Sunday, January 17, 2016

St. George week two: Even better than week one!



Week two is done and dusted and in the books!  And I don't think I could be much happier with how it went!  I thought after last week this week might be a bit tough, but everything was faster than last week, and easier!

Monday started off as a recovery day.  I did the morning aqua class with Marianne, which was great to get in the water and move.  In the afternoon I had a 5K RW to do.  I started off and my legs were super heavy.  There's a section I had to jog down because it's too steep to RW and running just felt so good I changed it into a 5K run.  And it felt great!

Tuesday was the same workouts as last week, only better!  I'm still getting used to the different way I'm doing the fartlek, but it was 90 seconds faster than last week.  This says a little more about the fact that last week's was pretty subpar more so than this week was super fast, but it was a really solid workout.  Then my 10x400 in the PM went great!  My slowest 400 this week was faster than my fastest 400 last week!  Seven of them were under 1:50.  I know that doesn't sound super fast, but I've never been super speedy, and it was my second workout of the day.  To top it off I went to the gym and did my weights.  I modified a few of the moves to make them a little more challenging.   It was a great day!

Wednesday I race walked to the pool, a good 10K.  The tough part of it was it was all uphill.   Then I did the aqua class.  For the fun of the day I went again to PaintNite and had a blast!  I went off script and kind of did my own thing, but really had fun.  Especially since I didn't have to paint a darned wine glass....

Thursday was my longest one of the week.  I decided to switch it with Sunday, since it's more surrounded with easy days.  I'm glad I did, it went really well.  I was 11 minutes faster than the 35K I did on Sunday. 

Friday was a wild and crazy day... I took it off!  I relaxed and caught up on stuff.  And in the evening I was lucky enough to be asked to be the guest speaker at the expo for the St. George Half Marathon.  I think it went well.  I got lots of nice feedback, from people who had no reason to say anything to me, so that was nice.  And I got some cool shirts :)

Saturday was the half.  I was feeling pretty good and looking forward to a good solid hard effort.  The course was basically 7 miles up, 2 miles down, and the rest rolling.  I finished in 1:48:36, only 24 seconds off my half marathon best.  And what I'm most happy about is my last 5K was my fastest.  And the last 5K was not downhill.  I had some great company, especially the last 5K.   Afterwards Marianne and I went to the diner for brunch, which was awesome.  After that it was some errands and then a trip to the gym.  Happy coincidence, it was free for the day!  Even though my legs were tired and heavy I actually came out feeling better than when I went in.  My legs were tired, but it really actually felt good.  Weird.

Sunday I had my 30K.  I was figuring I'd be tired and heavy.  I started off and thought, ugh, this K is going to be well over 6:00.  My watch beeped and it was 5:47!  I thought, hmm, let's see how the next is....  5:44.  And so it went.  I came through 15K in 1:26:20.  I thought, hmm, let's see if I can pick up the last half.  Boy, I sure did!  My second half was 1:21:06!  It felt great!  I felt like my old self again!  I've dropped about 5 pounds while I've been here, so I'm getting pretty close to my racing weight.  I felt smooth and strong and really powerful in my core.  Hazzah! 

I've now changed residences here.  I'm staying with a wonderful lady named Arline.  She's a writer.  I read her first book and it was so fun.  I've got her second one to read while I'm here, and really looking forward to it.  Her first book is called:  The Corner Saloon.  It's historical fiction, with a really fun twist into a bit of Sci-Fi near the end.  The characters were fun, personable, and fun to follow and the story had a great flow to it.  Basically I highly recommend it!  I'll let you know how I like the second book.  So go get her book!  "The Corner Saloon" by Arline Fisher.

So now I'm tired but feeling great.  I'm feeling like my old self, moving solid and faster at my longer walks.  Looking forward to more solid weeks of training here!  

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