TBD Training - Week 7 of ?

Week Beginning Thoughts:
Some personal stress is threatening to derail my plan focus, but so far I'm clinging to it to keep me sane. Positive thoughts are welcome.

Just keep swimming.

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength
Good session today. A little distracted and Pandora was not giving me awesome motivation, but still got a full hour of work done in the gym. Went up in weight and/or reps on a couple of lifts, so still making positive progress.

Tuesday
Planned: #10kTuesday
Did: 6.24 mi @ 9:07/mi moving avg.
Just a regular ol' 10k today. It wasn't too yucky outside, actually quite pleasant compared to what I'd expect this time of year. Ran a loop through the USC Upstate campus which was a nice change of scenery, albeit a hillier course than I usually opt for on #10kTuesday. Pace was moderate but pretty consistent. The fields at the front of campus were nice and foggy.

Weird grin. Nice fog.

I ran into a spiderweb near the beginning of the run, which was a little startling. I caught the little bugger swinging on a web hanging off my ponytail before he was able to climb up onto me. I shook him loose and he ran off into the grass.

Pace graph with a few interruptions. 

Little heartrate spike during the spider incident. 

Wednesday
Planned: XT + 2
Did: 14.4 mi bike + 0.74 mi run
Rode with Scott at lunch today which meant we did a speedy ride! Averaged just shy of 16 mph for the ride. I was right on pace with him for the first ~2/3 of the ride, but I started to poop out at the end. I got hungry.
I started out to do my 2 mile post-ride run, but I pooped out on that one too, plus also ran out of time and really needed to get back to work. Oh well. I probably should have just bagged it altogether given how tired/ hungry I was at the end of the ride.

Thursday
Planned: 6 mi intervals #speedworkThursday
Did: ladder workout, 6.0 mi treadmill @ 8:09/mi avg + Short Track mountain bike race
It felt so nice outside this morning that I almost tried to do this workout outdoors, but I really struggle with speedwork on an unmeasured course. Oh how I wish I had convenient access to a track! The treadmill was fine though, and I got a great ladder workout in this morning.
Ladder (down and up) workout, approximate paces for each speed section:
1WU (9:30)
1200/400 (7:00)
800/400 (6:45)
400/400 (6:30)
400/400 (6:30)
800/400 (6:45)
1200/400 (sub-7:00, varied)
1200 CD (9:00)

I had the "oh no, too fast" thought as I started the first 1200, but by the time it was over, I was loving the speed. Thinking I need to push even more on these if I really want to get faster. The final 1200 was tough but I was able to push through it with the help of my current favorite pump-me-up song, 'Despacito'. 😁 🎶

Bonus: Short Track Race
The final short track race of the season was tonight, and it was the biggest turnout yet! There were probably 30+ racers in the Beginner/Sport category, though only 4 or 5 females. Definite advantage to being a minority in the sport. :) It was a tough race and I didn't get passed by/pass any of the other ladies in the race, so we each held our spots pretty solidly through the entire 30 minutes. I got in 6 laps of ~.8 miles each, averaged 9.8 mph, which was good enough for 3rd place on the podium!


Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: yoga
Ahhh, stretchy stretchy Friday yoga class.

Saturday
Planned: 14 mi
Did: 34.5 mi bike ride 
So last night, we're at dinner and Scott says "oh hey, the TR Cycling Group is doing a 35-mile ride tomorrow, you should join them. It says average speed 13-14mph." I thought about it and said, sure, why not! We met at the pool at 7:30 a.m. to roll out from the neighborhood, there were 8 of us. I'd never ridden with any of this group before, but figured I could probably keep up with a 13-14 mph average. As we rode, it became evident that that was an underestimation of the pace and we ended up doing a little over 15 mph average moving speed, but I kept up! There were some rolling climbs throughout, nice descents, and mostly beautiful country 2-lane roads. I'm usually such a solitary runner & rider that it surprised me how much I enjoyed it. I stayed in the back of the group most of the ride, but I pushed past the group a few times on some climbs which made me feel pretty good. Really happy I decided to ride this! We'll see how well the legs work tomorrow for a run...

