Well after the difficult and tiring week I had last week, I rallied and got back on track this week. We have had some crazy weather here in Tennessee and I think we saw three different seasons this week, but the running went very well! Here is my weekly summary:
Monday - 3 miles running; This was supposed to be a warm up mile, 2.5 hard effort miles, and a half easy mile with a cool down walk. I loved doing this run! It was sunny and warm, so how do you not like that?!
Tuesday - 11.5 miles easy hiking; a friend of mine from the Long Trail, South Pole, was in town with her friend Susan doing "map marker" hikes. She is trying to hike all the trails in the Smokies and needs to do strange combinations of hikes to get all the miles done. When she contacted me to see if I'd be interested in an easy hike, I jumped right on it! We hiked Twin Creeks Trail, Old Sugarlands Trail, and the Gatlinburg Trail for 11.5 of the easiest miles in the entire park. We even got a little bit of blue sky considering they called for rain all day. I'll thank my umbrella for keeping the rain away :)
LeConte Creek.
Wednesday - 7 miles running; for this run, I was supposed to run five comfortable miles followed by two very hard effort miles. The wind was gusting at 30 mph, it would occasionally start raining heavy sheets of rain, and I ran this loop in an area where the sidewalks randomly end on high traffic roads. People honked their horns at me more than usual on this run, probably because I looked like a crazy person running in the storm! The final two hard effort miles were making my legs scream, but they were very enjoyable!
Thursday - 3 miles running; an easy recovery run was on the agenda for today. I chose to do them on the Gatlinburg Trail since I was up at the Park Headquarters for a meeting. It was snowing throughout most of the run and the torrential storms from yesterday knocked over quite a few trees on the trail, so I got to practice my hurdle jumper skills! Is it just me, or are the easy effort miles harder on your body? I was more sore after this run than I thought I would be! After I got home I did a Bunny Slope workout on Youtube From Zuzka Light.
Friday - REST! I was supposed to be on an AT Shakedown hike with a client, but we had to bump the hike to next week due to bad weather and the roads being closed due to snow in the park.
Saturday - 16 miles running; I had one of my "you must be a real runner now" moments when I didn't even feel like I hit my stride until well into my fifth mile! From mile 5-16 I felt strong. I ate a pack of Honey Stinger Chews and drank Nuun and I didn't feel tired, bonk, or even want to slow down. I'm glad I finally found something that doesn't make my stomach seize up like the Gu gels do. I also ran what my Garmin called my fastest half marathon time. While it's not my PR, it's the fastest I've run 13.1 since December. I ran this half for my Level Up Virtual Run - I won a free entry from Heather over at What the Heck, Why Not? So thank you, Heather! I can't wait to get my adorable BB8 medal in the mail!
Sunday - 10.6 miles hiking; an active rest day today and it was in the high 50s with bluebird skies all day. We packed up our dog and drove to Frozen Head State Park (yes, where they hold the Barkley Marathons for those of you Ultra Runners out there!) where we hiked the Old Mac Trail loop and then did an out and back at Emory Falls. It was a beautiful day and the trailheads were full. One thing I really enjoyed about today was seeing how many people were hiking with very young children. Lots of young kids and lots of dogs out enjoying the parks today!
Well, that was my week in training! It seems like I got over my mid training slump earlier this month. I'm still nervous about the fact that I signed up to run a freakin' marathon only about a month from now, but I'm going to stay positive! How was your week? Tell me all about your adventures or training in the comments below or find me over on Facebook or Twitter!
