Who did NOT die! The training journal of not-so-fast runner and costume addict (Comments welcome)

[DopeyBadger]

Coming up this week is a work trip, so it could get tricky but I am determined to stick to the plan as much as possible. I specifically chose a hotel this time rather than my usual AirBnB with colleagues so that I would have a treadmill when things get busy. @DopeyBadger could use your advice on what to do with Wednesday if things get crazy.

Monday: Rest.

Tuesday: 2 miles easy. I fly out this afternoon and have a 2-hour drive, arriving at the hotel about 7:30pm. If I have time at home around working and packing, I'll try to knock this out before I go. If not, I'll use the hotel gym when I get in.

Wednesday: 1 mile WU, 7x100m at 9:00 w/ 90 sec rest, 1 mile CD. This one could be tricky as it's a VERY busy day, ending in a dinner with colleagues. Is it a good idea to get up early after running the 2 miles at or after 8pm the night before? Thursday is a rest day, but is equally busy. Also the Chiefs play Thursday night and I have to make the 2-hour drive back to the airport at 5:30am on Friday. If I had to shift this to Thursday, I could do it with the game pulled up on my phone.

Thursday: Rest, but could shift Wednesday's workout here if absolutely necessary. Super busy day, Chiefs game, need to get to bed early.

Friday: 2 miles easy. Early drive back, but I'm home by 10am local time, so I should easily fit this in on the treadmill in the afternoon.

Saturday: 3 miles easy. No problem. Hoping to maybe even get this in outside.

Sunday: 4 miles M Tempo. Again, no problem. No Chiefs game to work around. If the weather is decent I want to try this one outside to compare pace and effort compared to my last (awful) M Tempo on the treadmill.

Given your running history, 2 miles (30 min) on Tuesday evening and then turning around and running Wednesday morning shouldn't be too difficult physically speaking. So it's simply a matter of logistics and whether you can get it to work within your schedule. If you wake up Wed morning and have no desire to do a faster paced interval workout, then just do 45-ish min of easy pacing instead. If you can't do 45 min, can you do 30 min Wed morning? What about 15 min? If the Wed workout is missed completely, it's not a big deal as long as it doesn't become a habit and this is a one-off. No one run has that much importance in the totality of training, but the cumulative effect of missing runs does add up. And missing the 7 interval rep (going from 5 reps to 9 reps) doesn't have me overly concerned if the 7 interval rep gets skipped.

 

[The Expert]

Given your running history, 2 miles (30 min) on Tuesday evening and then turning around and running Wednesday morning shouldn't be too difficult physically speaking. So it's simply a matter of logistics and whether you can get it to work within your schedule. If you wake up Wed morning and have no desire to do a faster paced interval workout, then just do 45-ish min of easy pacing instead. If you can't do 45 min, can you do 30 min Wed morning? What about 15 min? If the Wed workout is missed completely, it's not a big deal as long as it doesn't become a habit and this is a one-off. No one run has that much importance in the totality of training, but the cumulative effect of missing runs does add up. And missing the 7 interval rep (going from 5 reps to 9 reps) doesn't have me overly concerned if the 7 interval rep gets skipped.

That's just what I needed, thank you. Appreciate you walking through the logic so I can make an informed decision when the time comes!

 

[The Expert]

Given your running history, 2 miles (30 min) on Tuesday evening and then turning around and running Wednesday morning shouldn't be too difficult physically speaking. So it's simply a matter of logistics and whether you can get it to work within your schedule. If you wake up Wed morning and have no desire to do a faster paced interval workout, then just do 45-ish min of easy pacing instead. If you can't do 45 min, can you do 30 min Wed morning? What about 15 min? If the Wed workout is missed completely, it's not a big deal as long as it doesn't become a habit and this is a one-off. No one run has that much importance in the totality of training, but the cumulative effect of missing runs does add up. And missing the 7 interval rep (going from 5 reps to 9 reps) doesn't have me overly concerned if the 7 interval rep gets skipped.

Though it's not quite time for the weekly update, I wanted to let you know how this went and ask another question that may affect tomorrow's schedule.
I DID get my runs in both Tuesday and Wednesday, and did them as written. They may have been on the hotel treadmill at 9:30pm and 8pm, respectively, but they were done!