Sunday
Planned: 8 mi
Did: 9.64 mi @ 9:43/mi average
Headed out for a hilly run through the Green Valley neighborhood and a little bit into TR. Thought of returning home via the swamp rabbit trail but decided I'd have plenty of opportunity to run the trail, so I'd take advantage of 1) having fewer miles to do and 2) not having to run with the stroller. Returned via Old White Horse and felt good. Happy to have gotten up and out early (6:30 a.m. start!) to get this done rather than waiting until later. Hoping for a nap because I haven't gotten to wake up without an alarm for like 2 weeks now, and I'm TIRED (and my pace shows it, too).

Week ending thoughts: Happy to have a goal race now, so next week will start according to the new scheduled plan. Also wanting to do a little tune-up for the Michelin 5k in 3 weeks to see how close I can get to sub-22. Excited to have a week where I got ALL of my workouts in, feeling strong. Some of the personal stresses from the beginning of the week are no longer an issue, but some remain.

New Plan!

After some discussion and deliberation, I decided on my fall marathon last night.

Formerly known as the Thunder Road Marathon (I'm sad it's not called that anymore)

I chose this one because it fit best in the family's schedule and it's convenient to do one in Charlotte for the short drive and free place to stay (thanks, Mom & Dad!). Right now the plan is for me to just head up to Charlotte after work on Friday afternoon, stay with my folks, race Saturday, then head home Saturday afternoon. Easy peasy. 

I would have loved to do the Soldier Marathon since I have several friends doing it, but that weekend is also Upstate SORBA's Cranksgiving Weekend event so Scott wants/needs to be here and available to volunteer. I'd also thought of trying to mark off a new state, but being limited on vacation days and not wanting to drive forever is now becoming an issue since I've done most of the nearby states. 

So Charlotte it is. 

I'm going to follow one of Hal Higdon's Intermediate marathon training plans, but I haven't decided on Intermediate 1 or 2. Either one is 18 weeks which puts me currently going into Week 4, so YAY I'm not behind yet. 

Here we go! 🎉

TBD Training - Week 6 of 16

Week starting thoughts: As I said in my entry on Monday, I'm still going to follow this training plan (mostly) until I figure my sh!t out for a fall marathon (or something).

Yurp.

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength
Wasn't sure how this would go since it's been, um, like 3 weeks since I've done strength training? Yeah. Turns out it went pretty well! I didn't have to lower weights on anything, but some exercises definitely seemed harder than they were previously.

Only had time for 3 super sets because apparently I was just slow-moving today, 'cause I worked out for nearly an hour. I remember when 30 minutes of lifting was all I could mentally handle, and now I'm going strong for an hour and disappointed when I have to miss out on some of my lifts! #progress
UPDATE: It's Tuesday, and zomg I'm sore.

Tuesday
Planned: #10kTuesday
Did: 6.20 mi @ 8:43/mi avg
Decided I didn't want to just do a 10k, needed a little more structure to the run, but not too much structure. Set out with a goal to do a "whatever" first 5k, followed by a "faster whatever" second 5k. Results were pretty spot on.
First 5k = 29:00 (9:42, 8:53, 9:16 mile splits)
Second 5k = 25:06 (8:19, 7:49, 8:02 mile splits)
Woot! The faster 5k felt hard, but not too hard. It was surprisingly low humidity this morning, so wasn't too much of a shock to my system.

