Well, here we are again at Sunday night. That was quick. Anybody do anything fun over the weekend? I did not. Yesterday, we had our annual meeting with our financial planner, where we discussed retirement and life insurance.

Because nothing says “fun Saturday morning” like talking about preparing for the untimely demise of your dearly beloved. We had lunch with J’s family afterward; Mexican food perked me right back up.

I think I may have mentioned a few (thousand) times that training for a fast 10k instead of a long-distance race has been quite a mental switch for me. This week was especially… odd, I guess. It was a recovery week, and it seemed really strange to me to take a recovery week when I hadn’t been increasing mileage. But, as I have many times over the past four weeks, I told myself to trust the plan and trust that Heather knows better than I do…you know, with her coaching certification and all. Trust is important.
This meme-maker earns bonus points for correctly using the apostrophe. 

Anyway, here’s how this recovery week looked:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: The same wicked-hard interval workout as last week: 2 x 400m, then 2 x 800m, all with 800m rest. 6.5 miles total. Oh, and I solved the treadmill-tripping-the-powerstrip issue. By plugging it into the WALL instead of the powerstrip. I am so smart.

Tuesdays are usually double days, with intervals in the mornings and strength at night. I knew I was going to have to move the strength workout, because I’d planned on going to the basketball game that night. But did you know that if you don’t actually turn on your alarm, it won’t go off in the morning? I didn’t make it out of bed to run, so that night I didn’t make it to the basketball game and ran instead. Not winning.

Wednesday: The best thing about this recovery week was Wednesday’s 4-miler. Since it was so short,  I didn’t have to run in the morning in order to lift at night. I just ran the four (outside! In daylight! Spring is coming!), then lifted for 45 minutes.

Thursday: I cheated on my plan a little. But just a little. The schedule said 6 easy, but since the Run to the Shrine is in just three months, I’ve got to start hitting hills. So I did hill pyramids. Then I did some core. And I stretched, so I wasn’t a complete rebel.

Friday: I so desperately wanted to repeat Wednesday’s workout, but I was a good girl (for two weeks in a row!) and just lifted. And did the spin bike for 20 minutes.

Saturday: 8-mile progression run. I love progression runs, but they are one of the hardest workouts for me to do right. I always start out too fast. (Just like I do in races…maybe there is a pattern here). But yesterday’s overindulgence in tortilla chips at lunch turned out to be a (miserable) blessing in disguise: I had to start slow in order to keep those chips in line. And then when they had settled, I was able to kill the last three miles in 7:04, 6:45, and 6:36. Boom. And then I stretched, just like I was supposed to.

Sunday: 4-mile recovery run, then some core.

Totals: 28.5 miles, 1.5 hours strength, 30 minutes stretching. That’s like…two weeks post-marathon type of mileage, and it’s messing with my head. Someone please tell me that this will make me super fast.

I was pretty stoked to get in three outdoor runs last week. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in some more this week. The weather looks like it should be pretty decent, so it’s just dependent on if I can get out of work in time or not.

Do you love, hate, or love/hate recovery weeks? 

Favorite type of indulgence food? Tortilla chips are not even my favorite, but I sure ate them Saturday.