[S]he Conquers Who Endures

Wow, what terrible sleep! I was so nervous for this race making it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. My racing strategy for this one was terrible! I went out way too fast trying to run with my cousin. I should have run my race not hers. She trained to peak for this half, I'm training to peak for Steamtown in October. I would have been happy with a 7:40 pace. Our first mile was 7:45, not too bad, but then we did a 7:16, 7:06 terrible stupid!!! I tanked around mile 7 but stuck with the race. Dropped a gel, went back to get it, fumbled for a salt tab. Eh. I PR'ed and should be happy about my time, but I'm just ticked at myself for racing stupid. Oh well, it will reinforce what happens if I go out to fast in the full! You live and learn and I PR'ed by over 10 mins. :) 

Gotta workout those legs! They feel pretty tight and sore from the half. Wanted to run 8 miles today and thought it would be smarter to split them up. Ran 5.11 miles in the morning before my flight. Flew to FL then ran 3.14 miles. Who would have thought that I would fly to FL at the end of July to escape the Chicago heat!! Wow!

Mid-long run midweek. Oh, and my sister is having a baby today!! Had to get up early to get in a 10 miler then head to the hospital to see my newborn nephew! AP: 8:43 min/mi still shaking out that half marathon soreness! :)

AM: weights

3 sets of 12:

1. one-leg squat (20 lbs)

2. dumb bell bench press (30 lbs)

3. Russian deadliest (40 lbs)

4. pull downs (55 lbs)

5. dumb bell lunges (30 lbs)

6. dumb bell bicep curls (20 lbs)

7. superman

8. medicine ball twists (12 lbs)

My weight is dropping like crazy the last couple weeks. I hope this is from increasing my mileage and not from overtraining! My BMI is 18.8 right now.  

PM: Hill/bridge repeats! 65 ft climb over a 1 mile bridge. Ran 3.5 repeats out and back in pretty hot, humid conditions. I can't believe how easy this felt! My first repeat was slower because I wasn't sure what this would feel like. I normally run most of my runs now with my water belt. I ran these repeats without the water belt and I'm beginning to think the belt does wonders on training your legs to run strong! :) My AP was 8:03 min/mi! BQ pace over hills!!! Hopefully the end of Steamtown will feel like that. :) 

So I slept in an extra hour to try to get good sleep. Unfortunately, that allowed the beating FL sun to get a head start on me. I ran 7.33 miles outside and decided to switch to the treadmill because it was too hot with no shade. I didn't see the point of slowing my pace tremendously to get a poor quality run in when I could switch to the treadmill, knock the grade to 1% and get some faster miles in. Ran 12 miles total with AP 8:31. I haven't run on a treadmill in over a year!!! Haha! Gotta hydrate and carbo load for my 20 miler Saturday! Hmmm, lesson learned from today's run: start running by 5 am Saturday!!

Rest day! :)

Early Saturday morning long run. Another 20+ miler in FL! This time in the peak of the heat!! Ran solo with my water belt. Feel like temp was 93 F at finish. My last mile included an overpass and was at a 7:39 pace!!! :) Wowza! I felt really strong on this one! :) AP 8:19 min/mi!