Wednesday
Planned: XT + 2mi
Did: 7.8 mi bike + 2 mi treadmill
Bike ride was good but HOT. Rode the Upstate Loop w/ Robin but we omitted the extra hill climb loop mostly for time constraints but also because HOT. Averaged 13.6 mph moving speed! We're getting faster!
Hopped on the treadmill to get a quick 2 done before I had to get back for a meeting. Averaged just below an 8:00 pace, and I wore my TOE SHOES for the first time in a few years! I lifted in them yesterday and remembered how much I miss them. Let's see how sore my calves are tomorrow.
BTW all of my muscles are still sore from Monday. 😐

Thursday
Planned: 4mi Hills
Did: 4.29 mi @ 9:02/mi avg with 8x hill repeats
Did these in the morning at work and oof, humidity. There isn't one great place to do hill repeats here, so I ran to several different hilly sections on my normal work run routes and did each a few times. Worked out pretty well and made the repeats less monotonous.
The first hill I did 3x, the second set of 2 hills (it's a valley, so it's a down-up-down-up type thing) I did 2x, then I ran up one final hill heading back towards work campus for a total of 8 hill sprints. None of the hills are very large or steep, but it's the best I've got around here.

Not terribly consistent, but decent paces.

Bottom of the "valley" hills. It's hot.

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: 20min walk at lunch
All-day meeting on Friday ran late so I couldn't make it to yoga. Opted for a short walk outside (yuck, hot!) during our lunch break. Still got all 10k steps for the day!

Saturday
Planned: 12 mi
Did: 12.09 mi @ 10:18/mi avg
Ran from home to meet up with Megan & Robin for the bulk of today's miles on the Swamp Rabbit. Got in a speedy 8:10 for Mile #3! It was already steamy at 7am. Ugh. The middle miles were a slow slog through the humidity and heat. Was nice to get the miles done with friends!

Sunday
Planned: 8 mi
Did: 20.5 mi bike ride
Instead of another run today, I opted to ride since Megan & Robin were planning to do an early road ride. I planned a nice route for us through Dacusville and we enjoyed the challenging but nice rolling hills through the country roads.

Week ending thoughts: I'm finding it hard to strike the right balance between sticking to a training plan working towards specific goals vs. having the flexibility to do things I want to do. Example: if I were still officially "in training" for the 50k, I would have felt obligated to run 8 miles on Sunday instead of join friends for a bike ride. Both are excellent workouts, but one is specific to a goal... the other is for "fun". I love the drive and motivation and satisfaction I get from having goals, working hard to reach them, and the feeling of (hopefully) achievement on race day. But I also love the freedom to just do fun athletic things because I feel like it. The struggle is real, yo.

Change of Plans.

So. I've had to make a decision. I'm not going to run the FATS 50k this fall.

Bummer, dude.

There are several reasons.

Primary reason is that we've had a conflict come up and I now have a family reunion scheduled on Saturday, September 30th in Woodleaf, NC (2.5 hrs drive to the north). Race day is Sunday, October 1st in North Augusta, SC (2.5 hrs drive to the south). That's 5 hours between the two. I was already concerned about the drive on race morning, so was considering staying overnight the night before to avoid a long early morning drive. Yes, I could still do it. Yes, I could skip the reunion. Neither of which I want to do.

But there's more. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't already considering bailing on this race. My affinity for the trails has waned as the weather is getting warmer. I looooove the trails in the fall and winter. In the summer, I kinda want to just go pound the pavement early in the morning as the sun rises and be done with it. Not to mention the logistics of getting to the trails in order to train vs. just leaving my house and running. And the fact that I'm 1/3 of the way through my training plan and have yet to set foot off-road? Eh. Yeah.

Again, could I do it? Yep.
Do I want to? Not really.

So there's that.

I'm now in the market for a fall marathon and will see what comes of that. I'm going to continue with the training plan for lack of anything better to do and will adjust whenever I determine a target race (I'm open to suggestions).

FATS 50k Training - Week 5 of 16

The remainder of Week 4 was just travel to Seattle on Saturday (no exercise) and the See Jane Run Half Marathon on Sunday.

