ugh, winter is here

I made myself a training schedule to follow until Star City and I followed it really well until today, when I decided that the planned 4 miler was not in my best interest.  I needed a shakeout, but it was too cold and damp for an effective shakeout so I did yoga instead.  Turns out I would have seen the first snowflakes of the season if I had gone for that run...I have no regrets.  I am so totally not ready for winter.  I've had the heat on for almost 2 weeks now, and I know I made it til November last year.  Also, despite all the layers of sweats I wear, I keep having to turn up the heat higher and higher.  This top floor apartment has ceiling heat, who's brilliant idea was that?! And I currently have no downstairs neighbor, so no heat rising from below.  I really hope someone moves in soon... I made my budget assuming I'd manage to keep the heat around 55 like I did last winter, not taking into account the fact that I currently weigh less than I did last year, and that I have no downstairs neighbor.  I fully expect to gain some weight back after this race, but I'm thinking I still won't be able to tough out the cold quite as much as I did last winter. 


In other news, I nailed my track workout this week!  And it was a big win for my lungs.  I actually ran the whole way to the brewery to meet the guys (0.7 miles) and then started towards the track with them before realizing that I had not used my inhaler.  And I wasn't even having trouble breathing yet.  I was half-tempted to try the whole run without it, but I had mile repeats planned and didn't want to risk bombing them.  We practically run by my place to get to the track though, so we made a pit stop.  My goal was at least 3 mile repeats, at slightly faster than goal half marathon pace.  I wanted 5, but I knew I would stop after 3 if I didn't feel like I could hold the consistency.  After 4, I was still feeling really good so I went for 5.  I probably could have done 6, but it was full dark by the time we finished the 5th, and it wasn't worth it to keep running when we could barely see the track and we were getting really cold.  5 was a good workout though, I was running strong and consistent (6:19-6:22 pace), barely out of breath at the end of each one, and the 400m walk recovery was plenty. 

This week : 

M : circuit training 33:15

run 5 / 8:19 / 545 ft 

(easy effort hill run)

T : yoga class 1 hr

run 8.4 / 8:43 / 344 ft

(5 x 1600 w/400 walk recovery)

W : rest

R : run w/ Corey 10 / 7:34 / 502 ft 

(8 @ moderate effort (7:40 ish), last 2 hard - 7:15, 6:46)

F : TRX 45 minutes

Sa : run 8.3 / 7:57 / 650 ft

Su : yoga 30 min

total miles : 31.7

T-20 days til Star City!