Weekly Report 4

 There really wasn't a theme to this week's runs or workouts.  It was just a week of get the workouts done or get through it.

Towards the middle of the week I started getting sick, thus started taking some Nyquil and DayQuil. While both of those do a wonderful job getting me back to feeling like my normal self; they also mess me up while I'm taking them.  So I didn't do much the first day, just focused on sleeping and feeling better.  The second day I focused on a circuit which was tough, but felt pretty good considering how I was feeling.

I spent yesterday just stretching, which was relaxing and made me feel really good, especially today on my run.

The run today felt mostly ok, until the end when I got a little shaky.  It seems like I'm not totally over this cold yet.  However, the craziest part was my running is getting faster and faster.  I've dropped almost a minute on pace, but just for the first two miles and then I get back closer to my original pace.  The fact that I'm getting significantly faster and stronger is making the fact my endurance is stalling perfectly fine.

It's kind of funny... trying to find the perfect blend of strength training and endurance training, and rest for that matter.  They never really seem to be working together, and yet there are signs that one helps the other.  Just have to keep pushing both and eventually, together, they will get me through the Dopey...

5 Mile Done... A Lot More To Do

My long run this week was only 5 miles but it felt really good!  I'm really happy with how the run went.  I felt strong, there weren't a lot of pains during the run, and the weather was great.  Now I'm going to say it was cold, but pretty much everyone is going to say I'm nuts since it was about 50 degrees today when I ran.  However, I love running in colder weather (as long as there's no snow... I don't do snow...)

I set out to run the full first mile, walk .1, run till 2, walk another .1, run to mile 3.1, walk .2, ran to mile 4, walked another .2, ran until mile 4.5, and then finished strong!  Then had a nice .2 cool down.  All my walking was under 16 minute mile pace and that has been getting easier and easier to do without focusing on it.  My running pace was anywhere between 9:15 and 9:45, which I'm also super pleased with!

Probably the thing I'm happiest about is that my knee did really really well.  When I ran 4 miles for the first time a few weeks ago, my knee was throbbing at the end, even forcing me to walk eventually.  Then yesterday at the gym my knee hurt in the middle of my workout, but I pushed through it and it felt fine eventually.  So today I was expecting for my knee to kill my run at some point and it never did!  So excited about that because that just means the strength training, run training, and stretching is all working!

All my new gear is doing awesome!  I'm loving the pants and different shirts and I'm obsessed with my new Nike jacket (one of the thin, long sleeve ones).  I wear it whenever I can and I ran in it this morning and it was great.  I think I might have to suck it up and go get another one... My shoes have also broken in really well.  The combo with the new compression socks can get a little hot at times, but eventually I forget about it and I'm feeling great.

So other than being really tired last week, I've been feeling great!  I made sure to stretch and roll out today after my run and I'm still feeling great.  We'll see how tomorrow goes, but I feel right on track for 6 miles next week and then a rest week after that.