Week 5 thoughts (written after the fact): Pretty pleased with keeping up most of my mileage while on vacation, with the exception of the weekend long runs. 

Monday

Did: 6 mi bike ride

We rented bicycles from Recycled Cycles, a second-hand bike shop in downtown Seattle. We took the bus to the shop then rode them back to the hotel. I do not enjoy weaving through city traffic, but thankfully there are usually bike lanes and the city is generally very bike-friendly and cars know what to do around bikes.

Tuesday

Did: 6.20 mi @ 9:34/mi and 16.5 mi bike ride

#10kTuesday in a new city/state! 

I ran from the hotel down to the waterfront and ran along the bike/pedestrian path for an out-and-back. The weather (overcast, low 50s) was beauuuutiful for running and I didn't want to turn around! Getting to and from the waterfront was challenging due to city street traffic (stopping at every intersection!) and the city climbs VERY STEEPLY up from the water. Like, about a hundred feet every block. WOOF.

Elevation, yo.

My pace was casual due to the starting/stopping for traffic signals, plus stopping to take selfies.

Olympic Sculpture Park. Weird.

Water!

Space Needle!

Water Panorama

The shore

In the afternoon we took a bike ride to some breweries via the same bike/pedestrian path that I ran before. 

Wednesday

Did: 42.5 mi bike ride

Bike Ride to breweries! We took a long ride on the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River bike paths to visit some breweries that were farther out of the city. What an awesome way to see a part of the country! The paths were so nice, far from roads and traffic, but we saw lots of people out on them so they are clearly used frequently. I wish we had that around here! So cool to be able to travel this way.

Thursday

Did: 1WU, 4 tempo, 1CD = 5.95 mi @ 9:19/mi

I knew I had 4 miles tempo on the calendar, plus I'd had 2 miles on the plan for the day before... figured I'd combine them into one run and get it done! Used the first and last miles to get out of the city and onto the waterfront trail, then did an out-and-back for the fast miles. I didn't have a pace on the plan, but in my head I was targeting around an 8/mi pace.

Tempo miles were 8:19, 7:57, 8:17, and 7:54. 

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Traveling, family stuff, jet lag... excuses, excuses. 

Race Report: See Jane Run Half Marathon

Writing this about a week after the fact, and I'm so jet-lagged I really don't feel like writing a race report. So here are some thoughts.

I went into this race with no goals... had no idea how tired I'd be (we had just flown in less than 24 hours before the race), no idea about the course, no idea how many others would be running. I'd only registered for it about a week and a half before, even though I'd pretty much decided I would run it once we figured out our travel plans would coincide. 

Our race morning plans didn't quite go according to schedule since D woke up at 3:50 a.m. (is that still considered jet lag?) so he and Scott ended up coming with me to the race instead of doing their own thing for the morning. I was happy for the company to the start line and again at the finish line. Plus we got some delicious brunch afterwards. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Beer socks. Appropriate for the trip as a whole.

The race started and ended at Gas Works Park which is a really cool abandoned natural gas refining facility from the 1920s. 

Sunrise over Gas Works.

Gas Works + City Skyline behind

We'd arrived very early, not knowing what the crowd would be like. Turns out I had nothing to worry about and it was a pretty small field (relatively) of about 400-500 runners total. 

Family photo!

Around 7:45 they started calling people towards the start line, and said "if you plan to run faster than a 1:45, get right up front". I didn't plan to do that, but was pretty certain I'd be sub-1:50... so I headed close but not AT the start line.

 

I've never lined up this close to the start line.

A few encouraging words, a countdown from 10, and we were off. 

I was easily in the front pack of ~20 or so runners, and decided to see how well I could hold that position. The weather was cool compared to what I'm used to in the summer heat of the south... it was chilly mid-50s when we got to the start. It definitely warmed as we ran and were in the sun for several stretches. The course circled Lake Union on a bike/pedestrian path for most of the route, so at least it was flat except for a few bridges and small hills.

