I survived another week!! Barely. My dedication to my training plan was really tested this weekend, due to my circumstances. But I was able to stick to it and run all the miles. When you want to do something, you make it work.

Monday- 5 mile easy run on the Dora Trail with Kim. It was Labor Day and we both had the day off, so we were able to meet up in the morning to run together! My legs felt pretty tired, and it was humid outside (hence the foggy picture).

Tuesday- 6 x 1 mile, 400 m recovery for 10 miles total. Surprisingly, this workout went really well and interval-style workouts continue to be my favorite. I have no idea how I feel my strongest on my sixth day in a row of running, but it continues to happen. I guess these brothers know what they’re doing.

Two things to note from this run: My calves continue to be tight and sore, like they have been since week 6 of training. Icing, stretching, and foam rolling have been helping but they’re still bothersome. During this workout my right calf kept kind of seizing up. It wasn’t like a cramp, but more like the muscle would get really tight and kind of squeeze my shin bone. Not sure what’s going on there.

Also, during my cool down mile I started having back spasms. I’ve had ongoing back problems for a couple of years, and usually running doesn’t affect my back in a good or bad way. The spasms were in the muscle on top of my rib cage just below my left shoulder blade. After my run my back muscle was sore and tight and even today when I take a deep breath in I get a radiating pain around my rib cage to the front. No fun.

Wednesday- REST.

Thursday- 8 mile tempo run (i.e. marathon pace run) on the treadmill. Ten miles total with the warm up and cool down. This was a tough one. I just didn’t feel like running when I got home from work, but I got it done. I watched The Princess Diaries while I ran, then got bored of it and switched to Grey’s Anatomy.

Friday- 5 mile easy run in the morning with Sven (the treadmill). I had to drive to a friend’s house in Virginia Beach after work for a Saturday baby shower, so I decided to get my run out of the way in the morning. I watched Mean Girls, which is always entertaining!

Saturday- 8 mile easy run in the morning in Virginia Beach. It was incredibly humid outside, which made for a tough run.

Despite feeling like I was breathing water, I had a hard time sticking to my easy pace. I think it was because it was really flat and I was running at sea level. So I ended up averaging nearly 30 seconds per mile faster than I’m supposed to. I started out in my friend’s neighborhood (whose house I was crashing in for the weekend) and then did an out and back on a sidewalk along a main road. Traffic lights are annoying.

Sunday- 16 mile long run. I was faced with a tricky situation: I needed to drive 6 hours home from the beach and put in a 16 mile long run. I ended up deciding to stop halfway in Farmville and run on a trail I have run on in the past when traveling for work.

This actually ended up being my best long run so far during training. Full details on Wednesday!

Total Miles: 54 miles (a new weekly mileage PR!!)