I Didn’t Do Anything this Weekend, and #30summerdays Photo Challenge (days 2-8)

Except for running and getting coffee, I didn’t leave the house all weekend, and it was the most amazing weekend ever.
Every now and then I need a few days of doing nothing for a while. Sure, it sounds like a waste of time, I could have gone on a trip or to the park or at least do some shopping. But it wasn’t a waste at all.

 
It seems like life responsibilities always take away from the fun things we want to do, although they aren’t one bit less important, like playing with the kids, cooking, baking, taking naps, and getting home pedicures and manicures for me and my little girl.

 
I got a couple of good long runs in, so I was relaxed and happy. I am aware of the fact that I wouldn’t have been the most pleasant person to stay home with, without getting my running done.

 
#30summerdays Photo Challenge: Day 2 through 8

 
I’m really enjoying doing the #30summerdays photo challenge.
I’m not trying to take particularly pretty or interesting pictures. The goal for me doing this challenge is to take more pictures of my life and share them with you. I also love randomly looking through my phone pics a while later and remembering all the simple moments, when they become good memories they don’t seem so simple anymore.

 
Day 1 is here

 
Day 2: Monday, ugh! What’s keeping you going today?
Quite obvious, but coffee gets me going every day. 2 cups before I go work out, and another one in shake form after my workout, that keeps me awake all day.


 
Day 3: Who made you smile today?
My little girl, she’s such a source of smiling/laughter in my life.
We were watching my oldest during his swim lesson and she wanted to go in the pool, so she was crying. Eventually I started taking pictures of us to distract her, and she was a happy girl again.


 
Day 4: Look up. What do you see?
I love flying and I work for an airline. When I think of the sky, I think of planes. And I get to see them often too, right over my head!
This picture is from a past vacation to St. Marteen in the Caribbean, where the airport is right by the beach and they fly literally right above your head, quite an experience.


 
Day 5: #TBT Share a photo from a past summer trip!
Our first and last family trip to Uruguay, where I grew up. I wish I could go more often to visit family and friends, and for my kids to get a stronger sense of the culture I grew up in.


 
Day 6: National Doughnut Day! Snap a pic celebrating! Or, what did you have instead?!
We don’t eat a lot of doughnuts in Israel, but croissants and all kinds of sweet baked goods are one of my favorite treats.


 
Day 7: Saturday! What are you up to?
Family time and running!


 
Day 8: Time to relax before the start of the week. What does relaxing look like to you?
Long overdue pedicure and a funny movie while the kids took a nap, so relaxing!


 

Do you enjoy doing challenges? Which kind of challenge is your favorite: fitness, pictures, etc?

 

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Being Confident in Running

It’s easy for me to lose my confidence in running. An uncomfortable run or a slower pace is all it takes for me to doubt how far I’ve come. Doing a really fast speed that made me feel proud a few days ago, becomes meaningless after an achy run.

 
I try to not think about running soon after a difficult run, and eventually when I think about my training with a cooler head, I pretty much know where I stand.
I think I can figure out where I stand training wise, I know what to expect when I go to a race, I know what speed I’ll be able to pull when I do speed work. Taking the bad runs as something that happens, and those really too good runs as something that happen as well, there’s a balance, a happy medium, a pace I can hold for 10K and a pace I can hold for 1K, that’s just the way it works.

 


 
I ran 39K/24.2M this weekend, and it was great. 25K/15.5M on Friday, and 14K/8.7M this morning.

 



 
I follow a training plan because I enjoy the number’s game, and because my mind works like that, it needs to know what to do, it needs to plan in advance how far I’ll be running and at what pace. Sometimes I want to forget about racing and even about getting faster, I want to run because I like it, without paying attention who passes me on my route and who I pass. Running is fun, healthy, and it makes me happy.

 

Do you follow a running training plan? If yes, is it to run longer/faster/improve in any other way?

 

Long Run, TLC, and the Real Reason I Don’t Post Pictures of Food

I know I take bad selfies, but I don’t have anyone to take a picture of me at 06:00 in the morning, especially on the weekend.
I just had to take one to show you my new Mizuno top, I love it. Worked great on my long run today, very airy and fresh, no chafing whatsoever, and the racer back is so cute.

 



 
21.3K/13.2M at average pace 05:04 Min/KM (08:09 Min/Mile). Not bad for the morning after a race. I wanted to take it easy, which I did, I am trying to make speed runs not more than 15% of my weekly total running.

 


 
I’m good with my average pace for the run, but my pacing wasn’t the best:

 
2KM/1.2M – warm up at average pace 05:45 Min/KM (09:15 Min/Mile)
9KM/5.6M – taking it easy at average pace 05:14 Min/KM (08:25 Min/Mile)
10.3KM/6.4M – loving running, but not keeping the easy pace I intended, at average pace 04:47 Min/KM (07:41 Min/Mile)

 
The pace of the last 10K, that is my “happy” pace. My favorite pace to run, especially when I get there gradually, after a few KMs at an easy pace. My legs are warm and feel strong and I get to that pace so naturally. I feel fast, that is definitely not an easy pace for me, but I feel strong and not winded at the same time.

 
On weekends I usually come home after I run to shower and get ready, during the week I usually shower at the gym. It’s nice to come home and spend a bit of time with the kids before I jump in the shower, and especially not be in the usual rush that is the work week.

