This week I was really focused on getting back on track. And I did! I got every single workout in and I feel like this was my strongest week yet. I just hope this isn’t a one time thing, and I can keep the momentum going.

Monday: 0

Tuesday: 3.75 Miles, 1 Mile W/U, 4×400 w/200 recovery (1:34, 1:28, 1:32, 1:31),1×400 jog turns-sprint straights 2×100 (.19, .18) .75 Mile C/D

Wednesday: 5 Miles

Thursday: 6.64 Miles

Friday: 0

Saturday: 12 Miles

Sunday: 4.28 Miles

Total Miles: 31.67 Miles

Tuesday I stopped at my parent’s house after work. After waiting for the heat to die down a bit I eventually made it to my old high school track with my sister. We started with a mile warm up and then went into our 400 repeats. Claire ran the first one with me, and watched the other three. I forgot how much I hate 400’s and felt like I was going to throw up after everyone. But considering this was the first time I’d done them on the track in over a year, I was ok with my times. Next up, Claire joined me for a lap of jogging the turns and sprinting the straights. She beat me both times, which shows she’s the sprinter, and I’m made for distance. We followed it up with 3 cool down laps.

Wednesday I met up with Mallory and we headed over to Allerdale after our first choice park was closed. This was only the second time I’d been to Allerdale, the first being last fall. The whole park looked completely different and it was a nice change of scenery. Since the trails are short, we looped around a lot, almost too much. I also forgot how hilly it is, but my legs reminded me as they were screaming towards the end of the run. But the constant hills are almost worth the views.

On Thursday I met up with Mallory again and we started our run at Medina Lake. We made our way around the lake and headed into The Reserve development.  It was another hilly run with gradual and semi steep hills around the development, the views of the lake, and the far too expensive homes make it a nice place to run. We took a wrong turn and ended up taking the longer way back to our cars via Rt 18. We finished up with almost 7 miles, and very tired legs.

Saturday I was finally able to get the long run in that I’d been hoping for. I met up with Mo, Jennifer and Sarah and we made our way around Medina. We started on the half course, made our way past Lake Medina and looped around a few developments. The first half of the run we kept the pace between 9:05-9:15. I was feeling pretty good despite how many hills I’d already fun this week. By the time we got to mile 8 I could feel my legs starting to get tired. Our pace slowed down a bit due to the weather warming up, lack of water, and a more hillier route we were running. Once we got passed mile 10 I could feel my body starting to slow down more and really I was ready to be done. We finally got back to the square to finish up 12 miles for the day.

On Sunday I met up with Melissa for a nice easy recovery run. We met up half way at Bonnie Park and headed north before turning off on one of the paths. It was pretty warm by the time we started so our pace was a little slow, but perfect for a recovery run. Even though I was extremely hot, sweaty and thirsty, I still felt pretty good considering my high jump in mileage from last week to this week.

Week Seven Thoughts:

• This week I got in all 5 workouts, which I haven’t been able to do since the beginning of the training cycle. I felt really strong throughout most of the week and thankfully a few rough weeks didn’t hurt me as much as I expected. This past week was what I’ve been aiming to do every week (minus some of the hills) but I just haven’t been able to get things to work out. I’m hoping I can keep up the 30+ miles per week and maybe they’ll pay off when it’s race time.
• It is now clear to me that 400 repeats are my most hated speed workout. I feel like the entire time I have to be running at full speed or I’ll slip into a much more relaxed pace. And I always feel miserable once I finish.  In high school we ran 400 repeats under 1:30 all the time. Now I’ll be lucky when I accidentally run under 1:30.