I don't know how the weather looks where you're at right now, but here in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains the weather has been looking better each day this week! While earlier in the week running felt like it was a bust, later the temperatures rose and the sun made an appearance to round out an active week in training. Here's how it went:
Monday - Active rest day. I took the day off after my long 12-miler the day before, mostly because it seems like I've been reading a LOT lately about the importance of truly resting your muscles leading into a race week. I did a Yin Yoga class by Leslie Fightmaster and made sure to foam roll twice today.
Tuesday - Total Adrenaline (NTC - 30 min.) It was spitting rain all day long today and wasn't much more than freezing. I chose to skip my run and stay indoors for cross-training instead. I followed it with a slow vinyasa yoga video.
Wednesday - 7 miles. I took a new running route today and made a loop on what our city calls a Greenway. It is what most other places would call a sidewalk on the side of a busy 6-lane road. The smells of the car exhaust for 7 miles was kind of obnoxious, but I ended up running strong and pulled off negative splits, so I'm very happy!
A good and easy run!
Thursday - 7 miles. After running with the traffic the day before, I went back to my old faithful running path. It was chilly, but my legs felt incredibly strong despite running just the day before.
Friday - hiking 9.5 miles. I took my friend Shannon hiking for the very first time on this gorgeous sunny day! She had the day off and had never been hiking, so we did not one, but TWO hikes! We hiked up to Courthouse Rock and Qulliams Falls before deciding we hadn't had quite enough trail and did a second off-trail hike to the stone house in the Sugarlands. I'm so incredibly proud of my friend for being a bad ass and pulling off so many miles!
Saturday - hiking 4 miles. Today I had hiking guide training in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The hiking today was what we describe at our company as "hideously slow." And I mean it. It took us nearly 6 hours to complete an incredibly easy 2 mile hike during the morning. We did a lot of interpretation and had a short lunch break before tackling a second trail - this one went much quicker as we didn't want to lose any daylight!
Even with temps in the high 50s for a few days, the ice from Jonas is still sticking around!
Sunday - hiking 4.5-5 miles. Another day of hiking guide training means I didn't have time to get in my 9-mile taper long run this weekend. I was hoping to have the time after training, but it has been running long, unfortunately. I did get to see some new parts of the trail and a really cool cave, and of course I got to spend the day outside when the temperature was in the high 50's and the sun was shining all day.
Well, even though I didn't get in the running miles I'd hoped, I was active all week. How is your training going? Do you have any events coming up soon?
