Monday: Labor Day marks the unofficial end to summer. I
wanted to take a yoga class because it is a great form of active recovery and
it would allow me to reflect on my summer. I thought classes may have been cancelled for the holiday, but according to the app I use
to schedule my classes they appeared to be on! I signed up for an evening
class; I was super excited to go since I had a long day mourning the end of summer with lot of studying. However, my day took a turn for the worse when I
arrived at the studio only to be locked out. Apparently the studio decided to
cancel evening classes, but they did not update their app. To make things even
worse I had to wait for 45 minutes to catch a bus to take me home. I may have
cried to my parents at the bus stop, but eventually they were able to talk some
sense into me. Everyone has bad days! Your plans may fall through, but that
doesn't mean you have to go down with them!! By the time the bus came I had
been able to reschedule my yoga class for a later date free of charge and my
parents decided to come watch me run my first half marathon!! Although I did
not have a great day everything seemed to work out in the end.
Tuesday: 5k at 80% and 45 minutes of cross training.
Yesterday was rough, but I was able to pull myself together so that I would not
have another bad days this week. I had gym class in the afternoon, which
consisted of a ladder workout. We did a bunch of body weight exercises
including sit ups, planks, push ups, squats, lunges, and my personal favorite…
BURPEES!!! After my gym class I decided to run a 5k at 80% effort. I was a
little disappointed to have run positive splits (8:48, 9:06, 9:06) since I
thought I was running a lot faster each mile, but on a more encouraging note I
was able to keep my pace consistent.
Wednesday: Dance class and 4.12 miles in 35:30 (splits:
9:13, 7:47, 8:38, 8:44). I was supposed to do a tempo run today, but I had so
much energy and so little focus I just kind of ran my own little run. I clearly
was not paying attention to my pacing which can be seen in my inconsistent
splits. Although it was not a perfect run, I have learned that I need to remain
focused during my shorter workouts, so that I do not get in the habit of going
out too fast and burning out before my workout is over. I know that I need to
train hard so that I can race harder.
Thursday: Cross training. I woke up this morning feeling a
whole new kind of hurt; clearly I worked muscles in dance class yesterday that
I normally do not use. I was dreading my gym class this afternoon because I was
so sore. I cried a little bit on the inside when my trainer told the class we
were doing a deck of cards workout. You may get lucky and only draw low cards,
but you have just as good of a shot of drawing all high cards. Our workout was
surprisingly varied with both high and low cards being picked except for one
exercise… pushups. I have never had to do so many pushups in one workout in my
entire life!!! While I was surprised to wake up sore from dance, I know for a
fact I will be feeling it from all the pushups.
Friday: 5.35 miles in 46:44 (splits: 9:19, 8:20, 8:53, 8:23,
9:04). Another Friday, another run on the treadmill. I do not have much to say
about this run other than the fact that I was feeling faster than I was
actually going. I am so excited for the game tomorrow that I was not very
focused on my training.
Saturday: Rest Day. After sixteen long years, the in-state
rivalry between Pitt and Penn State was reignited today. Pitt vs Penn State,
the Keystone Classic, is a game I have been waiting for since they announced it
last year. This game would be the biggest game I would get to attend at Pitt,
and I was going to make the best of it. My roommate, Alison, and I headed down
to Heinz Field around 8:00 am to wait in line with all the other students
wanting good seats for the game. We were pretty far back in line, but I was
able to drag Alison along as I weaved our way towards the front of the line.
After 2 hours of waiting we finally were allowed into the stadium, which turned
into a mad dash for the student section. We sprinted as fast as we could (I am counting this as my active recovery!) and
got amazing seats 1 row behind the end zone! We couldn't have asked for better
seats and a better game. Pitt held on to win the game in the last minutes when it
was looking like Penn State would take home the victory!! Hail to Pitt!!
*Alison is famous she is in the Pitt News!!
Sunday: 7.57 miles in 1:08:03 (splits: 10:14, 9:16, 8:53,
8:40, 8:48, 8:57, 8:18). I have one more week till race day! For my last long
run I did not set any mileage goals, rather I wanted to see how far I could go
in 1 hour. I was feeling great today and was able to run an 8:59 min/mile pace,
which is 31 seconds faster than the pace I plan to run on race day. I am looking
forward to racing and hanging out with my parents next weekend!
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