No. 5?

Time to play catch up! This has been another crazy week and while my training took a slight hit as a result I still got a few quality runs in. Tuesday was track, but since the one we usually practice at is actually being redone we met across the street for hill repeats! I had been in a pretty foul mood the last couple days so I was looking forward to a nice challenging workout to take my mind off things. After a 15 minute warm-up we did 7 repeats up and down the hill from Cabrillo to Shoreline Park. Each one was about a half mile long but included a straightaway leading up to the actual hill. Considering that it was my first run since the 20 miler last Saturday, my legs and body actually felt really good. I was a little tired on the last one but powered through and finished up the workout with an easy cool-down to round it out to 5 miles.

It's kind of ironic that our workout ended up being hills because earlier that day I had been contemplating a decision about the notoriously hilly San Francisco Marathon. I'm registered for the 1st half (as part of the CA Dreamin' Series) but I've been considering upgrading to the full marathon! One of my goals this year is to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs by completing 3 marathons in 3 months. Since I'm already running San Diego in June and E.T. in August, it would be kind of convenient to just do the SF Marathon rather than try and pick out another one in fall (in addition to Marine Corps and CIM). I know the course is hilly, but the goal for this race would really just to finish. In fact, all 3 of my summer marathons will be run for fun - no plans on trying to PR, I'm saving that for my fall races! So with that decided I'm just waiting to here back from the San Francisco people to confirm my race change! Crazy to think that will be marathon no. 5!

Soon to be marathon no. 5...

 

Wednesday evening I was going to try and do my usual tempo but I just didn't have the energy. But instead of skipping the workout completely I decided to just modify it a bit. Instead of 6 miles I did 4, and instead of doing 3 tempo miles I did half mile repeats, running hard for 0.5 then easy for 0.5. For some reason I just wasn't feeling it and at some points it was a struggle to keep pushing. On the last half mile, however, something clicked and I just started flying down the street! Not a tempo run but still speedwork, so I'll take it : )

Thursday and Friday I took off, mostly due to my activities for big/little sis week for my sorority. Thursday was a surprise dinner for all the new littles followed by one of my favorite traditions: the presentation of moons! Since our sorority symbol is a crescent each big sis decorates and personalizes a wooden moon for her little sis with her name on it. Friday I worked all day then hurried back to the house for big/little sis revealing! In my sorority we have "families" made up of all the bigs and littles. Mine is one of the biggest, called the White Chocolate Family (wannabe gangsters), and I just got a new grand little and great-great-grand little! Silly, I know but so fun, too!

New girls with their moons.

My little revealing herself to my grand little!

Me, my little, and new grand little : )

White Chocolate for life!

 

Today we had our first taper "long" run. It was a gorgeous, warm, clear day with lots of people around, even at 8am! We had 1 hour 30 minutes on the schedule which felt ridiculously short - kinda like a warm-up! I took a couple miles to warm-up but then felt really good the rest of the run. Jordan had some IT band issues the last few miles so we spent a little extra time stretching and rolling her legs at water stops and took a short walking break at one point. Better now than on marathon day though, right? Hopefully with some frequent rolling these next 2 weeks she won't have any more issues with it. For the first time in a while I actually had some time before I had to be at work and could relax a bit. It was so weird being done so early!

Doesn't the background look fake?! Too good to be true : )

 

Tomorrow is jam packed: sorority senior brunch, Team In Training send-off party, then my sorority formal, Crescent Ball. Wow, I'm tired just typing it out!