Training for 11/30/15

Last Thursday was, as we all know, Thanksgiving. I’d planned an 8-miler, but by the time I got everything done around the house, I only had time for a shorter run. I did an easy lap around the 4.5-mile loop. It was an absolutely beautiful day, in the 70s and sunny.

Dinner was great. I don’t mind hosting it at all, because everyone else does all the cooking. All we have to do is clean our house and borrow some tables and chairs from Clark’s work. I did make a couple easy vegetable side dishes, and I made sure I had two cans of Ocean Spray Cranberry Jelly for Aunt Helen, since she’d made such a production about having to “settle” for homemade cranberry sauce the last time we had Thanksgiving.

Friday was another unseasonably warm day for late November, sunny and in the 70s again. I took Pepper out for another easy lap around the 4.5-mile loop.

Saturday, I had the Huffin’ for Pumpkin Pie 5K in Rehoboth. Clark left super early to meet my brother at the beach house. Dave just bought himself a drone and he wanted to try taking videos of Clark surfing. Since I’d be gone for a while too, I dropped off Pepper at Clark’s grandmother’s house for the morning, pulling back into my driveway right behind TK, who was there to pick me up.

We drove to Rehoboth and got parked with plenty of time before the 9 a.m. race. After picking up our race bibs and event shirts, I ran an easy warm up mile.

It was a little cooler Saturday morning than it had been the two previous days, but it was still really nice weather for this time of year. I wore shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, but wished I’d opted for short sleeves instead at the end of the warm up mile. Oh well, too late now.

I joined the crowd at the start line. We got some last-minute instructions from the race director and then we were off.

This is the same course we run several times every year. I know it like the back of my hand now. Sometimes they start it on the straightaway, but sometimes, like this time, they start it just around the bend from the straightaway. It makes it a little dicey right after the start, when the whole crowd tries to make the turn, but after that there’s plenty of room to spread out.

I tried to just run by feel. I was hoping I’d made some progress on my 5K times since the summer series, but I also knew I’d still been majorly slacking on the speed work, so I didn’t really deserve to run any faster.

The Garmin chirped at the end of the first mile and I looked down — 6:52. Not bad!

I swear, I really thought I was maintaining my pace in the second mile. Imagine my shock when I heard the Garmin chirp and looked down to see 7:26. I’d slowed down more than 30 seconds! Ugh.

I tried to pick it up in the third mile but my body just wasn’t having it. Mile 3 was pretty much the same, 7:27. I’ll say the same thing here I said after every 5K I ran this year: I really need to make myself do speed work again!

Anyway, I gutted out the final 10th of a mile and crossed the line in 22:42. That was seven seconds faster than my best 5K of the summer, but still. Just a few years ago I ran this race two minutes faster.

Coming to the line.

I did another easy mile to cool down, arriving back at the park just before TK and her sister Kari finished. I got a slice of pumpkin pie they were serving to the runners.

When the results were posted, I’d managed a third place finish (of 19) in my age group — first place ran 21:15 and second was 22:22. I was also the 11th of 207 female runners and 45th of 368 total runners.

Oh, when I was looking through the album of finish line photos, I saw this one:

Get it? She’s a pumpkin pi(e) haha. Very appropriate.

After the race, TK and I got coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts and then did some shopping at the outlets, which were packed.

When I got home that afternoon, I got to see the aftermath of Clark’s first surfing injury. He’d gotten smacked in the head by his board, and it had sliced open his left ear. The whole ear was still caked in dried blood.

He said he hadn’t even realized his ear had been cut after it happened because the water was so cold. When he came out of the ocean, some other surfer had come over to check out my brother’s drone. When he saw Clark’s oozing wound, he excitedly pointed out the board-induced scar on his own face. I guess that’s like street cred among surfers.

I also got to see the videos my brother had made with the drone. I was very impressed! He bought this thing for $1,200 from Best Buy, and it can go 1,600 ft. in the air and a mile and a half away from the remote. He got some really cool videos of Clark in the ocean, and pretty much all of Fenwick Island.

Sunday morning, Clark had to get up and leave early again, but this time to go to the airport. He’s in California right now, where he’s getting ready to take another state contractor license exam tomorrow.

It was cold and drizzly yesterday. I didn’t really feel like running, but I was worried Pepper was going to poop in the house when I had to leave that afternoon to meet my friends for lunch, so I took him for a run.

It turned out to be a really nice little run, once I warmed up. We did a lap around the 5.5-mile loop. He didn’t poop though. I figured he must have done it earlier. I mean, that would be really impressive, if he could hold it through a 45-minute run.

