Another autograph added to my famous runners visor (which includes Frank Shorter, Deena Kastor, and Bart Yasso among others — I’ve been lucky to meet some very cool runners!). Some sleepless nights, some hot runs, and one last 5k for the summer (next race will be a 4 miler).
I’m joining up with the Weekly Wrap from Holly @ Hohoruns and Wendy @ Taking the Long Way Home to wrap up another week of training and racing.
Workouts update
- Monday: 3 treadmill miles (time crunch due to going to parents)
- Tuesday: Dogwalk
- Wednesday: Dogwalk, Speedwork (8 x 400m repeats) — total of 6 miles, PB Standing Abs
- Thursday: Dogwalk, 2 miles easy + 6 x 20 second strides (was supposed to be 8), Iron Strength Glute Blaster
- Friday: Dogwalk
- Saturday: Freihofers Women’s 5k
- Sunday: Dogwalk, Pilates Abs & Arms (I was totally going to take another rest day, until I realized I’d already had 2 rest days this week!)
Mileage: 15.5ish (-2.5)
JY = Jasyoga
PB = Killer B
TM = Treadmill
YFR = Yoga for Runners*
WU = warmup
CD = cooldown
SB = Stationary Bike
YFPR = Yoga for Pain Relief
YTU = Yoga Tune Up Lower Body*
*Disclaimer: Amazon affiliate links; I will make a small amount of money if you buy through these links
Running Updates
Monday
I so wanted to go to the unofficial FTC run, but we had to be on the road by 10 — I know it sounds like it would be easy to get in those miles before we left, but since I also had to feed the furkids (which is complicated), shower, change, make sure we had stuff for the dogs with us — time runs out quickly.
It was a strong easy run on the treadmill, if that makes sense.
Wednesday
I wanted to do this run on Tuesday, but going to my parents is always a tiring day and this was speedwork, so I knew I was better off putting it off a day. Both days were hot and humid, by the way.
While I didn’t hit my paces for much of the 8 x 400m on tap, I was pretty consistent and consistently close. It was also 74 and humid by the time I finished, there wasn’t as much shade as the previous week — yes, I’m really happy with this run!
Thursday
I had planned to move the easy run with strides to this day since I prefer some rest before a race — even when it’s a 5k, even when it’s not a goal race. After a mostly sleepless night Tuesday and a hard run on Wednesday, I figured rest would be more important.
Then I got out there to walk the dogs, and it was actually quite pleasant with some cloud cover and a breeze. And Friday is supposed to be rainy. So I quickly changed, made all the furkids wait on their breakfasts, skipped my warmup and just ran.
We all survived.
Saturday
When I opened the door to check the weather early in the morning, OMG it was so humid. Horrible. But by race time (9 am) the humidity had greatly dissipated and the cloud cover helped a lot, too.
I know a lot of people were complaining about the heat, but while it definitely wasn’t cool, it didn’t really bother me that much. It must have been my Skirt Sports Cool It skirt — all my hot runs lately (and there have been a few) in it have gone really well.
That was the race the group I was mentoring was training for, and while I will miss mentoring, I’ll enjoy having more flexibility with my running now — especially as it’s time to ramp it up for my next half next month.
I’ll recap the race on Tuesday.
Favorites of the week
You just never know what you’ll run into in this neighborhood. Well, any neighborhood I’ve ever lived in really. But we don’t live out in the country. Yet I was astounded to see that black goose wandering around our neighborhood while walking the dogs and on my run on Thursday.
When I googled Black Geese (read more about them here) — and there are several species of them that live in North America — none of them looked like the fellow I saw. Maybe he’s the opposite of an albino? Or maybe he’s young and will get more white later? Anyone have any answers for me? Actually, Paula @ Neveradullbling had an answer — a domesticated black swan, most likely a pet. Except he/she? was just wandering free in the neighborhood; it never occurred to me that it wasn’t a wild animal!
I met Joan Benoit Samuelson briefly at the panel of former winners for the Freihofers Run for Women,.
My raised bed have gone to weed the last few years. Quite literally. Between Chester, Bandit, and my parents, I just did not have the time for them. Mr. Judy helped me whip them into shape and I planted my small garden.
Mr. Judy also turned a small pallet that had been slowly decaying behind our shed into a small planter for me. The planters weren’t really deep enough for the plants, but they’re mostly herbs and herbs are pretty hardy so we’ll see how they do.
Blog posts that caught my eye this week:
- Strengthen Weak Hips
- Yoga and Injury Prevention
- 6 Running Bloggers Share Their Must Have Gear
- 10 Ways to Cause a Running Injury
This week I am also linking up with the Sunday Fitness & Food Linkup brought to you by Ilka @ Ilka’s Blog and Angela @ Marathons & Motivation.
Let’s get the conversation started:
Do you garden?
Favorite thing to grow?
Ever run an all women’s race?
Chocolaterunsjudy 
I ran with Joan several years ago when she offered that opportunity. She is sweet.
You know I ALWAYS run the FRW but I h ave also run the Shape Half in Nyc. i think all women’s races are great.
