A Good Week

Wednesday was my fast 7-8 mile run, and I'm still somewhat surprised/encouraged by my performance that day. So Thursday I decided I should take precaution and do a recover run: shorter and slower in the morning. Well didn't exactly get myself up at 5:45AM (damn snooze button is so inviting!) and I had to make up for it in the evening. It was a beautiful day and when I got home my roommate Loren was looking for for a running partner. I thought this was perfect because I'm a bit faster than Loren, and he usually doesn't run for too long. We got on the beach path and I decided to make up for the speed difference, I'd run in the sand while he ran on the pavement. This lasted about a mile and was really tough. I am definitely going to add sand running into my off day repertoire! I barely kept up with Loren, and was happy to see the sand end after about a mile. But then Loren said something that made something click in my head. He said, "alright man I'm going to turn here and head to Ana's (his g/f's) and you can keep going." Maybe it was ego, maybe it was just my years of following instructions in rowing, but once he said that I just thought "ok" and kept going. I ran a total of 9 miles and had to force myself to turn around. My speed varied, as it always does, dependent on the distance of people running in front of me. See for some reason I have to pass everyone. In my head even a training run is a competition, and even if someone is running significantly slower than me, if I see them a quarter mile ahead I kick it up a notch. I had tried to keep myself to 7 min miles, but at times I was going 6:30min/miles. In the end I ran those 9 miles in a little over an hour. Faster than I wanted, but it felt GREAT.

Today was a lift/cross training day, so I got to the gym and went through my core routine and high rep lifts. It's disheartening sometimes doing the lifts because I top strength has left me a bit. I have to remind myself when I can only do 14 pull-ups that I can always go back to heavy lifting after 10/10/10, that I need to focus on becoming a runner. After the lift I did some erging (god i hate that machine) and hoped on the dreaded eliptical. 1.5 hrs at the gym felt good and I feel stronger in the right places (core, legs, and back).

Tomorrow I have to do a morning run because I'm driving back to Toledo for my high school's alumni rowing race. Very excited to see some old faces and splash around in the Maumee River. I should be able to get some runs in Saturday and Sunday. Until Monday I'll leave you with a pic of the lake front at 6AM a few months ago. It's brighter now adays at that time, and I miss the view of the sun rising over the lake. Gotta love Chicago!