Thanksgiving week in a strange time. I hope everyone got to still enjoy the holiday safely. For the first time in my life I didn’t have turkey, and it was amazing! Did a surf and surf meal; hope this becomes a new tradition.

I crushed my runs this week! I definitely pushed myself on my speed work, and I can definitely see some improvements. In addition to the running, I think my cross training with cycling, and especially hiking, have been really paying off. My one flaw is that I have gone back into the mode of skipping my NTC workouts. I will be making more of an effort to not skip these, as strength, mobility and flexibility are key to healthy, injury-free running.

• M – Endurance 2mi
• T – Speed 2x800m
• W – Rest
• R – Speed 6×200
• F – NTC
• S – Long 4mi
• S – Rest

Monday – Run 1

Today was an endurance 2 mile run. I really wanted to push myself, so I tried for a speed of 7mph. This worked out well and I was able to hold that pace. This got me a 9:44 pace, which is right on the money if I were focused on pace training. However, that is just as added bonus. My true test was making sure I could handle the speed and still maintain my Galloway intervals of 2 min run and 30 sec walk; and I was! My HR did get up to 153 BPM, which is really high for me.

• Lesson 1: 1 Nuun Sport tab is NOT enough. I will probably be doing 2 tabs next time. Even though it was a short run, I demolished the bottle before I was done.
• Lesson 2: If you listen to music, make sure you don’t have ANY slow songs towards the end, because they do not help when you are trying to push out that final bit of effort.

Tuesday – Run 2

NRC said it was interval day; 2 x 800 m. Overall, a very short workout. I did my NTC warm-up, and then dove right into my run. I did a 5 min warm-up walk, then start the the 800’s. I went at 7.2 mph, which I was a bit concerned about. However, it worked out fine and I was able to handle it. I really wish Apple Music had better playlists, because I really need a good high energy, high BPM songs, and my playlist I use has a mix for longer runs, so there are some slower, less energy, but more motivational songs. Oh well. I was definitely sucking a lot of air for that run, getting up to 156 BPM this time. The 2 min walk between the 800’s was huge though. I definitely had no trouble completing my 2nd 800 thanks to that. Overall an awesome workout, less the music blip.

Wednesday

Today was a rest day, which would have been great, again, if I had done some yoga. However, I didn’t get a lot of time for a work break so I hopped on my trainer instead and got in a ride. I went for about 53 minutes, since I was really tired because of work, so I was going pretty slow and low resistance. In hindsight, I had more than enough time to get in a good yoga session. Live and learn.

Thursday – Run 3 and Thanksgiving

Today’s speed workout from Nike Run Club was a 6 x 200 m. However, there was no way I was doing that. Apple Watch has turned me into an obsessive Ring closer. That’s right, gotta close my rings! Plus, there was a badge if you did a 5k. Obviously there was no question here; I was getting that badge. So, I ran a 5k. I didn’t want to take it too easy since I was supposed to be speed work. So instead of my usual 6 mph, I went at 6.2 mph. At first this felt a bit easy, which was awesome! However, I wanted to see if I could hit all of my intervals. End result: SUCCESS! I hit all of my 2 min run, 30 sec walk intervals. I was tired AF at the end, but I was so pumped!

Friday

Another NTC day turned into something else. However, it was another hike! We hit up the same route as usual at the Valley Forge State Park. Always so much fun hitting Mount Joy! Lots of great hills and our pace was faster this time. Hoping to hit up some of the river trail areas next time.

Saturday

Today was supposed to be my long run, but I was way too sore from the hike. Also, it was cleaning day, and I didn’t have the energy. To close my rings I hopped on the bike for a little over 20 minutes.

Sunday – Run 4

I was still sore from the hike and cleaning. However, I did my usual NTC warm-up and felt pretty good. The plan was to run 4 miles. However, with my 5 minute warm-up walk and wanting to complete my Galloway interval, I ended up doing almost 4.5 miles. Overall, I felt pretty good. I did have one point where I was just exhausted, so I had an interval where I only ran for a minute and then my walk segment was 1.5 minutes. That really helped and I was able to finish out my run with my usual 2 min run, 30 sec walk intervals. I am still seeing great improvement on my overall endurance, and it’s very exciting and motivating. I am going to try and be a bit more consistent for Week 5 with my workouts.