Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Week 9 Recap and Alabama Fun

I'm not sure where the time has gone, but week 9 of my training plan is officially check off!  This week was a little different than I expected, but if you can't be a little flexible then what good is a plan anyway?

But first, some highlights from Alabama!  Colorado got its own recap and it didn't seem right to not give you at least a few fun things from the other part of my vacation!

The Air and Space Museum: My dad's birthday is at the beginning of August and since we had 4 of the 5 family members home we decided to go to Huntsville, Alabama to visit this museum.  The museum is really interactive and has lots of information on the space monkeys!  It was a great way to spend the afternoon! 






Straight to Ale Brewing: A two hour road trip wouldn't have been complete without stopping for some local beer!  Straight to Ale has a lot of space themed brews (perfect after an afternoon at the museum!) and we made sure to toast Ms. Baker, the space monkey, with a round of Monkeynaut.

I drew a picture and pinned it to the bulletin board.  I wonder if it's still there...

Noccalula Falls: I briefly mentioned this in an earlier post, but my family and I had a great hike at the falls.   You can't bring dogs, which is a bummer, but we got to hike all the way behind the falls this time which was neat.  When my mom and I went back in April it had rained a lot and we would have had to forge a small river to get behind them.  

Legend is that Noccalula flung herself off the falls
because she didn't want to marry some dude.
Men, the root of all our probs.

This is from the first time I went to the falls.  Mom and I tried
really hard to get a selfie with the falls.  This was our best one.

The rest of the time was spent just hanging out, doing a little shopping, watching Pirates baseball on my parents' "party deck", and doing lots of neighborhood walks with my sister, mom, and our pups.  It was a perfect relaxing week.

On to the recap!

Wednesday: 5 miles on the 'mill.  It was just one of those cloudy, hot days and I didn't mind spending the time listening to Wait! Wait! Overall it felt good, but there's not much to say about it other than that.

Friday: 6x800 at the park.  Good grief guys.  This was ridiculously hard.  I decided to go to one of my favorite parks because there is a lake almost a mile around.  I thought that it might be a little easier than my usual trail loop because it's a little less crowded.  I didn't take into account the hills.  Not so bad for a normal run, but killer when you're trying to run fast.  Even though I was pretty sure my lungs were going to explode and my legs were going to fall off my paces were much faster than I anticipated.  I don't see high 7s on my watch (like ever) so having two 800 workouts with this pace was super exciting for me!

Saturday: 7 miles at a new trail!  This was an exciting run for me because it was my trial run with the running club!  I had mentioned that I decided to join a club what seems like forever ago, and finally had a free weekend to attend a run.  The group was so welcoming, but none of our paces seemed to quite match up so I ran by myself for most of this run which was kind of a bummer.  The group leader said that usually there is another girl who would be good for me to run with who was out of town this week, so I'm looking forward to going back and trying again.  At least it was a good way to get my butt out of bed!  I also liked knowing that someone had my back on a trail that was unfamiliar to me.  I can't wait to go back soon and explore with Mad Dog!

Miles for the Week: 15

I have no idea where I'm at with overall plan miles right now, but eventually I'll figure that out again!  

How is your training plan going?  Do you do intervals? I didn't in the past, but I'm loving them now!  Such a good way to mix it up so I don't get burnt out on long runs!  Plus, it's kind of fun to run fast! 


**Today I'm linking up with MCM Mama Runs, Run the Great Wide Somewhere, and My No-Guilt Life for Tuesdays on the Run!  Make sure to check out the adventures of these awesome runners!  Today their theme is mantras, so if you're needing a little extra motivation they are your go-to girls!**

3 comments:

  1. I had started interval training in the spring, but when the Florida summer hit I abandoned them. I'm hoping to get back to them when it cools off because they are fun and I always feel like a rock star when I'm done. Thanks for linking up with us today!

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    1. Yeah, they are not so fun when it's crazy hot out! :-)

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  2. Yum! Beer! Sounds like you had a good training week. Way to rock the 800s!

    Thanks for linking up! Join us next week when we talk about fueling our runs.

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