I was kind of all over the map this week and didn’t really follow a schedule on a day-to-day basis, so here is a breakdown of what was supposed to be done over the course of the week:

-rest
-3 mile run
-4 mile pace
-3 mile run
-rest
-5k race
-cross train

As I am typing this (on Sunday), I am seeing for the first time that I was supposed to have run a race this weekend. I clearly didn’t look at this week’s plan earlier like I should have, I just assumed that the weekly runs were staying consistent and I would increase my long run by 1 mile. I’m obviously really good at following schedules.

Anyhow, here is a breakdown of my week:

Monday
What I did: 4 miles
Holy moly, today was windy. I went out for a run after work but I’m not going to pretend I went happily. I could see the trees bending in the wind from the comfort of my home and spent awhile lamenting to Justin and Brody about not wanting to go out. They ignored my cries, which I thought was a little rude. I knew I was going to see a movie after work the next night though, so eventually I dragged my behind out and went for it, yelling to B and Justin that if I didn’t come back within 40 minutes then it means that I’ve probably been blown into a neighboring town or into a tree or something and that maybe they should come looking for me IF THEY EVERY CARED AT ALL!! Ahem. I tried to stick to side roads that had some buffers from the wind, which was effective, but man alive was it howling! The good news is that I tried to hustle right along so that I didn’t have to be outside for very long. Mission accomplished.

Tuesday
What I did: Went to see The Hunger Games. They ran a lot in the movie so I think that counts for something.

Wednesday
What I did: 9 miles
The great part about my training for the last couple of weeks is that each of my long runs has been a personal distance record sine the longest I had run prior was 7.2 miles in the Falmouth Road Race. It’s a real ego boost! I went out running with Justin after work today. I knew that I might not have time to do my long run over the weekend so I figured I would gauge how I felt when we started out and if I felt good, I would get my long run out of the way early in the week. As I’ve mentioned before, Justin is a little quicker than I am so we started out at a pretty good clip. I should have said something but the people-pleaser in me kept quiet; it wasn’t an uncomfortable pace but I couldn’t have kept it up for 9 miles and it wasn’t very smart to run the risk of burning out early on in the run. We ran together for about 2.5 miles and then we parted ways. I felt pretty good during the run; I brought water with me again and rocked out to some tunes. It rained a little, which made me feel like a total BA, and then it got a little dark, which made me run faster because I was scurred, and that made me feel like less of a BA. My legs were a little wiped by the time I was done but all in all I felt good!

Thursday was a rest day. My legs were a little sore (particularly my shins – any tips from runners out there?) so I just took it easy and stretched a little.

Friday
What I did: cross training. Yeah, let’s call it cross training.
My legs were still a little sore today and Brody was acting a little nutso so we went for longish walk/run together. Brody is cool because he can either be the best running partner out there or the absolute worst. Some days we hit the road and we stay side by side, heads held high and running stoically like total athletes, and other days he is just the most ridiculous specimen that you’ve ever seen. The second you start to run he whips around and leaps 5 feet straight into the air and starts doing acrobatics the likes of which would turn a Cirque Du Soleil performer green with envy. You might as well just shut it down when he pulls these antics because there’s no turning back. He was pretty good today, though he did want to stop and smell everything that he laid his big bug eyes on. I usually tried to keep him moving but sometimes he really dug his heels in, so I would take those opportunities to stretch a little.

Saturday
What I did: 3 miles
We had things to do and people to see today so I snuck (spell-check is telling me that “snuck” isn’t a word – what should I be saying? Sneaked?) out for a quick run in the morning. It was pretty uneventful – it took a little while to warm my legs up and by that time I was almost done with the run, but it was raining a little so I wasn’t too bummed that it was over. I was glad I got out and ran though; sometimes when it’s raining (heck, or if it’s sunny or cloudy or dark or warm or cold…you get the picture) I spend awhile moping around the house, hemming and hawing about whether I should run, making excuses, blah blah blah but I always, always feel great when I get back. Sure, sometimes the run itself doesn’t feel so great, but I never regret going out. I do, however, regret NOT going out on days when I have the time but just don’t go because I’m lazy, which brings us to…

Sunday
What I did: diddly squat. Like a silly, lazy bum. And I regret it. For shame!