Outside the Comfort Zone

I've been feeling really good after having a few low mileage weeks. I'm physically running better and my head is more in the game. I've been loving training. I always like my moderate intensity, moderate distance runs, but I've been looking forward more and more to challenging myself during training. Last weekend after taking 3rd (again) at La Maratona Dan told me if I want to start winning races I need to train like a winner. Let's be honest there was no way I was going to beat Stevie last weekend, but he had a point. I need to push myself a little more if I'm going to make progress with my running. 

I've really been making a point to get my miles in lately even if it means the dreaded 4:30 am wake up calls. But this week I didn't want to just get the miles in...I wanted to train like a winner. Tuesday morning I got in my short early morning run with a good afternoon run planned when an hour into work I got a call from daycare that James hadn't stopped crying since I'd dropped him off and he was feeling warm. Turns out he had hand foot and mouth disease. That meant a lot of mom and James time this week. I still made it a priority to get my runs even if they were on the dreadmill. I got in my hill repeats by pushing James up the hill behind our house. That was brutal! That was the first hill workout I've really had scheduled in quite awhile and I'm glad I was able to stick with it and get it done. I almost always come up with an excuse not to do a scheduled workout.

Since I was still home with James on Friday I wasn't able to get in a long run which meant my weekend runs would all have to be on the long side of my short runs. Saturday I went to Staunton to get some good climbing in and felt really good on the climbs. I made an effort to push significantly harder than I usually do. I made it to the mine in a relatively good time and continued to push it. Wound up running 14.2 miles in 2:14 which is certainly a good time for me. It also feels good to work a bit harder and push myself a bit more. I have no idea if I honestly have a shot at actually winning any races in the near future, certainly not Chicago, but I'll never know if I don't try right?

I also caught James hiding some of his capabilities this week...little snot! At daycare I caught him signing all done and please. He's never signed please at home! But the worst part was when he saw me watching him he got this sly little look on his face like aw man I'm busted! And since then I've been catching him looking out the corner of his eye or poking around the corner to see if we're watching before he does something. And if Dan or I look at James and say we know you understand why we're saying he immediately looks down like he's been caught. Something tells me we may not have been giving this kid enough credit!

 Week July 28 - August 3


Miles Running: 46.0
Hours Hiking and Running: 7