Week 15: Nice and Easy

This week's sky shot

Welcome to another weekly review linkup with Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. Read more about my fall goal race here. 18 days!

Week of September 19–September 25

Monday: rest + walk to work (w2w)
Tuesday: 3.2 miles + w2w
Wednesday: 3.4 miles (hill repeats) + w2w
Thursday: 3.2 + w2w
Friday: rest
Saturday: 11 miles
Sunday: 5 miles

Total (Running) Miles: 26 miles
2016 Miles: 748 miles

Giant beers... and a Clif bar

Monday night was spent drinking patio beers with Alex. ;) I started my Tuesday run late, not realizing the sun sets at 7:30 (sob). My neighborhood does not have streetlights or sidewalks, so I've got to get my nighttime confidence back (and pull out all of my hi-viz gear)!

New path!

On Wednesday I left work super hungry so Alex started dinner while I walked home. His pizza took longer to make than anticipated, so we were rushing to get in a run before dark. Ugh, pizza belly and 8 x 300m hill repeats do not mix, BUT despite my terrible planning, the hill workout went very well. By the end of the week I'd increased my weekly elevation gain by 200 feet (335 vs 535)!

The only important thing to note about Thursday's run is that I tried out a new path on a busy road near my house (I am so excited for this path!!!) and ran pretty fast (9:04, 8:38, 8:09). Friday was a rest day before my long run Saturday. I have a mini dilemma: I've been running with the same 10:45 pace group for about a year and a half (really 3 years because we all moved up together from 11). I love the people, but this weekend the pace felt slow and it hurt. I think as I've been getting faster over 2016, 10:45 is a bit slower than I need for my long runs. There are only two weeks in this season, but I may need to choose a new group in the winter. Not sure what I'll do.

This is really from Saturday... New deck at Atrim Park!

On Sunday I met up with a few Central Ohio Oiselle ladies to run 5 miles before brunch. One of the women pushed the pace into the low 9s. I was able to talk and run, which kind of reaffirmed that I can run a faster pace on long runs. (Though I won't be moving to a 9 minute pace group any time soon!! It was tough on hills!) I think one of my goals for the end of 2016/early 2017 is to be able to go to a group run and not need to ask, "what pace do you guys run?"

Food!

The biggest part of my weekend was Run Fast Eat Slow. The book's been making the rounds on Instagram and since I don't really like following recipes, I decided to get it from the library. Well, I've been convinced and will buy it. I really appreciate the message of the cookbook (eat full fats!!), plus we already had a lot of the ingredients in our pantry. I made frittata muffins, Superhero muffins (worth the hype), banana chips, Recovery Quinoa Salad, and Burst Cherry Tomato Linguine with shrimp. I spent hours in the kitchen Saturday, but now I have some food for the week. If I can swing it, I'd like to make Saturday meal prep day. I'm already spending most of the day at home after my long run (and nap - ha), so why not be a tiny bit productive and have Sunday free?

Fire #1 on Saturday night

Besides cooking and running, Alex and I spent time on our patio by the fire Saturday night and then we went over to our neighbor's for more fire pit action on Sunday night. This past weekend was so relaxing I almost forgot to compile my weekly wrap-up!

What do you do differently when you run in the dark? 
How did you find your long run pace? / How do you know when to make a change?
What are some of your favorite meal prep recipes?