13.1 MILES!!!

Happy Wednesday friends! Wow, it's been a crazy week!!! The weekend really can't get here fast enough!

Let's talk about mine and my man's training. Um, holy cow, it's been awhile since we've hit the half marathon mark in our miles! I admit, I was excited to hit that number this weekend. I know it makes me sound crazy that I look forward to hitting higher milage, but there is definitely a mental/physical victory that happens when I achieve these goals. I will say, running the longer miles is getting interesting. To break up the boredom, the same ol same ol, we are trying different routes. Um, it felt crazy parking at one of our favorite parks, running to our favorite greenway and then running back to the park where our car was parked. You can't give up at that point…you have to get back to your car somehow (that would be running). Though, the run to the greenway seemed fast to me (well, technically it was faster than I normally run which I think is due to running with cars instead of the peaceful woods), we didn't really plan out the return route well enough. It left us having to run 3 circles around the park and that park in particular is HARD with a lot of hills. We earned that 13.1!

We started the run in 98% humidity which is hard folks! It's like running under water! At about mile 10 the rain finally came it. It felt amazing! Thankfully it brought the humidity down to a cozy 85%. It's pretty crazy that 85% humidity is cozy, but I guess it's all relative at that point.

My fuel for this run was a pack of jelly belly running beans, a strawberry pedialyte (we run with the packets to add to our water bottles on our belts) and a lot of water! After the run I immediately ate my cup of pickles and drank the juice. Did you know that pickle juice is supposed to reduce cramping after an intense workout? Also, I have to admit, I crave pickles like crazy when I sweat like that and all those sweets during running end up gagging me. Tony brought a banana for me too, but I could NOT eat anything sweet. I need to come up with some savory running fuel…

So, the workout breakdown for last week...

Monday - upper body strength training/5 minute plank
Tuesday - ran 5 miles/taught bootcamp
Wednesday - upper body strength training/HIIT/yoga
Thursday - ran 6 miles (best run in a long time!!!)/taught bootcamp/HIIT
Friday - upper body strength training
Saturday - rest day
Sunday - ran 13.1!!!!

I see a here that it looks like I don't work legs at all anymore, but I do. Normally I have some body weight leg exercises going during my HIIT routines. I'm also working on my planks more these days. They are my favorite core moves and I need to get back at them more regularly.

This weekend will be a 15 miler for us. It will be our first time hitting 15! Running with a plan definitely changes things up for me. I have more of an understanding of how my clients feel too with following a plan as apposed to doing whatever whenever when it comes to working out. I will say that I'm feeling a lot stronger on my runs now. I'm not hurting at all like I used to which is weird, but also comforting. It's very interesting seeing how this all plays out...