Down Dog

Well it has happened.  Last week was the grand opening of the Wendy’s that is only 0.5 miles from our house.  Has Matt gone you might be asking?  You bet.  He was there on Friday when all of the Virginia corporate folks and Wendy were there handing out the free junior frosty key chains and other giveaways.  He ran 15 miles and ended the run at Wendy’s to pick up his recovery fuel.  There is nothing like a burger, fries, and a soda to replenish the body.  :) He made one mistake though.  Instead of eating at Wendy’s he brought it home.  All three kids confiscated his fries.  Thankfully I don’t share Matt’s weakness for Wendy’s, though I did put the free frosty key tag on my key chain.  I mean as the driver, it makes sense, right?

In actual running news, Matt has been running very strong lately.  Two weeks ago he did 18 (instead of his scheduled 19) and this last week he did 15 miles.  This Friday he’ll be going 19 miles.  He is up into the 40s for his weekly mileage.  Although it isn’t the 60 miles his schedule has him going, he has had some quality miles and he’s been (knock on wood) injury free.  For as fit as Matt is, he is not flexible…at all.  He can’t even touch his toes.  He ran with one of his running buddies a few weeks ago and they were stretching afterwards and his friend couldn’t touch his toes either.  Not to brag, but I had the record in the 6^th grade for the sit and reach during the Presidential Fitness Test so I find it comical that Matt can run forever but not touch his toes. 

Before we had kids we would take a combo yoga-pilates class at the community center by our house together.  We had a lovely teacher named Denise and she would frequently have to go help Matt with different poses.  It really helped Matt with his flexibility.  Matt has been trying to stretch before bed to help him in the hopes he can make it through his next two races injury free.  That’s one downside of living farther out—we don’t have as much in walking distance.  We’re hoping that his stretching and occasionally joining me for a yoga video will be enough to fend off injury.  Fingers crossed!

Zachary showing Daddy how to do downward facing dog

Happy Running!

High Knees

I apologize for being so quiet over the last month.  Here's the update:  Matt is still running! :-)  Things have been a little busy for us, but I am happy to report that Matt's training for his October half marathon is going very well.  He hasn't made it to the track as frequently as he would like, but he has been putting in some decent weekday miles.  He's been lacking motivation, time, and light to get to the track.  Our three year-old twins have regressed a bit on bedtime and must have some competition going on between the two of them to see how many times they can use the potty before bed.  I think the record has been set at nine.  Let's hope they don't beat it!

Last week Matt forwarded me the training schedule that his coach put together to get him to the Wilson Bridge Half Marathon.  He should be running 60 miles this week.  That is a lot of mileage to fit in between work and the kids.  He has been getting in as many as he can so we'll see how close he can get to that target.  Matt tries to get in runs every day at work to help meet his weekly target.  If our schedules align, we'll run about 8-12 miles a week together.  Since he's on the other end of the National Mall, a four mile run with me adds up to a seven mile run for Matt.  It is nice to have quality time together, but he certainly isn't getting in quality miles since we run very different paces.  Since I do my long runs on Saturday mornings (I am also going to be running the Wilson Bridge Half Marathon in October), Matt gets his long run in on Fridays.  This week his schedule says 19 miles.  The longest he has done lately is 15 so that is a big jump.

For a number of years, Matt's track workouts have had very short recovery distances between intervals.  For example, if he was running 400 meter intervals, he'd only have a 100 meter recovery.  Matt is going to try going back to his college track workouts and see if that helps with his speed.  In college, his recovery distances were the same as his speed intervals (so he'd run a 400 meter recovery lap after a 400 meter speed interval).  I'll keep you posted on which yields better results.

Last Monday, Matt was home with the kids because our nanny took a long weekend beach trip.  Anyway, when I got home the driveway had been turned into a miniature track for the kids.  He did races with the girls while our son napped.  The girls love doing mini races.  They are very good at doing high knees, but kicks, skipping, and grapevines.  They might even be faster than daddy!

Have a great day!