Now, on to the question about tomorrow. I'm set to do a 4 mile M Tempo run, but I know that NEXT Sunday I'll be camping and out doing wildlife photography for probably 12-14 hours, and there is realistically no way I will get the 9 miles in that I'm scheduled for that day. Does it make sense to swap this Sunday's and next Sunday's runs? I'll be 100% honest and say there's still a chance that 4 miles won't get done on the 25th, but it's far more likely to happen than the 9.

Looking at the next two weeks, here's the schedule and probability that I can get these in:

Sunday 9/18: 4 miles M Tempo -- 100% chance
Monday 9/19: rest -- 100% chance
Tuesday 9/20: Strength training + 3 miles Easy -- 100% chance
Wednesday 9/21: 9x 100m repeats -- 100% chance
Thursday 9/22: rest -- 100% chance
Friday 9/23: 2.5 miles Easy -- 85% chance. We are packing up the trailer on this day but should be easy to fit this in.
Saturday 9/24: 4.5 miles Easy -- 25% chance. We'll make the 6 hour drive early, unhook the trailer, set up the site and run out to find wildlife to photograph. If we strike out, I'll have time to run before setting up the fire and making dinner.

Sunday 9/25: 9 miles Easy -- 5% chance. We get up pre-dawn and are usually out for 12-14 hours driving and searching for and photographing wildlife and landscapes. If we had a major bust of a day, we might spend a few hours at the campsite, but that doesn't usually happen. We often spend time sitting and waiting in the truck but the locations are not conducive (or safe) to hopping out for a run.
Monday 9/26: Rest -- 100% chance
Tuesday 9/27: 2 miles Easy -- 80% chance. Fitting in 30 minutes is typically pretty easy even if we've had a busy day.
Wednesday 9/28: 100m & 200m repeats (40 minutes total) -- 80% chance. I'd honestly probably just cut the warmup and cool down short if time is tight. I love the speed work so will want to get this in!
Thursday 9/29: Rest -- 100% chance
Friday 9/30: 2 miles Easy -- 80% chance
Saturday 9/31: 4 miles easy -- 25% chance. We pack up and leave this day, so it all depends on timing. If things have been quiet, we'll get up early and hit the road. If active, we'll make a run at sunrise before coming back to break camp and get out by the 11am checkout. Six hour drive home, dump and clean out the trailer... I'm usually pretty beat after all that. But if we came back first thing the 4 miles is doable on the treadmill.

Thoughts on how to best keep things rolling with my training but realistic with this schedule??? @DopeyBadger or anyone else who wants to weigh in.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Though it's not quite time for the weekly update, I wanted to let you know how this went and ask another question that may affect tomorrow's schedule.
I DID get my runs in both Tuesday and Wednesday, and did them as written. They may have been on the hotel treadmill at 9:30pm and 8pm, respectively, but they were done!

Now, on to the question about tomorrow. I'm set to do a 4 mile M Tempo run, but I know that NEXT Sunday I'll be camping and out doing wildlife photography for probably 12-14 hours, and there is realistically no way I will get the 9 miles in that I'm scheduled for that day. Does it make sense to swap this Sunday's and next Sunday's runs? I'll be 100% honest and say there's still a chance that 4 miles won't get done on the 25th, but it's far more likely to happen than the 9.

Looking at the next two weeks, here's the schedule and probability that I can get these in:

Sunday 9/18: 4 miles M Tempo -- 100% chance
Monday 9/19: rest -- 100% chance
Tuesday 9/20: Strength training + 3 miles Easy -- 100% chance
Wednesday 9/21: 9x 100m repeats -- 100% chance
Thursday 9/22: rest -- 100% chance
Friday 9/23: 2.5 miles Easy -- 85% chance. We are packing up the trailer on this day but should be easy to fit this in.
Saturday 9/24: 4.5 miles Easy -- 25% chance. We'll make the 6 hour drive early, unhook the trailer, set up the site and run out to find wildlife to photograph. If we strike out, I'll have time to run before setting up the fire and making dinner.

