ORRRC Half Training Week 3

On Monday's run

Welcome to another Weekly Review linkup with Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. I'm training for the ORRRC Half on April 10. Read more about my race here. 

Week of March 14 - 20

Monday: 3.14 miles, 9:14 pace
Tuesday:  3 miles + 2 miles
Wednesday: 6 miles, 8:59 pace
Thursday: 3 miles, 9:04 pace
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 11 miles, 10:28 pace
Sunday: Rest

Total: 28.2 miles
2016 total: 270.9 miles

We had lovely weather this week, so getting out wasn't too tough. What was tough? Dealing with the sudden humidity! I left work on Monday to get in 5 miles, but melted somewhere along the way and cut it down to a Pi Day 3.14. On Tuesday, Alex and I went out for 3 miles (8:49 pace, which is slow for him). We were both beat and hungry by the end, so we grabbed takeout on the way home. After dinner I went out for 2 more miles (8:06 pace) to try and get my Tuesday 5.

The Mill where I work (there are offices in the bottom)

I planned to go to speed work with my running group on Wednesday, but when I saw the workout was 4 miles I figured I'd better focus on getting in my prescribed 6 miler. I need to work on speed, but what I really needed this week was a solid long-ish run by myself. I need to mentally prepare for the lonely race miles. It was a tough run. I felt extremely slow, but I only had to stop a handful of times for traffic which made me feel more accomplished.

St. Patrick's Day shenanigans 

Alex and I went to a pub run Thursday night that starts and ends at a local running store (they have beer). New Balance was a sponsor, so we were able to take NB shoes on a test run. We both liked the shoes we tried, but I had a little bit of shin pain the day after. I'm not sure if it was the giant hill at the end of the run or the shoes. Anyway, we got some raffle tickets, but I didn't think we had a chance of winning since there were folks who had dozens of tickets. Long story short: we won a ton of prizes! I also took a photo of Alex and it won me a free pair of New Balances!! I was fitted and chose their stability shoe (860). We also won a strobe light, Balega socks, Starbucks giftcard, and a trucker hat. I never win anything, so I'm happy I won running gear I will use!

Saturday was a group run. I was so tired and ran on autopilot for the first few miles. My knees were very tight and creaky. I'm not sure if it was due to the rapid cool down (it was 30-some degrees) or the shoes I tried during the pub run (not the ones I ended up getting). They were bugging me thru mile 2, the pain subsided by mile 5, and I felt fine by the end. I'm on a slightly different schedule than the others, so I had to run one mile solo to get my 11. I decided to run fast on tired legs to see what I had left. My final mile was 8:38. Obviously, in a real race I won't be running the first 10 miles at a 10:40 pace, then busting out 8s... but it was nice to see my legs had something left.

Another thing I did well with this week: walking to work. I live embarrassingly close. Technically far enough to drive, but it's silly that I do. I walked Wednesday thru Friday and used a co-worker's tip and read a book. You'd think it would be tough, but I actually trip more without a book.

Looking forward, I'd like to nail all of my runs this week (my last long week before taper), possibly get to speed work if the workout matches my plan, keep walking to work on nice days, and possibly try some cross training. We'll see about that last one. ;)

Have you ever won running gear? 
Has spring arrived in your area?