Weekly RUNdown

What a week!  It seems like this is the first time in ages that I felt back to normal as far as a running routine goes.  That's pretty amazing considering we had 2 Christmas parties this weekend and it has been freezing.  (Or should I say below freezing?  5 degrees this morning. Can you say "frostache?")

Monday:  Easy run with Mindy and Jami. 6.2 miles at 8:52 pace.  I did choose to do one fast mile in the middle of the run at 6:30 pace.  It felt good to have a fast mile.

Tuesday:  Yasso's, 4 sets- 3:26, 3:27, 3:18, 3:20.  Remember how when I did these I thought I was going to die?  Well, I learned my lesson.  This week when I do Yasso's, I'm going to the indoor track.  I would rather dodge other people than freeze to death.  This run was hard.  I didn't even want to get out of bed, and then speed work?  Yuck.  I got to the track and then my iPod battery died.  Doesn't it seem that way sometimes?  I didn't quit though!

Wednesday:  Rolling hills- solo.  5.28 miles at 7:48 pace.  315 feet in elevation gain.  It was so nice to do a run on my own.  I feel like I've been losing a lot of my speed and strength lately, so to do my hills workout on my own and end up with a good time made my entire week.  My PR for the course I ran was 7:42, so I wasn't too far off.

Saturday:  Long run with Jami.  I completed my goal!  My goal was 6 miles at 8:12 pace and I ended up doing 8 miles at an 8:10 pace.  It was great.  I have been fighting off a cold and I felt like I couldn't breathe, so that made it a little more difficult.  Plus, it was cold (so cold that our water turned slushy in an hour).  But I did it and I was proud of myself for the rest of the day.  The coolest part of the run was seeing this:

Photo credit:  Ken Hermanson

Jami and I kept hearing a billion sirens going off.  Being the ambulance chasers that we are, we headed in the direction of the sirens and found every single police officer in our small town with lights and sirens blaring.  At the beginning of the line was a hummer and inside was none other than Jolly Old St. Nicholas!  That's right, folks!  It was an escort for Santa Claus.  I love living in a small town.

Last Week's Goal:  Long run with 6 tempo miles in the middle.  Check!  I really can't say how nice it was to get a long run under my belt after missing out for a couple of weeks in a row.

This Week's Goal:  Strength train twice a week.  Seriously.  I'm going to do it this time!  I know it is important- especially considering my history of IT Band problems.  I don't know why it's so hard for me to get it done, but I'm going to make it happen.  Also, I have a plan for some weight gain!  I'm going to do a separate post about this tomorrow, so stay tuned...

How was your running week?  Any spectacular or terrible moments you'd like to share?  Christmas parties?  New Traditions?