ORRRC Week 7: Hitting 1,000!!!

Saturday morning

Happy New Year! I'm back with the Weekly Review linkup from Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. I'm training for about a dozen races, but my goal is a half on April 9. You can see my schedule here. 

Week of December 26-January 1
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 7 miles
Wednesday: 7.2 miles
Thursday: 4 miles
Friday: 5.7 miles   
Saturday: 5 miles
Sunday: First on the First 5k (recap)

Total (running) miles: 32.1 miles
Elevation gain:  482 ft
2016 total: 1,000 miles (!!)

Going into this week, my main goal was to hit 1,000 miles for 2016. (Read my Year in Review post), but I got off to a rough start.

Monday was Christmas #2 at my dad and step mom's and marked another missed holiday run. We stayed late and I tried to motivate myself to run in the dark, but it didn't happen. I think it was a blessing in disguise because throughout the week I had terrible stomach pain and when I chatted to a friend she said something was going around.

Christmas #2 with Jack and Hugo

I took Tuesday off work and my mom and niece came over for an afternoon visit. I eventually got in 7 miles before dark. It was rough and I was thankful for every traffic stop. I didn't look at my watch and tried to run by feel (to go slow), but by the end I's gone much faster than intended. Afterwards I felt really bad, but it didn't seem running related. We watched Sausage Party (meh) as I tried to feel better.

Goose convention

I went back to work Wednesday, but left early to get in my run. I was not feeling it, but when I got home after 6 miles and saw sunset was still 10 minutes away, I decided to head out for one more mile. Another 7 in the books! It was another rough run and afterwards my stomach pains returned. Again, they didn't seem to be related to running and they lingered for 3 days! After my run, I got cleaned up and we went to the Tiki Bar for a friend's birthday dinner. I did not drink any alcohol -- so you know I was feeling bad! ;)

Wednesday night: Not my drink

Thursday was silly: I got a bunch of texts in the middle of my run that I had to respond to and when I pulled my phone out of my pants pocket I dropped my keys... which I didn't realize until mile 2. I turned around to retrace my steps, cutting my run short. Luckily I found my keys! Later than evening I had a meeting about the next book I'm illustrating. It's monster-themed and should be fun... whenever I have free time!

On Friday I ran 2+ by myself, then another 3-ish with Alex. The run with Alex was a killer progression: 8:41, 8:23, 7:47 (we had 3 traffic stops and last mile was downhill). I'm going to keep using him as my speed work... Luckily my stomach felt a bit better on Friday night.

Saturday was my first training group run of the new season. I ran 5 with my new pace group: the 10s! I missed the 10:45s, but the pace felt better, even on my tired legs. The last mile was a 140ft climb. What a great way to end 2016. And I hit 1,000 miles! Here's my year in review. Alex and I ran a bunch of errands later in the day, then watched a terrible OSU game. :(

Giant beers before the game

We ran the First on the First 5k on Sunday. This was our 4th year and my times have steadily improved: 2014 - 31:20, 2015 - 27:31, 2016 - 25:00, 2017 - 24:31. I'll post a recap in a few days when the official pictures are online (EDIT: recap here). Summary: my legs were tired from this week. Afterwards we went to my mom and step dad's for pork and sauerkraut, games, and Christmas #3. A nice start to the New Year!

First on the First!

Happy 2017!

Did you do anything exciting to ring in the new year?
What's your proudest accomplishment of 2016? 
Have you ever lost anything on a run?