My twin, and changing up my running plan

Happy Monday everyone! I hope all the dads out there had a great Father’s Day! I had a fairly hectic weekend- but in a good way!

Friday my family went to my wittle cousin’s high school graduation! It was the shortest graduation I have ever been to, which was greatly appreciated. They had a few speeches and a song and then BAM! they were reading off the names for the kiddos to pick up their fake diplomas. YAY Patrick!!! You’ll still be the little boy who screamed whenever he had to put on sunscreen to me.

I asked my sister if my hair always looks that big. She said, “Like a lion? Yes.”

My twin [source]

And apparently all the cool kids (boys) wear shorts under their gowns now. In my day, the boys HAD to wear slacks or they weren’t allowed to walk. But my high school was super uptight and also didn’t allow leis and decorated caps.

After dinner and catching up with the fam, my parents, sister and I didn’t get back until really late that night. So Saturday I hit snooze a bazillion times and slept in instead of waking up early to run. I started my run around 11AM. And man that hurt. It was hot. 6 miles total- 3 easy and 3 @ pace (8:51).

I have been following a running plan for my upcoming 10K, but I think I need to make some changes. Most running plans prescribe only 1-2 runs with speed work per week. In fact, many elite runners do the same (2 tough speed workouts/week) because your body really needs time to recover. [And since I’m the farthest you can get from “elite,” that means I should do less speedwork right? 😉 ]

Well, my running plan has 2-3 days of tough speedwork + an extra 1-2 days of easy runs with a little speedwork mixed in. This may work for some people, but I quickly discovered this isn’t working for me.

After a tough tempo run and 400m repeats during the week, my body was NOT ready for those 3 @ pace miles. At this point of my running “career,” I can easily run 6 miles and I know I can run 3 miles at an 8:51 pace. But my legs were so beat from earlier in the week, I found it hard to keep those 3 miles sub-9 min. And those last “easy” miles. Ugh. I was struggling to keep those under a 10:30 pace.

So for right now I am going to change my plan to only incorporate 2 days of hard speedwork. I may not progress as quickly, but I think this is the safest way to avoid injury!

After my run, Kyle and I had to do some errands and then we were off to his cousin’s graduation party. It was great to see all of Kyle’s family! At one point I whispered to Kyle that some of his cousin’s friends looked like they were 13 years old. He laughed and told me that’s what high schoolers look like. That made me feel old!

Anyways, Sunday I didn’t get a run in cause it was Father’s Day!

My sis and I made my dad breakfast and then we did some stuff around the house while my dad watched golf. Before we knew it, it was time to take my grandpa (on my mom’s side) out to lunch. Lunch took forever (>2 hours!) so by the time we got home, we had just enough time to let my dad open presents and then it was time to drive to my other grandpa’s house. We spent the afternoon/evening chatting and then took my grandpa out to dinner.

Was your high school super strict about graduation?

How often do you do speedwork?

Did you do anything for Father’s Day?