Another week of training is in the books! I call this week “The Week of Thunderstorms and Denver Trips.” I am sick of the rain and wishing I-76 was a little shorter, but otherwise, it was not a bad week. Here’s how the training happened:

Monday:
AM: 12.3 miles of hills. I also made two new friends — a couple of dogs who decided that we were BFFs and should run together. They ran with me for about 4 miles — in spite of my constant, “GO HOME, DOGS!” and the glares from drivers who I’m sure were wondering why the heck “my dogs” weren’t on a leash.
Also, though I’ve had major trail envy lately, this run reminded me that the plains can be pretty, too.

PM: 45 minutes of full-body strength training

Tuesday:
AM: 12.5 miles. I should have gotten up just a little bit earlier, as I was supposed to run 14 and ran out of time… although I probably should have just done it, since none of my students feel the need to show up on time. Grumble grumble.

PM: Core, stretching, and foam rolling. Blah.

Wednesday:
AM: 4 recovery miles, followed by core, stretching, and foam rolling

PM: The foiled trail run I talked about in Thursday’s post. Whomp whomp.

Thursday:
AM: 10 miles with 5 at tempo. Why are tempo runs always so hard? Theoretically, I was running at half-marathon pace… and yet I felt like death after 5 miles. Explain that, please.

PM: 45 minutes full-body strength, plus a short bike ride with the hubby

Friday: 
AM: 5 recovery miles. My watch was completely dead, so I ran “naked,” and it was kinda nice.  I should do that more often.
Later, I did a quick core workout in the midst of cleaning my house. I’m cool.

Saturday:
18 miles. It was supposed to be 18 miles with 10 at goal pace, but I had a tough time hitting the pace. I was not happy.
It was hot, but not that hot, and humid, but not that humid (especially compared to what you Southerners/East Coasters deal with), so I don’t know what the deal was. I’m hoping it was just a crummy run, and I’m not ready to adjust my goals just yet… but I hope the next goal pace run gets a little easier!

Also, after six marathons fueled by GU, my stomach has suddenly decided that it hates GU. So I also spent half the run trying to keep the GU down. Not cool, body.

We spent the rest of Saturday walking around the Denver Botanical Gardens with my family. That was considerably less painful and more fun than my run.
Holy cow, I look like my mom in that picture.

Sunday: 
Rest. I did 35 minutes of yoga to try to loosen up my stupid-tight legs and my workout for the Lyons Share Ab Challenge, but that was it. And I went to Denver again, this time for brunch with my girlfriends. I didn’t take any pictures because I was busy getting caught up on their lives.

Totals: 62.8 miles, 2.5 or so hours strength/stretch

And that’s that. This week is a bit of a cutback, so that should be nice.

How did your week go?