Weekly Wrap 29

Welcome to Weekly Wrap 29.  Week 3 of Berlin Marathon training and a full week of vacation!  Rewind: I am switching from trail ultras to train for road races for the summer.  New: I needed to use some of my vacation days before they expire at the end of June, so I took a stay-cation this week in Chicago.  Let’s dive right in.  Linking up with Holly and Wendy to bring you Weekly Wrap 29. 

 

Weekly Wrap 29 Berlin Marathon training


 

Monday 5/28

Run:  I “slept in” until 7 and enjoyed 6 leisurely sunny miles along the lakefront.  Any other morning runners out there that feel like 7 is sleeping in late?

Other:  Jon and I nerded out at the new Pixar exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in the afternoon.  There was so much to learn!  Whenever I would hear the term “computer-animated” I obviously knew that computers were involved, but I didn’t realize how much science, coding, math and complex problem solving Pixar had to do to produce these films.  They had to basically create everything from scratch, and each movie built upon the computer science of the previous film.  We spent a good 2 1/2 hours in the exhibit and probably could have spent more.

 

Weeky Wrap 29 - Berlin marathon training week 3

 

Tuesday 5/29

Run:  Time for sprint Tuesdays!  I decided to complete my workout BEFORE everyone started at 6:15am.  Why be that insane?  I want to be able to coach everyone more instead of trying to coach while running near max effort.  So I began around 5am and did my tempo workout: 2 miles at tempo pace, 800-300-800-300-400-200-hill repeats.  I was over the moon when I ran a sub-6 minute pace for the last 200.  The speed is slowly returning.  I liked being able to do my cool down while the others were warming up and then watching and coaching.  If I make sure to get enough sleep, I’ll maintain the early run.

Other:  For my first official day of staycation… I led the EDGE speed run in the evening.  Rewind:  I’ll be one of the coaches for their fall marathon group training.  This was the first speed workout that I led and it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped.  I had to find a runner who twisted their ankle on the path – luckily it wasn’t serious and they were back to running later in the week.  And luckily there are a lot of runners in the group who stepped up to lead while I was gone.  I’m relieved to know there are a lot of leaders in the group.

 

Track workout berlin marathon Weekly wrap 29

 

Wednesday 5/30

Run:  No run today, just a total body strength class at EDGE.  I was SO HAPPY to see results from all the hip, glute and hamstring PT exercises I’ve been doing all month.  It was the first time I could hold a side plank and lift the top leg in the air without my bottom hip collapsing.  Stronger hips = stronger running.

Other: In the afternoon, I met my old coworker for lunch at Brightwok.  We had reconnected after I saw her run the Chicago Spring Half Marathon a few days prior.  Brightwork is one of my favorite places in the city for lunch because it’s very vegan friendly.  Their seasonal add-on was grilled pineapple.  YES PLEASE.

 

brightwok vegan lunch




 

Thursday 5/31

Run: I met Coach Worm and his brother at the track for another early morning speed session.  I modified the workout to 1600-1200-800-400-400-200-200.  Running intervals is SO much harder when you are the only one (Worm n’ bro were way faster that me).  By the end of the workout I was spent in a good way.  But definitely spent.

Other:  In the afternoon, I saw Dr. RyanMy hamstring feels a lot better with the PT exercises I have been doing, but it’s still not 100%.  My foot has also been bugging me ever since it went numb during the Earth Day 50k.  He checked it out and recommended some other stabilizing workouts to do.  I’ll add them to my ever growing list! Then I met Becca, another small business entrepreneur, for coffee.  We went to the Coffee Studio, a unique place in Andersonville with an eclectic vibe; any place with giant terrarium centerpieces on the tables is alright in my book.

 

 

Friday 6/1

Run: Nez and I ran to NP in the morning.  It was about 70 degrees when we started at 5am.  By the time I completed the workout, went to breakfast and then left to Divvy home, the temperature dropped to 55 degrees.  It was freezing!

