Quality, not quantity.

It's been getting hard to drag myself out the door for exercise lately.  And even harder to convince myself to run for more than 30 minutes.  Part of the reason is the sheer exhaustion that comes at the end of a school year.  Another part of the reason is I'm just really tired of running the same loop all the time, and lacking the motivation to get more creative with my routes. On the bright side, after months of nightmare-filled, non-restful, sleep, I have finally gotten tired enough to start sleeping normally again.  So that is awesome.  That plus only one more week of school hopefully equals me feeling like a normal person again soon, and getting my mileage back up.  My legs are strong right now, and my lungs are catching up.  I've been really pleased with my shorter/faster runs, and it's about time to start trying to add distance without losing the pace.  As soon as I get motivated again.

I have noticed that a big part of successful breathing right now is constantly reminding myself to breathe in as deep as I can, every breath.  I often catch myself in the middle of a run breathing too shallowly, and that obviously does not help.  You would think that breathing in all the way would just happen naturally...but apparently it doesn't.  I can always feel the burst of energy in my legs when I start breathing deep again after catching myself breathing shallow.  Crazy stuff.

Super happy with my speed in the shorter runs this week!  Was great to have Kenny back at the Pub Run after his long break due to shin splints.  Got to pick up the pace and add a few small hills now that he is back!  On Tuesday's run I ran hard for the whole thing, downhills included, since I've decided I'm no longer allowed to be a baby about downhills.  I suppose it's not surprising how much faster I got when I stopped jogging the downhills...  Thursday's run was a quick sprint in between the cable guy and getting out to the barn to trail ride with friends.  As it was, they had to start without me, but I caught up to them eventually.  Getting a few miles in was more important than showing up to the barn on time.

I was happy to get back on the bike yesterday, finally a day without too much wind!  I did end up getting soaked for about 4 miles in the middle, but that was alright.  Just a pocket of rain showers that was centered over the turnaround spot in my out & back ride.  Once I rode back out of the storm, the roads were dry.  I took the whole ride pretty hard, and could feel that my run sprints are paying off on the bike!

This week : 

M : Pub Run 4.1 / 7:31 / 112 ft

T : run 5 / 7:05 / 423 ft

R : TRX 30/10 x30

run 3.7 / 6:52 / 259 ft (5k sprint + cooldown)

horseback ride 50 minutes

F : sweatfest 35 minutes / 15.1 mph : sprinting through commercials

Sa : bike 27.5 / 17.9 mph / 2136 ft

Su : long run 11.3 / 8:07 / 1001 ft

bike total : 36.3 miles

run total : 24.1 miles

Multitasking while waiting for the cable guy to show up.

Reading and planking.

So much gorgeousness in one photo.