Week FIFTEEN!

Whoaaaa week 15 of the training plan is over!  Race Day is at the end of week 20.  We're almost there!!

This week I had to cram my runs in at the end, which is ok, but my legs definitely felt it.  I attempted to run on Tuesday, but all the treadmills were packed (all night....I kept checking and it never let up).  I scraped that idea and just did one of the arm workouts from Nike Training Club that gets in some leg movements as well.

Thursday: I hit the treadmill and covered 5 miles fairly quickly.  I finished before Wait! Wait! was done so that was a good feeling.  I felt great the whole run and when I got home I did the 15 minute runner stretch workout from NTC.  I should really stretch more often because it felt awesome afterwards.

Saturday: I went to the park to conquer my 12 mile long run for the week.  Friday night I debated for a lonnnng time about whether or not I wanted to do it on Saturday or Sunday.  It was supposed to be cold and snowy on Saturday and then warmer on Sunday, but rainy in the afternoon.  When I woke up at 6:45 on Saturday with a ton of energy I figured it was a sign that I should go ahead and get it done.  I'm so glad I decided to go ahead and get it done, because it was a pretty amazing run.  I took it nice and easy and while it was definitely slow, I felt great the whole time.  I felt a little bit of tightness in my right ankle at one point, but other than that life was good.

I had never done a run longer than 8 miles at the park before and I think it helped that I was constantly planning out what loop I would do next.  Probably the worst part of my run was that I got that country song "Hony Tonk BaDonkaDonk" stuck in my head for the last few miles.  It randomly popped in and I couldn't shake it for the longest time!  The most exciting part of my run was that I felt amazing afterwards!  I made three stops on my run and had a couple sips of watered down G2, some water, and a shot blok each time.  On my drive back home I had the rest of the packet of bloks and then made sure to eat some soup soon after I got home.  I know that I'll have to adjust for warmer runs (this one was in the high 20s), but at least I got it right for this run!  I had a mini celebration while I was running because I realized that it was my longest training run to date!  In previous training plans my longest was 11.5.

Maddux was fine with being perfectly lazy that day.

Sunday: Maddux and I took a cold, but great walk at the park which helped loosen up my legs a little after Saturday's long run.  In the evening I hopped on the treadmill and ran 5 slow miles.

On to week 16!  Happy running!