Other:  Friday was National Donut Day!  In case you missed it, I wrote a blog post about where to get vegan donuts in ChicagoCheck it out here.  My friend Mark and I also planned a DONUT CRAWL!  Have you heard of Strava Art?  It’s where you run a certain route to form a design on the street maps with your GPS.  I planned us a route that formed a giant “D” for donut – it also kind of looks like a donut!  First, we met at the corner of Halstead and Addison, and then ran south to the Stan’s on Clark and Diversy.  Then we ran north to West Town Bakery and Tap by Wrigleyville.  By the time we got there however, they did not have anymore donuts (to be fair, it’s a much smaller place than their other locations).  We finished back at the corner of Addison and Halstead where Mark had parked his car.  In the back he surprised us with more donuts.  First National Donut Day Crawl was a success!

 

 

Chicago Vegan Donut Crawl Strava Art

 

 

Saturday 6/2

Run:  Long run Saturday.  It was the last free group run EDGE hosted before training started so I convinced a few November Project friends to join.  We ran 12 miles with 30s surges to just under marathon pace at the top of each mile.

Other:  Afterwards, I went to watch the Humboldt Mile.  It’s the only race in Chicago (as far as I know) that is just one mile long and where 100% of the proceeds go to Hope For the Day‘s Proactive Suicide Prevention programs.  It was so much fun to watch the race and see many familiar NP, EDGE, and 3Run2 faces.

 

Humboldt Mile finish line

 

Sunday 6/3

Run:  I met Nez at Maple Lake for an easy 6ish mile trail run.  I didn’t realize that it had stormed the night before so the trail was a mud fest.

Other:  After the trails, I drove to Oak Park to meet my friends Angela and Chris to see their new apartment.  We went to a workout class at the Y and then to brunch at Munch, a super vegan-friendly restaurant in downtown Oak Park.  Angela took me on a little walking tour of the city afterwards.  It’s a cute suburb!

 

weekly wrap 29 berlin marathon training week 3

 

 

And that’s a wrap!  I am sad my staycation is coming to an end.  I really enjoyed hanging around the city.  Even though I still worked on training plans and had some coaching sessions, those don’t feel like work.  I totaled 49 miles of running with two confidence-boosting speed sessions, and 13 miles of biking (commuting).

For the month of May, I logged 193 miles of running, 70.5 miles of cycling, and did my PT exercises 3x a week.  My main goal for June is to KEEP UP with the PT – I was happy to notice a difference.  I’m also excited for the EDGE marathon training program to kick off next week!

 

How was your week?  What are you looking forward to for the month of June? Let’s stay in touch!  Follow me on Instagram or Facebook for more food/fitness related posts.  

 

Happy running,

Becca

 

 

 


 

 

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Deborah @ Confessions of mother runner

I sometimes wish I was an early morning runner especially in the summer time heat! Looks like a great week of workouts for you

Chocolaterunsjudy
5 years ago

I dunno, that staycation sounds exhausting! But I’m glad you enjoyed it.

I can’t hold a side plank for as long as I probably ought to . . .

HoHo Runs
5 years ago

A staycation sounds like a great idea, especially with all there is to do around your city! I’d be very interested in the Pixar exhibit. It’s wonderful to hear you are seeing the results of your PT exercises. They are so important and really don’t take that much time out of our day. Thanks for linking!

Marcia
5 years ago

I love your Strava art! Chicago is a wonderful city to have a staycation. Glad you enjoyed. I had that same, weird cooling down phenomenon after my run this morning. It was pushing 70 when I was at the track then dropped to 60 shortly after. So weird!

Cari
5 years ago

I wonder if that’s the Pixar exhibit that was Cooper Hewitt, so amazing

Lacey@fairytalesandfitness

I was just reading another blog that said she got to sleep in until 7am. That is funny to me because my sleeping in is until 10am…haha. I splurged on a Donut on National Donut Day as well. but I am sure your vegan donut was much healthier than mine.

Kimberly Hatting
5 years ago

I hear ya on the early wake-ups! I set my alarm for 5:20ish, but most mornings, I wake up before it sounds. On my #5at5 mornings, I get up around 4:30. On the rare occasion I don’t need (or want) to get up “early,” I’ll try to sleep in, but I still wake up easily before 6:00.

Wendy
5 years ago

I think I”d love a donut crawl! LOL! Was it hard to run after eating donuts?