Hi friends! How was your weekend? Mine was not too shabby except for one part… we went to a party last night, and I put my phone in my back pocket. I forgot it was there. Until I heard it splash in the toilet. Not cool. So it’s in a bag of rice (courtesy of the party hostess) until tomorrow night, and my fingers are tightly crossed that it’s not deadzo mcdeadskis.

Aside from the phone incident, the weekend was good. We had parent-teacher conferences Tuesday and Thursday nights, so we got Friday off, which was stellar. I went to Sprouts in Greeley and stocked up on tasty goodness that I can’t buy here.

Saturday J and I walked a 5k (his first!), had lunch with a friend and her sister, and then went to a Beers of the U.S. party. They had a table for six regions of the U.S., each with two beers to taste. Guests were each assigned a region and brought an appetizer from that region. It was so fun, and the food was amazing. Not healthy, but amazing. I’d love to show you some pictures, but the phone incident kept me from taking any (that’s right. Dropped the phone at the beginning of the party). I also met several new people, many of whom asked some version of, “Aren’t you that girl I see running all the time?” Yep, that;s me.

This was also my second-to-last week of 10k training. This little cycle has gone fast! Here’s how it went:

Monday: AM Speedwork: 4 x 800m stupid-fast (to me) repeats with 400m recoveries. 6 miles total.
PM: 45 minutes strength

Tuesday: Rest (I switched what was scheduled for Monday and Tuesday because of PT conferences. There was no way to get in a double on Tuesday, and I wanted to make sure I got a complete rest day this week.)

Wednesday: 6 miles easy, plus core

Thursday: 3 x 2 miles at goal 10k pace. 9 miles total. 10 minutes stretching ( was supposed to be 15 minutes, but I was short on time)

Friday: 45 minutes strength. It was gorgeous out and I wanted to run, but I contented myself with walking to and from the gym.

Saturday: 6 miles. I was tempted to run the 5k that we walked, but after a Twitter conversation with Heather and Holly (both coaches, i.e. smarter than Cassie), I decided against it. Both ladies said that racing wouldn’t be conducive to a solid 10k effort next weekend. Theoretically, I could have just done it easy, as part of the 6-miler, but I like to win these local races, and I know my competitive self well enough to know that as soon as I got passed, the whole “training run” mindset would go out the window, and instead, I’d be like this guy:

and then I’d crank out some speed. I had decided just to cheer on Jordan, but Friday night, he asked me to walk it with him. And I couldn’t say no to my favorite human.

I got up early(ish) to do my 6-miler. I had to start in the dark, so I chose the treadmill, which was actually nice, because I could model the run after the elevation chart for next week’s 10k (i.e. throw in a giant hill mid-run, and a little hill at the end). Then I rinsed off, changed clothes (but not into warm enough ones… holy cow, that was a cold and windy walk), and walked the 5k with the husband. We were being all cute and holding hands at the finish… and then he dropped my hand and hustled in front of me to “win.”

Sunday: 4-mile recovery run. It’s easy to run slowly when it’s so nice out that you never want to go inside. But eventually I did, and then did some core.

This week is a little taper week for Saturday’s race. I have only one hard workout (Tuesday; the same intervals as last week), an extra rest day (Thursday), and a short little shakeout Friday morning. I know it will be hard mentally,  as race weeks always are, but I’m actually looking forward to it. I don’t have any evening commitments on training days, so that means no 4:20 wake-ups.

I’m hoping the extra sleep and easy training will come together for a solid race Saturday. I don’t know about a PR… I looked at the race website again last night and saw that the course record is slower than my PR (thanks, I’m sure, to the giant hill). But if I run a PR effort, I’ll be happy. And I’ll be really grateful that I’ve been hitting hills now and then in training.

I hope your week and weekend were nice, too, and I hope the upcoming week is super!

How was your weekend?

Do people know you as “that person who runs”?

Ever dropped an electronic in water and had it survive? Please tell me that there is hope…