Welcome to the Weekly Rundown. Recapping Chicago Marathon training week 16.  First week of taper down, one more to go and then it’s race week!  Linking up with hosts Deborah and Kim for this weekly training recap.

Monday 9/23

Run: Easy.  Pushed my speed workout to Tuesday because I needed an extra day of easy miles after peak week.

Other: Pull-Up Challenge.  I entered a pull up challenge at EDGE that spans the next 4 weeks.   Each week, there are workouts specifically targeting upper back and core.  After work, I completed the fist set of workouts: Dead hangs, overhead press, rows, bench press, lat pull downs, hammer curls, hollow holds.  Challenging stuff!

Tuesday 9/24

Run: Speed.  This was a fun ladder for the first week of taper.  1600, 200, 1200, 200, 800, 800, 200.  The 200s were at mile pace, everything else was at half marathon pace.  I enjoyed the quick intervals in between the longer ones. Having Spring Tuesday there (doing a different, but similar workout) helped as well.

Wednesday 9/25

Run: Easy + strength.  Robyn’s morning strength class followed by an easy 6 mile run.  Compared to the midweek 10 milers I’ve been doing lately, this felt so short!

Other:  New Recipe.  For What I Ate Wednesday, I shared making vegan & gluten-free socca pizza on my Instagram Stories.  Chickpea flour is an ingredient I’ve used many times, but using it to make a pizza crust was new to me.  I like how simple it is – minimal ingredients for a lot of flavor!

 

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Pizza Friday’s are back 😍Marathon tapering is giving me more time on my hands in the morning, so my breakfast got a bit of an upgrade- made the batter for chickpea socca last night to save time and cooked it this morning to make BREAKFAST PIZZA 🍕 😋 The batter couldn’t be easier- a 1:1 ratio of chickpea flour to water. Then I added spices (turmeric, cumin, and a pinch of paprika) and some fresh garlic Cooked and topped with some tomato sauce, sautéed onions mushrooms and spinach 🌱 Happy Friday 🎉 . . . . . #vegan #whatveganseat #veganpizza #socca #breakfastinspo #breakfastpizza #glutenfree #plantbasedchef #feedfeedglutenfree #eatsimple #healthybreakfastideas #eatmoreplants #pizzafriday #glutenfreepizza #marathontraining #runnerfood #edrecovered #irunthisbody #chicagovegan #nomeatathlete

Un post condiviso da Becca Menke | MAEd | Coach (@rabbitfoodruns) in data: 27 Set 2019 alle ore 5:14 PDT

Thursday 9/26

Run: Tempo.  This was more like a track workout than a typical tempo workout: 8x .5 miles all at half pace.  I had a similar workout last week, but this went so much better.  The taper week magic is starting!

Other: Teaching.  Thursday evenings I now teach a strength class at EDGE.  This pyramid was difficult and I was really proud of the athletes for pushing through until the end.  I tried to keep it fun by writing some workouts pictionary style… can you guess what the workouts were?

Friday 9/27

Run: Rest.  I had hopes of making it to November Project, but it didn’t happen.  Today was a packed day at work – our make-up training from the summer with over 60 teachers.  I was glad to have the rest day when work stress was so high!

Other:  Coach Dinner.  The EDGE coaches got together for dinner to celebrate the year so far and just hang out in a non-gym setting.  I am so grateful to be a part of this incredible group!

Saturday 9/28

Run:  Long run.  First week of taper for Chicago called for 14 miles with 60s pickups to half pace in the second half of the run.  It was a gross, raw, rainy, and super windy day.  Yuck.  Dare I say I was cold and wished I had worn a long sleeve? After sleeping in, I procrastinated a bit before finally heading out the door.  In hindsight, it would have been a LOT easier to run with a group.  After reaching the Lakefront Path and feeling how strong the winds were, my motivation waned.  Did I realllly have to run 14 miles?  But I stuck with it and finished all 14.

Sunday 9/29

Run:  Easy + strength.   There was a discount on the morning On Your Mark class, so I hopped into class and then ran an easy 30 minutes on the treadmill.  After, I did my pull-up check in.  Progress!! I was able to go from just a dead hang to SIX negative pull-ups (jumping up onto the bar and then slowly descending).  That was after a class too!  Excited to see more progress and have new workouts next week.  Spent the rest of the day working on coaching plans, future recipes and getting set for the week.

And that’s a wrap!  Chicago Marathon training week 16 in the books. I totaled 42 miles for the week, about a 28% decrease in volume from peak week.  Between the coaching dinner, the pull-up progress, teaching strength class, it ended up being a pretty good week.  Feeling pretty good about the first week of taper!

Just 14 more days until Chicago!  I am over halfway to my fundraising goal – raising money for the American Cancer Society.  If you would like to contribute, I appreciate any donations of any size.  You can contribute here.

How was your week?  Let’s stay in touch!  Follow me on Instagram or Facebook for more food/fitness related posts.  

Happy running,

Becca