When I was a teacher (aka had the summer off), I was a big gardener – lots of flowers and big beggie garden. Now no time and not around to water them. I just have planters and window boxes. I usually also have patio tomatoes.
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The only other women’s race I did was ZOOMA — definitely not my best experience, but the extreme heat & humidity probably had a lot to do with that.
I’ve never really done a big garden, but I’ve had small patio gardens on & off all our married life. The last couple of summers were tough (don’t ask me why I decided to set it up when I’ll be training hard all summer long).
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It’ll give you a break from running. Although weeding is not my favorite thing to do.
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I would love to meet Joan Benoit! She’s a legend!
We’ve got a lot going on in our garden–we had a salad tonight with our lettuce. There’s nothing better.
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I didn’t really chat with her. She didn’t really seem quite comfortable there, and I also had to get home.
It seems like it would be way too hot for lettuce here! I think it would just bolt. Although not today. I did plant some bok choy, which I did a few years ago & really enjoyed although it did bolt fairly quickly. This year I’m trying edamame, and I have absolutely no clue what it needs to grow well!
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I briefly met Joan a few years back at the Bix-7 (Davenport, IA). She’s a former Bix women’s champion. I have done only one all-women’s race, and it was a fun event. What was odd, though, is they did offer a limited number of registrations to men, but they had to pay a higher fee.Odd, right?
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That is really odd that they make the men pay more. Maybe they’re trying to discourage them from racing?
One of the race directors is male. He’s also one of the coaches for the training group. Which also seems a little odd. But he does a great job!
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I’d love to meet Joan! So far I have met Meb and Bart and they were both the sweetest people ever.
I’ve never seen black geese before. I didn’t even know they existed, lol.
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I didn’t know black geese existed, either, except black geese aren’t all black like that fellow was. Hawaiian Nenes apparently are technically black geese.
I saw Meb in a panel at my very first half. I was fairly new to running, this was in 2011, long before he was almost a household name, and I didn’t know who he was. John Bingham was there, too — I knew who he was, but it was long before I started to collect autographs.
Oh well.
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I’ve met Emma Coburn and Jenny Simpson, and I saw Kara Goucher in the waiting room at my chiropractor’s office. I didn’t know what to say, so I paid for my session and left.
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Even though I’ve met a fair amount of famous runners, I never know what to say to them.
I saw both Kara and Shalane speak at different events, but for both the line to meet them just ended up being waaaaaaay too long (Mr. Judy was waiting on me on both occasions).
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I have never seen a black goose. I have never had a yard to make a garden, but I tried potted plants the other summer on my deck, and that was a major fail!
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I’ve almost always had a small patio garden/raised beds. It’s much easier to work with. Never done a regular garden — that’s too much work!
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Sounds like a busy week! That’s so cool that you have a visor with all those signatures, and you were able to add one this week 🙂
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I do love my visor. 🙂 There have been a lot of busy weeks lately!
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Everytime I meet an elite runner, I’m amazed how tiny/skinny they are. You’d think I’d know better by now. Yes, I’m a Master Gardener so I do a lot of it. Last year was a bad year when I was gone on our Dubai trip my garden went haywire. I just made a marinade last night with some of my herbs and it was fantastic on grilled shrimp.
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Yes, those elites are tiny. Even long after their peak. I have to admit I’m envious of that sort of metabolism!
I am so not a master gardener. I am more a jack of all trades, master of none sort of gal.
We used some of the rosemary on our steak the other night. We had these humongous rosemary bushes when we lived in Austin that started life as tiny 4″ potted herbs. But of course there they could live outside year round.
I’m already trying to figure out how I can move the herbs in for the winter — our house isn’t very sunny.
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Hah! I’ve never met a hardy herb. We killed a pot of herbs in a week. Lack of sun? Lack of water? We’re trying another pot on the other side of the house. I can’t even keep a pot of basil. 😦
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Good luck with your herbs!
Most herbs really are pretty hardy, but it’s also a lot about the location. I have a green thumb, but I’ve also killed my share of plants.
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That is a majestic-looking goose – so I guess it makes sense that it’s probably a swan! My favorite garden plants are my brassicas (kale, cabbage, collards) because I don’t think I could kill them if I tried…as evidenced by all the volunteer kale plants growing outside of their bed right now.
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They had kale, but it’s been so hot lately I was afraid it would just bolt. Plus I don’t really have a lot of room & have a tendency to overcrowd plants as it is.
I once planted some herb that I didn’t know spread and it spread all over the yard. At least the kale is edible! I mean, the herb was too, but I could never in a million years use that much of it.
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Great job on planting your garden. I hope you see many fruits of your labor. 🙂 Anything we’ve ever tried to grow gets eaten by the squirrels, except for jalapenos. It’s cool you met Joan. The only famous runner I’ve met is Meb. Thanks for linking!
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We have to net a lot of stuff. Oddly enough I don’t remember having that problem in TX.
I’m not sure I can really say I “met” Joan — other than asking her to sign my visor we really didn’t converse. I saw Meb in a panel at my very first half . . . except I had no clue who he was (and it was long before he became so well known).
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