Sunday 9/25: 9 miles Easy -- 5% chance. We get up pre-dawn and are usually out for 12-14 hours driving and searching for and photographing wildlife and landscapes. If we had a major bust of a day, we might spend a few hours at the campsite, but that doesn't usually happen. We often spend time sitting and waiting in the truck but the locations are not conducive (or safe) to hopping out for a run.
Monday 9/26: Rest -- 100% chance
Tuesday 9/27: 2 miles Easy -- 80% chance. Fitting in 30 minutes is typically pretty easy even if we've had a busy day.
Wednesday 9/28: 100m & 200m repeats (40 minutes total) -- 80% chance. I'd honestly probably just cut the warmup and cool down short if time is tight. I love the speed work so will want to get this in!
Thursday 9/29: Rest -- 100% chance
Friday 9/30: 2 miles Easy -- 80% chance
Saturday 9/31: 4 miles easy -- 25% chance. We pack up and leave this day, so it all depends on timing. If things have been quiet, we'll get up early and hit the road. If active, we'll make a run at sunrise before coming back to break camp and get out by the 11am checkout. Six hour drive home, dump and clean out the trailer... I'm usually pretty beat after all that. But if we came back first thing the 4 miles is doable on the treadmill.

Thoughts on how to best keep things rolling with my training but realistic with this schedule??? @DopeyBadger or anyone else who wants to weigh in.

I'd say get in what you can for each of these days. Once the trip is over, we can touch base and see what edits we should make for the plan moving forward after that. I'm not keen on doubling up the weekends back to back with the >2hr long runs so I don't think you should move the 9 miler to 9/18 or 10/2. If you feel like you can do more on 9/24 than 9/25, then just swap those (to an extent).

 

[The Expert]

I'd say get in what you can for each of these days. Once the trip is over, we can touch base and see what edits we should make for the plan moving forward after that. I'm not keen on doubling up the weekends back to back with the >2hr long runs so I don't think you should move the 9 miler to 9/18 or 10/2. If you feel like you can do more on 9/24 than 9/25, then just swap those (to an extent).

Can do! Thanks for the guidance. October as a whole is going to be a little wonky, so it'll be interesting! I have a week-long work trip starting 10/4 and all day events (ie setup, working on my feet all day, tear down) on the 8th and 15th and travel days mixed in. The schedule should at least be more predictable, but those few Saturdays will be wildcards for sure. I'll just do what I can, try to keep it on the rails, and keep checking in.

 

[The Expert]

Dopey 2023 Training: Week 3

I had a work trip this week, so my first real test of sticking to the plan. Did she do it?? Let's find out!

Monday
Planned & Done: Rest.

Tuesday
Planned & Done: 2 miles easy. I was flying out in the afternoon with a 2-hour drive to the hotel. I got there about 7:30 but hadn't eaten, so I grabbed some food and ended up on the hotel treadmill about 9:30pm. It was an hour earlier to me, so not too crazy. And it probably helped me crash a little sooner than normal. Usually I would see my trainer for a strength workout, but with the travel I did not cross train this week. Paired an iFit workout on my phone for #92.

Wednesday
Planned & Done: 1 mile WU, 7x100m at 9:00 w/ 90 sec rest, 1 mile CD. This day was super busy, nonstop meetings and activities until about 7:30pm. But I rolled back into the hotel, changed clothes and filled my water bottle, then hit the hotel treadmill and knocked it out. I did cut the warmup and cooldown down quite a bit just for time, but felt good. iFit on my phone for #93.

Thursday
Planned & Done: Rest but another busy day with lots of back-to-back meetings and activities. But I wrapped early enough to grab dinner and watch the Chiefs win from my hotel room.

Friday
Planned: 2 miles easy.
Done: I got up at 5am to make the 2-hour drive back to the airport, and ended up parking at a temporary gate back home. I started my Garmin from the bus ride to the terminal and clocked 1.48 miles getting across the airport, picking up my bag and getting in the car with my husband. I was BEAT after the crazy week, so I didn't do an official run, but I certainly got miles on my feet and at a decent pace.

Saturday
Planned & Done: 3 miles easy. Did NOT get outside as planned, as we had lots of errands and a gathering with friends, but no issues.

Sunday
Planned & Done: 4 miles M Tempo. Ended up on the treadmill since the trainer came to work with my husband in the building gym. I took advantage of that hour and just knocked it out. Still felt challenging but not as hard as the last M Tempo run. The longer warmup definitely helped. But I was spiking my heart rate about halfway through, so I swapped the run/walk intervals (30 sec run, 70 sec walk) but did the runs at 10 minute mile pace. I paired this workout with the last leg of the Chicago Marathon on iFit for workout #94!



This week will be fairly uneventful until Saturday, when we make a 7-hour drive up to our camping spot with the trailer. I'll spend next week driving many miles and taking many wildlife photographs around Grand Teton and maybe Yellowstone, so I'll just fit in what I can when I can and try not to be eaten by bears!

