Once again, I actually managed to stick to the plan as scheduled last week. It was my second week of running 6 days in a row and I held up pretty good. I was extremely thankful for the one day off when Friday rolled around though!

Here’s what my training looked like this past week:

Monday: A bike/run brick at the gym. It was pouring outside, so the stationary bike and treadmill would have to do. I biked 15 miles and hopped on the treadmill right after for a slow and easy 3 miles.

Tuesday: 45 minutes of strength training followed by 6 miles on the treadmill. When I left work, the heat index was 93 degrees. There was no way I would have pulled off a decent run outside, so I opted to stay inside. I did 1 mile to warm up and 1 to cool down, and did a cutdown run for the middle 4 miles. I started at an 8:27 pace and sped up each half mile down to a 7:41 pace for the last half mile. Intervals keep me interested enough to survive the treadmill for longer runs.

Wednesday: An easy run of 3 miles on the trail. It was hot and humid, so I’m glad I only had a few easy miles to get through. After my run I did some exercises with resistance bands on my ankles for 15 minutes or so. I don’t use these often enough, but it helps to exercise my hips, IT band, hamstrings, etc.

Thursday: 4 hill repeats. It finally cooled down enough to make the hill repeats tolerable. I ran 6 miles total, with about 2 for a warm up and a little over 2 for a cool down. These repeats are supposed to be sprints, but I simply try to survive! There’s a hill right outside our door that climbs about 100 feet in about a quarter mile, and it’s steep enough that there’s no way I can handle sprinting up it.

The elevation for my hill repeats

A picture of the hill

It’s definitely a good workout and I’m always extremely winded by the time I get to the top.

Friday: Rest (phew!)

Saturday: 6 miles at marathon pace. Matt and I headed out to the trail for this one, where he helped keep my pace under control. McMillan has my pace estimated at 8:13, and I averaged 8:10 – success!

Following our run, we were anxious to finally try our new bikes. Matt got one similar to mine, and neither of us had really tried them out for a real ride yet. We went to Stony Creek and did one loop around the park – 6.3 miles total. It was a beautiful day with lots of people out on the water in boats and kayaks, and I especially loved watching a very happy golden retriever swimming around.

My new bike at Stony

Me with my new bike

We took it pretty easy, especially since I was going to run 13 miles the next day. The bike felt good and I’m looking forward to pushing it more on a ride to see what I can do with it.

Sunday: 13 miles (I actually ended up at 13.33). The long runs are finally getting real at this point. I knew it was going to be a hot day, so I got going as early as I could. I went to Stony Creek for this one. It was probably around 70 degrees at 7:30 when I started my run, and easily around 80 by the time I finished just before 9:30. I started out faster than I should have for the first couple miles, slowed down a little for the third, then finally reeled myself in and hovered around an 8:40 pace for the rest of the run. I was plenty hot after the first loop and not too excited to do a second. I made it through without really crashing, but I did feel pretty rough when I finished. I need to get going even earlier for some of these summer runs!

Totals for the week: 37.3 miles of running, 21.3 miles of biking, and strength training once.

I’ve really slacked off on swimming – no swimming at all the last couple weeks. It gets tricky trying to make time for everything when the running miles start to add up. I considered a swim on Sunday, but the 13 miles of running wiped me out enough that I knew it wasn’t a great idea. The heat has been no fun, and it’s looking like another rough week ahead. I may finally attempt to get up at a ridiculous hour so I can squeeze in some miles before work rather than wait until it’s 90 degrees after work. I will likely end up on the treadmill a time or two as well.

– Janet