June 06, 2016

Quick Monday Bullets

Eli has a double-header game tonight, and Noah has a single game, so I am just going to write a quick post of bullets about the weekend. Nothing much was happening this weekend anyway!
  • On Saturday morning, I went to some city wide garage sales with the kids and my mom. I haven't been to garage sales in a long time! I didn't have much luck on Saturday, other than a couple of pairs of jeans. I got a bunch of nice Under Armour sweatshirts for Noah to wear in the fall for $1 each, which was a great score. Eli found a Lego set (a 184-piece Batman set) for 50 cents (and it wound up having all the pieces included!) For 50 cents, it was definitely a risk worth taking. 
  • At one of the sales, I bought a new plastic pool for $5 for Joey. I'd been wanting to buy one for him, but they're too big to fit in my Jeep. We had my mom's car on Saturday, and we managed to fit the pool in the back. When we got home, the boys wanted to fill it up right away. Joey, being part lab that loves water, jumped in right away.



  • Jerry went to a friend's birthday party on Saturday night, and the kids stayed at my parents' house, so I had the house to myself. I had been up since 3:30 in the morning (insomnia), so I just stayed in and watched a couple of Lifetime movies. It felt kind of good to do nothing, but I was feeling restless when it was finally time to go to bed.
  • On Sunday morning, I really wanted to have a doughnut for breakfast and have a lazy morning with Jerry; but, I managed to avoid a doughnut and go out for a run instead. I'm really glad I did! I felt much more energetic when I was done with my run. I did five miles, and it was one of those runs that just felt really good the entire time. My pace ended up being 10:02/mile with a heart rate of 144 (goal is under 146), so I was very happy with that. I stopped seeing big improvements in my pace during heart rate training, so I wasn't sure if I hit a plateau or what. But I honestly don't mind--if my easy run pace stays at 10:00 or even 11:00 forever, I'm happy with that. 

  • It's really difficult to keep my heart rate from jumping when I run these days, because it's prime bird season. They get really territorial, and I'm terrified of them dive-bombing me. I haven't had any close encounters this year (yet), but each time I get to a spot where they've been mean or attacked me in the past, my heart rate spikes. I found that when I run with headphones, I'm less anxious, because I don't hear them squawking at me. I forgot my headphones the last couple of times I ran, though.
  • We had a pretty relaxing day at home yesterday. I've been working really hard on a 5K plan that I want to post on my blog. It's an 80/20 plan to run a sub-30 5K (I've also included paces for sub-40, sub-35, and sub-25). It's actually been really fun to work on! I'll see how it goes over, and if people like it, maybe I'll write some more plans to share. I will get that one posted soon.
  • I'm going to follow the plan that I just wrote and see how I like it. The hardest part was getting the 80/20 ratio to work out correctly. I am really happy with what I wrote, though, and it made me want to follow the schedule myself! haha. Mondays are rest days, so the first run of the plan is actually tomorrow. 
  • I wrote a couple of plans for Noah and Eli to follow this summer as well. I wrote a 10K schedule for Noah, so he'll be ready to run his first 10K in October; and I wrote a 5K schedule for Eli to be prepared to run a 5K race in August. He's never actually followed a training plan, and I want him to get used to it. Our cross country practices will start in mid-August, so he'll be ahead of the game when we start, which is nice!
  • Today, Eli started with his plan, and he had 0.5 miles on his schedule. He asked me to run it with him, so we got up at 6:00 and headed out right away. If we run two blocks from our house (a big square) it's exactly half a mile, so that's what we did. It was nice! I wish *my* runs were only half a mile ;)
Okay, I've got to get the boys fed and ready for baseball. Busy night!

12 comments:

  1. Your "sub-plan" paragraph was THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because you included slower paces!!!!!!!!! I haven't seen that anywhere! That's like written just for me!!! It took me over a year to hit sub 40 on a 5k and I am still not consistent with it. I run with a running club once a week at a brewery doing a 5k and 90% of the time I was 41+ on time, which is disappointing 80 pounds lighter and 25 (official) races in. I'd love to hit a 35 some day. Please post it!!!

    I'd also love a cat post some day soon. My kitty Toulouse died on Saturday and I spent Sunday at the cat sanctuary petting cats and could just use some nice happy cats. I have two clingy pets at home right now and they are just making me feel so sad that their friend is gone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you're looking forward to the training plan! There are tons of "beginner" plans out there, and tons of plans for faster runners looking to PR--but not many for experienced runners who are still in the mid- to back-of-the-pack looking to get faster. So hopefully this will be what you're looking for! :)

      I'm SO sorry about your kitty! :( That makes me so sad. Our gerbil is getting ready to go soon (she's old) and even though she's "just a gerbil", I almost can't stand the heartbreak! I will take some cat pics and post them soon. (Who am I kidding? I take cat photos every single day! lol)

      Delete
  2. Very excited to see your plan for the 5ks. Like the previous poster, I usually come in somewhere right around 40. I would love to have a sub 35 min 5k.

    I think it's great that your boys get the benefit so young of having a trainer right there in the house. My 14 year old started running a few years ago and it's taken awhile for her brain to catch up with her body. She ran a 1/2 marathon last month (and did great), but it was the first time I convinced her that she really needed to train for a race.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow! Your daughter is 14 and ran a half-marathon? That is amazing! The most my kids have done is a 5K (which I am super proud of)--and now Noah is training for a 10K, which sounds impossible to him. I'm really excited for him to do it and see that it's definitely possible!

      Delete
    2. I'm sure Noah will do great. She started with 2 mile cross country runs in the fall of 7th grade and ran her half in the spring of 8th grade. She wanted to get a half in before high school because it's hard to do outside events when you're running high school cross country and track. We are actually going to her awards ceremony today. She placed 2nd in her age group at the Marine Corps Historic Half. I am pretty amazed by her!

      Delete
  3. I cannot WAIT to read your sub 30 5K plan!! Back when I was really in shape (like 2013) I ran a 5K in 27-some minutes. That's still my PR! But, since gaining some weight back, I still haven't been able to get below 30 minutes. I usually end up just a little over, like 31-33 minutes. I've been trying to train to get under 30 minutes by this fall but without a plan, I'm kind of lost.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am so excited to see sub 30 5k too! I am right there but I cant seem to find anything for it. I would love some cat photos too. Now that its hot out all the cats are curled up inside and my daughter and I dont see our neighborhood cats on walks as much anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm looking forward to reading your plans too! I got just under 40 recently for a 5k (PR for me) and am not sure where to go from there. Feeling a little lost, like you said you felt after your 10k PR.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm really excited to see your plans too. I was actually thinking of asking you about this recently but never got around to it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can you even believe it? Me too! I lost 86 pounds, and my 5K time improved less than 5 minutes---from around 45 minutes to 40 minutes. I haven't ever been able to get under 40, either. I'm so slow, and feel VERY awkward and almost dangerous when I run faster than my "usual" pace. Thanks for thinking of all of "us".

    ReplyDelete
  8. I would love an 80/20 sub 2:00 half marathon plan. I haven't tried HR training yet but now that I have a Garmin with a HR monitor I would really like to try it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. OOOH...I, like everyone else am so excited to see the 80/20 plans for us experience, yet still slower runners! I've been doing longer (ie slower paced) races lately, but a sub-35 5K has been in my mind for about 2 years when I beat my sub-37 goal.

    ReplyDelete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive