Last week concluded the last of three tough training weeks and this week will be all about recovery! Before we talk about this week though, let’s recap last week.
Monday – 6.2 mile run with the stroller along the coast, nice and easy. 
Tuesday – 10 mile run. I used the time that my mother in law comes to watch Siena to get some “me” time. This run actually started pretty rough – I highly considered turning around after a mile but convinced myself to at least go 1.5 miles before turning around so I could make it at least 3 miles total. I stopped for the bathroom at 1.5 miles and looked at my podcasts – I took it as a sign that there was a new Running on Om podcast featuring my favorite guest, Lauren Fleshman, available. I turned on the podcast and started to run, completing all 10 miles and coming up with my “To Myself One Year Ago” blog post. They were slow but they got done. Afterward I headed to a coffee shop for an acai bowl and blogged. It was a therapeutic session! 
Wednesday – 21 Day Fix – Lower Fix and 21 Day Fix – Upper Fix. I did upper fix before Siena was awake and Lower Fix during her nap. Mike left early this morning for a work trip so I just got up with him and got the workout done. It was nice to get it done early!
Thursday – 7 miles with 8 x 800s. This was a great treadmill speed session. I felt really strong during the 800s and even ran my last two faster than the others. I felt strong, determined and even a bit hopeful at the end of this workout. I felt like I was really getting my groove back!
Friday – Dirty 30 Extreme in the morning before Siena was up. It was nice to have the rest of the day to get stuff done during Siena’s naps without worrying about a workout. I need to be better about getting up early to get workouts done.
Saturday – 16 mile long run (with 12 on the trails). My mom came in town on Friday to help me and hang out while Mike was away so she stayed home with Siena so I could do this run (thanks Mom!). This was a tough one! It took me a little over 2 hours 50 minutes to run 16 miles. I ran the first 12 on the San Elijo trails and Rancho Santa Fe with a group of friends. The Rancho Santa Fe portion is on horse trails that have a lot of bark – it’s not comfortable! The San Elijo trails have a long portion of loose sand which is also tough. Every time I run on trails I respect ultra marathoners even more! After the group finished 12 miles I finished the remaining miles on my own on the road and it felt so much easier.
Sunday – 21 Day Fix Pilates and Yoga. I did these back to back and it felt amazing. I love the 21 Day Fix Yoga – it’s really restorative and I always feel great afterward.
Weekly Totals:
- Miles Run: 39.2
- Hours of Strength Training: 2.5
Though I usually aim for five runs per week, I still feel good about this training week even though I fell short of that. Things are falling into place and I feel like my endurance is way up. I also lost my vacation/summer weight and am feeling strong after three solid weeks of 4-5 21 Day Fix workouts per week. I’m looking forward to seeing how the gains I’ve made in the last three weeks play out after I’ve had this recovery week for them to sink in.
The end of this week marked just 7 weeks until race day. I really can’t believe how fast it’s going – the race will be here before we know it. Given that I’ve run three almost 3 (or more) hour runs in the last three weeks, I’m starting to feel ready to go the distance. Now that the endurance is there, I hope to build some race-specific speed in the coming weeks.
Do you like to do long runs on the trails?
I miss running with you! I’ve seen some people running on the beaches here in Ecuador and have thought about lacing up again. I haven’t yet, but I did get in my first yoga session a few days ago and it felt amazing!! You are crushing it & I wish I could run NYC with you!
I miss running with you toooooo! I’m glad you got in yoga – I was just thinking about that for you! I was wondering if you’d done any. Crazy how you were doing it so often before and then not at all! Everything has it’s time and place!
Speaking of yoga – I still need to do my yoga challenge! Probably will do it in November after the marathon.
You’re killing the training. I like seeing how you’re mixing your strength workouts with your running.
Thanks! It’s been good doing the strength training – the first week I was a bit sore but after that I just felt good and it didn’t seem to affect my running too much.
Thank you for posting about how some days you want to turn around and not run… I thought it was just me.
Glad to help – we all have those days!
Nice job doing so many miles on trails! I will be doing 15 miles this weekend and that may be the farthest I’ve gone on trails… yikes. I have so much trail running to still get under my belt.
I love that you did that (hard) 10 miler and then went to a coffee shop and blogged. Those posts are always the best ones!