Welcome to the Weekly Rundown. Recapping Chicago Marathon training week 4. This week included a July 4th race, an annoying encounter with a dude on the path, and lots of hot and steamy miles. Linking up with hosts Deborah and Kim for this weekly training recap.
Monday 7/1/19
Run: Easy miles + strength My build week started with a 40 minute easy run at zone 2 before strength class. EDGE added a new class in the morning – “Hard Core Tabata.” It’s basically a 30 minute tabata class with only core exercises. This was PERFECT for me, since it has been so hard to make it to the evening class. Loved the format and the fact that it’s in the morning!
Other: NEW RECIPE. The vegan lox recipe I posted a few weeks ago inspired a streak of kitchen experimentation with acidic foods. My latest recipe is for quick-pickled red onions. I use the pickled onions to top avocado toast for another combination of salt, fat, acid and heat. Get the recipe here.
Tuesday 7/2
Run: Speed workout. Another early morning at the track. I began my warmup a bit before 5 am in order to finish before coaching Sprint Tuesdays. The cadence of the workout was a lot of fun: 2x 200m, 2x 400m, 2x 200m, 1x 800m, 2x 200m, 2x 400m, with mile pace for the 2s and 5k for the rest. My body has just been feeling heavy these past few weeks – bloated, lethargic and GI issues – so I was not expecting much. But, I was pleasantly surprised! Came in around 1:25-1:27 for the quarters and under three for the half! The humidity was SOUPY and I could wring out my shorts by the end. Luckily, I planned ahead and brought extra water to rehydrate as I coached (another week of over 20 people!).
Wednesday 7/3
Run: Easy miles. Just some easy miles before work. No strength today since I planned to race tomorrow.
Other: Longest wait ever. I had a doctor appointment in the evening to discuss hormones and bone density results. I waited in the office for two and a half hours past my appointment time before seeing the doctor! To and a half hours! This doctor usually runs late, but this was ridiculous. I had to refill my meter twice between the wait and then the appointment. Looks like it may be time to find a new doctor…
Thursday 7/4
Run: Race. I decided to hop into Elmhurst 4 of the 4th for my second speed workout of the week. Friends told me it was a good race – competitive and fast! I convinced Evelyn, a friend and athlete I coach, to race as well. She convinced her husband to join too, so we drove out together bright and early. Before the race, I also ran into Zenaida, who I recognized from these weekly linkups. The course was unexpectedly hilly – twice we passed beneath an underpass with ramps – so I didn’t quite hit the time I hoped for. BUT Evelyn crushed it – PRing her mile, 5k and 3.5 mi time all within a 4 mi PR. Proud coach.
Other: Fireworks! 4th of July is such a fun holiday in my opinion. Like last year, I went to a friend’s rooftop party to hang out, enjoy some vegan brats, bask in the sun and watch fireworks. Luckily the surrounding rain held off, and a rainbow peeked out of the clouds. Hope you had as enjoyable of a holiday!
Friday 7/5
Run: Rest Day. After being out way past my bedtime to watch the fireworks, I was happy to have a rest day. Only a mini core and resistance band workout for me.
Other: Homeward bound. My mom retired today, so I drove up to Highland Park to hang out and celebrate. Spend the afternoon and evening playing with Frizzle, listening to my mom show off their vegetable garden, and making labels for next Wednesday’s event. Each Friday that I visit, my parents and I watch another Marvel movie. When the final movie came out to theaters, I had only seen one of the Marvel movies. My brother made a list of the minimum movies I need to watch in order for Endgame to make sense, so on this visit we watched Captain America. Overall, it was a very pleasant evening at home.
Saturday 7/6
Run: Easy run + strength. Since I raced on Thursday, I pushed my long run to Sunday and gave myself some extra recovery time. I’ll also be racing a half marathon in a few weeks on Sunday, so I am syncing up my weekly flow. I joined EDGE for some easy miles before heading to a strength class with Tori at On Your Mark.
Sunday 7/8
Run: Long Run. The plan was 13 miles, gradually progressing from 60s slower than marathon pace to half marathon pace. I had one of those annoying experiences on the path where a guy was too macho to let me pass him. Gradually, I caught up to him, only to have him surge ahead to stay in front of me. But he couldn’t hold pace, or else was really bad at pacing, and quickly I caught up to him again. After glancing over his shoulder and seeing me, he sped up but then slowed again. This went on for a good mile.