 

[The Expert]

Reporting in from Grand Teton National Park!

I'm out camping this week, so I'll post an extra large update when I'm back. I just wanted to confirm I did get a long run in yesterday! It was 5 miles instead of 9, but it was something. And pro tip: running around campground loops is actually quite a good thing for a long run! It's nice cushy asphalt, shaded (for the most part), low traffic, lots to look at, and public restrooms and water fountains at regular intervals. Huzzah!

 

[garneska]

I agree on campground running. I do it a lot at the Fort. The best is decorations to look at, can get some miles in, and real bathrooms are easy to get to.

 

[The Expert]

Dopey 2023 Training: Weeks 4 & 5

Catch-up time! Last we checked in, I was headed out for a week-long photography and camping trip. This usually means long hours in the car and out shooting that start pre-dawn and end around dusk. Since this trip was longer than we usually go, we planned in some midday breaks assuming we weren't actively following specific animals. I was hoping to get at least some of my training in during those breaks, and I sorta succeeded. I did heed Billy's advice not to switch things around, but just to do what I could. Here's how that went.

Tuesday (Sept 20)
Planned & done: Cross-training (strength work out with my trainer) and 3 miles easy
It was good to have the normal routine back this week. Everything felt good as far as I remember, though there was a technical glitch with iFit so I wasn't able to tick off another workout toward my goal of 100 while on the treadmill.

Wednesday (Sept 21)
Planned and done: 1 mile WU, 9x100m at 9:00 w/ 90 sec rest, 1 mile CD
Did this on the treadmill, and I always get bored with the warmup. I think I did about three minutes before jumping into the intervals, but I felt strong!

Friday (Sept 23)
Planned: 2.5 miles easy
I did not end up doing this as the day just got away from me, picking up the trailer, doing the grocery shopping for the trip, prepping everything to load up, etc. Bad idea because I knew the coming week would be even trickier.

Saturday (Sept 24)
Planned: 4.5 miles easy
Once again, I did not run. After feeding the animals and getting things set for the pet sitter, loading the valuable items into the truck, we hit the road and made the six-hour drive. After setting up in our spot and doing an initial scouting run for photography, it was getting dark and we were starving. We came back and built a fire and cooked, then went to bed early for the pre-dawn wakeup.

Sunday (Sept 25)
Planned: 9 miles easy + nutrition practice
Done: 5 miles easy, which you know if you saw my post above. We did take a midday break, and thankfully the weather was in the low 70s with low humidity. I was able to run loops around the campground, which was actually quite fun. I had the mindset to just go out and do what I could do in the time I had, and probably could have spent a little more time, but DH was anxious to get about out and make sure we weren't missing anything (we weren't). My HR surprised me a bit on this one, but it was my first outdoor run in a couple of months, so I chalk it up to that.

---

Tuesday (Sept 27)
Planned: Cross-train and 2 miles easy
Done: No cross-training, but I did get my 2 miles in. A little earlier this day, so the temp was in the 60s and it was perfection! This one felt a little easier, too.

Wednesday (Sept 28)
Planned & Done (sorta): 1 mile WU, 2x100m at 9:00 w/ 90 sec rest, 3x200m at 9:00 w/ 2 min rest, 2x100m at 9:00 w/ 90 sec rest, 1 mile CD
This was kind of a sh*t show, tbh. We had to move our trailer over to another spot to hook up the generator and charge back up, so I took advantage and ran these intervals across the parking area. It was peak of the day, in the sun, temp in the upper 70s with the dew point rising thanks to an incoming storm. These felt HARD. But also, my speed was all over the place. Because I use a treadmill so often, I have a pretty bad sense for how some paces feel when I don't do them that often. I know what my easy and tempo runs feel like, but not these fast intervals! According to my watch, these were my speeds:

Warmup (4:38 minutes): 15:43
100m (9:00 target): 7:43 (where did THAT come from?!)
Recover (17:00 target): 17:59
100m: 8:26
Recover: 17:33
200m: 9:01 (HEY! Bingo!)
Recover: 19:36 (ugh)
200m: 9:38 (oops)
Recover: 20:08 (yikes)
200m: 8:29
Recover: 20:31 (***?)
100m: 8:25
Recover: 21:15 (what is happening??)
100m: 8:10 (wow, I really am clueless)
Recover: 17:44 (there ya go - finally)
Cooldown (6:15 minutes): 16:59 (huzzah!)

