Highlight of the Week: A surprisingly successful speed session.

Monday | October 19, 2015: teaching strength class
Strength: plates & cones, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | October 20, 2015: 9 m run
Loc: hood + Millennium Trail, Temp: 60°/57°, Time: 1:24:58, Pace: 9:26 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Wednesday | October 21, 2015: 10 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 55°/55°, Time: 1:36:14, Pace: 9:37 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but bored at first and too warm
Thursday | October 22, 2015: 20 mins strength + 6 m run (incl. 3×1) + 4 m recovery ride
Loc: hood, Temp: 57°/56°, Time: 50:44, Pace: 8:27 avg, Difficulty: easy then HARD, Felt: good
Indoor Ride: Time: 20:54, Pace: 11.5 mph, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good to spin the legs
Friday | October 23, 2015: teaching strength class + 8 m run
Strength: plates & cones, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 52°/54°, Time: 1:17:57, Pace: 9:44, Difficulty: medium, Felt: half asleep / held back by the wind
Saturday | October 24, 2015: 10 m ride + 4 m run
Indoor Ride: Time: 45:02, Pace: 13.3 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 65°/65°, Time: 36:32, Pace: 9:08 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but too warm
Sunday | October 25, 2015: 19 m run
Loc: Around town, Temp: 40°/50°, Time: 3:14:12, Pace: 10:13 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good

Notes:

• Buah ha ha, I totally wimped out on running on Monday. I had the time to run, but we had 24 mph winds with 34 mph gusts. It was warm out, so the wind wouldn’t have felt awful, but I am just so over HEARING it whistle in my ears. Gah, doesn’t this seem WAY too early in the year for me to be complaining about wind? Typically, it doesn’t bug me until mid winter and spring. WTF is my dealio?! At least running in it so much lately has made less windy days feel like a dream. Zzzzzzz, blah blah blah, weather.
• I decided to do 3 mile repeats for my speed workout this week. Mile repeats are the most intimidating speed workout to me (then ladders, ugh), so I was just hoping I could average 8:00 minute miles. I was surprised when I hit the first split in 7:18! And the second in 7:20! And especially the third in 6:52 (yeah, that was hard). Thinking about it now, that probably is where I should be if I am trying to beat my 22:38 PR. I would need to average 7:16s in a race to beat that PR by 3 seconds. And yeah, it would be nice to PR by more than that! Eh, we’ll see if it happens.
• I used a gift card leftover from Christmas (oops!) to get a massage on Friday. Ahh, heaven. I have massages scheduled for pre-race week in November and December too. Even if I don’t do those races, I am still getting the massages!

Link to Training Week 313

It’s not $20, but it’s the lowest I’ve ever paid! YAY!

And… that’s enough shoes for awhile. Unless my speedwork shoes go on sale… or my trail ones…

And other tracking methods…

I keep a safety pin in the band of some of my black shorts and capris, and it’s not to hold them up*…

It’s so I know how old they are!

Since a lot of the items in my running uniform look the same (because they ARE the same), I’ve tried to come up with ways to keep track of how old items are getting (beyond sight and smell), and when they need to be replaced.

I’ve been tracking the mileage on my running shoes in my blog sidebar for a few years. Garmin Connect added gear tracking in the last year, so I use that as well. Knowing when to ditch a pair of shoes is mostly a feel and visual thing for me, but it’s nice to track shoe mileage, because sometimes, that is what clues me in that it’s time to retire the shoes.

Bras. Ha. I used to only wear the black ones to teach class, and the colored ones to run in – the running ones get more use, and get smellier, so I didn’t want to wear those to class by accident! Now I just keep them in two separate bins (although they get washed together, so I still have to sort them), instead of using the color method, and mark the date (month/year) I started using it, so if I see anything too ancient, I know to get rid of it. I know you’re supposed to replace bras pretty often, but the brand I buy seems to last a long time – I just ditch them when they’re too stinky.

And it’s the same with my shorts and capris – they last a long time, but get too schmelly, so they get tossed after awhile. I keep a safety pin in the newer ones – which I wear when I am going to be around other people. Ha – save the schmelly ones for solo runs.

The only other thing I have that is all the same, but don’t have a good way to keep track of the age of, is my socks. I just try to pay attention to if they are worn through on the bottom, then throw those out, and order new ones, if need be!

What do you do to keep track of the shelf life of your exercise items?

It seems I replace A LOT of my stuff because it gets too stinky – I just replaced my weight lifting and cycling gloves for that very reason! And throwing out a pair of gross shorts was what prompted me to write this!

*Ha, although, I have several pair of patterned ones that got too big, and I keep a big safety pin in them to use for that reason.

Highlight of the Week: Some really nice feedback after my fitness boxing class on Saturday (trainers appreciate feedback – positive or… constructive! Ha!).

