Well, here we are at Sunday night again already. How does this always happen so quickly? This was a nice weekend, though; we had a teacher work day on Friday, which meant the weekend actually felt weekendy instead of grade-y. And the weather was beautiful, which made it even better.
The rest of the week was pretty decent, too, at least workout-wise. And I’ve made a tentative decision on a spring race and training between now and then… but I’ll tell you that at the end of the post. Let me summarize my workouts first. At least I actually have pictures this time, since it’s fall and I like pretty trees.
Monday: 6 miles of fartleks and about 30 minutes of strength training at the gym.
Tuesday: 5.2 easy miles amongst the pretty trees.
Wednesday: 6 miles easy and some strength training.
Note to self: these shorts are too short for single-leg deadlifts. #awkward.
Thursday: 7-mile progression run on the treadmill. I had to run in the a.m. because I had a massage in the p.m.
Friday: 3.6 miles easy. I told myself I was just going to run for half an hour so I could get back to work and catch the end of the volleyball game before going to the football game (Friday night in the life of a small-town teacher). So I ran for half an hour and then did I don’t even know what, but before I knew it, it was late and the volleyball game was over. Oops. 
I run by this tree every day. And every day, I take a picture because it’s pretty. So I have about 15 pictures of this tree.
Saturday: 10 miles. I intended to do 7-8, but it was gorgeous out and I was having a super time. So I just kept going. Wished I would’ve had water, though.
Sunday: Rest. I did take a walk because it was way too gorgeous out to not.
Total: 37.8 miles
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve tentatively chosen a spring marathon: Lincoln on May 3. I needed one that I could train for terrain-wise, and since I practically live in Nebraska, this seems like a good choice. Plus the timing is decent, although it’ll be a bit rough on J: He takes a group of kids to the mountains every spring, and they get back May 1, so he’ll basically come home, do laundry, sleep, and leave again with me the next morning. But he loves me, so he said okay.
So that’s the plan for now, unless something comes up.
I’ve also decided not to do a winter race series. I keep reading things that warn that this winter will be “brutally cold,” which is my least-favorite descriptor. Obviously, if I run a marathon May 3, I’ll be training through winter, but I don’t want to be committed to a specific day, then have that day be miserable. And pay money for that misery.
Instead, I’ll follow a 12-week plan from Build Your Running Body (which I finished yesterday — review coming… sometime) that incorporates running, strength, and stretching. I needed a plan to follow more than I needed races on the calendar, so this should do just fine.
Jordan just started watching Ken Burns’ National Parks documentary (we watch it once a year because it’s fantastic), so that’s my cue to go. Have a great week, friends!
Did you get out in the beautiful weather this weekend?
Do you think it’s going to be the brutally cold winter that the Farmer’s Almanac is predicting?
Rural Running Redhead 
So you must not have hated the book if you are using a plan out of it 🙂 YAY! I really like the book and while I haven’t used a plan out of it, I do the strength workouts quit a bit.
I liked it a lot! Lots of good information. Some of the recipes are good, too!
I’m excited that you’ve chosen another race! And your runs look amazing. That tree is beautiful. We don’t really get fall colors here since redwoods are always green.
But the redwoods are gorgeous anyway!
I agree with you that running in really COLD weather can be miserable. I can get through some cold runs but I do not think I would want to do a race in it. lol. Ken Burns documentaries are really good. I’ll have to check out his National Parks one.
That’s my thought exactly — at least if I’m training, I didn’t pay to be running in the cold!
It’s a great documentary. it makes me want to go to all the parks.
Such a pretty tree! I’m glad you took a lot of photos of it.
And I can’t say much about running in cold weather. This is the first time in my life I’ll be running in sub-50 degree weather, so I’ll let you know how I feel
Wow, really? Where did you live before?
south Florida 🙂
You should take a picture of that tree every day from summer to winter… I bet it would be cool to see the subtle changes each day. Plus, it IS a pretty tree. The National Parks documentary sounds like something my husband would love. Is it on Netflix? Congrats on picking a marathon! Seems like a good choice.
That would be cool! I’m not sure if the documentary is on Netflix or not, but I bet it is. It ran on PBS originally.
I hope it’s not brutally cold. This past PA winter was HORRIBLE. School was actually closed several days due to the cold… which was ridiculous, they didn’t need to close, but it really was colder than it had ever been! Luckily (not really) I didn’t have to run through it cause I had knee surgery haha.
Yeah, your winter this last year was way worse than ours! I hope neither of us has it bad this year!
I will check out that book. But I might wait for your review first! 😉
Hi! As you may have already noticed, I just nominated you for the “Liebster” award. Please visit my latest post (http://deutscherwanderwolf.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/liebster-blog-award/) to see what this means. Hope you chose to participate! Cheers.
Thanks!! I will go check out your post!
Beautiful photos! I like the tree haha 🙂 Good luck with the 12-week plan.
Couldn’t have used scarier words, ugh.. “Brutally cold” – no, I’m not a fan of that..
Yes, that is a terrifying phrase!