This started out as one post but then it got excessive, so I split it into two. Here’s part one!

1. For the past two weeks I have been enjoying TV coverage of the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. Towards the end of July I purchased a small sports package with our satellite provider. Since then I have been able to watch coverage of triathlons, ultramarathons, and various swimming and gymnastics events (National Championships, Pan Pac Champinships, etc.) in addition to the Youth Olympic Games.

2. Lady continues to improve after her leg injury. She is walking a lot better now and has put some weight back on. She seems to be eating and drinking a lot better now, too. When she walks around in the yard she continuously steps on her own feet, which makes me wonder how much sensation she actually has in her left leg. We are hoping to be able to introduce her back into the flock in the near future. No idea how that will go.

3. I have been watching Season 1 of Orange is the New Black on Netflix lately. The TV series is a lot different from the book! It’s still entertaining, in its own way, but I like the book better. I think if I had watched the series on Netflix first I probably would not have read the book.

4. Barry and I recently got involved with a group in the area that trains Bloodhounds for Search & Rescue. We got involved with the group after meeting a member of the group at the New River Valley Fair earlier this summer. So far we have only been to one meeting, and we just took Hank since we didn’t know what to expect. Hank did well in identifying someone in a line up based on a scent on a paper towel. He also did great on tracking someone that left a trail through the grass and was hiding in an open wooden building, also using a scent off of a paper towel. I’m excited to work with both him and Scout some more, although I don’t know if we’ll go as far as certifying them. This will probably garner it’s own post in the future.

I didn’t take any pictures at the meeting, but above is an example. However, when Hank is actually tracking he wears a harness and uses a 30 foot leash.

5. I’m currently reading The Fault In Our Stars. I decided to take a break from the Maze Runner series to read some other books on my wish list. I’m looking forward to seeing the movie (when it comes out on Netflix) for The Fault In Our Stars.

Did you know there was a Summer Youth Olympic Games? This is only the second one. The first one was held in 2010
If you have read OITNB and seen the TV series, what did you think between the two?
What are you currently reading? 

Last night I had my final speed workout of this training cycle. For my last date with the track I did 4 x 1200 meters with a 400m recovery. Despite my legs feeling very fatigued (I ran 48 miles from Thursday through last night), my workout went well. It seems that I really enjoy these longer intervals. Maybe it’s because you don’t do as many of them?

Last night’s workout equated to the same distance (interval-wise) as my first track workout of training. At my first one I did 12 x 400m, which seemed very intimidating. But it also added up to 4800m total for the speed portion, just like last night. And last night I was actually running a bit faster for an extended period of time, and with less rest. I guess that means I have gotten stronger over these past few weeks 🙂

The goal last night was 6:42. My splits came in at: 6:40 / 6:37 / 6:38 / 6:38. It was a bit warmer this week (around 78 degrees), but I still felt pretty good. I’m especially happy with that given that I’m coming off of a 47 mile week, which included a 15 mile long run this past Sunday. With last night’s workout in the books I said goodbye to the track for now.

My Tuesday workouts are not done, however. They’re just moving away from the track. For the next seven weeks, I’ll have strength workouts on Tuesdays. These are longer workouts that are at a slightly slower pace than my track workouts, but still faster than marathon pace. The Hansons describe these are more marathon-specific workouts. The five weeks of speed workouts are meant to prepare you, physiologically, for these longer workouts.

The strength sessions place an emphasis on volume in order to prepare you for the type of fatigue you’ll face while running a marathon. They’re actually double the volume of the speed sessions, with a much shorter relative recovery. I’ll start with 6 x 1 mile with 400m recovery next week (frightening) and gradually build up to 2 x 3 miles with 800m recovery (terrifying).

These workouts are too long to be done on the track. You risk injury when you are making a left turn continuously for 8-10 miles, not to mention it would be really boring. So the Hansons advise that you find a relatively flat section of trail to do the repeats. I have a spot in mind for next week, so we will see how it goes.

What type of workout is your favorite? It seems I enjoy long repeats (greater than 800m) best

My mileage continued to increase this week, but I’ve been feeling pretty good. My legs are in a constant state of fatigue, but they’re holding up. It seems like my calves have been feeling rough since training picked up about three weeks ago. This past week I started putting a focus on lots of stretching, foam rolling, and icing after every run and it seems to be helping.

Oh yea, and I’m halfway through training now. Eeeek!

Monday- Easy 5 miles with Sven (the treadmill). My calves were a bit sore but overall I felt pretty good. I enjoyed watching the first half of the Blind Side while I ran. Football season is finally here (almost)!

Tuesday- 6 mile track workout. This week my intervals continued to increase and I had 5 x 1,000 meters with 400m recovery on tap. I felt really strong during this workout and it was a big confidence booster for me. I’d say this was my best track workout so far during training.

It was in the mid-70’s outside and rained on an off, with steady rain during the last half of my workout. The gnats were really bad and I had them all over my face, arms, and chest. It was disgusting! I kept getting them in my eyes, too, which really sucks.

I completely forgot to check what I was actually supposed to run my intervals at before I left the house (oops!). So instead I just ran them at the same pace all the others have been at. For 1,000 meters that equated to 5:37. My splits were: 5:34 / 5:35 / 5:36 / 5:32 / 5:29. When I got home I found out I was actually supposed to run them at 5:30. But the good news is I was usually backing off right at the end of the interval to come in above 5:30, so I feel alright about that.

Wednesday- Rest day. My kingdom for a rest day!

Thursday- 8 mile tempo run, 10 miles total with the warm up and cool down. This week I jumped from 5 miles to 8 miles for my tempo run. There were a lot of strong storms moving through the area, so I ended up doing this run on the treadmill. Hopefully next week I can do my tempo run outside. There were a few times where our power flickered and the treadmill would kind of stall and then start up again. Luckily I was able to get my run in with no catastrophes. My middle 8 miles were right on marathon pace, which is not surprising since all I had to do was set the speed on the treadmill and run.