Monday | October 12, 2015: 15 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: RL Loop, Temp: 63°/65°, Time: 2:32:50, Pace: 10:11 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great, grateful it became overcast
Strength: plates & BOSU, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | October 13, 2015: 4 m run
Loc: hood, Temp: 58°/59°, Time: 34:00, Pace: 8:28 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: good
Wednesday | October 14, 2015: rest
Thursday | October 15, 2015: 5 m run (incl. 6×400)
Loc: hood, Temp: 54°/54°, Time: 44:59, Pace: 9:00 avg, Difficulty: easy/medium, Felt: oddly heavy
Friday | October 16, 2015: teaching strength class + 8 m ride + 10 m run
Strength: plates & BOSU, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Indoor Ride: Time: 37:05, Pace: 13.0 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good – need to build my indoor mental endurance back up!
Loc: MT to Nippersink FP, Temp: 51°/50°, Time: 1:35:37, Pace: 9:36 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, but so annoyed w/the wind
Saturday | October 17, 2015: teaching fitness boxing + 6 m run
Strength: body weight and boxing (with step), Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Loc: Grayslake, Temp: 37°/39°, Time: 58:44, Pace: 9:47 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, dreaming about a hot chai latte
Sunday | October 18, 2015: 17 m run (miles 4-9 virtual w/Kelly)
Loc: Around RL, Temp: 32°/46°, Time: 2:57:19, Pace: 10:26 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great!

Notes:

• We had some real fall weather this week, and I loved it! (Okay, minus the wind.) Lows in the 30s? Highs in the 50s? Yes, puh-lease!
• I got to talk with Kelly during my long run this week. What a treat – I hadn’t chatted with her during a run since August!
• I’ve been building my mileage up in case I decide to run a marathon in December (and to lose weight to get ready for the race). I’ll decide on the race as close to it as possible… or whenever they start to threaten that it’s about to sell out!

Link to Training Week 312

Darn, 6pm.com, why you gotta toy with my emotions like that?!

It would have been a steal to get my running shoes for $20!

The message reads: We apologize for being unable to add ASICS Women’s Gel-Cumulus 16 Turquoise/Sharp Green/Navy Sneaker 12 B – Medium to your cart. It is no longer available.

Actually, they could have been a holiday gift for my mom – she wears the same shoe and size as me, and that way she could be twinzies (quadruplies?) with me, Grandma and Christina (we all have them in this color).

No dice, though.

For sh*ts and giggles, I emailed 6pm.com to ask them about the error message. Ha, had I not sent the email myself, I would have thought their response was spam, with how poorly written it was (and oddly complimentary to me). Basically, the gist was that they are no longer available, and I should buy a more expensive pair (even though they were still listed at $20 for 24 hours after that response).

Hee hee hee, I know, I know – I am being greedy! But as a heavier runner with an odd landing style, my shoes don’t last very long, so I stock up! One time I found them for $45 a pair. Maybe that will happen again!

On a different shoe note, I am totally NOT in to dress shoes. I cleaned out my closet this weekend and gave a ton to Goodwill, and tossed quite a few pairs, and still feel like I have too many.

But you can never have too many pairs of running shoes.

Highlight of the Week: Feeling strong on my runs and while teaching class!

Monday | October 5, 2015: 5.3 m run + teaching strength class
Loc: hood, Temp: 57°/58°, Time: 48:54, Pace: 9:13 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Strength: plates and BOSUs, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Tuesday | October 6, 2015: 10 m run
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 63°/59°, Time: 1:35:35, Pace: 9:33 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: fantastic – needed to decompress after work
Wednesday | October 7, 2015: rest
Thursday | October 8, 2015: 5 m run (incl. 2/4/6/8 ladder) + 10 mins kettlebells
Loc: hood, Temp: 74°/75°, Time: 45:21, Pace: 9:04 avg, Difficulty: hard, Felt: hot, challenged by the wind, SPENT
Friday | October 9, 2015: teaching strength class + 11 m run
Strength: plates and BOSUs, Difficulty: medium, Felt: great
Loc: Millennium Trail to Nippersink FP, Temp: 53°/56°, Time: 1:49:12, Pace: 9:55, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Saturday | October 10, 2015: 15 m run
Loc: around town, Temp: 42°/56°, Time: 2:35:37, Pace: 10:22 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent, sick to my stomach last 6
Sunday | October 11, 2015: 4 m run + 20 min ride
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 59°/63°, Time: 37:56, Pace: 9:28 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good
Loc: Millennium Trail, Temp: 63°/63°, Time: 20:00, Pace: 12.4 mph avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, wish it wasn’t so windy

Notes:

• It’s so fun to run this time of year and see people’s Halloween decorations in my neighborhood! Some people really go all out.
• My stomach didn’t care too much for the honey stinger waffle I ate at mile 9 of my long run on Saturday. I hope it’s just because it got hard (from the cold), not because my stomach doesn’t like those anymore (those waffles have become part of my successful long run strategy and it would be annoying to have to replace them). Speaking of the “cold,” I ran by a man walking his dog, and after we greeted each other, he goes “it’s so chilly!” I told him the sun was keeping me warm (I was wearing shorts and a tank and not cold AT ALL).
• When I run or bike out by my house I say hello to everyone I encounter. Or at least smile and wave. It’s so funny to go from doing that, to being in the city for runs and just pretending you don’t see the other person. I still smile, but usually don’t get a smile in return (not that I run in the city that much – just thinking about it).
• Which kind of course do you think makes a long run feel “easier” – an out-and-back, or a loop (or my favorite, point-to-point, with a ride at the end)? I saw a link to this Women’s Running article about making your long run feel easier, and was surprised they said recommended an out-and-back. Their reasoning was that you just mentally tell yourself to run half the mileage, then turn around, and tell yourself to do that again. I prefer a loop, because I like to feel like I am running someplace “different” – the hardest part of my loops is the 2 miles I almost always have to run to get in and out of my neighborhood. Otherwise, I like that I am not running back by something I already ran by, that day. (Not to say I never do out-and-backs – I sure do! I just like loops).

Link to Training Week 311