Aesthete Runner

The word that sums up this week is tired. Many long hours at work, combined with balancing marathon training led to major fatigue and additional stress. Ironically, this was the quote sent in our weekly McMillan email: “The demon you can swallow gives you its power. The greater life’s pain the greater life’s reply.” – Joseph Campbell

Starved Rock is where I am taking you next. We hiked around Starved Rock park for two days and it was neat to see the different types of trails, especially those with waterfalls at the end. While it was fun to camp at the park, it is a quick day trip from Chicago that I would love to repeat in the future. Stay tuned next week for more pictures (and waterfalls!) from Starved Rock.

Finally a "normal" training week. I almost forgot what one of those feels like! I am still enjoying the McMillan custom plan that I have been following, and while the mileage is still a bit low, the speed workouts and actual long run this week were challenging.

This week's Trail Tuesday is taking you to the Valley of Fire! It is located about an hour from Las Vegas, and it is well worth the drive. There are several different trails located within the park and what is neat is that they all showcase a unique landscape.

Another week of training completed, although this was hardly a week for running. I was pretty sore and tired after the WFG Xtreme 10 last week, and I was glad for an easy week of running and some rest.

This week features one of the trails we hiked in Las Vegas in the Red Rock Canyon. I highly recommend this beautiful area. There are a variety of trails for all abilities, and I can't wait to go back and explore some more.

I am back from my Vegas vacation and completed another 10 mile race yesterday at the Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10 event. The "official" training for this week was mixed, as I enjoyed some fantastic hiking in Vegas, while also trying to keep my legs fresh for the race yesterday. I loved that I was able to still stick with the training plan, while choosing to keep my mileage lower.

Greetings from Vegas! While this post was written prior to my departure, I still wanted to capture most of what my training week 3 looked like.