~ Sunday – You will not believe this. This was supposed to be a rest day but I woke up at 6 am and could not get back to sleep. I had just woken up from a dream in which I was running, and so that’s where my mind went. I thought to myself, maybe I could just run a couple miles around the block. I would still have plenty of time before church. And then once I got dressed I figured, I have more than two hours, why don’t I just run the 8 miles I skipped yesterday? And so I did. I ran 8 miles and then showered and went to church. What?! I don’t even know who this woman is.

~ Monday – Fitbod workout, 56 minutes. Hamstrings, quadriceps, glutes and abs.

~ Tuesday – 4 miles. Decided about a mile in that I would detour to the local Rite-Aid to check out the closing sale and picked up a small notebook to keep in my purse. Rite-aid is just over 2 miles from our house so it worked out perfectly. Of course, I had to run the remaining 2 miles holding the notebook, but it wasn’t much of an inconvenience. And miraculously, this run erased all the soreness I was experiencing from yesterday’s Fitbod workout. It’s kind of like fighting fire with fire, I guess.

~ Wednesday – Fitbod workout, 35 minutes: Shoulders, triceps, and lower back. This one was a test to see how my right shoulder would do. I skipped the pushups but I did the arm raises with 3 pound weights and though there was some pain still, I was able to do them. I hope I didn’t overdo it. It felt fine the next day, so that was a good sign.

~ Thursday – Cross training – Rode bikes with my daughter! We had a couple errands we wanted to run, and the husband and son (aka my drivers) were both at work so we took the trike and bike out of the shed and rode the 2 miles into town. We hit the bank first, to open up a new checking/debit account for her. Second stop was the local Rite-Aid because they are closing the store and I wanted to buy up all of the hair dye my daughter uses for 40% off. That stuff adds up, especially as her thick hair is growing longer. And finally, last stop was Quality Dairy to get a cold beverage and donuts (my trike has a large basket for holding all the precious cargo). It felt great to get so much done. Errands plus cross training is always a win. I forgot to track with my Garmin but Google maps says it was a 4.4 mile round trip, so we’re going with that.

~ Friday – Hill training day! This race I’m training for is super hilly, so I have incorporated hill training into my plan, every other week. On this day though, I slept in too long and missed my window for cooler outdoor running. Temps around here have been in the upper 80s (Fahrenheit) and with humidity it gets pretty nasty. So I did my hill training in the basement, on the treadmill. I set the incline to 5% and walked/ran 2 miles. It took me so long to go that distance with the added incline! But it was a good workout for strengthening those hill running muscles, and I’ll have to keep this in mind as an option when I can’t get outside for it. I am excited about this race and don’t want to show up unprepared.

~ Saturday – Long run day. I was scheduled to run 9 miles today but I opted to make it a rest day. I had been diligent at hitting the rest of my training plan this week so I felt like the rest day would not hurt me. And in a way, I think I needed it. I spent the day lounging, drinking coffee, reading books, and ran a couple errands with the hubby. I hadn’t felt like I had a “day off” in awhile so this really was a sweet relief.

This coming week 6 I have three medical appointments, and it’s my “fatigue week” so I will try to do as much of my planned training as possible but as usual, I’m going to work at listening to my body and be careful not to burn out. We’ll see how that goes! And let’s hope I have gas in the tank on Saturday so I can actually complete my long run of 9 miles. I think temps may be coming down a little here in Michigan so that should help. Stay tuned!