Week 2 Recap: Army 10-Miler Training

Week 2 is in the books! Despite being a "vacation week" from work, it was actually pretty challenging to find the time and motivation to get my workouts in. My husband left for two weeks of field training on Monday, and our full-time babysitter had an unexpected family emergency. So that left me. And Grace. All day every day. Stay-at-home moms and single parents...I don't know how you do it!

Grace tagged along for my first few workouts of the week:

Monday

Planned: 4 miles easy (8:18-8:48 pace)

Actual: 4 stroller miles in about 34 minutes, but I lost my Garmin rushing to load the car in the rain.

Tuesday

Planned: 10 minutes warm up/down with 8x :45-1:00 hills

Actual: 2 mile warm up, 8x hills WITH THE STROLLER, all in the :50-1:00 range, and walked home to cool down. The grand total was 4.25 miles in 37:06

Wednesday

Planned: 5 mile simulated race

Actual: I was smart enough to put Grace in hourly childcare, so I got to do this sans stroller. But, since childcare didn't open until 8am, I didn't get to start until it was almost 9am. 1 mile warm up (8:52), 5k "race" in 21:34 (6:57 pace), then 2.65 miles cool down for a total of 6.75 miles

I was actually pretty disappointed with this one. Not only did I fail to hit my goal 10-Miler pace of 6:54, but I also didn't do the entire workout. It was so gosh darn hot that I had to call it just after 3 miles.

Thursday

Planned: Technically, this was the day I was supposed to do the 5-mile race. But I could only get one hour of childcare on Thursday, and I knew I needed more to do that workout. So, Wednesday became a workout day and Thursday became a rest day.

Friday

Planned: 3 miles easy

Actual: 8 miles in 1:06.30 (8:19 pace). This was another flip/flop on my training plan. I was supposed to do the long run on the weekend, but I knew I'd be better off doing it while Grace was at childcare. And I'm SO GLAD I made that choice! I chose a new-to-me route with plenty of shade, turned on a podcast, and just cruised. My only goal was to run non-stop -- something I've struggled with since returning from El Paso in July -- and it felt great to achieve that goal!

Saturday

Planned: 7 miles

Actual: 3 stroller miles through the neighborhood! Since my long run was done, I didn't have to rush through the morning. Grace and I took our time waking up and cruised the neighborhood at a perfectly easy 8:35 pace!

Best workout of the week? Definitely the long run. It finally, finally, felt good, and it was such a breakthrough for me to feel that way again!