Semi-Wordless Wednesday: My Boys' Last Week of Summer!

My boys went back to school yesterday!

We packed a lot in to their final week of summer vacation:

Last Tuesday, we went to Valleyfair with their cousin:

8 roller coster rides (5 differet costers) in the first 90 minutes!


It was 100 degrees with a 116 degree heat index, but we survived in the water just fine!


We were there from open to close! (10 a.m. to 8 p.m.)

On Wednesday, Charlie had a classmate's birthday party:

Charlie on the far right.

On Thursday, we biked to the State Fair early to enter my cherry tomatoes, and then we spent the rest of the day there (until we had to go home for "back to school night" in the early evening):

My non-award-winning cherry tomatoes laid out.




The boys behind me heading across the fairgrounds!

Friday was a less exciting day as we just helped my sister-in-law move.

Saturday I went to a pre-season game with my brother-in-law Matt (AKA "New Matt"):

Then Henry and I snuck closer to the State Fair to watch some fireworks!

Sunday was another day of helping my sister-in-law move, only this time my wife went with the boys so she could see her sister's new place (and help put things away). I stayed home and started working on fall syllabi.

And on their last day of freedom on Monday, the 3 of us went to a movie:

They enjoyed it! Not my favorite Mission Impossible, but still entertaining!

And before the movie Monday was possibly my best long run ever. Good end to summer!

Best Long Run Ever: 2ND WEEK IN A ROW!

I've been nailing my long runs lately! I posted last week that I had a long run with 6 "pace miles" in the middle at 6:07 pace (36:43 for those 6 miles), which I think is my best version EVER of that workout.

I heartily outdid that yesterday!

Like last week, I started my "pace miles" faster after a 2.5 mile warm-up. Instead of starting with half-mile splits around 3:15 or 3:20, I started with back-to-back 3:07s yesterday. And that was my slowest mile BY FAR! My faster splits in the middle of my run looked like this:

Pace miles (half-mile splits):

3:07, 3:07, 3:02, 3:03, 3:03, 3:03, 2:59, 2:56, 3:03, 2:59, 2:55, 2:53

= 36:17 (6:02.83/mile!!)

18:29 first half, 17:48 second half!

5 out of my last 6 half-mile splits were sub-3:00! And I posted a 6:03 pace for those 6 faster miles! I have NEVER seen numbers like that! Normally, this workout has splits that are just slower than 10 mile race pace (like around 6:20/mile), but the last 2 weeks they've been FASTER than race pace! In fact, I've only ran ONE 10 mile (out of 13?) at a faster pace than the middle 6 miles of this workout.

My pace chart and heart rate show the "pace miles" pretty clearly.

I started thinking during this run that I should look back to some old workouts from Coach Jen from 14 years ago (YIKES) when she coached me to my only sub-60 TC 10 Mile. I'm NOT in sub-60 shape (and never will be again), but I could benefit from some of her workouts to help get my 10 mile time down. Between a summer full of regular speed work and now some great long runs, I might have a shot at a real decent 10 mile time in 4.5 weeks!

My Wife's 20-Miler

My wife had a "first" in her marathon training: she ran with 3 other friends for her long run this past weekend! She loves to do her long runs with a friend, and she's started doing it with 2 friends at times over the last 2 years or so. But Saturday saw a group of 4 going 18+ miles, and then my wife tacked on another 2 miles herself. Ross, one of the runners, posted this post-run:

"First time running with friends - did not disappoint!"

That's my wife on the left. Then it's Alicia, who did her first marathon in 2021 along with my wife and Megan. And that's Megan with the bright face, who also did that muddy 50K with my wife in 2017. And finally that's Ross who snapped the pic.

My wife's other running partner is Britta who ran the marathon with my wife last year.

My wife loves getting in her long runs with friends! Thanks friends!!

Friday Funny 2284: Fitness-Related Funnies

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