You can do it put some track into it!
Hit the track this morning for my second workout for the Maine Coast Half Marathon in May! Yes… it’s starting. I had great results with Greg modifying Jack Daniels’ workouts for me for the Maine Half Marathon in October, but I wasn’t able to spend as many weeks in each phase as he would have liked because I didn’t start until school let out in June. This time, we’re starting around 18 weeks ahead of time to build in a buffer for any off weeks due to illness or vacation and to make sure I don’t rush through any of the phases before I’m ready for things to ramp up.
I had a 1 mile warm-up, then 12 x 200 meter repeats with a goal of 8:04-8:30 pace followed by 200 meters active recovery, 1 mile cool down.
I had to work for some of the first ones, but by the end I was hitting the repeats without any warning buzzes from my Garmin.
I almost ran this run on the treadmill, not so much because of the weather which was in the thirties and sunny, but because I was dreading the run to and from the track with its elevation and longer mileage than I really need to warm up or cool down. I was debating whether to run the first intervals on the road leading to the track, when I realized hey – I have a car. I will already be in said car dropping my kids off at school. I could just drive straight to the track, warm up and cool down there, and not have to face the giant hill leading into my neighborhood that would put me at higher mileage than strictly necessary.
So I did that, and I got to run outside in the fresh air and work on the mental discipline of making myself run the required interval speed rather than letting the treadmill make me do it.
The only downside was the irritation I felt when two women cut into the track and started walking their dog in the fast lanes. The thought of a dog using the bathroom on the track preoccupied my thoughts on all my recoveries, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak to them and suggest that maybe it’d be more hygenic not to have a dog in a place where college students do push-ups before track practice and the turf and track material has no drainage except over on the side which is meant for runoff.
I can’t police the local track 24/7, but I can remind all of you to wash your hands in between push-ups and eating wherever you do them, and don’t wear your running shoes inside.
After my workout I used my InstantPot to make freekeh for a breakfast grain bowl. By the time I’d showered, I had cooked freekeh which I topped with cinnamon, frozen raspberries that thawed when I mixed them in, and molasses to sweeten it. I think maple syrup would be delicious, too, but I love the taste of molasses and it’s a better source of iron and calcium.
Freekeh is also crazy healthy – I had 1/2 cup dry which means two servings. That means I got 32% of my daily fiber, 160% of my manganese (whaat?), 40% of my iron (not even counting the molasses), plus 12 grams of protein, which is 26.8% of my protein. I also had a glass of unsweetened soy milk with 8 grams of protein, bringing this post-run breakfast up to 44.8% of my daily protein with 20 grams. Plant power indeed!
This is good news because I did not finish my carrot smoothie this morning BECAUSE IT TASTED LIKE CARROTS. And not the good, sweet, fresh carrots. It tasted like old, overcooked carrots. We are having a blueberry goji smoothie tomorrow instead because the best thing I can say about this smoothie is it looked very nice with Will’s pajamas.
