Learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings

coming down, is the hardest thing. (I think this may be my favorite song of all time, I say that a lot though, especially with Tom songs. That's right, we are on a first name basis.)

Wow, what a strange 2 weeks it has been.  Ever since my last 5k on 6/13, (which was AWESOME!) I have been having some rough runs. I was having a really hard time completing my speedwork on, and off the track. My legs just felt heavy. I don't know what was going on. I was still eating super healthy, but I was indulging in some wine on the weekends, which I believe caused me to gain a few lbs. So maybe that is where the heavy feeling was coming from.

It is also a gazillion, (yep, that's right, a gazillion) degrees outside, so that did not help matters. It is funny, in Wisconsin, where I am from, we spend all summer outdoors and we hibernate in winter. It is the opposite here in Arizona. If it is between the hours of 7am and 7pm, you just don't go outside. The car door handle is hot, patio furniture is hot, the pool water is hot. Ick. I think next summer I will need to beg and plead for my sister to let me live at her place in SAN DIEGO for 3 months. Think she'll go for it??

Back to running. Butterfly! As I was feeling pretty down about how my last 2 weeks of workouts were going, coach wanted to give me a confidence boosting workout before my first ever 10k next weekend. It should be hard but doable, anything too easy would not help!

So for today's run I had 4 miles warm-up, then 3 sets of 1 mile at 6:00 followed by one mile recovery at 7:00. After the sets, I had a 2 mile cool down. Here is how it went:

4 miles warm-up 7:55 average

Workout-

Mile 1- 5:43

Mile 2- 7:01

Mile 3- 5:47

Mile 4- 6:56

Mile 5- 5:30

Mile 6- 6:36

2 mile cool down at 7:20 pace.

Felt really good throughout the mile repeats and my confidence is *mostly* restored. I really needed this as I tried a 5 mile temp0 run at 6:07 last Thursday and couldn't get through it. Bomb. At track last week I had 3 x 2 mile @ 5:50 pace and I couldn't get through that. Bomb #2. SO needless to say, I am happy with how today went. I think any over-training/under-resting I had been doing is being remedied. Now it is time to ease up, let my legs rest. re: I am NOT killing my legs with hills or gym workouts this week!

Here is some video Matt shot at the track this morning. I was finished with my 12 miles at 6:30 am, that shows how early you have to start running here!

Runningly Yours,