Weekend + Marathon Training Update

Hello, hello! I hope it was a great weekend for y’all and that the new week is off to a great start. I’m popping in with a quick weekend recap and an update on marathon training before I head out to teach a hot sculpt class. I just went waaaay down the Instagram rabbit hole with pilates ball exercises as I was writing out the plan for today so it should be a fun time for all of my participants!

WEEKEND RECAP 

This is the only good photo I took on Friday and since we were just talking lunch ideas in my last post, seems relevant. This was a bowl with spinach, arugula, roasted sweet potatoes, turkey, leftover parmesan couscous, avocado, feta, candied pecans and dried cherries. I whipped up a quick vinaigrette with balsamic, honey, dijon, olive oil and sea salt and shook it up in a jar. This salad bowl was very fall-flavored and very filling!

The rest of the day looked like hanging out with Finn, going on a walk in the neighborhood with the pups with a stop at the playground and making a big pot of chili using my favorite recipe from my dad. Always exciting to make the first soup/stew kinda dish of the season.

It was gray and cool on Saturday morning so I enjoyed a slow start to the day with a smoothie, coffee and a puzzle while Finn snoozed. I love these Gray Malin double-sided puzzles…and so does Zoey! I’m pretty sure she ate at least two pieces that fell on the floor. Such a bummer to have missing pieces!

Finn had a soccer game at 10:15a so I got him up, fed, dressed and to the field. While the Fire Sharks (they pick their own team names – we were playing the “6 7s” lol) played with a lot of heart, sadly the game did not turn out in our favor. They don’t even keep score in the rec league that Finn is playing in but of course the boys do.

I got myself suited up for a long run after soccer. Finn had a play date while I ran all over Myers Park, Dilworth, South End and Freedom Park.

I was very much not feeling this long run. I originally planned to do it on Friday but put it off until Saturday. I wasn’t expecting much when I started but I ended up feeling really, really strong.

Honestly, I wasn’t trying to run any particular pace for this long run but settled into an 8:30 rhythm early on and just rolled with it. The first 10 miles were easy breezy and then I had to dig in for the final five. I took gels at 40 mins, 1 hour and 10 mins and 1 hour and 45 mins and drank about 30 ounces of water total. The conditions were amazing – overcast, breezy, low 60s. I love running this time of year when the summer heat finally lifts and you feel like you’re actually fit for running again.

I grabbed Finn, immediately showered and then heated up a bowl of chili.

Our final outing of the day was our fall mini photo session at Independence Park.

You guys, I cannot with how big and grown he looked for this year’s photos! He loves the playground at Independence Park and ran into a classmate so we stayed for about 45 minutes after to play.

Back at home, I popped a Trader Joe’s flatbread in the oven and we turned on the UGA game. This is my favorite flatbread/frozen pizza from Trader Joe’s. I added a hot honey drizzle for the first time and highly recommend.

The Georgia game was hard (and wild!!! all those penalties and calls!!!) to watch and we went to bed at halftime. I woke up at 2:30a and checked the score – fully expecting for us to have lost – and was shocked to see we pulled off the W.

Sunday morning brought a donut run to our favorite – OMG Donuts. We stuck to our usuals with Finn having chocolate sprinkle and me an apple fritter. We decided to bring them home and make a proper brunch with eggs, bacon and fruit.

After a morning of puzzling, tidying and laundry, we got ready for a fun sporting event!

Finn’s first Panthers game!!! He’s had a big football fall with his first college and NFL game in one season!

We ate Bojangles, we danced, we cheered, we walked around. Finn’s life dream is to get on the jumbotron and while he tried really, really hard on Sunday…it sadly didn’t happen.

The best part was that WE WON!!!! The Panthers have been pretty terrible for the last few seasons but won their third home game of the season on Sunday over the Cowboys bringing them to 3-3 and Carolina fans will take that. It was pretty wild though – there were as many (if not more!) Cowboys fans in the stadium as there were Panthers fans!

I am the first to admit that I am a college football girl over NFL but I really enjoy attending sports events and we had a great time Sunday! It’s been so sweet to introduce Finn to MLS, NBA, NCAA football and NFL games in the last couple of years!

And that about wrapped up our weekend. We came home after the game, ate dinner, changed sheets, showered and had an early bedtime.

MARATHON TRAINING UPDATE

My friends…we are just 34 days out from the Every Woman’s Marathon in Scottsdale, Arizona and I am getting SO excited. The vibes of this race were incredible last year in Savannah and I cannot wait to run 26.2 again in Scottsdale! It will be my first time visiting Arizona and I’m pumped to visit the area – and to experience a low-humidity race day.

As far as prep is concerned, I have a few more long ones on my schedule and then I’ll do a two week taper. Here’s the plan:

• October 18 weekend – 18 miles
• October 25 weekend – 20 miles
• November 1 weekend – 15 or 16 miles
• November 8 weekend – 12 or 13 miles
• November 16 – RACE DAY!

For the next four weeks, I’ll be running four times a week with a midweek mid-distance run of about 8-10 miles, a tempo/speed run and an easy run.

I feel so grateful for the running journey I’ve been on for the last 18 months of so. I never thought I’d get back into distance/endurance running before having my hip fixed and I’ve done everything from half marathons to full marathons to long trail days to the TransRockies Run. I’m in awe of the strength and resilience of the body.

Cannot wait to do this again!

QUESTIONS

Are you a puzzle person?

What is your favorite sport to follow/team to cheer on? 

Do you have any races on your calendar through the end of this year?