Brookings Half Marathon Training Race Week

Monday Planned: Race pace+speed 7 miles 4x100 strides, 2 miles @ HM pace
Monday Actual: Sick day.

Tuesday Planned: Recovery 5 miles
Tuesday Actual: A truly horrendous 3.61 mile run where I felt like death, had to stop several times to cough and hack up stuff, and ended up take excessive walk breaks to catch my breath from all the coughing. Basically that run race week to get you amped to hit your goals. :P

Wednesday Planned:  Recovery 4 miles
Wednesday Actual: Recovery 3.26 miles. My legs felt like death. Still gahhhh!!!

Thursday Planned:  Recovery 3 Miles
Thursday Actual: I opted for a rest day from running since my legs felt so terrible and I was starting to panic about it. POWER in the morning with a little less weight on the leg portions.

Friday Planned: Recovery+speed 3 miles 4x100
Friday Actual: 3.62 miles with strides and COFFEE!!

Saturday Planned: Brookings Half Marathon
Saturday Actual: Warm up followed by the Brookings Half Marathon

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: Rest

Total Mileage Planned: 35 Miles
Total Mileage Actual:  24.28 miles

Weekly Reads: Violent Ends

I volunteered to read this book for a young adult book committee that I serve on. And then the subject matter continued to be too real, on too regular of a basis, so I kept putting it off and putting it off. Until finally the deadline to have our books read and reviewed was *here* and I had to dive in. Unlike This is Where it Ends, this book is more about the before and after the school shooting that give little glimpses about the shooter from many different perspectives. It was really interesting, and I was hooked.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary from goodreads:

In a one-of-a-kind collaboration, seventeen of the most recognizable YA writers—including Shaun David Hutchinson, Neal and Brendan Shusterman, and Beth Revis—come together to share the viewpoints of a group of students affected by a school shooting. 

It took only twenty-two minutes for Kirby Matheson to exit his car, march onto the school grounds, enter the gymnasium, and open fire, killing six and injuring five others. 

But this isn’t a story about the shooting itself. This isn’t about recounting that one unforgettable day. 

This is about one boy—who had friends, enjoyed reading, playing saxophone in the band, and had never been in trouble before—became a monster capable of entering his school with a loaded gun and firing bullets at his classmates. 

Each chapter is told from a different victim’s viewpoint, giving insight into who Kirby was and who he’d become. Some are sweet, some are dark; some are seemingly unrelated, about fights or first kisses or late-night parties. This is a book told from multiple perspectives—with one character and one event drawing them all together—by some of YA’s most recognizable names.

Late Fall Race Plans

A couple of weeks ago, it was my favorite Ft. Worth running buddies birthday. In wishing her a happy birthday I was reminded that we had tentatively made plans for me to come visit in the late fall. Her birthday got my wheels turning again, and I checked to see the date of the Dallas half marathon. And then I checked on flights for that weekend. When I saw that flights were $180 (!!!!) we started making plans immediately. So I signed up for my 6th half marathon of 2018, and will run one more just prior to moving into a new age group in late December. 

Plus I get to have a fun race weekend with Dominique. I can't wait!!!

Race Goals: Brookings Half Marathon

Leading up to the 605 Running Co. Half marathon, I had thought if everything went perfectly that day, I could maybe come in just under 1:55. I knew my training was there prior to my knee getting pissed off, and I wasn't sure how much my endurance had been effected by some significant time off, especially from the long run, which is typically my weakness.

It just so happens that a 1:55 also corresponds nicely with my Brookings half course PR of 1:55:07. So my absolute A goal for the day is to run my course PR, ideally sub 1:55.


If this doesn't happen, my B goal would be to run under a 9 minute pace. It would be a huge thing mentally for my average pace to be an 8:xx.
My C goal, would be to run faster than the 605 half.
I love this race, so I just want to enjoy it and work hard. 

Brookings Half Marathon Training Week

Monday Planned: GA+speed 6 miles 2 sets 6x100 strides
Monday Actual: 605 Strength + GA+speed 6 miles 2 sets 6x100 strides. So many strides. SO MUCH WIND. So much degrees (80, wtf).

Tuesday Planned: Recovery 4 miles
Tuesday Actual: Rest.

Wednesday Planned:  VO2 Max 9 miles 2x1200, 2x1000, 2x800 @ 3k-5k pace
Wednesday Actual: Recovery 4 miles with the 605 Group Run. I got to run with so many new friends! 

Thursday Planned:  rest 
Thursday Actual: VO2 Max 9 miles 2x1200, 2x1000, 2x800 @ 3k-5k pace. Round and round and round we went. So many laps at the track. 

Also I'm obsessed with my new watch face.

Friday Planned: Recovery 3 miles
Friday Actual: Recovery 3 miles at the coffee run, just 10 hours after our speed workout. Woof. 

Saturday Planned: Endurance 10 Miles
Saturday Actual: Endurance 10 Miles, followed by ALL OF THE BEVERAGES.

Then we spectated the Howard Wood Relays. And my legs felt so horrendous after running and then sitting on bleachers for hours called for legs up the wall before bed.

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: Rest and ALL THE YOGA CLASSES.  Vinyasa, myofascial release, and restorative teaching. Woop!

Total Mileage Planned: 32 Miles
Total Mileage Actual:  32.15 miles

Weekly Reads: Emergency Contact

I love a book set in that freshman year of college. Rebirth, rebranding, just a crazy time in your life. And this book sounded awesome. And the cover, is gorgeous. I was really head over heels for this book, and then it just seemed to drag on a bit in the middle. I think it'd be a 4 star review if it had kept up the momentum a little bit! Still worth picking up and deciding for yourself!

My rating: 3 stars

Summary from goodreads: For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him. 

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

April in Review

Total Miles:  64.64 down from 106.01 miles last month.  104.9 miles last April. I'm pretty bummed to have missed the 100 mile mark for this month, as that was a goal of mine for the year. But I do think that it was important to listen to my body and err on the side of caution and rest to make sure that I could still race my planned races, and not keeping pushing to require even more time off. Still stinks. :(

Total Time: 10:28:03 down from 17:24:01. 

Total Runs: 15 runs, average of 4.31 miles/run

Highest weekly mileage: 

4/16/2018 – 4/22/2018:	19.3 mi	3:00:59	9:24 / mi

Most hardcore run: I honestly haven't had any challenging runs this month. Once my knee flared up, I cut all the speed work from my schedule and scaled way back on the mileage. The hardcore part of training was probably not doing all the miles and fun track work because I wanted to!

Favorite run: All of the coffee runs. It seems like Toni and I spent a lot of time not running together this month, and I missed *us*. We seemed to re-connect on Fridays and do a monster life catch up during our 3-4 mile runs.

Favorite Race: 605 Half Marathon. So hard mentally. So happy with the outcome.

Favorite Jam: Tegan and Sara's Every Chance We Get We Run. Still. STILL. still. Does anyone have a new song to suggest to me??! :P