Aesthete Runner

I survived peak week! While there are still many more weeks of hard training, it feels good to put my biggest mileage week behind me and finish my first 20 miler of the training plan. One of the coaches notes this week was  Repeat after me: "I can do it. I will do it. I can do it. I will do it. I can do it. I will do it." Say it rhythmically and often. I sure did say this often and this was definitely a week of doing hard things and succeeding.

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.

One of my favorite books is a A Tale of Two Cities and it is fitting to name this post after two vastly different runs I experienced this week. Sometimes it may appear that running is always enjoyable and easy, when that is not always the case. Before I present you with my tale of two runs, here was my training schedule for the week:

On Saturday I completed the F^3 Lake Half Marathon and have finally thawed out! In all seriousness, I really enjoyed the race and while cold, the weather was tolerable. For those wanting the quick story, I did not PR but had one of my most consistently paced races to date. Read on for the full details of race day.

It is hard to believe week 8 is in the books! As with last week, I took some liberties with the plan as I found that I needed some time to recover from my race. Here is what the week looked like for me: Monday: 6 miles easy   Rest Tuesday: Speed 6 X 800m with 400m recovery   Tempo 5 miles Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Tempo 5 miles   Speed 6 X 800m with 400m recovery Friday: 5 miles easy  6 miles easy Saturday: 6 miles easy  Cross training Sunday: 10 miles long (on the trail) The biggest change was that I switched the tempo and speed work. I found that my legs were still really sore from the race and jumping into speed work might bother my hamstrings. After my previous hamstring injury, I am very conscious of the fact that speed work bothers them more than anything and made this adjustment. I do not regret my Monday rest day as that is just what I needed after recovering from the race and enabled me to feel refreshed for the tempo run on Tuesday. While I...

Yesterday was the Waterfall Glen Xtreme trail race and I had a great experience as usual. This is the third year I have run this particular race, and it continues to be one of my favorite local races to run each year. Sure, it is always hot and humid in July, but the weather yesterday was pretty great for a summer race and the course was nice and dry. Three years ago the course was flooded and extremely muddy, so any year where the trail is dry is a plus. I walked away with a 3 minute PR from last year's time, and the first time I can claim a sub-2 hour time at this race. There were about 200-300 less people this year, so we arrived at the forest preserve and found a parking spot very easily. Upon reaching the starting area, I was pleasantly surprised that there was a small line for the porta-potties, and they were in abundance! The little things that make a runner happy... Because the trail is actually 9.5 miles long, the race begins and ends with a cross country trek across t...