Still Building: a Bigger Week! (Even With a Brief Injury)

Last week was finally looking better! I took a hard fall on Monday last week which led to me skipping my swim on Tuesday and my run on Wednesday, but the rest of it looked GOOD:

I got in a moderate trainer ride instead of running on Wednesday, and I got in a decent swim on Thursday (a pyramid swim with efforts of 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, and 100 yards - that's 1600 yards of effort, and 2500 yards total with warm-up, drills, and cool-down). And Saturday's nearly 2 hour trainer ride was my longest this fall so far... prepping for a few months of basement bike workouts.

All my strength workouts were decent as well - Monday's was a bit short as I couldn't do all my leg exercises after my fall.

All-in-all, it was 21 hours and 23 minutes of workout time, and that's in the middle of my "decent" amount of time for a week of workouts. 20+ hours is OK, and I had 3 big weeks leading up to the TC 10 Mile in September that were 23-25 hours. (The other 2 weeks that month were a post-race week of just under 20 hours, and the week of the TC 10 Mile that was just under 14 hours as I was resting pre-race.)

My "intensity minutes" were on their way back up after the week before was decent as well:

Vasectomy 4 weeks back, hiking in the Faroe Islands 3 weeks back,
an OK week 2 weeks ago, and 1427 minutes last week.

My goal is to beat last week's training this week! I'm still feeling quite slow, but I'm trying to ramp up the time! Keep at it!!

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Two Slow Long Runs

Four weeks ago was the TC 10 Mile, and the very next day I got a vasectomy. I had some easy "return to exercising" runs 3 weeks ago before leaving on a trip to the Faroe Islands. I did my first "harder running on that trip, and I was SLOOW, but it felt good to be pushing again. (The harder 4 miles in the middle of that shorter-than-normal long run [of only 8 total miles] averaged 6:58/mile, which is slower than my half marathon race pace. Ouch.)

Last week was meant to be a "normal" long run of around 11 miles total with 6 harder miles in the middle. My "fast" miles were still very sluggish, and even though I normally run those around 6:15 pace, they were 6:40.55 / mile pace. I've NEVER seen "fast" miles look like that! (I also only lasted 5.5 miles for my harder pace instead of 6 miles.) On top of that, I also took a hard fall at the end of that run, cutting it a bit short (10.22 miles instead of 11+ miles). I actually skipped my Wednesday run last week because it still hurt too much to run.

I got back out this morning for another "normal" long run. I was determined to make sure I got in 6 harder miles, and I did! But my pace was still slow: my harder miles were at 6:41 pace. And it started raining during my cooldown so I turned for home a bit early so my phone didn't drown:

USUALLY it's a true out-and-back run, but see split #16?
I turned around after that and headed across the bridge.


Close-up of the unexpected turn-around.

It was neary 60 degrees and humid, so it was a rare November SHIRTLESS run! The rain let up a little and I was able to keep running around home to hit 11.42 miles in the end. Just not fast.

Oh, and speaking of warm weather, I'm still getting veggies from my garden. I posted this yesterday about our Halloween night and a Halloween harvest:

The boys both went to Halloween parties, so it was just Sarah and I. So we dressed up the cats and handed out a record amount of Halloween candy (until we ran out and had to hit the lights and hide).

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A Very Late September in Review

After a huge August of training, I never really posted about September. I posted EXTRA about August when I went into detail about my "Coach Jen" workouts for the month.

I wrote in detail about my hard training runs in September, and then the last few weeks of hard training before the TC 10 Mile, but I never did an official "September in Review" post. Here's what September looked like:

The purple early in the month is noting the left foot pain that showed up and then went away quickly. The red mid-month is the Square Lake Triathlon. And then the rest of the month was (easiler than normal) bike rides and HARD training runs for the TC 10 Mile on October 4th.

• SWIM: 11,563 yards (odd distance because of the open-water swim at the race)
• BIKE: 201.16 miles
• RUN: 93.58 miles
• TRAINER TIME: 1 hour and 35 mins (2 easy short trainer rides)
• STRENGTH TIME: 65 hours and 50 minutes

Only one thing is great there: my strength time is AMAZING. It's my 2nd biggest month EVER behind May of this year which was about an hour more (and April 2026 and August 2026 both had just over 60 hours as my 3rd and 4th biggest months in my lifetime, so I have at least 4 months of 2026 having my biggest strength training months!).