I mean... what the actual F is going on there? I swear I was trying to figure out what that 9:00 was supposed to feel like. On the treadmill, it literally feels like I almost can't keep up with the belt, so I went out as fast as I could go. I tend to believe the speeds here as the GPS had a clear view and I have all the modes turned on in my FR255s. But wow I really had a hard time staying consistent. Does this mean anything at all @DopeyBadger ?? How worried should I be that I'm THIS all over the place? My HR was pretty consistent, spiking into the high 160s/low 170s with each fast interval and then down into the 140 range during the recovery periods, so maybe that means something? I definitely felt drained after this one.

Friday (Sept 30)
Planned: 2 miles easy
I did not do this run as we decided to come back a day early. I have a work trip this week and wanted a full weekend to do all the laundry and handle all the reverse tasks of unloading the camper and prepping it for winter storage.

Saturday (Oct 1)
Planned: 4 miles easy
I also did not run on this day, because I was doing laundry and handling all the clean-up tasks for the camper. Also I was just drained from the whole week. UGH.

Sunday (Oct 2)
Planned and done: 4 miles Tempo
Happy to be back to the predictability of the treadmill. And somehow, after those few outdoor runs, the treadmill paces felt more natural and a little easier. This was definitely my most consistent Tempo run, where I was able to keep the intervals and speed without adjusting mid-workout thanks to HR spikes or feeling tired. Not sure if that means anything, but I don't feel I lost a lot of fitness with the inconsistent training the last few weeks. I did this along with Tommy Rivs and the first leg of his Boston Marathon from last. year, so iFit #96!

I would include some photographs from the trip here, but it was sadly a bit of a dud on that level. We did see elk pretty regularly, a few moose, one black bear, and some interesting birds of prey, but the climate season is a few weeks behind so the level of activity was not what we normally see. I promise to share some images when I get the chance to cull through my 1100+ frames of trying to get something!

 

[The Expert]

So @DopeyBadger as you can see above, I was pretty inconsistent with my training schedule the last few weeks, but yesterday's run felt better than my previous Tempo efforts have felt. Looking for advice on where to go from here. But also know I have a work trip with a big event this week, so here's what that looks like combined with my training as scheduled:

Tuesday: 3 miles easy
I'm flying out and driving 2 hours on the end of it, going directly to an event. I have an appointment in the morning, so the chances of getting this in are slim to none.

Wednesday: 2 mi WU + 7x 1 minute (9:35) w/ 1 minute rest + 1 mi CD
Chances are good for this one! I am moving from a hotel to a rental house, but otherwise working from the road. I'll probably use the hotel gym treadmill for this and knock it out in the morning.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 3.5 miles easy
Not sure about this one. It's setup day for our event, which means several hours of strenuous activity. Lifting boxes, moving signs around, loading and unloading vehicles, etc. I'm not sure what time of day this is yet, but hoping it's late enough to do my run first or I'll likely be too beat to do it.

Saturday: 5 miles easy
Highly unlikely this happens. I'll need to be at the event super early, work most of the day on my feet, then do tear-down and cleanup. If things are slow and we have tons of volunteers, it could happen afterward.

Sunday: 10 miles easy + nutrition
I am hopeful! I do have to get up and on the road by 5am to make the 2-hour drive and flight home. But I land at 10am local time, have an appointment at noon, then the rest of the afternoon and evening to get this in. I'm just never sure how I'll feel, but chances are good for an early bedtime the night before and a decent night's sleep.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

How worried should I be that I'm THIS all over the place?

I just had my first workout like this one and posted similar concerns in my journal. He responded there if you want to check it out! I had a 7:53… maybe it just means we are secretly cheetahs

 

[The Expert]

I just had my first workout like this one and posted similar concerns in my journal. He responded there if you want to check it out! I had a 7:53… maybe it just means we are secretly cheetahs

Thank you! OMG I felt like I was reading my own report there. (Still trying to catch up on all the threads since I was basically offline for a week. Thanks for pointing that out.)

 

[DopeyBadger]

Alright, does this look about right for what was accomplished and what looks doable this week:



With the idea that Sunday (10/9) has been cut down because you've been off plan. So doing 10 miles is not appropriate.

