Week in review Oct. 28-Nov. 3: Run, ride, trick, treat

Not logged is passing out candy time.

Ugh, I am WAY behind in my posting. I have so much to talk about – October wrap up! Another FTP test attempt! – but last week was a bit tricky, and I’m just now feeling like I’m catching up.

The week started off weirdly by doing my “long” run from the week before on Monday, since that whole week and weekend had been thrown off by getting sick and a gloomy, lazy Saturday. Because of Halloween falling on this past Thursday, I knew I needed to stick to a strict run-bike-run every other day schedule this week. I wanted to go for one last after-work run in the daylight on Friday, before Daylight Savings ended; I wanted to get back on schedule for my usual long trainer ride Saturday and “long” run Sunday; and I knew we’d be celebrating my dad’s birthday on Sunday and would need to run in the morning.

So although I had a super high-for-me-right-now run mileage, that was because I did two “long” runs, on Monday and on Sunday. I ended up skipping my trainer ride on Thursday to go pass out candy and eat my weight in pork carnitas at our friends’ house (totally worth it). I am bummed I ran out of time to do “other” workouts, but I did make runs and bikes the priority, and I did get my flu shot, AND I did a bunch of healthy food prep during the week. Healthy eating is definitely a time investment!

But, enough complaining. I managed:

Run: Four times, three on the road and once on the treadmill, for 29 miles (!!!) in 4 hours, 50 minutes. Like I said, this is two “long” runs so this high volume (for me at this point) is an aberration. A few notate bene:

• Monday’s run of 8 miles felt pretty good until some IT band tightness at the very end. I enjoyed what is probably my last short-sleeved run of the season, but very stupidly wore sunglasses (prescription – I don’t wear contacts). I stopped way too many times to take pictures of pretty leaves, which didn’t help racing the sunset, and could barely see by the end because it was dark and/or blurry! Funny in retrospect, but in the moment I was worried that I was going to trip over my own feet and/or get axe murdered. Run miles averaged about a 9:47 minute per mile pace, a decent long run pace for me.
• Wednesday was cold and rainy and there was no way in hell I was running outside in that miserable weather. Call me a lightweight or whatever you want, but days like that are why we invented treadmills and gyms. 5 running miles that were boring but felt fine.
• Friday I HAD to get outside to enjoy my last after-work daylight run. It was brisk but not really cold. I did some random speed work of quarter, half, and three-quarter mile pickups, and saw a quarter- and a half-mile split that both were sub-8, which made me happy.
• Sunday I took advantage of the early daylight and got ahead of a busy day by getting up early-ish and doing my run in the morning. I was sluggish for a couple miles before my fuel kicked in, and my hips and IT band were a bit tight by the end, and it was legitimately cold, but I survived to tell the tale. 8.5 running miles worked out to an average of about a 9:39 minute per mile pace; again, not a bad pace for me.

Bike: Two rides, both on the trainer, for 37.5 fake miles in about 2:39. This was an interval ride on Tuesday and a longer ride that included another FTP test on Saturday. I was not going to give up Halloween carnitas for a ride, or wake up super early and squeeze it in, so I’m happy with this.

Total: 6 sessions in 7:28. It’s a little skewed because of the two long runs and one long ride, but it’s still an average of more than an hour a day, so I’ll take it.

It may not have been a spectacular training week but I ate well, got my flu shot, hung out with friends, went out to dinner with my husband, celebrated my dad, made a big batch of tomato sauce, and had a bunch of other fun and shenanigans. Oh, and ran and rode a bunch too. Overall, it was a pretty good week. I’m happy with it and looking forward to the next.