Ups and Downs

It's been an up and down kind of week.  I've been happy for cooler weather, but oddly missing the heat as it dissipates early in the evening.  I love running in the fall, but am already missing my bike and warm summer swims.  I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to them completely yet, but pretty soon I won't have a choice.

At work, I've alternated between waves of being excited for the new school year and sad that summer is over.  I've been extremely motivated to keep going into school day after day to set up my classroom, but have been reluctant to sit down and think about what I'll actually be teaching next week.  But now my classroom is just about ready (as "ready" as a classroom can be, pictures later this week, promise), and it's time to buckle down and start planning (when I have time between the endless days of meetings and trainings that lay ahead this week).

As for running, things have been really up and down as well.  Here's how my runs have looked and felt this past week:

Monday 8/20: 3.8 miles, 9:32 pace. This was an early morning run with Lucy, her first run in a while so I didn't want to push it.  I also didn't feel super great.  I just can't seem to get my muscles going strong during early morning solo runs.

Tuesday 8/21: 3.5 miles, 9:37 pace.  Although mileage and pace-wise, this run doesn't look a lot different than the day before, the effort involved and feel of the run differed as much as night and day.  I met up with my friend Jamie after spending the day in the classroom.  I wanted to get some hills in, and she was gung ho about it.  We ran down one long hill for 1.7 miles, and then turned around and came back.  My legs felt strong, energized, and ready to conquer this never ending hill.  Huge difference from the day before.

Wednesday 8/22: 5.2 miles, 8:43 pace.  This was my speedy, very mildly hilly run with Erica.  I felt good going fast, but was tired by the end and struggled up the gigantic hill to my house.  Still, I made it half way up and was happy with that after the previous day's hills.

Thursday 8/23: Rest Day.  I gave up my run to go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the outdoor theater in Magnusen Park.  This was a great choice.

Even Lucy enjoyed this decision.

Friday 8/24: 3.4 miles, 9:11 pace.  I felt great on Friday, full of energy after spending my first full week at work in many weeks.  I realize that seems like an odd statement, but when the kids aren't there, I expend much less energy in my classroom than I would on my typical summer day.  Minus the whole heavy furniture moving thing.  Anyways, Lucy came along for this run and must have been full of energy too because she had no trouble maintaining a solid 9:00 pace for most of this run (the huge hill at the end bumped us up to the 9:11 average pace).  We were both very happily tired after this run.

Saturday 8/25: 6.6 miles, 8:58 pace.  This was technically my long run this week, even though it doesn't seem very long.  I'm in a kick back week of training for Nike Women's and will jump back up to 9 or so miles this coming Saturday.  I met a couple of TNT girls for this run and ran most of the way with Jamie.  I felt great at this pace, but will have to slow it down for next week's long run.

Sunday 8/26:  Rest Day.  Lucy and I walked around West Seattle for about 4 hours in the afternoon with Sierra and Rex after a fun-filled Saturday afternoon/evening of wine tasting that involved a limo bus, 2 poles, lots of wine, mimosas, friends and blaring Michael Jackson down the highway and through Alki.   This was all in celebration of my HLM Sierra's birthday.  Much fun was had.

It's a bus.  That become a limo.  No, I will not tell you who
won the pole dancing contest.

Today 8/27: 4.4 miles, 9:38 pace.  I tried another early morning run with Lucy before heading into work for more set-up/school year prep and was equally as unsuccessful at this run as I was a week ago.  Lucy wasn't feeling it, I wasn't feeling it, we put the miles in and made it through.  

Overall, I had a few good runs and a few not so good runs this past week.  I'm struggling a little with getting back into a schedule with my workouts.  All summer long, I've been on a "I'll do what I feel like doing" training schedule.  Swim?  Sure.  Bike?  Why not?  Run?  If it's not too hot, I'd be glad to.  But now, I'm back at work and trying to get back on track with a set schedule for Nike Women's Half training.  And frankly, my brain isn't quite enjoying it.  This week was the first time in a while where I had to push myself to get out there and get the miles in.  And mentally that's no fun.  But of course, that is a part of running.  It's not all fun and easy miles.  And since Goofy Challenge training will start in about 2 weeks, it's good for me to get back on a schedule.

As for my new morning person goal, I did really well last week after my initial minor slip-up.  The snooze button has not been touched in almost a week.  Tomorrow will be my first "real wake up time" morning.  I'm going to set my alarm for 5:15 AM and try to be strong in the face of those numbers tomorrow morning.  I'm aiming for at least a 25 minute walk for Lucy before going to work and sitting through a day of professional development.  It'll be interesting, because I've never seen the inner workings of my neighborhood at 5:30 in the morning.  Perhaps new secrets will be revealed in these early morning hours.  Secrets about what?  Who knows...only time will tell.

And on that note...early to bed, early to rise.  It's 9:30 PM right now, which I'm pretty sure means it's already past my bedtime.

Share with me:  Was your weekend as exciting as mine?  Was there pole dancing involved?  Any wise words of advice to push through a minor training rut?