Do you have any other known conflicts other than 10/27-11/4 and 11/23-11/27? If so, can you let me know so that I can try and adjust the whole plan moving forward. Because of the last three weeks, I'll need to make some relatively large changes anyways.

 

[The Expert]

Alright, does this look about right for what was accomplished and what looks doable this week:

View attachment 707928

With the idea that Sunday (10/9) has been cut down because you've been off plan. So doing 10 miles is not appropriate.

Do you have any other known conflicts other than 10/27-11/4 and 11/23-11/27? If so, can you let me know so that I can try and adjust the whole plan moving forward. Because of the last three weeks, I'll need to make some relatively large changes anyways.

That looks accurate, yes. As for my schedule, I'll have work trips in November and December, but nothing involving events or anything that would disrupt training on those trips.

Thank you for your help!

 

[DopeyBadger]

That looks accurate, yes. As for my schedule, I'll have work trips in November and December, but nothing involving events or anything that would disrupt training on those trips.

Thank you for your help!

Alright, I'll try and get a revised schedule back to you within a week's time.

 

[The Expert]

Dopey 2023 Training: Week 6

What a cluster, ugh. I traveled for a work event that I've done many times before, so I knew it would be a lot of physical activity and long hours. (Thanks, Billy, for rolling with this and adjusting the plan to something more realistic.) Even knocking it down to just two runs this week, I struggled to get them in.

Monday was my one day between camping and traveling to try and catch up on all I'd missed and cram in everything I needed to get ahead of for the week. Thankfully it's also a rest day.

Tuesday I also took off because it was a travel day and I went immediately to an event when I landed.

Wednesday was the least scheduled of the week, so we plugged in a quick speed work session, which I was able to do on the treadmill at the hotel I was in the first night. I moved that day to our group AirBnB that I was sharing with our events team.

Thursday was crazy with event prep, picking up supplies, coordinating with vendors. I knew it would be so no running scheduled, but my watch showed I walked about 10 miles and my body battery score from Garmin was single digits when I finally went to bed.

Friday was setup day, which started at 8am and should have gone fast except that the tent company didn't show. They were two hours late, which held up all the rest of the setup and we were there until 7pm. UGH! After that, we still had to grab dinner and run a few errands so again, no running (but also none scheduled).

Saturday was our event! Call time at 7am with a 9-noon event. It went off really well, had great attendance and perfect weather. Yay! Tear-down was fast, but we had to wait around a bit for vendors to pick up tables, chairs and tents. Had time for a quick shower between running supplies back to storage and the team dinner, then packed up to head home early the next morning. Again, no runs scheduled for this day but I had about 7 miles in steps and depleted body battery for sure!

Sunday I had to get up and hit the road by 5am to drive two hours to the airport in Tulsa. I've made this trip many times and never had an issue. Thanks to the time change, I am usually home in Salt Lake by 10am, which would be plenty of time to have a full day of football and get my 5 mile easy run in. I had even scheduled a nail appointment! You know what they say about making plans, right? There was an issue with the plane that couldn't be remedied locally, so they flew a new plane in from 3 hours away. I jumped to an alternate flight with a connection through Atlanta, because I just wanted to be moving, even if it was the wrong way. And the connection was through a hub with a ton of options if there were other issues. Time-wise, I'd get home about 30 minutes later than if I waited, but I just wanted to be going somewhere, even if it was the wrong way.
Thankfully my gut was right. I landed at home at 4pm, as the original flight from Tulsa was just boarding! I was starving, having survived on a Starbucks wrap and airplane snacks all day, but DH had prepped an early dinner (bless him). I ended up getting four of the five miles in on the treadmill even with my body battery at 10, and crashed HARD in bed to sleep it all off.

I am helping with the same event here at home this week, but thankfully no travel involved so it should be easier until I hit Friday (setup) and Saturday (event day). After the last few weeks, it'll be nice to kind of get back to normal and just be home.

And before you feel TOO sorry for me, here are a few pics from our event: Strut Your Mutt. I do get to hang out with dogs all day at these things, so there's a payoff!


(Photo: Blind husky/malamute Walter gets pets from the crowd at Best Friends Animal Society's Strut Your Mutt event.)



(Photo: A boy stands on stage with his dog in a tiger costume. He's being interviewed by the Strut Your Mutt emcee as part of the on-stage dog costume contest.)

 

[lookingforsunshine]

Strut Your Mutt.

Omg my heart.

