the 6 weeks to tinkerbell recap.

merry christmas everyone!!!! dont worry i didnt spend christmas writing this to you, i did it saturday instead:) this week didnt exactly go as planned and my body definitely got the brunt of it saturday morning for my long run. but you live and learn and know what to do for next time!

sunday~rest.
rest.

after making my long run the day before i was more than willing to sleep in and relax. later in the day i headed to my parents house for christmasy things. we have a long standing tradition of decorating sugar cookies for the season. the boys get one color (red this year) and the girls get the other (green this year). my parents frost while my brother and i get to make them pretty. we have been doing this forever and sadly didnt last year so we made sure to make it happen this year. richard was at work so it was just the 4 of us, it was amazing. we dont get that very often anymore and laughed the whole time:) especially when my mom went to make more green frosting and dropped the bottle into the bowl splashing green food coloring all over her face and neck! luckily none got on her clothes, but it was sooo fun.

this is how we roll.
those are only some of the sprinkles!

monday~4-5 miles.
rest.

after cookie decorating the night before we took erik out to dinner at olive garden for his birthday. i had just been there the week before but didnt even care, its sooo good. it was my family and his, which is often like one, and we had a great time. until the next morning when i got up for work and had the worst stomachache of my whole life. i couldnt stand up straight or lay down flat. so i called into work and spent most of the day in bed and on the couch instead.

tuesday~4 miles. 
5.2 miles = 47:06 minutes/9:03 min/mile

well it sure didnt feel that fast! after my unsuspected rest day monday my body felt creeky and a little sore. i was definitely not expecting to pull that kind of pace. goes to show, sometimes its alll in your head:)

wednesday~spin.
6am spin class

this class felt good this week. i thought she was going to take us a lot harder the way she was talking about all the extra calories we were going to eat on sunday, but it was pretty normal. now by normal i mean your legs are on fire from climbing one track and then the speed work the next track plus your sweating like crazy haha. her new favorite thing is when a track comes on to turn your resistance all the way to the turn before you cant pedal anymore and then we work to take the resistance all the way back down. its not so much my favorite.

thursday~body pump.
6am body pump class

after my soreness last week i was well prepared for it to happen this week, but i was all clear. this week was tough and we had a sub. the cool part about her is that (a) she reminds me of megan over at apartment thrifty chic, like im pretty sure she is megans doppleganger! and (b) she takes the class with us every week as a participant so its easy when she subs. i think next week though im ready to add another weight to my bars!

friday~rest.
rest.

i decided to do my long run saturday since there was no way i would be able to contain my excitement on christmas to go out and do 8 miles! friday was technically a holiday for us, but we had a skeleton crew working to cover the office and i took the late shift 12p-4p. it went really quickly and i had to make a last minute stop out in the crazy shopping land on the way home that wasnt nearly as bad as i thought it was going to be! then i came home and curled up on the couch to watch the family stone, hands down one of my favorite movies and so christmasy.

source

saturday~8 miles.
8.17 miles = 1:18:15 minutes/9:34 min/miles

this distance seems to be tough for me. its like my body realizes we are really in training and this is the first long run of the cycle. i mean i do a 5 miler almost every week and so i think 6.5 miles is a stretch, but not a crazy stretch. but then i get to 8 miles and my body starts to freak a little. i looked back and it did the same thing in my vegas cycle. my mind was all ready to go and i start off really well. then i get about 3 miles in and my body is just ready to be done. i was hoping for a pace closer to the 9:20s, then i just was hoping to get done. it was also really cold, maybe that didnt help. but at the end of the day i got it in and at a pretty decent pace!

had to bust out my gloves and new headband i bought at the
vegas expo to keep my ears warm, it worked awesome!

totals for the week = 13.37 miles + 2 days of cross-training.

i realized this week the value of mileage. as i was stretching from my run this morning i remembered that this week and last week i have only run 2 days, its not enough to be really ready for tinkerbell in 6 weeks. now yes, i was sick monday and the 5k last weekend threw a quirk in my plans, i wouldnt trade the rest day or the fun of running in antlers at all. but it made me remember why this is a 5 day a week habit. its important to get in my planned mileage and cross-training. its important to get the sleep i need and to eat the right food (there may have been a small lapse on thursday i didnt mention, oops lol). now its time to be jolly and christmasy for the next weekend and then back to the running on monday! these 2 weeks have been a great reminder of why i have a training plan:)