Skidaway Island half marathon training: week 3 (2/9-2/15)

Something seriously clicked this week. Between PRing at the Wando Hearts & Soles 5K and the paces I'm hitting in my training runs with about the same amount of effort as before, I'm fairly certain I've passed my pre-baby fitness levels.

Other evidence of improvement (I think): D informed me that I have "sports butt" now. Whatever that means (it's a good thing, according to him). But apparently, I didn't have that before B. All I know is my new and exciting "sports butt" fits into all of my pre-baby clothes, so I guess it's all good. I'll give credit to the strength and core work I've been doing.

Speaking of strength and core work, in addition to providing me with my newfound sports butt, I think being committed to that is largely what's helped my overall running improvements. Pre-baby, I would do barre workouts occasionally, but not with the dedication I have to core and strength workouts now. Overall, I'm smarter about training this time around than I was before B. Plus the stroller running is a good workout, too. Any run without it now feels ridiculously easy. Had I known the stroller was all it took for faster running to feel easier, I would have put Meadow Beagle in her stroller and ran around the neighborhood with her a few times a month. (Yes, my beagle has a stroller. No, she hardly ever uses it, but sometimes she tweaks her back but still likes to get out and see the neighborhood sights.)

After looking back at previous training runs, I noticed this week I hit some training pace PRs at both 6 and 5 miles. In fact, the 6.1-miler I ran was my second fastest (almost) 10K ever, including races. I have a feeling if I went out and ran a 10K tomorrow, I'd go breezing right past my current PR of 49:25. Sadly, I have no 10Ks on my race calendar until summer, so we'll have to wait and see if that hypothesis holds up. This week's 5-miler was almost as fast as my previous race paces at the 8K and 5 mile distances. Improvements? Yes, I think so.

For my long run this week, I intended to do the entire 7 miles with the stroller at about a 9:30 pace, but I think it was a little too chilly for B even though we bundled him up, and he was unhappy. So after the first 3.5 mile loop around our neighborhood with him in the stroller and D on his bike , I dropped them both off at home and immediately continued on my run.

I'm definitely getting used to the stroller, though. This week, I started off easy and gradually got a little faster with each mile. My last mile with B was an 8:25 pace, which was a little faster than I wanted to be going, but since he started crying at the beginning of that mile, I was trying to get him home quickly. But that pace didn't feel too terrible at all with the stroller. It's too far out for me to set solid time goals for my first stroller race with B, which is the Moms' Run 5K on May 9, but I'm thinking I should at least be able to hold an 8:00 pace in a race with the stroller by that time.

Unfortunately, I didn't do any speedwork, tempos or crosstraining this week (boo), but I did run a race, so I guess that sort of counts as speedwork, right? I also missed Bodyflow on Monday, and I hate when that happens. I feel it all week. If I could go to Bodyflow every day, I would. It's just that amazing. And I feel like Gumby after I'm finished.

In summary (too long, didn't read):

Lots of good, strong runs with faster training paces than ever this week, including a good stroller run even if B only went 3.5 of the 7 miles with me. No crosstraining. Minimal core work.

The week in workouts:

• Monday: Off
• Tuesday: 20 minutes core/strength + Run - 6.11 miles (8:23 pace)
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Run - 5.04 miles (8:17 pace)
• Friday: Run - 3.07 miles (8:19 pace)
• Saturday: 10 minutes core/stretching + Hearts & Soles 5K 
• Sunday: LSD run - 7.1 miles (8:59 pace overall), first 3.5 with stroller (9:13 pace), second 3.5 without (8:46 pace)

Total miles: 24.42

Total runs: 5 (yay!)

Total core/strength workouts: 2 (meh)

Total crosstraining: 0 (boo)