13 out of 17 done!  Hmm, my math seems off, I may have to check race day again.   Not that I would complain about an extra week right now, though.  🙂

Monday- 9.35 miles bike

My neck was still feeling sore and stiff from Friday’s run in so I opted to not run that day.  Instead I headed home and got on the bike.    I’ve been testing out the resistance workouts on the bike and so far I like them.   I was also thankful that I bought a recumbent- it made things easier on my neck.  🙂

Tuesday- Rest

My stomach was a total asshat all day so I ended up taking a rest day.   The night before I had indulged in some candy and while I knew I was probably going to regret it, I didn’t think it would be that bad.   Did you know sour straws were made of wheat?  I had no idea!  While I don’t necessarily have a wheat sensitivity, my stomach has never been too fond of it.  Combine that with sugar and ouch.   Don’t think I will crave candy for a while though.Wednesday- 3.2 miles  

This run was thisclose to not happening.  After a rough run on Sunday and 2 days off, I left work looking forward to running.  Somehow, I drove past the lake without realizing it.  Oops.   Ok, I would head to home town.  I stopped at Target along the way to pick up some prescriptions.   Since I was getting a later start, I bypassed the river path and figured I would run from my old work spot again.  Except there was road construction everywhere.  Seriously?! It was almost 7pm and a primarily resident area.  I was so close to just bailing but I had said I needed to get out of my own way, right?  So I ended up parking at the bottom of my driveway and squeezing in a few miles before dark.  I even saw one mile in the 9 min range.  Sweet.

Thursday- Rest

Since I had a race on Sunday, I had a crazy idea of getting my long run done today.   However, work had other plans.   We were 45 minutes late getting out of work.  By the time I would have changed and headed back to town, I wouldn’t have enough daylight even for 3 miles.   Seriously, when did the days get shorter?    I thought about the gym but Thursdays are pretty busy and I didn’t think hogging a treadmill for 2 hours would go over so well.  Plus I wasn’t too fond of the idea of 2 hours on a treadmill.  😝

Friday- 10.1 Miles- Hell Yeah!

Confession- I ate a donut.  🍩 And it was awesome.  Curious thing- so was my run.    I worked the early shift so I was optimistic for a long run after work.  Being Friday and a busy day at work though, I was doubtful of my follow through.    I didn’t even think about the Labor Day traffic until I was on my way to the river path to run.  Crap.  I wanted 10 but decided 8 would be fine to if traffic was too crazy.I had woken the night before with a horrible charlie horse and I had felt it all day.  I walked the first 3/4 of a mile just to make sure it wasn’t going to be a problem.   Things felt good when I started running, better than they have in months.  I told myself not to get cocky, I was only in mile 2!   My goal was just run a nice comfortable pace and maintain it as long as I could.  Which, let’s be honest, these days that is about 3 minutes.   However, I just kept running, my legs felt good, my breathing wasn’t labored at all and things felt great!    I had a lollipop route planned that I thought would put me around 8 miles when done.   My math was so wrong.   I figured it out around 4.5 when I hit a point in the route that I thought would have been 6.5.  Oops.  I had to decide if I wanted to go back up for another loop and hit 10 or head down and circle the river bed trail until I hit 8.   I was still feeling good so I headed back up the hill for another loop.

I never really looked at my pace on my Garmin, I only recall seeing it once during mile 5 and it showing my ave pace in the 9’s.  Slow down!  Things were going well, I didn’t want to mess things up!   10 miles completed just as the sun was fading.  10 awesome miles.   I ran the whole damn thing not counting the warm up and it felt awesome!   I only started to feel sore for miles 9 and 10.  Which was to be expected as this was my longest run in over a month but I still managed to pick up the pace a bit there too.  In full disclosure- I admit that while I never walked or intentionally took a break, I did hit 5 or 6 stop lights.   I was so freakin’ excited by this run.  I was still smiling about it on Saturday.    That one run will get me through another 2-3 months of crap runs.  😃😃

Saturday- 6 miles bike

I didn’t want to run since I had a race the next morning so I hopped on the bike.   I kept things easy as I was a little sore from the previous day’s run.    I also headed down to SLO to pick up my race packet so I would have one less thing to worry about on race morning.   I missed the shirt deadline so this was a very small packet.    I was kind of really worried about this race.   I haven’t raced a 5K since July 2014 and I wasn’t sure I was even in 5K shape.Sunday- Central Coast Cancer Challenge 5K

Argh, nerves.  After all you can’t have 2 good runs in a week right?   Recap in next post.   Spoilers on Instagram.  😃Overall, this was the best training week I’ve had in a long time.  Like since April.    While my mileage didn’t increase I finally feel like I put in 3 quality work outs, oh wait, I cross trained too- 5 work outs!  Woo hoo!!!     I also followed through with a plan and pulled off my long run before the weekend.   Which for September I may have to do more often.   Unfortunately, Fridays won’t be an option going forward.   With my boss gone, I will be working open to close, so that will fill up most of Friday.   So time to do some thinking!

Paleo- B

Overall I made better choices last week, candy and doughnut aside.  I have zero guilt about that doughnut though, I give it partial credit for my run on Friday.    😊    My weakness right now is these chips-

Since I won’t be able to leave the building while my boss is gone I am hoping to use that time as a way to make me stop eating them.   I still need healthier dinners though.   I did enjoy my pizza cheat on Wednesday and it was awesome.  😉

This week will be tight, with work and the Avocado Margarita Festival but I am hoping to get a solid week of work outs in.   The heat wave coming in is concerning.  Triple digits are predicted for all week.   Last week’s cooler weather was just a tease.  I may have to be a little Thomas this week- ” I think I can, I think I can”.

How was your week? Is the weather cooling down in your neck of the woods?

How was your Labor Day? Anyone else race?

Do you have a snack food you just can’t stop eating?

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