Running, Bears, and Hooligans….

What a beautiful day for a long run. I know a lot of places get days like this every day but for us Alaskans, it doesn’t happen often enough!

It’s actually hard to tell from the angle of this picture, but this is coming up to the top of a  pretty significant hill that is just past the turn around point of the Mayor’s Half Marathon. This section of the course is fairly hilly, so I have been doing some of my long runs here in preparation.

My long run today was 8 miles. My training plan calls for a target run of 1:15 – 1:22 (9:24-10:15 mile pace).

I actually ran the 8 miles in 1:14:10 (9:16 mile pace) As I mentioned it was a beautiful day, but I was not expecting it to be so warm along the inlet. I over dressed for the run and got a little too warm. But, all in all, I had a great run!!

With the long run done, I had the rest of the week-end free. And my husband, Scott, wanted to go hooligan fishing (get more info here )I wasn’t excited about fishing for hooligans because when someone tells me a certain kind of food is an acquired taste, I know I’m probably not going to like it.  Scott says they are a tasty little treat smoked, but even he can’t eat too many of them at once.  I thought, if nothing else it will be a nice drive along Turnagain Arm.

And a nice drive it was!! I just love Alaska, the scenery constantly changes it seems. I never get tired of it!!

And once we got to the fishing spot, it took about 15 minutes to catch the fish. We used a dipnet and I think Scott put it in the water maybe 4 times and we got way more fish than we needed.

This you tube video shows pretty much what we did…

 

Then of course, the real work is once you get everything home and have to clean them all – way too much work for something I am not sure I will even eat. Scott had to go out of town so the smoking of the fish will have to wait. I will at least try one when they are ready!

Yes, I would rather be running….???

After taking Sunday off as a rest day, (although I didn’t get much rest with having to clean and process all of the fish) I did an easy run of 4 miles on Monday

5 miles on Tuesday targeting 47-48 minutes.  Actual was 46:47 so pretty much right on pace on a pretty hilly route along Eagle River Rd. And after a 12 hour shift so not too bad!  Scott went with me because we have been seeing this little guy a lot out near the road!!

 

Wednesday was a Tempo run – total miles 6

1.5 miles warm-up   Target 9:41-10:15 pace Actual 9:57

Tempo 1 1.5 miles     Target 9:12-9:23 pace Actual 8:44

.5 mile easy recovery jog

Tempo 2 1.5 miles     Target 8:56-9:12 pace Actual 8:20

1 mile cool down        Target 9:41-10:15 pace Actual 9:51

I really do love these tempo runs and speed work-outs. Right now they are not that hard but perfect for me while I am working my way back into getting in shape for the NYC marathon.

I took Thursday off and did another long run on Friday. I switched it to Friday because of my week-end work schedule.

Friday’s long run was interesting in that it calls for a pace increase for 17 minutes at about the 2/3 mark of the run – approximately 57 minutes.  I ran about a 10 minute pace and increased it to 8:40 during the 17 minutes. According to my virtual trainer this is just suppose to “wake up your legs”. It is  also suppose to be an effort that feels good but not race pace. Maybe I should have slowed it down a bit, but it seemed easy enough so I went with it.

I took the week-end off from running because of work. This next week is just basically a peak mileage week with 5 and 6 mile runs through the week and a 10 mile long run on Saturday.  There aren’t any speed workouts or anything too exciting happening. I am actually looking forward to the long run!! It is suppose to be sunny and near 70 all week-end!! And it’s memorial day week-end! Enjoy!!