Marathon Monday

Last Sunday started my training week off strong. My running partner and I planned to do eight miles around the lovely rolling hills of Bristow complete with water stop and bathroom break. We started off with our typical five mile loop around my neighborhood. We stopped back at my house for what was supposed to be just a couple minutes, but for some reason decided to take our good old time having snacks and chatting. Once we finally went back outside to do the remaining three miles, starting straight uphill, three more miles seemed like a lot. Ironically, though, at the last minute we decided to tack on an extra mile at the end to give us nine for the day!

We had last Tuesday off for Veteran's Day so we decided to take advantage of our daylight hours and do another five or so miles. I went to my friend's neighborhood this day. She decided to try to change our route. I swear to you it was all uphill. I felt like I was on one of those switchback roads going up a mountain. I was struggling. Looking back, though, it might not have been the smartest to do 5.61 miles after doing our longest training run a few days before. A three mile run might have been a better decision. Lesson learned.

I ended my training week with two shorter runs. Friday I went immediately after school for a little over three miles. Not only are we suffering from what I feel like are extremely short days, but a serious cold front took over at the end of last week. Friday evening's run was COLD. My legs and arms were so cold by the time I was done, but I kept reminding myself that anything is better than those hot, summer runs.

Saturday afternoon I kinda forced myself to do 3.5 more miles to get myself over 20 miles for the week. I was moving along the first half mile when my RunKeeper lady told me that I was actually moving along quite quickly. I decided I would try to break my pace record at this point. So I got myself in the zone. I was still doing well about a mile and a half in when tragedy occurred. My headphones cut out in one ear. I tried to jiggle the wire around to fix it. That's when the other ear cut out. I stopped to try to fix everything, but they were officially dead. This not only means I couldn't hear my RunKeeper lady that helps me know how I am doing, but also my music which helps me keep my mind off the ideas that I might be dying. It was a challenge, but I was determined and I beat my former fastest pace/mile by 18 seconds! It was exciting. I was also excited to purchase new headphones the next day. Whats even more exciting is that Saturday's run bumped me up to 21.35 miles for the week, and there's only 53 more days until Florida (next week the days will start with a 4)!!!!!!!!