 
After getting ready, I hit the fridge big time. By then it had been over an hour since I finished my run, so I was starving. All I had after the run was water with NUUN.

 

I really don’t know why I used my daughter’s Hello Kitty’s plate

 
Recovery shake with banana, cacao, glutamine (yum), soymilk, flaxseed, and molasses.
The healthiest bread sold in Israel, at least that I have found, and the most delicious hummus, I did scrub that container clean.
A few almonds, my husband likes to soak them overnight, it makes them softer. I prefer them dry but I don’t really mind, I don’t eat them too often.

 
A couple of hours later I had another snack, and this is the reason why you don’t see a lot of food pictures in this blog, I remember to take pictures after I’m done eating.

 



 
I ate the whole pineapple, it really wasn’t too big, leftover apple pieces from my kids’ snack, and a Clif bar.

 
I took my knee high compression socks out of circulation for running because it’s officially too hot, but my calves were feeling a bit tight so I decided to use them for recovery. A bit of TLC can’t hurt: freeze spray, foot cream, tight socks, and lying down. Followed by a glass of water with apple cider vinegar, and Grid rolling.

 


 

What is your “happy” pace and why?

 

A Post About Actual Workouts, and Some Songs

I want to taper right for next Saturday’s race, and get there with 100% rested legs. I don’t know when was the last time I felt that, completely rested legs. It’s been a while. As nice as that sounds, it’s easier said than done.

 


 
I reduced the distance of my Friday’s long run a little, and kept them both (Friday and Saturday) lighter in terms of pace:

 
Friday: Long Run – 18K/11.2M – Average pace 04:58 Min/KM (07:59 Min/Mile). And no, I will not round up to 08:00 Min/Mile.
The last 5K were faster than I had planned, but that’s a relatively short distance anyway, so it wasn’t too bad, pace for the 5K 04:42 Min/KM (07:35 Min/Mile)

 


 
Saturday: Easy Run – 10K/6.2M – Average pace 04:57 Min/KM (07:57 Min/Mile).
I started running really early on Saturday, around 5:30, because I wanted to make it to the gym for some strength work afterwards, and also be home early to do something with the kids.
Even though the boardwalk was almost deserted at that time, it was perfect to run by the sea so early, perfect wind, cool air, no sun in my eyes.
I just realized now, writing this post, average pace for this run was the same as Friday’s much longer run. Not good. I like my splits though.

 


 
After those 2 weekend runs, and considering I need to taper, I am keeping it lighter this week. Shorter runs, easier pace, less crosstraining.

 
Sunday: Boring Recovery run, 8.2K/5.1M, average pace 05:03 Min/KM (08:07 Min/Mile). Did this one this morning. And geez, looks like I’m stuck pace wise.

 
Monday: The gym opens later than usual tomorrow, so I will attempt to do a HIIT run outside, only 4 intervals and not at my fastest speed, just kind of a light HIIT during taper. So it shouldn’t be too bad/hard to do this outside. I have set my Garmin for automatic lap pace every half KM (usually I have it for auto lap each 1 KM), so after a warm up of 2KMs and a gradual speed increase over the next 2KM, I will do 4 intervals of half KM fast, half KM slow.

 
Tuesday: 3KM/3280yards swim. Yeah looking forward to this one (NOT).

 
Wednesday: Another HIIT run but only 5K/3.1M total, with the fast intervals being only 30 seconds long. And with this I’ll be done with running until race day/.

 
Thursday: Rest (this is a first, I usually crosstrain 2 days before a race)

 
Friday: Rest.

 

 
My April’s race playlist only had 3 songs I haven’t posted in my previous race playlists so I am adding them to this post.

 


 
Only three, but awesome songs, check them out:

 

 

 

 

How do you taper? Do you have a favorite taper workout?

Weekend Runs

Friday: Long Run

 
I don’t have any long races left this season, no half marathons, and I’m not running my first full marathon anytime soon. I am running a 10K early May, a 5K mid-May, and that’s it most likely. So I wondered if I should keep doing long runs.

 
And then I remember that I was doing long runs way before I started racing, that long runs are very enjoyable for me, and that they provide many other physical benefits, besides training for a race.

 
So Friday I ran 23.25K/14.4M. 01:58:46. Average pace 05:06 Min/KM (08:12 Min/Mile).
My first split was 06:06 Min/KM (09:50 Min/Mile), and my last split was 04:43 Min/KM (07:36 Min/Mile), getting progressively faster through the run. Mostly negative splits, with a couple seconds positive splits here and there.

 
It wasn’t an easy run, only because my legs were a little tired from a hard Fartlek run the day before. Usually my long runs come after a cross training day, so my legs are more rested than they were this Friday. Still, it was a good run, and if my tired legs helped me keep the pace relatively easy, that’s a good thing.

 


 

 
Saturday: Tempo Run

 
Starting the run with tired legs from Thursday and Friday’s runs, I was hesitant about this run. But, I had it on my schedule, so I had to try.

 


 
I am happy I was able to pull it off, although I know I could not have run even a second faster on the last 3K, I was giving it all I had.
I’m satisfied with this run because it went according to plan, however I doubt on race day I can do faster splits than 04:18 Min/KM (06:55 Min/Mile), which is too bad because I am counting on the last few KMs being faster than that.

 

Do you keep long runs all year round?