Blue Ridge Week

 This week : 

M : run w/Mollie 8.2 / 8:35 / 269 ft

T : group 6.6 / 7:32 / 102 ft

4 x 1600 (6:40, 6:30, 3:30, 6:17)

W : run 4.2 / 7:36 / 230 ft

R : 20 minute yoga for hip flexibility

F : off

Sa : race Blue Ridge 13.1 / 7:33 / 1864 ft

cool down 1 / 9:23 / 0 ft

Su : 40 minute recovery yoga

total miles : 33.2

It's been a good week!  Also, a very rainy week.  Monday Mollie and I were both out of school for Easter, so we got to go for a nice midday run around town.  It felt good for my legs to get some long-er miles in without working too hard.  Tuesday was Track Tuesday of course, and raining, since it does almost every Track Tuesday.  Corey wanted 1600 repeats, and I had been trying to decide between repeats and doing 4 fast miles in a row, so I decided to repeats as well.  I did not try to do them at a normal 1600 repeat pace.  I opted to start slower, and try to make each one a bit faster.  And then of course I did work harder on the last one on purpose... But either way, I was not depleted at the end, which was good.  Didn't want to wear myself out too hard before Blue Ridge!

                                        Monday                                                      Tuesday 

I wanted to do yoga on Wednesday and jog on Thursday, but Spring Program at school was on Thursday evening, and I knew I wouldn't get home til 8 at the earliest.  I thought about running first thing in the morning, but I wasn't sleeping well this week and sleep seemed more important than running.  So, I went for a jog Wednesday and did yoga in my classroom on Thursday in between school and the performance.  Friday was a rest day because I almost always take off the day before a race, but also because there was no time for exercise!  I was at school til 5:30 because my student council was hosting a fundraiser dance so of course I had to be there.  

On Saturday it took me too long to choke down my breakfast so I didn't get to the race in time to do a proper warm up, but in the end I figured that was a good thing since it would force me to use the first mile as a warm up and help keep me from starting too fast.  The race ended up going really well, I didn't let the competition effect my race, and I ran exactly the race I needed to.  I didn't quite negative-split it, but my second half was less than a minute longer than my first half, so I will take it! I feel like the rules for negative-splitting have to be effected by elevation change anyway.  I didn't die until the last mile, and if I'm not dead in the last mile, I'm not working hard enough!  I finished 2 minutes faster than the last year, but still a minute slower than my course PR.   Maybe next year will be my year!  I have very high hopes for improvement in my running as long as I stay injury free!  

I wanted a shake out jog today, but it has been cold and raining all. day. long. My legs are stiff and sore because I was stupid and didn't stretch after the race, and I figured running in the wet cold would not help.  So I just did yoga.