I passed a motivational sign around mile 3 that said, "How badly do you want it?" 

It was at that point that I decided I did not, in fact, want to race hard. I was just going to run at a consistent effort and see where I landed. I did my best to just enjoy the sights as I ran and take in the essence of Seattle.

Still smiling?

Finish Face

Finish line celebration with champagne and chocolates!

And the results:

Not too shabby for effort level = "meh"

Definitely slowed down on the back half as I got more tired (perhaps being awake since 4am wasn't awesome for performance?). I have to say, that despite a good result and a less-than-full effort, I learned something from this race. I learned that every race has the chance to humble you. No, I didn't have any goals or anything I was trying to accomplish with this event, but it taught me to not approach something in a too-light-hearted manner. It's still 13.1 miles. It's not easy, no matter how casually you approach it. By the end, I was tired and ready to be finished. 

Anyway, hopefully that long run holds me for a while because it'll be 2 weeks before I get another one. 0_0

FATS 50k Training - Week 4 of 16 (partial)

Week Beginning Thoughts: Well, it's already Wednesday so we're kind of past that. Matches last week's blank "week ending thoughts".
Week Ending Thoughts: Leaving for a week of vacation, so going ahead and publishing this week's blog. Will have to catch up upon return in a little over a week!

Monday - Vacation
Planned: strength
Did: ~2mi kayaking/canoeing on the lake
At my parents' lake house for the July 4th weekend holiday, plus tomorrow is race day, so didn't want to do anything with the legs. Kayaked and canoed on the lake for approximately 2 miles, then sat in a car for 4.5 hours.

Tuesday - Race Day!!
Planned: Peachtree Road Race 10k
Did: 6.32 mi in 47:39 (PR!!!)
Race report is here.

Wednesday - back to normal life
Planned: XT + 2mi
Did: 10.9mi bike + 2mi treadmill
Original plan was to do the 2mi after work at home, but I decided to just go ahead and get it over with by taking a little bit longer during my lunch break. This was the right choice because it is HOT. First did the 10.9 mi Upstate SC Loop + Hill with Megan & Robin, where we averaged 14.4 mph moving speed. We're getting much faster and soon should be able to do a slightly longer loop! Followed it by busting out a quick 2 on the tready... started at 8:30 pace and gradually ramped up. Amazed at how easy this felt despite yesterday's hard race effort. w00t recovery!

Thursday
Planned: 2mi INT
Did: treadmill ladder workout
1WU, 1200/400, 800/400, 400, 800CD
speed interval paces = 6:58, 6:58, 6:44
recovery paces = ~9:30-9:40
Stole this one from Angelina. I like it! #speedworkThursday

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: nothing
Brought my stuff to do some strength training in the gym but with a week of vacation coming up, I had too much to get done before departure. Oh well

Saturday - travel to Seattle

Sunday - in Seattle!
Planned: 6 mi See Jane Run Half Marathon

Race Report: AJC Peachtree Road Race 10k

This was an awesome race experience. I typically shy away from "big" races, but this one was really truly a great one to do and I'm so so happy that I was talked into it. I mean... it's the biggest #10kTuesday in the world (60,000 participants); how could I not??

I have to thank Angelina and Jerry for their wonderful hospitality - I was well-fed, well-rested, and had awesome company on top of it all... can't ask for much more! They were also kind enough to pick up my race packet, which made things very simple.

Pre-race:
I left my family July 4th gathering at Lake Wateree to head to Atlanta on Monday afternoon. Arrived at A&J's late afternoon, hung out and caught up with them, enjoyed dinner, then headed to bed early.

I also got to be one of the night-before-race Flat People!

