Going With The Flow

AM - Ran along Ipanema Beach in Rio - easy 7 miles. Stopped a few times to take pictures :) Then cooled off in the ocean....I could get used to that!

In US again!! Planning to run this afternoon, but I wanted to update now since I have been MIA for a few days - I spent the weekend in Rio de Janeiro...Saturday I did a long run of about 15 miles along Rodrigo de Freitas and Sunday I ran easy 7 miles on the Ipanema Beach. My coworker and I spent the rest of the weekend sightseeing and swimming/people watching/laying around at the beach - just living up the opportunity of being in Brazil. I wouldn't mind another work trip there :) I'm working on a blog post with more pics and details...

PM - 9.5 miles. Met Jake running home from work then 4 x 200m at 40s to get the legs moving. I can tell that I've been traveling for 17 hours.

AM - 4.9 mile extended horsepark loop with Jake. I made him run slow this morning!

PM - Warm-up for 2+ miles. Stretched then began the workout. I had a pretty conservative goal today of 4 x mile at 6 min pace with 800m recovery because I'm still pretty exhausted from traveling (and I wanted to make sure to hit my target for confidence boosting). Ended up with 4 x mile at 5:56, 5:54, 5:49, 5:51 with 400m recovery then decided to jump in on Redd's workout for 4 x 200m at 5:35 pace. Cooled down with ACorn, Redd, and Jake for a total of 8.3 miles. I'm really happy with this workout - I'm starting to get my speed back a little bit! Baby jumps :)

I'll be posting blogs of my trip to Brazil over the next few days. I have a lot of pictures so I'm breaking it up into a few more blogs. Here's a couple from Sao Paulo - Andrea's Brazil Journal #3 - Sao Paulo (Day 1) and NOW (Day 2) as well.

AM - Good to be back running with JAJAF crew this morning. I felt a little tight this morning from the workout yesterday afternoon, but we still ran a solid 7:25 pace. Nice talking to the group and trying to catch the "racing vibe" from them because I need more motivation to race and they need LESS! I think I'm going to set everyone's marathon limit this year to 4 (and mine to 0!).

Started yoga up again and got a friend to work on my back for a few minutes - wow, what a difference. My back feels so much better already.

Another blog post of Brazil - Final weekend in Rio de Janeiro (Day 1 of 2)

AM - Ran partway up to Jake's work and back home. Fritz sighting at mile 4. Planning to do a short track workout this afternoon.

PM - 2 mile warm-up then 10 x 400m with 200m recovery (avg 82.5s) and 2 x 200m with 200m recovery (avg 42s). Mile cooldown. I feel good about this workout!

Jake and I decided to bail on the Striders Half this weekend. It's supposed to be really cold in the morning (20 degrees) and the cold temperatures have a really bad effect on my feet. I'm making such good progress that it's not worth the risk to regress. For Jake, a 13 mile tempo is a little too long with only 8 days out from Boston. It's the smart decision.

PM - 6.2 miles horsepark loops. 2" fresh powder to run on!

Anyone interested in some mile repeats (5:50-5:55 pace) at Liberty Park tomorrow morning?

I wrote a blog post about my frustration with injuries the past few months and finally feeling good running again - On the Upswing.

AM - Waited until it was warmer outside (11am) to do the workout this morning. Headed to Liberty Park for mile repeats. 2 mile warm-up, then 5 x mile with 0.4 mile recovery. Miles at 5:49, 5:47, 5:46, 5:43, 5:42. Great workout for me! I've made a lot of progress in the last three weeks and I'm feeling stronger with every run.