I met my friends at the Olive Garden in Easton for lunch, which was fun, and then went straight back home to find — no dog poop! What a good boy! We spent the rest of the day on the couch. I kept thinking about going upstairs and bringing down all the Christmas decorations but… meh.

Today, I still have to take Pepper out for the last run of November, an easy 3-miler, and then I’m supposed to do some strength training.

And since this is the last day of November, here is my monthly summary.

Mileage:

• Week 1 (Nov. 1-7): 14.5 miles
• Week 2 (Nov. 8-14): 39.4
• Week 3 (Nov. 15-21): 31.1
• Week 4 (Nov. 22-28): 26.6
• Week 5 (Nov. 29-30): 8.5

Total: 120.1 miles

That’s down quite a bit from last month, but that’s to be expected, since I tapered for and then recovered from the marathon Nov. 8. I ran three races: the 8K and marathon weekend, and then the 5K this past weekend. I think I did OK in all of them.

Looking forward to December, I have the Rehoboth half marathon in a mere five days, which I would like to run in about 1:45. Other than a free ugly Christmas sweater 5K on Dec. 19, the rest of this month will just be about training for next spring’s Shamrock Marathon. I can’t believe it’s time to train for that again already!

Training for 11/25/15

I just got done running a bunch of errands before we host both of our families here for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Before I left though, I took Pepper for an easy 3-miler, and then I did strength training — abs, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights. That’s two weeks in a row I’ve done both strength training sessions on my training schedule. Impressive!

Tomorrow morning, I’ve got an 8-miler on the schedule, and then I have plenty to do around here before everyone gets here for dinner in the late afternoon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Training for 11/24/15

Yesterday, Pepper and I dressed like we hadn’t had to since March probably — dork jacket for him, full-length tights, wool long-sleeved shirt and gloves for me — and went out for an easy 3-miler. The cold temperature was bad enough, but the wind was really the cherry on top of the crappy winter weather preview sundae. It felt like it went through my clothes and cut right to my bones. I hate cold weather!

We got the run done, and then I went upstairs and did strength training, abs, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights.

Today, my usual Tuesday meeting is in the evening, so I was able to wait until the warmest part of the day again to run. Good thing too, because it was even colder this morning. 25 freaking degrees when we woke up!

By the time I took Pepper out to run, it had gotten up to the low 50s, perfect shorts and light long-sleeved shirt weather. The wind had also chilled out to just a breeze, and the sun was out. All in all, a rather nice day for a run.

I had an interval workout on the schedule, six 800-meter repeats. Once again, I just programmed the Garmin to measure out six half-mile intervals with quarter-mile recoveries between each, plus a warm-up and cool down.

We did a slow mile full of pee stops to warm up, and then started the intervals.

For the most part, they went OK, but Pepper is still kind of a pain to try to run these things with. Today, everyone had their trash cans out by the road for collection. Pepper is terrified of them. Every single one, we had to slow down and tip-toe past so he could keep his eye on them.

If it wasn’t a trash can, there was some car creeping by, the drivers keeping their eyes on Pepper, because he had a 5.5-ft. stick hanging out of his mouth haha. Well that just slowed Pepper down every time too.

After the final recovery, we ran another mile to cool down, completing the 6.5-mile loop.

I looked at the times for the fast intervals when we got home — 3:44, 3:40, 3:36, 3:43, 3:39 and 3:38, so my paces were all between 7:12 and 7:28/mile. We ran the entire 6.5 miles in 55:45, an 8:35/mile average.

Not gonna lie, those were quite a bit slower than I was expecting; I used to run 800s at a 7:00/mile pace or faster.

But, the final cool down mile, which felt pretty slow after the intervals, was only a few seconds slower than the 8:00/mile average I’d like to run in Rehoboth next weekend. So there’s a positive.

Speaking of Rehoboth, bib numbers were posted today. I’m 1226 and Clark is 1227. Just a little more than a week until everyone gets here!

Training for 11/23/15

It feels like freaking winter out there all of a sudden! EW.

Last Monday, I ran in shorts and a tank top. Today, sadly, I will have to layer up a little more when I go out for the easy 3-miler on the schedule — it feels like 34 degrees with the 14 mph wind chill. Poor Pepper will need his dork jacket.

Anyway, running didn’t go so hot this weekend. Saturday, it was still nice enough for shorts and a long-sleeved shirt, so I went out for my long run. I cut it down to the 10.5-mile loop, but even that just felt like too much effort. I didn’t feel as physically bad as I had the day before, but I just did not want to do it. I at least didn’t let myself cut the run any shorter.