On race morning, I woke up with my 4:25 a.m. alarm, dressed, and we rolled out in the car to the MARTA station a bit before 5 a.m. Caught the 5:15 a.m. train and were in the race vicinity well before 6. As much as a pre-5 a.m. alarm sucks, it's so nice to not be worried about getting to the start on time and being able to wander around the race area before it gets too crowded (plus, the port-a-potties are still CLEAN!).

Start line at dawn

We hung out at the designated meeting point for the #10kTuesday group photo for about an hour and greeted people as they arrived. Various people did warm-up laps here and there, and eventually we all went to our respective starting corrals.

#itsathing

A large part of the group was in B Wave (including me) which was cool because we got to watch the national anthem, complete with flyover by fighter jets. Definitely one way to get you pumped up for a race!

Side anecdote: One thing that was noticeable was the heightened security of the race. Police everywhere, on horses, on bicycles, in what looked like tactical golf carts (I'm sure there's a name for them). Felt very secure. I also noticed at every cross-street there were large trucks (garbage trucks, moving trucks, dump trucks) parked across the roadway... realized it was to prevent any other vehicles from plowing across the race course. Because apparently that's a thing now. Sad that it has to be done, but it made me feel safe that they'd thought about that sort of thing.

Back to the story...

The Race
I had zero plans going into this race. In the past few weeks, I had fleeting thoughts of a sub-50 goal, or even a PR goal (my existing PR of 48:43 was from the Reedy River 10k in 2012). With the weather predicted to be in the DANGEROUS CODE RED zone, I wasn't sure what would happen. I decided to just run what I felt and let the chips fall where they may.

Yep. Hot.

Angelina and I started out together, weaving in and out of people during the first half mile or so. It wasn't long before A told me "see you at the finish" and decided to hold a steady pace... I pressed onward, knowing if I was going to have a shot at a PR I'd need to bank some extra minutes within the first 5k, before reaching Cardiac Hill.

This is the course profile. Cardiac starts just before Mile 3.

I felt pretty good through the first 5k. The city buildings shaded a good portion of the course, but boy it was warm. I made a conscious effort to not look at my watch to check my splits as each mile buzzed by... I was running by feel, going as hard as I felt that I could. I was tired but still feeling good as I started the climb up Cardiac Hill... by the time I reached the top, I was TOAST.

Miles 4 and 5 were by far my slowest, and I was struggling mentally to keep running. I wanted to walk SO BADLY, but I kept pressing, slowing my pace as much as I felt I needed in order to recover a bit. Once I saw the Mile 5 sign, I told myself to just get it done. Push to the end. FINISH IT. I turned the corner onto 10th and glanced at my watch to see if it was worth pushing or if a PR was impossible... my time was just ticking towards the end of the 43:XX time, so with half a mile to go, I knew I could run a 10-minute pace and still get within range of my current PR. I knew I could push faster than 10:00/mi, so I went for it.

The hardest thing on this course (besides the last half being almost entirely uphill) is that as you turn onto 10th, you get fooled into thinking the finish line is closer than it actually is. First you see the scaffolding arch for the "finish" photographer... except you still haven't even reached the 6 Mile marker at this point. Then you see 'Mile 6' in the distance and keep thinking, okay, maybe the NEXT intersection?? There are small enough hills that visibility is limited, so you can't even see the finish line as you crest each little incline. Then there's the fences along the sides of the course for the spectators... you think okay NOW am I close?! Not quite... keep going...  FINALLY there's the finish line, but it's soooooo much farther than it should be. At least the last ~100 yards or so is downhill.

Oooof.

I stagger into the finish chutes and get water, t-shirt, snacks... and desperately try to stop sweating (futile).

Post-Race
The finish area is huge, and it took me a while to locate the rest of the group (I was on the clear opposite side of the area from where I was supposed to be ... oops.

Post-race selfie. It was HOT.

We gathered, shared brief stories and congrats, and of course enjoyed a post-race beer. Waited for one of our crew who had needed medical attention (she was fine afterwards, thank goodness) and eventually began the mile+ walk back to the MARTA station.

