Well hello there! This has been a whirlwind of a week. Let me tell you about it …
Monday
Monday got off to a fairly ordinary start. Daniel and I did an easy 5 miles before heading to work. On Monday afternoon, Runner’s World released the finalists of their cover search contest and I made the top ten! Wait, what?! In case you were wondering, that was a direct quote from the video linked below. Very profound, Sam.
In all seriousness, I can’t really even put into words how excited I am and how honored I am to have been chosen as a finalist. Please take some time to read all of the stories here. We have such a wonderful group of finalists! When I started the blog this summer, I wrote, “It has been a long journey with lots of highs and lows, but my prayer every day is that God will use my story and my running for His glory!” Well, never in my wildest dreams did I think that my story would be shared on such a large-scale in such a short period of time. It is truly amazing. God is truly amazing. He has been so faithful and my continued prayer is that He will be glorified!
Monday evening I headed to yoga. I must admit, I had a hard time relaxing with so much excitement going on, but the class was wonderful. I drove home with a heart of gratitude, and some very sore, tired muscles. Each week we work towards a key pose, and this week’s pose was the “Wild Thing.” I had to show Daniel what I learned when I got home and as per usual, Brooks was all about it. He definitely has the wild thing mastered!
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we were up even earlier than normal, as Daniel had an outpatient procedure at the hospital and we had to arrive at 6 a.m. I managed to get a few miles on the treadmill in before we went, but I’m fairly certain I slept through most of that run. Thankfully, everything is a-okay and as my grandmother would say, “He is healthy as a horse.”
Tuesday evening I went to Running Wild for the usual group run. The weather was amazing! We had temperatures in the mid-60s and humidity less than 50% for a few days this week. It was quite glorious. Rebecca, Squishy and I got in an easy 6 miles and enjoyed the “cold front.” I even saw a few people out running in long sleeves on my way home, which cracked me up. Let’s not get carried away guys.
Wednesday
Mid-week it was time for workout Wednesday! I had a 12 mile steady state run on the schedule with a two mile warmup and 10 miles at 7:00 to 7:15 pace. Steady state runs facilitate the development of aerobic strength by challenging your aerobic system, but not making you too tired to run hard the next day. Building aerobic strength is one of the most important pieces of the training puzzle to make you run faster. The hard part is that developing aerobic strength takes time. I haven’t done a lot of steady state workouts in the past, and I was definitely a little bit intimidated going into the workout. To me, it was more mentally challenging than physically challenging and I ended up averaging 7:06 for the 10 mile portion.
Wednesday evening Daniel had the guys from small group over here, so he kicked me out. Not really (but kind of), so I headed over to Rebecca’s after work, and we did an easy run with Squishy. After that I worked on my nutrition presentation for a while. Actually, I stayed up way too late working on that. I think it was a combination of me wanting to make sure that I adequately conveyed the information (since it is such an important topic) and me just being really interested in what I was reading, but I got a little carried away in my research and was awake until almost midnight.
I also found out Wednesday that the Runner’s World finalists will be participating in a two-day photo shoot in NYC in a couple of weeks. Again … wait, what?! How exciting is that? I haven’t been to New York before and now I will get to go and get a lay of the land before the marathon. It will be so neat to meet the other finalists as well. It looks like a really fun group and they have lots of cool stuff planned for us. I can’t wait!
Thursday
Thursday morning Lizzie, Daniel and I headed out for an easy 8 miles. I was so tired, and probably not fully awake. Around mile 3, I took a major spill after tripping on an uneven piece of sidewalk. I tried to do the whole “tuck and roll” thing (which I have successfully done in past falls), but that definitely didn’t work out for me this time. It was more like “tuck and splat.” I came away with some really awesome battle wounds and some extremely sore ribs. I’m still debating on whether or not I need to go get an X-ray. I think it is probably just a pulled muscle in my back or something, but whatever it is, is still very sore.
At least the photo shoot is a couple of weeks away … If I am not healed by then, I will definitely need some photo-shopping action!
Thursday evening was the nutrition presentation at the store. We didn’t have a very good turnout, which was kind of a bummer since I spent so much time preparing for it. Although I wasn’t extremely keen on speaking in front of a large group of people anyway, so it probably worked out for the best. At least I got a good blog post out of it and I will send the link to that out to my group so that they can reference back to it.
My dad recently told me that I write better than I talk. Thanks dad … I think. I know that he meant it as a compliment, but it just sounds funny when I write it out 🙂 He was saying that I express myself well through writing. I don’t know about that, but I do know that I really enjoy writing and I hope that one day writing can be a bigger part of my life. Currently I get to write here for you guys and I get to write letters to the IRS when clients receive tax notices or are getting audited and believe me, that is really not all that exciting. Not nearly as exciting as writing about running, that’s for sure!
Friday
I was supposed to have a track workout Friday, but with the whole ribs/back situation I decided that it might be best to just take it easy and not push too much. I was able to run a few miles pain-free, so that was encouraging. The weird thing is that laying down hurts like heck, but running feels fine. I think I would rather have it that way than vice versa, so I’ll just roll with it.
I was worn out Friday evening. This seems to be a typical Friday evening thing for me now that I am back at work. I was in my pajamas by 5:30 and in bed not too long after the sun. Living life on the edge I tell ‘ya!
Saturday
Saturday morning my training group ran 15 miles! This was their longest run so far by 2 miles and the longest some of them have ever run. They did great! Daniel and some of his training buddies ran 20 miles and they were out there while my group was running as well. Daniel ran right past me at the end of his run and he was booking it! He averaged 7:35 for the 20 miles, so that was a really solid long run and a good confidence booster.
Daniel and I met at Coffee Loft after the run for our usual post-run coffee and smoothies and I headed to work for a few hours after that. I missed some time this week, so I wanted to make that up and get a better handle on my September 15th projects. I am so glad I went in, because I got so much done and now I feel a lot better going into next week. How is September already here?!
Well, I’d say that pretty much catches us up. I majorly slept in this morning and missed my long-run, but I’m planning to get that in later this evening. We’ll see how that works out. I’ll let you know 😉
Have a great week!
I am so happy you were chosen as a finalist! And you even get to go to NY!!!!! Cannot wait to hear about that experience.