This was a bit of a whirlwind week in trying to both fit everything in and get ready for vacation! I was also trying to front-load the week again. Coming off of 65 miles last week my legs were a bit heavier than I would like – I think they are slowly adjusting to the higher mileage, but I have definitely needed to foam roll them quite a bit to release some of the tighter spots. Here’s how the week shook out: Monday: 10 miles easy (8:08 pace)

Tuesday: 10 miles w/20 min tempo (mine) and another 20 min tempo (a friend’s) + Body Pump

Wednesday: 11 miles easy (8:30 pace) + core

Thursday: 8 miles easy (8:45 pace) + Body Pump

Friday: 15.42 miles medium/easy + core

Saturday: 6.0 miles recovery

Sunday: 9 miles medium (7:46 pace)

Total miles: 70

Monday’s run was with a friend and I have to say that it may have been the most humid run I’ve ever completed. Despite starting at 5:20am, it was so humid that I could SEE the moisture in the air in my headlamp. I thought it was dust or pollen particles at first but the fine mist that I was seeing was, in fact, water. Yikes. In any case, the ten miles went by slower than I’d have liked but I got it done.

Tuesday’s Tempo – tempo miles at 6:56, 6:44, 6:47

This was another crazy-humidity day and I started early and in the dark. Thanks to the insane amount of water in the air, my headlamp could only illuminate the “fog” in front of me and didn’t help much. The part of my route where I run my tempo miles has some loose gravel and rougher road so I was actually a bit unsure of my footing with the darkness and fog/headlamp situation. I ended up scaling back a bit on pace since I was unable to see well and didn’t want to twist an ankle on the run! I was a bit bummed to not hit the 6:30-6:45 range I’m striving for on this tempo, but I made it through it without injury which is key. After running my portion of tempo, I circled back and met a friend and then ran 5 miles with him to help pace him through HIS tempo run. He’s running 7:25-7:30 miles for his tempo and honestly after running my tempo I wasn’t sure how much energy I’d have left in my legs to help him! But the company always seems to give me an extra boost and I had a good time pacing him through his miles to give me a total of 10 for the day.

Wednesday’s run was tiring. My legs were beat from the day before and I took this one slow. I ran most of it in the early morning with a friend and was so grateful for the company. Then ran the last little bit (1.75 miles) before my core class. Took my girls to the pool in the afternoon and was able to loosen up the legs a bit in the cold water which felt amazing.

Thursday/Friday/Saturday - Thursday was uneventful and I kept it easy since I knew I’d be running my long run on Friday. I had moved it up so that we could get on the road early on Saturday to head to the beach. My Dad wanted to run and needed 10 miles (how cool is it that I have parents who like to run?!?) and so I ran 5 on my own first (7:56 pace) and then ran the rest with my Dad (10.42 at 8:47 pace). It was a nice long run and I was happy to get it knocked out before vacation.

Sunday’s run was actually done at the beach and my legs were HEAVY. Not sure if it was the humid air or just all of the packing/loading/unloading/running around that comes with traveling, but my legs were definitely feeling beat up this first run at the beach. But I was pumped to have a week ahead of me to relax!!

Up Next: Recovery week!!!!

Next week I’m at the beach and I’m looking forward to one last recovery week before the official start of my schedule. I’m planning to make the most of it!

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