This was a week where real life intervened with my training and insisted that I alter my schedule a bit. I front-loaded this week with mileage since I knew I had several events going on towards the end (my husband’s birthday, my nephew’s birthday, and cooking dinner for our friends). When you have events in your life that conflict with your running schedule, don’t be afraid to switch things up if you need to. Just make sure to listen to your body and take proper time between hard efforts. Alright, let’s get to it – here’s how this week went down:

Monday: 6 miles easy (a.m.) + a cancelled 5K which turned into 5 miles on the YMCA treadmill (p.m.)

Tuesday: 9.25 miles easy + Body Pump

Wednesday: 10.75 miles fartleks + recovery, Core work at the Y

Thursday: 7 miles easy + Body Pump

Friday: 6 miles recovery + Core work at the Y

Saturday: 14 miles with the group

Sunday: 7 miles recovery + Body Pump

Total miles: 65

Monday I was supposed to help pace a friend in a local 5K. I drove the 40 minutes out to the location of the race only to run a mile warm up, then have the race get canceled due to thunderstorms. While better safe than sorry, I was bummed to miss the opportunity to pace my friend and get in a bit of faster running. I made the most of it and headed to the YMCA once the race was cancelled so I could get in a few miles on the treadmill.

Since I didn’t get to run the faster stuff on Monday, I had to throw some speed into a run later in the week. I thought about doing it on Tuesday but at 5am the temps were in the mid-to-upper 70s and my “easy” pace felt hard thanks to crazy humidity. So I changed it up and decided to get it in Wednesday super early before I was scheduled to meet a friend for a 5-mile recovery run. I ran a mile and half warm up and then did 8x2 minutes on, 1 minute off at 10K/tempo pace (6:35-6:18). My cooldown was 5 recovery paced (9:15 pace) miles with my friend.

I’d front loaded the week so by Thursday my legs were ready for a break. Thankfully the weather supplied one as we had temps in the 60s (woo hoo!) and lower humidity. That definitely helped out the legs on Thursday’s easy run. Friday was just easy recovery miles, and Saturday I ran with a group around town. They are a faster bunch of folks so every run with them is tough for me. This one was no exception as we tackled some hills and ended up with 14 miles at an average 7:28 pace. Finally, I ended the week with an early morning recovery run (8:31 avg. pace) today before church.

This was my first week back on the running-every-day schedule. Pfitzinger’s schedule that I’ve done for the past two seasons doesn’t have any scheduled days off from running. That doesn't mean that I don't take a rest day when I need to, it just means that he doesn't have any built into the schedule. I’ve been working my way back up in mileage and days running and with the exception of next week’s recovery week I’ll now be back to running every day. I’ll talk more about that (running every day) in a future post.

Up Next: RECOVERY WEEK

Next week is a recovery week for me and a chance to rest my legs and absorb the training I’ve been putting in so I’ll be running reduced mileage (40 miles) and taking two rest days. I have to say - I’m looking forward to it!

That was my training week in review – how was your week?