Weekend Update

Saturday morning I reached a new PDR (personal distance record) on the treadmill: 13.1 miles!!

Who am I?

I used to refer to this thing as the “dreadmill!” (I still think it is quite boring and monotonous, but it does have its benefits.)

But when you set your mind to something, it is amazing what you can do!

My marathon training plan called for a half-marathon race today, but I’m pretty sure I would have had to travel to Washington or Oregon to find a half-marathon race this time of the year. So, I decided to put on my run my own race.

With the temperatures still being on the cool side and the roads covered in snow/ice, I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep the pace I wanted to, so I considered running it on the treadmill. I threw the idea out to my sister but told her I didn’t know how I would survive since I get bored doing 6 miles on the treadmill; there was no way I could do 13.1! She said, “well, if that guy from Duluth can run for 16+ hours on the treadmill, you can do less than 2 hours on the treadmill.” She is pretty good at putting me in my place and challenging me! So that was that, challenge accepted!

All week I was mentally preparing myself for running 13.1 miles on the treadmill, but I didn’t expect to wake up to clear, sunny skies Saturday morning. However, once I get something in my head, it is hard for me to change, so despite the balmy weather, I was going to run 13.1 miles on the treadmill. Plus, how cool would it be for me to say I ran that far on the treadmill? (I realize a lot of other people have run much further.)

And surprisingly, I was actually excited to run 13.1 miles that morning!

And it wasn’t that bad either—except the last 3 miles. Those were a bit rough. I was constantly looking down at the clock on the treadmill. I ended up finishing in 1:42.

I actually completed 17 miles Saturday morning: I ran 2 miles to the gym, then 13.1 on the treadmill, and finished up with a 2 mile cool-down run back home.

After a long run, my routine has become:

– light stretching (It is almost too painful to do a lot of stretching.)

– eat breakfast #2/lunch (My food choices usually end up being breakfast items, so I call it breakfast #2 even though it was after noon before I ate.)

– ice bath (I swear by ice baths! Yes, they are painful, but I’ll put up with the pain for a couple minutes for the benefits of a faster recovery.)

– take a shower and get ready (Actually, this time I took a shower first and then did an ice bath—otherwise the hot shower seemed like it would make my ice bath counterproductive.)

After completing all of those things, Craig and I decided to head to Acai Alaska for an afternoon treat since I bought their Groupon the other day.

We ended up sharing one of their signature acai bowls. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was filled with mixed berries, coconut, mango, and chocolate.

We had no problem finishing it.

Afterward, we went to REI where Craig bought equipment to put cross bars on top of his Subaru so that he can now buy bike racks/rails to install on the roof.

That evening we watched the movie I Don’t Know How She Does It.

It was a good movie but is definitely a chick-flick. (Craig did not get into it.) I thought it was cute and funny, plus I could relate to the main character’s never-ending list of things to do and trying to be perfect at everything.

(Source)

Sunday morning I headed to Anchorage Yoga for their Warm Flow class. This is one of their “karma” classes and only costs $7 ($5 if you buy a package of 10), which is a steal of a deal since most other classes cost $14 for an hour-long class.

I try to go to this class as often as it fits my schedule. I really like the class and the instructor, plus doing yoga is a great way to start my day.

After yoga, I ran to get a few things at the grocery store that I forgot to pick up for our meals for the week. I also washed my car since it was extremely dirty. This is the time of the year when I’m never quite sure if it is safe to wash my car or not, but I was tired of it looking so dirty.

When I got back home, I put my running shoes on and headed out for my run for the day: 6 miles on dry pavement. . . .oh, it has been far too long! It is amazing how much faster my pace is when I have good traction.

I also wore my compression socks on my run. I usually wear my compression socks after a hard run—either a track workout or a long run—but I rarely wear them when running. I’m not sure how much I like wearing them while running, and I’m not sure if they help either. But I figured it couldn’t hurt.

After I got back from running, I was starving, so I quickly whipped up my new favorite open-faced sandwich.

sourdough bread (toasted) + avocado + egg + cheese

I’m sure I got this idea from someone’s blog, but it is SO good! And easy too!

Well, our snow is slowly melting away. We’ve made quite a bit of progress in the last 10 days, but there’s still a decent amount out there.

I’m just hoping it is gone by May??

Last year at this time, there wasn’t any snow left!

Well, once again the weekend has flown by. I’m hoping this week will fly by as well. Only 24 more days of school. Not that I’m counting or anything. I had a bad day on Friday, so the sooner this is over, the sooner my stress will go away!

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Question

What was your highlight from the weekend?