Three months down, one month to go. Here's a look at Week 12!
Sunday 10/22: Planned - Rest / Actual - Rest
I spent most of Sunday catching up on life stuff, groceries and meal prep, putting some final touches on my costume, and then went out in the evening to see Ben Folds! We had dinner at Burgatory first, where I tried the Impossible Burger:
It was delicious! It came with garlic mayo, white American cheese, and pickles, and while I normally skip 2/3 of those things on my burger, it just seemed right to let them bring it to me as listed on the menu, and that was definitely the right choice. The texture was not 100% meatlike (though was pretty darn close) but I would absolutely eat this as my burger patty almost all of the time, no problem.
Evan got this awesome breakfast burger with half beef/half bacon patty, coffee rub, ham and runny egg on top, spicy/smoky syrup, and pancake bun, along with the Coffee & Donuts shake. Also super delicious based on the one bite I nabbed.
And of course, Ben's concert was amazing. I won't give a full recap here but I will say that the series of improbable coincidences that led to this guy getting his wish was something I'll remember for a long time. Totally worth the lost sleep as the concert didn't get out until nearly midnight!
Monday 10/23: Planned - 30 minutes @ Z2 + 5-10 minutes cooldown / Actual - 30 minutes @ Z2 + 9:05 cooldown (3.02 miles)
Thankfully this was an easy run so not too challenging, and I wasn't too bothered by the late night. Definitely feeling the cold now! After 12 weeks of running the same routes I've branched out a bit and starting exploring some of the weird little cul-de-sacs adjacent to my regular places. This one involved a couple that branch off from my hill repeat path so I could get at least one big climb in.
Tuesday 10/24: Planned - Intervals: 10 minutes warmup + (5 minutes @ Z4 + 1 minute @ Z2) x 5 + 5-10 minutes cooldown / Actual - 10 minutes warmup + (5 minutes @ Z4 + 1 minute @ Z2) x 5 + 10:27 cooldown (4.26 miles)
And now it was time to do these hills for real! I think the lack of sleep Sunday night actually caught up with me here, and I couldn't bring myself to roll out of bed before sunrise. I knew the weather was supposed to be decent later (just a small chance of showers) so I put it off until work.
After work, this happened:
It passed pretty quickly though, so I wasn't delayed too much in getting out the door. I also finally opened and put on my "new" pair of Ride 7s - in the last colorway I needed to get from the main ones, anyway! These will probably be my race shoes for the half, so it's about time to start putting some preliminary miles on them just to make sure there aren't any unexpected surprises.
Another hill repeat day, though being all discombobulated from my normal routine, I initially forgot what I planned on doing and started heading out on a different route, which put my intervals just enough out of sync with my loop that I was doing the Z4 parts on the flat/downhill sections and the Z2 bits on the uphill hard part, more than I wanted anyway. But no matter! My times here are improving according to Strava, and that's pretty great! And it was nice not running in the dark for a change.
I also stopped and took some pictures of the Hill earlier in the week, but I'm not sure they necessarily do it justice:
Wednesday 10/25: Planned - 30 minutes @ Z2 + 5-10 minutes cooldown / Actual - 30 minutes @ Z2 + 9:57 cooldown (2.79 miles)
Another quite easy day. Cold and breezy and I had to pull out my running vest because another layer was definitely needed!
Nothing too exciting here otherwise, though I did finally get to try out Honeygrow with Mike in the evening! Salad was super tasty and I'm looking forward to trying out other stuff from them sometime soon. Love the touch-screen ordering as it's so much easier to get exactly what you want that way, especially when you don't even know what options are available to you!
For the first visit, though, I went with a standard menu item, the 'FALL THE THINGS' salad, which has maple cider vinaigrette, organic arugula, crispy bacon, roasted yams, red onion, pecans, dried cranberries, and goat cheese. I added chicken for a protein boost. So very me and so very delicious! This bowl was huge and I would actually love the option to do a half size version, maybe? But I destroyed that thing, no problem.
Thursday 10/26: Planned - Rest / Actual - Random gym session
Thursday night is gym night! I did all the normal stuff, this time alongside a class of people using the TRX and whatnot. Music was pretty good? Filmed my squats and was mostly pleasantly surprised with my form.
Friday 10/27: Planned - Fartlek: 45 minutes @ varying pace + 5-10 minutes cooldown / Actual - 45 minutes @ varying pace + 8:08 cooldown (4.27 miles)
Worked my hill loop into my otherwise regular path and surprised myself a little by how much ground I was able to cover. I'm really curious to see how all this extra-slow running really pans out in the half. Pretty sure my 'fast' is getting faster but as yet no real idea how long I can sustain it, though that last 10K is coming up soon!
Saturday 10/28: Planned - 60 minutes @ Z2 + 5-10 minutes cooldown / Actual - 1:42 @ Z2 (7.14 miles)
Because of said upcoming 10K, the plan had me doing a much shorter "long run" for the week as a sort of mini-taper, I suppose. So I didn't get to re-run last weeks 10 mile hilly monster, but I was thiiiis close to getting the monthly elevation badge on Strava for the first time ever so I didn't want to totally whiff that, or lower my mileage too much for the week since Week 13 is a much lower week overall in volume. Compromised by putting in a couple loops at Allegheny Cemetery, which was seasonally appropriate and still quite hilly if nothing else!
It was fairly chilly and promising to rain, so we got out pretty early, basically as soon as it was light enough to see (a little after 7; that time change can't come soon enough for me!). We saw a whole lot of deer (upwards of two dozen), many geese (which I may have chased and honked at a little more than necessary), a few people, at least one squirrel, and got rained on intermittently for at least half the run. My HR strap also started acting up towards the tail end. It starts slipping down pretty badly when I get sweaty and then loses contact? Not sure what's going on with it and more troubleshooting is required.
After running I headed back home to get rested up because it was finally time to debut my Halloween costume at a party that evening! It's still got some adjustments needed before I wear it to Steel City Con in December, but all things considered I'm quite happy with it!
I give you the noble Soviet bear... Zoya the Destroya!
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| I won the costume contest! |
Weekly Total Time: 4:45:10 (down 41:42 from Week 11)
Weekly Total Distance: 21.48 23.68 (down 2.2 miles from Week 11)
Weight Lost: Still meandering vaguely downward, though the scale was not cooperative this week. Overall trend is down though the precise numbers were kind of even from Saturday to Saturday. And of course the party kind of threw things for a loop, but overall we're still going the right direction as the train slowly approaches the station.
Next week: Week 13 brings a further reduction in miles and my last tuneup race before the half! We're under a month to go now, so I'm going to be focusing on getting my food intake on point (enough, but not too much) and making the most of the miles I've got left before the big day.
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