Everything else is just OK. Swimming happened when it happened. Biking was half of the previous month (but that month was HUGE), and running was just fine. (The running TOTAL was fine, but the workouts were HARD leading up to the TC 10 Mile.)

I've said this a lot, but October's "month in review" up shortly will look WILD and TINY as the TC 10 Mile started the month, then my vasectomy kept me from doing much, then a quick trip to the Faroe Islands mid-month, some odd hamstring pain out of nowhere, and finally a nasty HARD fall earlier this week that had me skip a run and ease back on the bike this week. I've purposely been ignoring what my totals are so far in October as to not get depressed by it.

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Friday Funny 2656: Poisoning Halloween Candy

Lots more funnies posted on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

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Friday Funny 2655: Halloween Funnies

Lots more funnies posted daily on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

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Friday Funny 2654: Fashion

Lots more funnies posted all day long on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

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A SLIGHTLY More Normal Week

A “normal” week usually has about 20-22 hours of training, so last week’s 19+ was getting close to normal:

Monday didn’t have any leg exercises, which would have put me RIGHT into the normal range had I not been traveling and was actually able to do those. We were still in the Faroe Islands on Monday as we were stuck there an extra night because of high winds. (More on this trip within the next 2 weeks - it was AMAZING.)

Tuesday was a SLIGHTLY shorter upper body day as I was a little short on time. And a slightly shorter swim as I was trying out the pool for the first time after my vasectomy.

But Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all very normal training days! Even a speed day on Friday! Saturday would have been normal too, except I was sort of running all over the place and only had a 90 minute window for my bike ride - I would have LOVED to go for about 2.5 hours, but alas.

My "weekly steps" were pretty nomal last week:

Bigger the week before because of Faroe Island hikes, and
small the week before that because of the vasectomy.


Intensity minutes were close to normal (average is 1535, and I was at 1349).


4 weeks of intensity minutes. TC 10 Mile week, then vasectomy,
then Faroe Island hikes, then this normal-ish week.


And for some reason, Garmin thinks I'm "productive" - only because I
haven't been doing much lately, so even this slightly below average
week seems like a lot compared to the last 3 weeks.

After my fall 2 days ago (still sore, but getting better daily!), our quick long weekend to the Faroe Islands, my vasectomy earlier this month, and the TC 10 Mile to start the month, October is going to be a WILD and SMALL looking training month when all is said and done!

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Hard Fall on a Run

After a handful of "normal / fast" runs after taking some time off because of my vasectomy, I ran into another hurdle yesterday.

I was finishing a pretty normal long run (but slower than usual as I feel like my speed is GONE) when I tripped on a section of sidewalk that I've ran past literally THOUSANDS of times. I tripped at the little "jog" in the line and then tried to keep running but had to stop:

I just caught a slight lip in the sidewalk. And I went down HARD on my right side. Like I felt my brain rattle around in my skull. I tried to keep running, but it was a bit of a limp, so I stopped to walk home. (Luckily, I was close.)

At home, I surveyed the damage. The side of my right palm was the sorest scrape:

Peeled a small chunk of skin off.


The side of my right knee.


This ankle wound was sore too.


I hit HARD on my hip, so I'm expecting this to bruise up!

That hip took a LOT of impact. It got more and more sore throughout the day.

And I was wearing long sleeves, so I found my elbow scrape when I went upstairs to shower:

My right hip is SORE. I'm writing this Monday evening (set to post Tuesday morning), and I'm hoping some pain killers and sleep medicine will help me get through the night. It just got worse and worse throuhgout the day yesterday: I could walk OK right after my run, but later I wasn't able to do stairs without major limps. Then stepping up a curb became hard.

I went for a mile walk while waiting for Henry to finish CC practice yesterday late afternoon... Normally, I walk a mile in 16-18 minutes, but I did this one in 26 minutes. I was HOBBLING. (Well, I was trying NOT to, but failing.)

We'll see if I can swim today. Or just how I'm moving in general! And if I can even try to run tomorrow! (I'm not holding my breath.)

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