Friday- Easy 6 mile run. Once again I ended up on the treadmill (lots of treadmill this week). When I got home from work I was tired and just didn’t feel like running outside. To be honest I didn’t feel like running at all, but I got it done. The treadmill has become very convenient for my occasional introvert tendencies.

Saturday- I decided to take it easy in the morning and sleep in, because my body was really tired. I had a low key morning with the dogs while doing some stuff around the house. Around midday I headed up to do my easy 5 miler on the Huckleberry Trail (about 40 minutes away) because I had other errands to do in the area afterwards.

I had a decent, leisurely run. It’s not hard to hold myself back to my easy pace when my legs are already tired 🙂

Sunday- 15 mile long run on the Dora and New River Trails. Kim joined me for the first 3.5 miles, and then I was on my own from there. I had a pretty good morning for a long run – mid-60’s. It was 100% humidity outside, but it didn’t feel that bad initially.

I was feeling pretty good initially, but then I hit a rough patch shortly after 3.5 miles through 5 miles. I actually stopped when I got to 5 miles and stretched briefly and took some fuel. With my head on straight I continued down the trail to my turn around point (7.5 miles). My turn around point was just a bit after the Draper junction. It’s pretty neat when you run to another town as part of your long run 🙂

I stayed pretty strong from miles 7.5 through 13, but after that hit another rough patch for the final two miles. I fell off my pace a bit but I never stopped or walked, which took a lot of willpower. Overall I finished with an average pace about 10 seconds slower than what my goal long run pace is. But I’m not beating myself up too much. It was a high mileage week (a new personal mileage record, in fact) and I have plenty of long runs ahead of me to nail my pace.

In the evening we celebrated Scout’s second birthday with some puppy ice cream!

Total Miles: 47 miles

 

Today is Scout’s second birthday!

It feels like just yesterday that we brought her home, on a cold day in November when she was 14 weeks old.

Scout enjoys spending her days mainly napping. She’s the lazier of our two lazy dogs.

When she’s not busy sleeping she likes to play with toys….

….and chew on rawhides. She especially loves to chew on rawhides.

She also really enjoys spending time outside, as long as it’s not too cold. Even as a small puppy she would have her nose to the ground tracking things in the yard. Bloodhounds are made to track and it’s a strong instinct for them.

On a warm sunny day she loves to bask in the sun, and will often take a nap on the deck or under our shade tree.

Since the day she stepped foot in our house, she has been in charge. Despite being the smaller of our two dogs, she rules the roost and always has.

Scout enjoys going camping and getting to smell the smells of new places.

But she also secretly likes camping because there is a comfy couch in our camper for her to nap on. Occasionally she even gets to sleep in our bed.

As I mentioned, Scout prefers the warmer weather. She likes the summer time and in the winter she can often be found sleeping under the woodstove in the basement. When she’s upstairs she likes to crawl under the blanket with me on the couch. She’s our little cuddler. But occasionally she also likes to spend short amounts of time outside in the snow.

But she’s most happy when it’s warm and sunny outside.

During Scout’s first year she got a bit underweight because she was growing so quickly, so we started free choice feeding her. But during her second year she stopped growing as much but continued to love to eat 🙂 We had to switch to scheduled feeding because she got a few pounds overweight, earning the nickname “Tubbo.” She now will respond to either Scout or Tubbo. She’s pretty funny when she begs at the dinner table, too.

Instead of putting her chin on the table or her head in our laps, she lays on the floor and growls. When we look down at her she puts a happy look on her face and wags her tail. The growling often goes on during the entire meal.

This year her birthday celebration will include some time spent outside in the backyard, enjoying the sunshine. We may also take a nap (since I have to run 15 miles this morning) in my bed, which is a special treat. Finally, she also will get a new rawhide and possibly a puppy ice cream!

If you have pets, how old are they?

It’s time for another Runners Tell All link-up! This month, the we’re talking about your favorite person to train with and your favorite training plan: What’s the scoop on your day-to-day training? Are you a social runner or do you prefer to run solo? Any training tips?

I’m mostly a solo runner, but mainly because that’s just the way it works out during the week. If there were more running groups in our area, I would probably join in. But on the weekend I often run with my best running friend, Kim.

Kim and I met through our friend, Nicki. She had a blog about running that I came across when I was looking up race recaps for a local race. After clicking around on her blog a bit, I realized she lived in the same area as me and that we ran roughly the same pace. So I emailed her about meeting up. We met up on a Wednesday evening for a run, and Kim was there, too. She had previously met Nicki just by going up to her on a trail 🙂 The three of us began running together in the Fall of 2011. Nicki and her husband moved back to Texas in Summer 2012, and we miss her! Hopefully all three of us can get together for a run the next time she’s here visiting.

As far as my day-to-day running routine, I’m currently training for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 26. So I pretty much run every day except Wednesday. I’m following the Hansons Marathon Method, which involves high mileage and six days of running. Both of those are new for me, but things are going pretty well so far. I was so set in my ways with four days of running per week, with 1-2 days of cross training, and never thought I’d prefer something else. But so far I like the Hansons program better, even though some of the workouts really freak me out.

I’m on week 9 of training this week and it still amazes me that things are going so well. Yes, my legs are pretty much always tired. But through this training plan I’m proving to myself that I can do more than I thought I could.

I still had my doubts after reading the book cover to cover, but their training philosophy makes a lot of sense. Hopefully it will lead to the ultimate payoff and I’ll have a great day on October 26!

Who is your favorite training partner? What type of training plan do you prefer?

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