Highlight of the Week: Feeling great on my runs / hitting faster than expected 400 splits / students (seemingly) having fun at my classes!

Monday | March 4, 2019: 10 m run + teaching strength class
Run location: Field House, Time: 1:44:56, Pace: 10:30 avg, Difficulty: medium/easy, Felt: sluggish until I switched from podcast to music
Strength: med balls, slam balls, oversized balls, Felt: good

Tuesday | March 5, 2019: rest
Wednesday | March 6, 2019: 5 m run (incl. 6×400)
Run location: hood, Temp: 17°/20°, Time: 49:44, Pace: 9:56 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, until the last half in to the wind
Thursday | March 7, 2019: 4 m run
Run location: Chicago Lakefront Trail, Temp: 27°/25°, Time: 39:47, Pace: 9:56 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Friday | March 8, 2019: teaching strength class + 8 m run
Strength: med balls, slam balls, oversized balls, Felt: good
Run location: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 32°/33°, Time: 1:23:36, Pace: 10:27, Difficulty: mostly east, Felt: sore from am class, but good!

Saturday | March 9, 2019: 15 m run
Run location: Lake Andrea/Outlet Mall/Ren Faire Loop, Temp: 32°/35°, Time: 2:54:53, Pace: 11:03 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: a bit tired at first, great when I switched over to music
Sunday | March 10, 2019: 4 m run
Run location: hood, Temp: 36°/36°, Time: 39:06, Pace: 9:46 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, despite being blown around

Notes:

  • During Monday’s indoor track run I got mad when I was engulfed by a class using the track to play a pass-the-ball game while they did “run aheads” (not sure what the correct PC term is, but when you are in a line in the person in the back sprints to the front over and over and over). The problem was that they all got in my lane then slowed down. But their coach yelled at them to give me space, and he apologized to me. Thanks, coach! And then I decided to just finish my run mad by ruminating about something that upset me from the day before, so my last few miles were my fastest, anyway.
  • And they were faster because I switched from podcasts to music. I love listening to podcasts, but whoa, they make me run slower!
  • My six-year teaching anniversary was Monday! And I didn’t remember until Tuesday. Oops. I really liked this strength cycle we just did, and it seemed like the students enjoyed it too. Yay!
  • We’ve had some windy days here this week, including my speedwork day. Happily, my 400 paces were under my goal 8:00mm, even when I was running in to the wind for the last two. Woo hoo! (I am thinking about training for a 5K the second weekend of May.)
  • I hit the green light jackpot on my Thursday city run! There are six intersections between my office and the Lakefront Trail. Three of them are multi-lane, and pretty major, so they can take a while to get a walk sign. I sometimes add several minutes on my run from waiting at these lights, but not on Thursday – there was less than a minute difference in overall time versus moving time from my run. I think that’s a record!
  • I’ve been thinking more and more about checking out a local running club, which is odd for me – I know I don’t like being in big groups, and I don’t like group drama. But I’m (sometimes) a bit lonely on my runs.

Link to Training Week 489