I spent the rest of Saturday lazing about the house with Clark and Pepper. We stayed in that night too.

Sunday morning, Clark left to try surfing. It had gotten pretty chilly and windy overnight, so running the 5-miler on the schedule did not look at all appealing. Plus, I had this weird tight spot on the inside of my left knee. Seemed like a rest day was a good idea. I did a lot of stretching, something I’ve been really bad about for a long time.

In the afternoon, we went to my parents’ house to watch the NASCAR season finale, since we still can’t get NBC at our place. Jeff Gordon’s fifth championship was not meant to be, but he finished a respectable sixth in the race, which was third among the Chase drivers, therefore earning him a third place finish in the final points standings in his last season.

The only driver who finished higher than third in his last full season was Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was second in 2000, but he didn’t exactly get to make the decision to retire immediately following the 2001 Daytona 500.

The winner of the race and therefore the 2015 champion was Kyle Busch, who held off fellow Chase contender Kevin Harvick after a late-race restart.

Nothing against Busch, but I was really glad we hadn’t spent the money to go to Miami to watch him win — only because of all the jokes about someone else winning a championship in Bobby Labonte’s old ride I’d have had to endure haha.

Busch is the second driver to win a Cup Series championship in the No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing; Bobby did it in 2000. He’s also only the fourth driver to win championships in both of NASCAR’s top series, joining Brad Keselowski, Harvick and Bobby. And now Kurt and Kyle Busch are the second pair of brothers to both have won Cup Series championships — the other pair is Bobby and Terry Labonte.

“BOBBY LABONTE IS STILL RELEVANT!!!!” I screamed into the void…

Dammit. I hope he’s having a nice bike ride somewhere. I haven’t heard a word of any plans for part-time rides next season.

The good ol’ days! Remember Circuit City? This IS old.

Anyway, back to running. That spot on the inside of my left knee feels 85 percent normal today. I think a short easy run will be OK. And plenty of stretching after!

 

Training for 11/20/15

Today, I took Pepper for an easy lap around the 7.3-mile loop. If Wednesday’s run made me feel a little better about being able to run a good half marathon two weeks from tomorrow, today’s run dashed all that confidence and more haha. It was awful! I have no idea what the hell was wrong with me, but I felt sluggish and out of breath the whole way. Ah well. Hopefully on race day I’ll feel more like I did Wednesday.

Anyway, I never did that strength training yesterday, so I did it today after my run. Ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights. Better late than never.

Tomorrow I’m doing this week’s long run. I was planning on the 14.5-mile loop, but I’ll see how I feel a couple miles into the run. Sunday, I’m supposed to do 5 miles at goal race pace.

As far as non-running plans for the weekend go, the only thing I’m sure of is watching the final race of the NASCAR season — and Jeff Gordon’s career. So weird to think Wonderboy won’t be back next year.

Training for 11/19/15

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day we brought home Pepper! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures of him from the last year.

Looking like a grumpy old man.

Snoozing on the couch with Clark.

He looks like he’s about to ask for a ransom on Santa’s life.

The day Pepper let me know what he thinks of selfies.

Back scritches!

The time stamp on this one is 6:07 a.m., and he’d been staring at me like that for at least 20 minutes when I took this, wondering where his breakfast was.

So happy to be out in the woods.

Running the April Fools Challenge together.

Running across an icy beach at Indian River Inlet last winter.

I could go on all day!

Since we adopted Pep specifically to be my running buddy, it was appropriate that he went on a run with me today. It was just an easy 3-miler, in between the rain showers. Soon I’m going upstairs to do some strength training — for the second time this week!

Training for 11/18/15

Today I ran four mile repeats at half marathon race pace. I’m shooting for a 1:45 finish in Rehoboth in two and a half weeks, which is an 8:00/mile pace. Not so long ago that would have been an easy-ish half marathon pace for me, but now it’s kinda pushing it. Oh well, have to start somewhere.

It was warm and breezy today. I had to take Pepper with me, of course, since I really didn’t feel like cleaning up dog poop in the utility room floor for the second day in a row. (That’s what I get for going to the office yesterday.)

We did a mile (of pee breaks) to warm up and then I started the first mile repeat. The Garmin is back to looking like it used to when I’d do intervals — it just shows the number interval I’m on and how much distance of that interval is left, but not the current pace, so I really had no idea how fast I was running them until I was done.