Finally, I got tired of his terrible pacing, so I surged ahead only to have him speed up and run RIGHT at my heels, huffing and puffing to try and pass me again. HELL NO, BRO. I wanted to call him out on it, but instead after a minute I slammed on my brakes making him do an agility move around me, gave him the most evil/disgusted look I could muster and turned to run south so I could have some peace and quiet. Dudes like that annoy the hell out of me.
Other: Soccer! I ended my run at EDGE so I could shower, recover and watch the USA soccer game. There was a crew of about 20 other athletes there watching the game too. What a GREAT game. Go USA!
And that’s a wrap! I totaled 43 miles for the week, with one fantastic speed session, one not so great race, good family and friend time and a nice progression long run. This coming week I am so nervous and excited for Wednesday. I’ll be selling Becca Bites and Skookies at Shine Bright, the annual advocacy event for Shine, donating a portion of sales. Shine is a non-profit focused on inspiring fertility empowerment founded by Katie, my friend and fellow EDGE coach (and honestly the woman who told me to start selling Becca Bites in the first place!). If you live in the Chicago area, you can get tickets to the event here. From now until then I will be busy in the kitchen!
How was your week? How often do you like to race? Let’s stay in touch! Follow me on Instagram or Facebook for more food/fitness related posts.
Happy running,
Becca
Good luck Wednesday! Sounds like a good week (despite annoying dude & lackluster race — still, the race was a coaching success, after all!).
We have seen our share of Marvel movies, so Endgame made sense for us — but I have not seen them all, do not plan to see them all, and will not be watching all of them in sequence at any point. Currently we’re watching Jessica Jones on Netflix, which is very dark for Marvel but still kind of interesting in a creepy way.
Oh wow that wait is so unacceptable! One of the staff should have told you or rescheduled or something. Geez. Isn’t it the best when speedwork exceeds your expectations? Love it when that happens. Total confidence booster. Shame on that desperate dude. I mean really. All the best with the Shine Bright event. So exciting!
As a medical provider, I am always so conscious of my time! Last week, I got really behind because I saw a patient who came late and had a million concerns. I don’t usually run behind, so my regular patients were like what the what? It’s tough. I think anything more than 45 mins-1 hour is TOO LONG. Either the doctor has really poor time management or the office is not scheduling things well. I hate when men do that. Seriously. I ran a half a few years ago and this loser would not let me pass him. It was… Read more »
Bummer that you didn’t have a great race. But it was great seeing/meeting you on Thursday! I hate waiting and waiting for 2 1/2 hours for a doctor appointment would not have made me a happy person. I would definitely switch doctors unless you really, really like that doctor and there is no one else. What was up with the dude on running path? What was HIS problem?
How cool that you ran into Zenaida!
Ugh re: doctor. I actually changed doctors in part due to that. It’s so disrespectful of our time.
Way to go on your athlete’s race.
Ugh on the asshole on the path. Hope you got the peace you wanted when you turned south
What a great plan to sync your finish to where you could recover and watch. Such an amazing game/tournament
It sounds like you had a fun 4th. Ugh on the wait at the Dr’s office and WTF on that guy. What a jerk! I’ve changed dr’s over waiting time. It’s so stressful and annoying.
How obnoxious with that dude! I’m glad I run with a bunch of girlfriends because we usually don’t get bothered when we are together.
I love to race and I wish there were more options during the summer here. Unfortunately with heat indexes well over 100 degrees most days there aren’t many races in the thick of summer. It’ll pick up again in September so since I’m nursing my ankle injury I guess I just wait it out!
Ugh…that dude with the ego would have really annoyed me, too. I have not seen ANY of the Marvel movies, so I’d have to watch all of them (or certainly a few of the key ones, like you mentioned) to have any clue on what’s happening. I love the 4th of July, too! I have done a small local 5K for the past several years, but this year we went to a different event, and that was a fun time as well. Thanks for linking with us 😉
That hard core tabata class sounds like something I would love. I have been doing the Peloton core program the past few weeks. Hope you had a nice visit w your mom. Have a fantastic week
Love that you did a race on the 4th! I wish we had more holiday races in my city.
Sorry about your experience during your long run today 🙁 I don’t understand why guys are like that. It’s so annoying and also so rude.