The Results
PR obtained!!

Official Results!!

Thank you, Garmin, indeed I do wish to replace my existing record!

My Garmin data on splits and average heartrate tell the story pretty well of how I felt and just how hard/hot this race was:

Overall I am SUPER happy with how this whole event went, but mostly happy that I got to share the experience with some awesome people. :)

FATS 50k Training - Week 3 of 16

Week 3

Week Beginning Thoughts: Last week of single-long-run weekends... better enjoy it while I can!
Week Ending Thoughts:

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength
Definitely have the jello arms and legs going on, which is always an indication of a good workout. Bumped up weights in a couple of lifts, but overall maintained vs last week. The pull-ups @ 20# assist are finally feeling like I can maintain proper form through all 3 sets. The last couple of the final set are always tough but I can at least do the full range of motion instead of wimping out and half-a$$ing them. 3 sets of everything.
Notation key: "(lift) (reps)x @(weight) (number of dumbbells, if applicable)"

New routine: notebook in the gym with me. Because memory problems.

Tuesday
Planned: #10kTuesday
Did: 1.2 WU / 4 hard / 1 CD = 6.23 mi @ 8:24/mi overall
Final "tune up" run for Ultimate #10kTuesday next week. Decided to push 4 miles at "race pace" or overall hard effort. The weather was glorious this morning (below 70! low humidity!) so I figured if I was going to have a good run, this better be it. Obviously if I'm going to break 50 mins I need to do better next week, but I can always count on race day adrenaline for an extra little kick.
I pushed myself as much as I felt like I could, and in my head I was hoping for something close to 8:00/mi for my hard miles. Result?

Nailed it.

Wednesday
Planned: XT
Did: bike ride, 10.8 mi @ 13.6 mph 
Beautiful day for a ride with the ladies at lunch! We did the hill + Upstate loop, felt good and I did a few little hill sprints when the opportunity presented itself. :)

Thursday
Planned: 2 mi hill repeats
Did: 5x hill repeats, 2.03 mi @ 9:11/mi avg.
A crazy busy day at work necessitated an early start for #speedworkThursday - not gonna lie, I'm starting to actually like doing early morning runs in the dark, quiet of the neighborhood before anybody else is awake. Still, I don't think my body will allow it to become too much of a regular habit.
Due to the short distance of the workout, I ran straight over to the "horseshoe" in my neighborhood... it's a circle that goes around a big open green space in the center of the neighborhood and has a pretty good slope up to one end (the top of the horeshoe arch) and goes back down the other side. It gets steeper as you get towards the top, with an overall climb of about 50ft over a little more than a tenth of a mile. The hill repeat structure I use is a hard-as-you-can push up a hill that takes ~60-90sec, then an easy jog back around to the start. And do it again & again & again. :)

Pushed it on that last one - w00t!

Hillsssss

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: yoga
Stretchy stretch stretch.

Saturday
Planned: 8 mi 
Did: 8.03 mi @ 9:28/mi pace
Run on the winding, hilly, country road near my parents' lake house where we're visiting for the long holiday weekend. Started out early (before 7 a.m.!) but it was still muggy as anything. Yuck. Did the first 3.2 miles with Scott, then he headed inside and I did an out-and-back in the other direction to finish out the 8 miles total. I didn't push the pace, knowing I have the 10k race on Tuesday, but needed to get the miles done.

Also: NEW SHOES!
Mizunos Wave Riders

Winding country roads

Sunday
Planned: XT
Did: 13.2mi mountain biking
Scott and I took advantage of being with my folks this weekend and took a trip (2nd annual!) to Harbison State Forest for a mountain bike ride. We did a very rooty trail to start off, then move to more flowy trails for the remainder. It was a good ride, though quite warm even for as early as we got started! Felt good but I could tell I was a little worn out from the 8 miles yesterday. Good to keep the legs moving in advance of Tuesday's race.