I’m hesitant to call this week an “official” training week because I didn’t really follow the training schedule (originally posted here). After a few not-so-great long runs over the past couple of weeks, I was feeling a little down about my progress so far; I was just getting too intimidated by my long runs and it was definitely showing so I decided to take a week off from the schedule.

My goal this week was to get a few solid shorter runs in and to just run for as long as it felt comfortable one of the days. I needed to get my confidence back a little bit so I wanted to focus on the quality of the runs rather than the distance. I’m happy to report that it worked! I think that if I had tried to move on to the next week in the schedule and get in a 12-mile run, I would have regretted it. Instead, I shaved a few miles off of the distance, felt comfortable the whole time and actually enjoyed a long run for the first time in a few weeks.

I ran 3 days this week – here is the breakdown:

Tuesday
What I did: 4.5 mile run
Today’s run was great! 2 rest days in a row left me feeling really strong, so I pushed myself harder than I usually do and I felt good the whole time (which is pretty unusual – normally the first half mile or so seems to be spent convincing my legs that yup, we’re hitting the road so you might as well get on board). Plus I saw a bunch of great dogs in a nearby park so that was pretty sweet. I stretched for awhile afterwards and iced my shins a little. A good day!

Thursday
What I did: 9 mile run
After work today I decided that I would head out for a run and just keep going until I didn’t want to run anymore. I figured that since the past few weeks of setting distance goals resulted in me playing some silly mind games with myself (“1 mile down, 10 to go!”) that I would just go out without any goals in mind and see how I did. My legs were warming up for the first couple of miles and then after that I started to hit my stride; my breathing was comfortable, my pace was okay and I was enjoying myself. It rained a little bit but nothing crazy. I ended up covering 9 miles and some change and I think that it was exactly what I needed. I felt more confidant afterwards and I wasn’t bummed that I had dropped a few miles from last week’s long run.

Sunday
What I did: 5 mile run
Justin and I headed out this afternoon for a run. I’ve mentioned before (here) that Justin is a little speedier than me and that sometimes I have trouble keeping up with him unless he’s wearing a backpack full of bricks (like he was here). Today was no exception. We ran together for about 3/4 of a mile but I could tell that I was holding him back so I encouraged him to take off (unfortunately we both forgot that I had the key to the house, so he had to hang out on the porch for a few minutes until I got home. I thought that it was pretty rude of Brody to not open the door for him, but I guess that’s an issue that they will have to work out themselves). My run was pretty good, although I did have some nagging pains in my left shin. I’m thinking that I should look into some inserts for my running sneakers (or some new sneakers) because this shin pain is pretty persistent.

Off to find some ice and watch some Sunday night TV. I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!