I ended up getting four of the five miles in on the treadmill even with my body battery at 10,

Wow way to go! Maybe this was good Disney prep… my body battery is consistently low on Disney trips (and any trips lol). Hopefully that’s not the case this MW bc it’s during my winter break so I’m not going to/from work which definitely impacts it but I know it will be for PW…

with his dog in a tiger costume.

!!!
I ran in my Jasmine outfit yesterday with my dog Rosie and I joked on Instagram that she needed a tiger harness to be my Rajah. Little did I know this costume was out in the world…

Thanks for all the work you do in the animal nonprofit world!

 

[The Expert]

Omg my heart.

Wow way to go! Maybe this was good Disney prep… my body battery is consistently low on Disney trips (and any trips lol). Hopefully that’s not the case this MW bc it’s during my winter break so I’m not going to/from work which definitely impacts it but I know it will be for PW…

!!!
I ran in my Jasmine outfit yesterday with my dog Rosie and I joked on Instagram that she needed a tiger harness to be my Rajah. Little did I know this costume was out in the world…

Thanks for all the work you do in the animal nonprofit world!

I truly love to do these events. They are a ton of work, but so much fun, and everybody is always so happy to be there! The tiger costume was super cute and would be a perfect Raja.

 

[The Expert]

Dopey 2023 Training: Week 7

This week was a little easier, since I at least didn't have to travel for the next Strut Your Mutt event. But I can tell my event endurance has suffered during Covid doing two of these back to back. I used to travel and do five or six in a two-month period -- NO idea how I kept up with that! So, let's check in, shall we?

HUGE thanks to Billy for adjusting my plan. In the past I would've just picked right back up after two weeks of being way off track, and probably made my fatigue even worse. While I still didn't hit 100% this week, I feel better equipped to stick with it from here out and don't feel like I'm pushing too hard.

Monday: Rest. And boy did I need it after last week and the unexpectedly long travel day! Wait. What's that itch in my throat? NOooooo I am NOT getting a cold.

Tuesday: Cross-train and 2.5 easy miles
I'm definitely getting a cold. The tickle is now a full blown sore throat and sinus congestion. Took a Covid test to rule that out (negative, thankfully) and was able to get to the gym in a mask. After two weeks of missing cross training due to schedule and travel, it felt good to get back to strength training. I was having trouble breathing easily during my run intervals, so I set it to a 3 incline and 3mph and just briskly walked most of it.

Wednesday: 2.5 miles easy
My cold progressed into a full blown sinus blockage, but I've always heard that if the symptoms are all above the neck, it's okay to run. So I did this one on my treadmill, and took it a little extra easy.

Thursday: Rest. My cold was starting to become more manageable, so it was really good to have the rest day here before the craziness of event setup started.

Friday: 2.5 miles easy
Setup day started at 9am and I was hoping it would be over by 2 or so. HA! As usual, vendor delays and errands had me running around until early evening, so I did not get this one in. However, I did have six miles of walking (so sayeth the Garmin), so definitely had time on my feet. My cold was getting better -- just sniffles and a sultry voice at this point.

Saturday: 4.5 mile easy
Event day! I started at 7am and went to 4pm, walking 7.2 miles. By the end of it I was SO tired and my cold backslid a little, so I took the evening easy and tried to rest up. Again, if time on my feet counts, I call this a tick in the box. If you're interested: Highlight reel from Strut Your Mutt this week in Salt Lake City!

Sunday: 5 miles M Tempo
I crashed hard and slept really well after the last few days, had a nice breakfast and jumped on the treadmill before the Chiefs game started. I shook up my intervals to 45/30 and set the run portion a little faster, and it felt hard but good. I ran along with Tommy Rivs for miles 4-8 of the Boston Marathon on iFit and then added one more mile with another trainer on the beach in Maui. That puts me at 99 iFit workouts for the year! ONE MORE TO GO!


This coming week I have NO travel and NO events -- yay! But after the last four or five years training on Tuesday, my trainer's schedule is changing and I'll be moving it to Thursday. @DopeyBadger I assume I should just leave my running schedule as-is since Thursday was already a rest day? I just won't have the back-to-back cross-train and run on Tuesdays and only one full rest day a week (Monday). It feels like that should be fine, but if we need to move things around again, I'm game.

 

[DopeyBadger]

You should be good. We can always adjust if things don’t feel right with strength on Thursdays.