You guys! There’s officially thirty-two days until race day! Is it time to freak out yet? I may already be freaking out, but really I just need to know when it becomes socially acceptable to show it on the outside.

This week was a cut back week. The next two weeks on my schedule will be my peak for training. Instead of a ‘peak week’, I decided to do a 14 day-long peak. Fun stuff! Time for the final push before race day. Here’s a breakdown of last week’s training:

Monday – 3 mile easy run on the treadmill after work.

Tuesday – Cross training: 30 Day Shred level 3 Jillian Michaels workout

Wednesday –  Rest.

Thursday – 6 mile hill workout with Sven (the treadmill). I did 10 quarter mile repeats for a total of 1,239 feet in elevation gain. Two of my repeats were done while power hiking on 15% incline.

Friday – Cross training: 30 Day Shred level 3 Jillian Michaels workout

Saturday – 10 mile long trail run. This run was a million times better than last week’s run. It was so nice to finally just be able to relax and enjoy a nice long run on trails. The weather was perfect for a trail run, too: low 40’s and partly cloudy.

I ran with a new Garmin (because my old one bit the dust after 4 wonderful years) and in addition to the usual stuff, this one also tracks heart rate. It uses a sensor on the back of the watch to monitor your pulse in your wrist, so no heart rate strap is needed which is pretty cool. I used a heart rate calculator to determine that my aerobic zone should be 136 to 146 beats per minute. My watch shows the different HR zones and it also had my aerobic in the same range. I haven’t ever tracked my HR while training, but I know that the aerobic zone is pretty much where you want to be for both a long run and a long endurance race. I plan to pay more attention to it during my final weeks of training and on race day.

One funny thing about being able to monitor my heart rate. I had two different loose dog encounters during my run. Neither were bad experiences, as both times the dogs were well-behaved, relaxed, and friendly. But before my brain could even register how their body language looked, my heart rate spiked right up to 200 bpm the second they came in sight.

I also had my first ankle roll on trails this training cycle. At least I made it to week 10 before having one, that’s pretty good. This time it was about 3.5 miles in and my right ankle. It was one of those big rolls where your ankle bone actually bumps the ground. Luckily, it only hurt for about a quarter mile and then I was alright. No swelling or bruising. Oh and I spotted another Christmas ornament in a tree – unrelated to when I rolled my ankle 🙂

Sunday – 5 mile easy run with Kim in the afternoon. It was another beautiful day outside, and there were lots of other people out walking and biking on the trail. Dare I say we may be moving on from winter *knock on wood*

Towards the end of our run, we could hear the train approaching town. We tried to “race” him, but of course you can’t outrun a train and he beat us by about a quarter mile to the train depot. Always fun to give it a go, though.

Total Miles: 24 miles
February Total: 121.41 miles

This week was definitely a lot better than my past couple of weeks have been. I focused on making sure I’m eating enough calories each day and drinking enough, and I think it’s made a big difference. This weekly training recap is part of the Weekly Wrap link up, hosted by HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin’. Be sure to check out their blogs and see who else is linking up!

Have you ever used heart rate monitoring as an aspect of your training?

P.S. I also wanted to recognize yesterday, as it was the first anniversary of the day we very suddenly lost my sister-in-law Sara, just shy of her 28th birthday. I cannot believe it has already been a year. It often feels like it just happened, while other times it still feels like it can’t be real. It’s something I will never fully understand and it’s not something you move on from. But you do have to find a way to keep moving. Sara wouldn’t want it any other way.

They said that this winter would be colder and snowier than usual. The ‘they’ I’m referring to is not the meteorologists, who are often wrong. ‘They’ refers to the groups of old men I often see that hang out and talk in country stores. And they are usually right.

We had some pretty cold weather in October and November. Around that time, I predicted (with some insight from said groups of old men) that it would probably stay warmer through December and most of January. After that we would get the colder temperatures and snow storms starting in February through April or so.

I was fairly close, although our first big snow actually came towards the end of January. We have had lots of fluctuations with unseasonably warm days that snap back to freezing temperatures the next week so fast you get whiplash. Case in point: we got a couple inches of snow last night but are expecting high’s in the upper 60’s and low 70’s next week. Can we just move on to the next season already?

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate winter. I like snow when we get a lot of it and I don’t have to go anywhere, or when there’s a little of it and I can go run in it. However, I do not like snow when it impacts my plans or my training. And I definitely do not like bitter cold temperatures with freezing wind chills. All of that moaning and groaning, and it doesn’t even get that cold here, relatively speaking. But y’all, I am ready for spring.

The official first day of spring is only 15 days away. Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring, although I think he had some help with that. Irregardless, I say we just start spring tomorrow. What say you?

How has your winter season been so far?
What is your favorite season?

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for another Wedneday Word link up, hosted by Debbie! This week our word is serendipitous.

One definition of serendipitous is “come upon or found by accident; fortuitous” and another is “of, relating to, or suggesting serendipity.” I love when dictionaries define adjectives that way. It’s kind of a cop out. 🙂 So what do they say, then, about serendipity? It can be “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident” or “good fortune; luck,” So today, I’m going to tell you a story that encompasses all of those definitions. It’s a time last June when I got very, very lucky.

Back in June I had the privilege of joining Debbie on a team with members of her local Moms Run This Town for the Ragnar Trail Relay Appalachians in West Virginia. It would have been a pretty crazy weekend on its own, but we also added to it some strong storms, pouring rain, and a whole lot of mud. The multiple torrential downpours leading up to, and throughout the weekend, made for some pretty rough trail conditions. Add to that the sheer number of people running three sets of trails, and it was a downright mess.

Our MRTT team had buddied up with another team, so each of us had a partner to run with. My running buddy was Tammie, and we headed out together on our first leg that Friday afternoon. It was a 6.7 mile run that would take us around two hours to complete due to trail conditions. Early on we were running along and going through an area with a lot of boulders and a lot of shin-deep mud.

About a quarter mile past the boulder area, I realized my camera was no longer in my pack. Crap! I had been keeping it in the water bottle pouch, which had a broken bungee cord, so the camera sat loose in it. Up to this point it had never been a problem. But here I was, less than two miles into my first run of the weekend, and my camera was gone! I freaked out, and told Tammie I was going to back track a little on the trail and see if I could find it. She was so nice, and was totally okay with this. I could not believe I’d let this happen.

As I made my way back up the trail, other runners were coming by. Many of them asked if I was alright and when I said I’d lost my camera they wished me well on finding it (and probably secretly thought it was a lost cause). I got back to a spot where we had jumped off of a large boulder into a deep mud puddle, just as another runner landed in the puddle and then continued on down the trail. On a hunch, I reached down into the puddle and lo and behold there was my camera!! To this day I cannot believe I was able to find it.

I should probably also mention that my camera is shock and water proof. But this was definitely the most it had been tested. On top of surviving being left in that mud puddle, I can’t believe it somehow did not get stepped on and crushed by the other runners. That was definitely one serendipitous day, for sure.

When was a time you have experienced serendipity?

P.S. My camera now resides in a zippered pocket while I run 🙂