Training Recap: June Week 2

I am so happy I am writing these weekly training recaps! While it's to help hold me more accountable, even if only to myself, I also use it as a weekly recap of life. I tend to not write in detail as much about what Abigail is doing day to day, so I know looking back months or years from now I will really appreciate the little daily write ups. Honestly, each week I want to start every recap with "I cannot believe how fast last week flew by"...which carries over to months disappearing too. And in similar fashion, we're now halfway through June. Wow.

Monday
Abigail had an amazing swim lesson, it actually looked more like swim team practice in comparison to a lesson for a 4yo. She is becoming such a good swimmer! When I swam in high school, I never cared for backstroke but Abigail seems to favorite it.

Abigail wanted to go for a run, but I talked her into riding her bike thinking she'd be faster on the bike. We also were going to deliver blueberry muffins to the sweet elderly couple we met last Monday, so the basket on her bike was needed. This bike ride was not ideal, I ended up walking the majority of the time, pleading Abigail to keep pedaling. When we chatted with Mr Charlie, I forgot to stop my GPS watch, but he seemed so happy that we remembered him and brought him Abigail's Blueberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins.

I ended up taking Brewer for a real run once Matt finished up work, we finished 1.3mi in 14.55mins. Brewer was very distracted this run, wanting to stop for every car or squirrel. He is very strong, pulling when we get started on our runs or pulling in the opposite direction when he hears another dog barking. I keep reminding myself he is ONLY 6mo old.

Tuesday

Abigail and I met friends at an indoor playground before her swim and dance classes. It was nice to chat and have some adult conversation while our kiddos played together. In the evening we met up with Matt, another friend and her kids at Food Truck Park. It was extra hot while we ate and played, and I still hadn't gotten my run in yet.

I decided to try to run a different path, instead of just running in our neighborhood. It's an extra wide path for walkers, runners and bicyclists and the landscaping is beautiful. The path is even off set from the road so you don't have to smell car exhaust the entire time. Most of the path can be seen easily from the road so I felt safe, until I entered a portion completely hidden from the road. I was running completely alone and while it's a safe neighborhood, I started panicking and questioning my decision to run alone. I finished a 1.5mi run in 13:44, but will have to revisit the 'how to be a safe runner' topic sometime soon.

Wednesday
Abigail and I visited with MOPS friends for a pool playdate in the morning. Abigail had lots of fun swimming and playing in a shallow kiddy pool with lots of friends. She wants to swim all the time but we don't have a neighborhood pool so our options are the swim lesson pool or waiting for invites from friends.

Brewer and I headed out in early evening for a run through the neighborhood. Before our usual first turn, I saw what looked to be a deer down the street, so we kept running. It was a deer! I couldn't believe it, we live in a very residential area but other neighbors confirmed this doe has been feeding regularly one street over. I forgot to pause my Nike+ so I ended up restarting after a good few minutes admiring the wildlife. We completed a total of 3mi but only have accurate time for 2.6mi, which we finished in 29min.

Family photo, Brewer thinking he's a lap dog!

Thursday
Our morning was a bit lazy, the Sweaty Bands giveaway had ended Wednesday night and the Chobani Flip Giveaway officially started (ends June 18th so there's still time to enter!). After Abigail's swim and gymnastics, it was time to get my run done. Abigail insisted she wanted to come with, so I decided to take her first then I would take Brewer after. Maybe it would have been better if I had tied her to me, and just drug her along. Yes, it was that bad. She ran past the first few houses, then walked and ran very minimally after that. I kept running, at the slowest pace possible and would run to the next mailbox then turn back and run back to Abs and repeat. It was painful but we finished 1.35mi in 29min. I'm going to have to figure out a "solution" for us running together. I do want her to run with me if she'd like, but I want her to actually run if she is coming with me.

I went back out with Brewer and he didn't pull like he usually does the first mile. I knew I wanted at least 1.5mi since my mile with Abigail was at a walking pace (after all the stopping) and Brewer and I were enjoying ourselves. Slowly I started noticing the clouds were darkening and there was a nice breeze, well right before our last turn back towards the house tornado sirens went off. The clouds were moving fairly fast so we ran faster to get home. I wasn't aware we were in for bad weather and immediately turned the news on when we got home. There were tornado warnings issued until 8pm the sky turned super dark and the winds were being reported over 80mph. Very scary! We ended up with some branches in our yard but were fine otherwise.


Friday
Matt took a vacation day and we spent the day with our nephew and niece. While our niece took a nap, I took Brewer for an afternoon run. It was 85* out but felt much hotter when we were not shaded by trees. We finished 2.8mi in 33 minutes (11:44 pace), I wasn't thrilled about our pace but know runners should keep a slower pace in hotter weather.

We took all three kiddos and met up with Matt's parents for dinner at one of our favorite pizza places. I completely devoured some garlic rolls, BBQ Chicken pizza and shared a pitcher of sangria with Matt. I was SO hungry....maybe RUNgry and enjoyed every bite!

Saturday
After the kids had their bacon and pancakes, I took Brewer out for a run through the neighborhood. It was a beautiful morning! I could tell Brewer was getting hot, as his pace slowed. When we came upon a neighbor watering his lawn I asked if he would water Brewer. Brewer loved the mid-run drink and walked all through the water, I decided maybe our run should be done so we headed home. We finished a 3.78mi run in 43min (11:16 pace).

Abigail and her cousins were playing outside when we got home and Brewer decided he was going to cool off in the pool and the kids had fun spraying him too.

We spent the afternoon at Turner Field watching the Braves host the Giants. We went with Matt's family, to celebrate June birthday's (my sister-in-law, Matt and mother-in-law all have birthdays in June) and to celebrate Father's Day. This was the 4th Braves game this season for Matt, Abigail and I and we have been loving the Club Level discounted tickets from Goldstar.com. This was the first game we were in direct sunlight the entire game (we have always been shaded) but were able to walk into the air-conditioned club area to cool off when needed. I highly recommend checking out Goldstar if you plan to purchase tickets for any upcoming games or shows (Atlanta has so much offered on Goldstar).

Sunday
I took Brewer for his longest run to date! We finished 4.15mi in 45:49 minutes. Ideally, I would love for him to be able to run 8-10mi with me as I continue to add more and more mileage to my runs training for runDisney's Dopey Challenge (January'14). As I mentioned above, I will be revisiting 'how to be a safer runner' topic and I do feel more safe running with Brewer than alone. It would be great if I could run with a friend but it's not always easy matching schedules, and honestly a bunch of my running friends and I all run at different paces. So I will continue training Brewer to be my running partner, and it serves as a dual purpose since it exhausts some of his crazy puppy energy!

Questions:
-Do you get distracted by wildlife while running?
-What makes you feel/keep you safe when you are running, or doing things alone?