IL Marathon Training Week 7 and 8: Winter Returns

Sup.

For some reason I couldn’t find the motivation to blog last week.  I am a slacker. I will try to recall my workouts, because I know you all want to know what I ran.

Week 7:
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Speed/treadmill class at lunch, 4 miles
Wednesday: Spin
Thursday: 6 miles, outside!
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 60 Min Definitions class (1 degree windchill = no running)
Sunday: Forced rest day – baby shower in Mahomet

So week 7 was a good week.  I some how managed to get in my midweek  middle distance run and cross training.

Valentine’s Day Run

It was a lil chilly.

I felt like a champion… excecpt I skipped my long run on Saturday.  12 Miles was on the agenda and I just could not fathom running it in 1 degree windchill.  Not to mention, I really do not have that kind hard core winter running gear. And I knew  I did not have it in me to do it on the treadmill, so I took a class at the gym instead.

On to Week 8.  It was kind of a bust. I ran 2 times.  That’s it.

Monday: 10 miles (week 7′s long run… ran out of gas, didn’t enough gels)
Tuesday: 1 hour PT session
Wednesday: Nothing
Thursday: Still nothing
Friday: You guessed it: nothing.
Saturday: 13.35 miles!

So I moved week 7′s run to last Monday because I had the day off work and it was about 50 degrees and beautiful in Chicago!  SUCH A BETTER OPTION THAN RUNNING ON THE TREADMILL! I was supposed to run 12, but I literally ran out of gas.  It was pretty dang windy, I didn’t eat a big enough breakfast and I only packed 2 gels.  I needed more. Excuses.  On a positive note, it was a gorgeous day.

Super sweet collage of all the ice that I made on Instaframe.

And, for the record, this is my favorite part of the lake path.

It’s even prettier when there are leaves on the trees.

This weekend’s long run, while a lot colder, was more successful.

Perfect pacing. 10:30 on the DOT.

Overall we hit the  right pace, but some miles were faster and slower than 10:30.

This mile, for example, was a slow mile.

For you Chicago runners, you know the spot on the path that I’m talking about… the stretch between Oak Street Beach and Ohio Beach is always messy in the winter.  We ran up at the top of the path, next to LSD.

I’m getting cold just looking at this.

We ran on inner Lake Shore Drive on the way back, as to avoid this idiot part of the path.  It was a super pretty morning along Lake Michigan and lucky for us, the sun stayed out until about the last 2 miles.  IT WAS SO MUCH COLDER AFTER THE CLOUDS TOOK OVER.

Last lake pic. No boats in the harbor.  Sorry, I’m obsessed with this great lake.

And unlike last weekend, I did something else besides running and sitting on the couch like a hermit.   A couple of friends and I took a painting “class” (for lack of a better word) at Bottles and Bottega in Lakeview.

Per usual, I was busy taking sneaky pics

That guy up front was guiding us how to paint a pic of  some birch trees.

Before

After. (and I know, I am wearing a really sweet vest. MAN MAGNET.)

Oh and the instructor man told us we all had to sign our painting… and a symbol, if we wanted.  Naturally this was mine…

Oh and we were there on the 23rd. I’m really smart and good with dates and small details.

It was a lot of fun and it’s BYOB, so they encourage you to drink a few glasses of wine while there to help with creativity.  I had a hard time drinking since I was sooo tired from my run.  I bet if I guzzled more wine I would have really created a masterpiece.

Today I was super tired and sore from my run yesterday.  I slept in SO LATE and woke up to this creeper just staring me down.

“Wake up, meow!”

Later, he facetimed with Elliot. And Elliot meowed for him.  It was funny.

Elliot is the best!

So that’s the super exciting time I’ve been having the past 2 weeks.  I am looking forward to week 9 of training.  Miles are getting longer and luckily the temps look to be getting warmer, which is excellent because I think this week’s mid week longish run is  7 miles.  I just don’t have the kind of will power to run that on a ‘mill after work! Here is to week 9er!

And I will leave you with this sweet pic that I snapped yesterday.  See you after week 9!

Caturday!