Wine & Dine: Week 10

Week 10 is done and we're just two weeks away from Wine and Dine! Holy cow! I registered for this race on March 30 - I think that's the second-furthest out I've registered for a race so far (second only to the Surf City full). This week was awesome overall. First, I was coming off that apparently earned PR at AthHalf on Sunday and really felt ready to jump back into things after struggling the last two weeks! Ready to see how it all went down?

Monday - 
Rest
Like I say every week... so thankful I made Mondays rest days! Probably the best decision I could have ever made. Ever.

Tuesday - 45 min tempo
3.51 miles / 37:02 / 10:33 pace
Not quite tempo, but I cut myself a little slack with needing a recovery or shake-out run. I cut up through the neighborhood across the road from my complex - it's the road that we walk through to get to the dog park, and is a beautiful tree-lined neighborhood with some good rolling hills (enough for a good workout). It was weird running it the other direction by the time I decided which route I was taking (I usually cut west on it as I'm coming back from around the block, not east!), but turned out to be decent. Walked more than I intended, but again... recovery run was needed. Two weeks ago, my first real run wasn't until Thursday after the half, so I'm a lot happier with this turnaround overall!

Wednesday -
6.12 miles / 1:00:36 / 9:54 pace
On Tuesday night, I had the sudden realization (and I say 'sudden' because I was lying on the couch, shut off the TV and was about to go to bed) that my students had their event that night, so I couldn't run my scheduled 6 miles at 8 pm - no way. See how it turned out:

And though I didn't jump out of bed as soon as my alarm went off (5:45), I was out of bed at 5:53 and out the door at 6 am on the dot, just in time to call Amma to serve as her accountabili-buddy! My goal for the morning was to get in my scheduled 6 miles at a max time of 60 minutes. This would really be pushing it for me, but I knew I was totally capable. The track at the rec center is tiny - only 1/8 of a mile - so it makes it twice as unbearable as a track normally is. I knew this would be my biggest challenge, but brought the iPod along and tried to zone into the music, which helped. Check it out:

Those splits are awesome for me, especially at a distance like this. And, even better, each split (8 laps of the track) includes 1 lap walking. I'm super duper excited about this also because... it's my first negative-split run ever! I mean, it's by all of 24 seconds, but hey! You gotta start somewhere right? Happy that my Wednesday started this way - couldn't have been any better.


Thursday - 3 miles
1.79 miles / 19:48 / 11:03 pace
Ran out of time in the day, so I ran/walked Molly to the dog park - and then there were so many people there, we ended up staying later than planned so we got a ride home. I hate how early it gets dark, and am dreading the days where it's dark at 5 pm when I walk out of work. Boo and womp. Ah well, we got out there and got some good time in  with the pup. Always a win.

Friday - Rest
Rest
Rested super happily! Friday was Fall Break for UGA students (and students all over the county) so the campus was dead and town was dead and it was just... dead. I headed out a little bit early and spent way too much money time at Hobby Lobby gathering supplies for my cousin's wedding present (she gets married next weekend in Austin!) so I could get to work on it this weekend (and by 'get to work' I really mean 'start and finish').

Fall is finally in Athens!

Saturday - 11 miles
5.51 miles / 56:08 / 10:11 pace
Truth be told, it was a struggle getting out of bed this morning. I don't know what it was, but something was just not sitting right and I was dreading this run more than anything -- while the week was great, now I'm dreading long runs? This will be an interesting 13 weeks! Happy I got a good amount of miles in, but not super happy with the performance overall. There will be another long run -- or lots more long runs!

Saturday Molly and I also got to hang out with this cutie pie, Ryder. He's a foster dog through Athens Area Humane Society and is such a lover. Molly did surprisingly well with him (granted, he's incredibly passive), but she had a good time! Such a sweet pup.

Sunday - Cross-Train
10.01 miles / 39:58 / 15.0 mph
I haven't done a legit cross-train session in awhile, so I was super excited to get back and do this - ran a few errands and then popped into the gym like it was nothing (wish I could get on auto-pilot for long runs!) and busted out those 10 miles. It's really exciting to see how you've made progress, and how much stronger you are, not only with running and races, but seeing your cycling improve too. That made for a happy Sunday. Afterward, laid up on the couch (yup), worked on the wedding present (revealed next week), and took the pups out to the park again before Ryder got picked up.

This is it -- second to last week before Wine and Dine, my cousin's wedding is this weekend in Austin (!), and November is upon us! Insanity! I'm super excited to go running at Town Lake in Austin on Friday with my uncle -- I didn't run their enough when I lived there, but so excited to get in a visit! Happy weeks ahead!

How was your weekend? Did you race?