stables and the warm up track, kind cool on the way back as they were warming up a few. Once on the other side, zigzag a neighborhood. Very different neighborhood scenery than yesterday. Zigzag for a bit, with plans on turning around at about the 1.5 to go mark. Well.. I thought I was going back/forth parallel to the casino. That's what I thought. On the way back, lost the casino and sense of direction was just a little off. Almost had to pause to look up directions. On the way back, hit the main street of the town, which was out of the way, but helped me reset my bearings. Few streets down to the casino and back. Ended up at 6+. Briefly thought about doing 7, but didn't since I really only wanted to do 5 to be somewhat comfortable for a short long run tomorrow. (my training plan usually has 30-40 min run the day before long run day).

Sunday: 12 miles. (or 11.95, darn tech, lol). Returned from our trip yesterday evening. Already had most of my running gear ready before we left, so that didn't take long. Tired yesterday after a busy day and traveling, unpacking, etc, but still looking forward to getting a "long" run in today. Going with 12 since if I was following my plan, would need to do at least 12 this week. Could of done 9 to hit my weekly mi goal, but wanted to do the planned long run. Decent night's rest, did try sleeping in a bit, but up before 6. Coffee, taking my time, over to my trail by 7:30. My trail Pennypack Creek. Park in the middle, Welsh and Terwood Rd. Did the more wooded side to County Line Rd first. Pace, figured to be a sower/comfy pace, but started out at 8ish. Took a bit to pull back, but did eventually. Up the hill before the turn around, did fade a bit closer to what I expected. On my way back from County Line Rd, bumped into a friend going the opposite direction. Turned around and did a mi with them. Turned back. Passed the midway parking lot at 9+mi.  (should of been 7, but the mi back and forth due to the impromptu turnaround). Was sure to hydrate at my car, for sure! Needed it! Humid to start and getting warmer out! Off to the more open side to Rockledge. Turning back about 1.2 to go. Definitely tired towards the end, but done! 

Full pics on Facebook

What did I do besides run, workout, work, and chores this week? Hiking, and water tubing in Harper's Ferry, WV. also found some nice restaurants, winery, and breweries.

Watched HLN's Very Scary People (murder docu series), Loki! Have been looking fwd to Loki, was entertaining, can't wait to see where this leads! baseball, basketball.. 

Q: How about you? Anything exciting outside of running? Any adventures? Binge watching anything?

Weekly Summary:

Miles: 53.3 weekly miles running 

Year to Date: 1162.4 miles running 

Hill Goal (for the yr):   66479/100k elevation gain. Initial goal 100k to beat last yr's 98k. 

Strength Training: Goal 180 minutes, 196 minutes completed. What type of strength training do I do? Core: crunches, planks, leg raises. Weights: biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest. 

Hydration Goal:  7 days 

Foam Roll: 4 days 

Training Plan:  Loosely following the below plan structure until it's time to follow for a race. 

Image from Coach Jenny Hadfield

Race Schedule: 

10.17.2021 - NJ Marathon - deferral from spring 2020. 

11.21.2021 - Philadelphia Marathon - deferral from 2020 (registered the day after 2019's race!). Definitely a fav! If you haven't registered yet, I have a discount code. Hit me up on a social DM! 

Be sure to check out my Race and Gear discount pages from my blog site. #BibRavePro ;)

Good luck to everyone with training! Kick some butt! If you do any races(virtual or IRL), please remember to review them on BibRave.com!