1/3 done with training!

I can't believe I'm already in the 7th week of training!  This has really been flying by and so far I am still feeling great!  A little soreness here and there, but overall I really can't complain!  The Summer continues to be hot and humid, but I have managed to avoid indoor running because I am trying to convince myself that I am forcing my body to adapt to the ridiculous conditions.  This week also marked the first of many upcoming weekends where I have to do training runs while traveling.  Looking ahead, we are going to be out of town several times in the next couple of months, so I am making sure I will have time to fit in long runs during those trips!  This past weekend we were in the Twin Cities, so finding a place to run was no problem.  Finding friends to run with was also no problem!  One of my oldest and most awesome friends, Rachel, recently started running and she and I are going to be running the Women Rock MN 1/2 marathon over labor day weekend.  It just so happens that her long run for 1/2 training and my long run for TCM training were the same, since this was a step down week.  My old college roommate Sharon also lives in the cities and is also training for Women Rock, so she joined us as well!  It was so fun to run together!

On to the recap!

Hal told me to do this:
Monday- Rest
Tuesday- 3 miles
Wednesday- 5 miles
Thursday- 3 miles
Friday- Rest
Saturday- 7 miles
Sunday- Cross train

So I did THIS:
Monday- 3 bike rides, totaling 29.21 miles.  Okay, Monday sounds a little ridiculous when I say I went on 3 bike rides.  But I did.   The first ride was over to the bike shop to have cleats put on my new cycling shoes.  Then I had to bike around for awhile to try to get used to clipping in and out of my pedals.  In the afternoon I went out for another short practice ride, and in the evening we did the family bike ride!

Tuesday- 3 miles at 9:41 pace.  I almost skipped this run because I was pretty tired on Tuesday morning, but I'm so glad I ran anyway!  Can't believe I was able to run this pace!  It has to be pretty close to being my fastest 3 mile run ever!

Wednesday- 5 miles at 11:01 pace.  Ran this with Nicole and we ran along the river.  I've been doing a lot of very very flat runs lately, so running along the river, while not necessarily "hilly," it does feel more difficult.  It just felt like a tough run and my legs felt heavy.  Was glad to have Nicole there to pull me along :)

Thursday- 3.02 miles at 10:42 pace.  Ran with Angie and she chatted my ear off, which helped distract me from my very tired legs.

Friday- Rest

Saturday- 6.98 miles at 11:12 pace.  Did this run along the Medicine Lake Regional Trail in Maple Grove.  Got up at 6am and tiptoed quietly around my hotel room, trying not to wake Jay and the kiddos as I got ready to run.  Went down to the hotel lobby and sucked down a coffee, trying to shake off the travel sleepies.  Rachel and Sharon showed up at 7am and we were off!  It was about 73 degrees, sunny, and very humid.  It was so much fun running somewhere different!  The trail we ran went on for miles and was full of trees and bunnies and ponds and loveliness.  Much more hilly than I am used to, but I felt great the whole time.  I swear I have never sweat so much in my entire life though!  Great start to a busy day.  We spent 5 hours at Mall of America, went to a park, went to dinner, and went swimming when we got back to the hotel.  A fun, but exhausting day!

My alarm clock is very bossy.

Rach and I after our 7 mile!  This was Rach's longest run ever!! 

Sunday- 3 miles at 10:21 pace.  I ran for my cross training!  The hotel had a fitness room, but I just couldn't help but get back out on the trails.  I wasn't even originally going to run, but I wanted to take advantage of the change of scenery!  Got up early again and this time was out the door by 6:15am.  It was already 76 degrees- ick!  Another soupy but great run!


It was a great week of training!