Hello and happy Monday! Today I am going to link up with Tara over at Running ‘n’ Reading for my weekend update.
Friday I had a training session to attend for my new job. It was nice to be able to meet some of the folks from the different offices that I hadn’t met yet and everyone seems to be really nice, so I am getting excited about starting there in a few weeks. The training session was on a new tax software that we will be using, which shouldn’t be too bad. I’ve worked with several different softwares at this point and they are all pretty intuitive if you know what you are trying to accomplish.
I had a track workout planned for Friday evening. I should’ve done it Friday morning, but once I started doing the math on how long I would need for the workout and then to get ready and get to the training, it was going to mean a wake-up call somewhere in the 3 o’clock hour. Not saying I haven’t done that before, but I knew that I would have time Friday evening to do it, so I decided to pass on the morning workout. Unfortunately, when we got out of our training Friday it was like a mini-hurricane outside. Terrible, terrible weather. I guess I could’ve taken the workout to the treadmill at that point, but my motivation was dwindling and I decided that I needed a rest day more than I needed the workout. It’s all about balance, right?
Saturday morning I headed to RW for some group run fun.
And of course, I had to stop at Coffee Loft on the way home. I decided to play drink fairy and came home with all. the. drinks. Brookser thought they were for him, but he was sad when he realized he had to stick with his plain water and that the drinks were only for the humans.
I did a little work on the training schedules for my group Saturday and got everything lined up and organized for their training, which starts today.
Saturday evening we headed over to Mobile to watch the Dauphin Street pole vault competition. They also added a 400M race this year, so we thought that would be fun to watch as well. The pole vault brings in some elite competitors so we were thinking that the 400M might have some really fast runners, but that wasn’t really the case. It was mainly kids and local runners, but it was still fun to watch. We had a surprisingly good meal at a sports bar downtown and caught some of the amateur pole vaulters before calling it a night.
Sunday morning was long-run day. This week the schedule called for an 18-20 mile long-run with a goal pace of 7:30 to 7:50. What I actually did was (because it didn’t really happen if you don’t have the Garmin to prove it) …
Whew! I was really happy with how this run went. My pace was better than last week and I felt really good, despite the usual, tough summer conditions. I started the run out with the group and ran with Daniel, Kenny and Ali until we got to around mile 10. They weren’t going quite as far, so I knew going into it that I was going to break off from them at some point and do the remainder by myself. What I wasn’t sure of is whether I was going to be able to keep the pace after I broke off from them. Somehow I managed to though, and that was a major confidence booster for me. In any given training cycle, there are always those runs that you can think back to on race day, know that you put in the work and feel calmer about the race. This was definitely one of those runs for me!
The rest of our day was extremely lazy. Long runs in the heat will do that to you. We ended the evening on the couch, watching the tour.
Well, that concludes my weekend update. I’ll be coming to you with my Ephesians Week 6 summary in the next day or two. I hope everyone has a fabulous week! Gotta run!
Hello from a fellow Dixie chick! That’s an awesome pace for a long run in this nasty heat & humidity. I never seem to acclimate. I’ve run First Light a couple of times and it’s a favorite (and Biggest Loser in Mobile). Glad to find you on Tara’s link.
Thanks for stopping by! I’ve done First Light a few times as well. All of our hard work in the heat will pay off come fall. Now, it we could just get that here stat!
Sam! Thanks so much for linking up with the blog today; I’m so glad you had a nice weekend. You did GREAT on your long run – yowsers! It’s so tough out there right now; I’m so impressed with your effort. I love those runs that give you confidence along the way; so important for our training, right? Hope your Monday is going well!
I’m loving the link-up. You have been so sweet, always commenting on my blog. It can be tough to get going and put yourself out there in blog-land. I really appreciate your kindness and support 🙂
So true; I completely understand. You’re doing great! I love having such a supportive network of running friends, so you’re helping ME out! Thank you!
Great pace on your long run–summer running is always tough!
I’m new to your blog, found you on the link up, but I’m looking forward to following you!
Thank you! And thanks for stopping by 🙂
Great to have found you through Tara’s link up as well. It always nice to connect with runners close to me. Seems like most of the people are from so far away. I have not had the opportunity to run in the Mobile area yet but I do hope too add it soon.
Thanks for stopping by! You should definitely come to Mobile soon. We have a few decent size races in the area that would be fun to try out 🙂
I would love to watch pole vaulting some day! What a neat event to have locally.