The first mile repeat was, unfortunately, still along part of the route where Pepper is still trying to pee on everything. I kept having to yell “No!” and yank him along. It was also 100 percent into the wind.

When we made it to the first half-mile recovery, I let him pee to his little heart’s content. Then we sped up for the second mile repeat, the first half of which was still into the wind. Just after we made a turn out of the wind, he stopped to take a dump. I paused the watch and let him take care of business that time. I know what that’s like!

The next two mile repeats went fine and we ran the rest of the way home at an easy pace, finishing the 7.3-mile loop.

We ran up on something weird right at the end of the loop. One of our neighbors had somehow backed his Ford F-150 into a ditch across the road from another neighbor’s house. He’d gotten out of the truck and was walking back to his own house as his wife, who was still sitting in the truck, yelled something at him. All he said to me as Pepper and I trotted by was “I’m stuck.” Yeah, I can see that.

Anyway, when I got home, I checked my mile times: 7:53, 7:39, 7:36 and 7:42.

I ran the entire 7.3-mile loop in 1:02:44, an 8:35/mile pace. Not too shabby. Maybe I’ll run a decent half in Rehoboth after all.

 

Training for 11/17/15

I didn’t get up to run before my usual Tuesday morning meeting today, but I did get up in time to shower first. I don’t feel like getting all sweaty now, because then I’ll need another shower before we go to Mispillion River Brewing for a Thanksgiving stuffing cook-off tonight. (I’m not bringing an entry; I’m just paying $5 to sample everyone else’s and submit my opinions. If Thanksgiving dinner was nothing but dark turkey meat, Stove Top stuffing and pumpkin pie with my aunt’s homemade whipped cream, I’d be thrilled.) So anyway, today is now a rest day and I’ll make up what I was supposed to run Friday. The end!

Training for 11/16/15

The layout for typing in these blogs changed over the weekend and I am not liking this, not one bit! I hate change.

Anyhow… I had the lazy weekend I was hoping for. Saturday morning, I ran my 5.5-mile loop first thing, before the wind picked up. In the afternoon, we went to the Waterfowl Festival, which we spent in the beer and wine tasting tent. I got to see several friends and some of my family, but overall I wasn’t too impressed with the Waterfowl Festival. It’s probably more interesting if you’re into hunting or art, but I’m into beer, and there were only a couple of breweries there. Oh well, I tried.

Clark and I wound up staying overnight at my cousin’s place. Yesterday morning, we had breakfast with Clark’s parents when we stopped by to pick up Pepper. When we got home, I spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon lazing about. I did eventually take a shower and go to a friend’s house for her kid’s 7th birthday party.

The NASCAR race in Phoenix got rain-delayed for six hours. I was not expecting a rain delay in the desert, but there you go. It was after 9 p.m. when they finally got it going. I fell asleep about 75 laps in and woke up around 1:30 a.m., after it’d been called for yet more rain. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the race, and the four drivers going to Miami next weekend with a shot at the championship are retiring four-time champ Jeff Gordon, defending champ Kevin Harvick, single-car team driver Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch, who missed half the regular season after suffering a compound fracture of his leg in the season-opening Xfinity Series race at Daytona in February but came back around Memorial Day and worked his way into the Chase. Should be an interesting race! Personally, I would like to see Gordon go out a champion, but I won’t be mad whoever wins.

Today is the first day of Rehoboth half marathon training. I have an easy 3-miler and strength training on the schedule.

Training for 11/13/15

I didn’t do anything yesterday because of the blood donation the day before, but today, I took Pepper out for an easy 3-miler. I really didn’t feel any lingering effects from the donation, which was nice. It was a typical out-and-back with Pepper — slow on the way out, with plenty of pee breaks, and then a dead sprint on the way back, which was into a strong wind today.

I’m looking forward to a lazy weekend. I’ll probably run something tomorrow, but nothing long, and then take another rest day Sunday. Monday is the first day of a short training plan for the Rehoboth half marathon.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Waterfowl Festival, which I’ve never been to, despite having lived here my whole life. I think we’ll enter Pepper in the dock dogs competition, since he loves water so much. Ha. Actually, I’m pretty sure we’ll spend most of our time in the beer tent. I don’t really have any use for duck decoys or watercolor paintings of a flock of Canada geese.

Sunday is the next to last NASCAR race of the year. I’m hoping Kevin Harvick gets the win. We’re not going to Miami for the last race next weekend. At this point, we couldn’t even if we wanted to, because it sold out after Sweetie Pie won Martinsville and guaranteed he’ll have a shot at winning his fifth championship in his final race.