Night Runner

Jen and I recently returned from our well-deserved and much-awaited vacation to sunny San Diego. The trip was amazing - some of the best fun we've had in a long time. Unfortunately, we were busy having so much fun that we didn't run or workout while we were on the West Coast. We did walk a measurable distance and swim in the Pacific Ocean; that counts for something, right?

We've had to modify the training schedule as a 12 miler was in line for this past Saturday; we'll make that up in 2 phases this coming Saturday. Tonight we ran our infamous loop (with an extension to boost it to 5k length) to get back into the swing of things. As an added surprise (especially after returning from San Diego), tonight was the first cold run we've been through since our formal training began. The temperature was in the low 50's and the sun was set for most of the run. Overall, it went very well; but needless to say we started assembling our clothing strategy for the Columbus Half.

The plan is to cross train at the gym Thursday and Friday and then tackle a medium distance at running club Saturday morning with the Reggae Run 5k Saturday night.

And...we're back.

After a few weeks hiatus from posting, Jen and I are back. And back with intensity - on Saturday, we both hit 10 miles. That's awesome. Now, I'll fill you in on how we got here.

So the last post was in July when we upped our runs from 4 to 5 miles. That was a big deal. We continued around that range for most of July. Then, on August first, Jen ran the Cincinnati Ladies Distance Classic 10k. Obviously I wouldn't be running in a women-only race but I still did my part, waking early to get Jen to the course and then volunteering as a course monitor. Basically I made sure all of the ladies made a certain turn. It was a lot of estrogen, but I did get a pretty sweet t-shirt out of it...and requests for kisses.

Throughout August we adjusted are weekly training schedule to something more like this:

• 1 fast light run (5k distance)
• 1 steady medium run (5-7 mile distance)
• 1 steady long run (changed upwards each week - currently at 10 mile distance)
• 2-3 bouts of cross-training (including light lifting, spinning, or elliptical training)
• 1-2 days of rest

That's been working pretty well for us, in terms of both our schedules and our physical/mental preparation. I've even gone so far as to show an interest in both trail running and the full Flying Pig Marathon. We'll seen how those crazy ideas pan out.

I promise I'll post a little more frequently than I have over the past couple months, especially now that we are down to less than 1 month to our big race!