Christmas-Time Runs in Cambria

Everytime we visit Ed's mom, we question why we would ever want to leave California. Is it any wonder?

I went on two blissful runs while I was here, one a 3 miler, and one a 5 miler. The views (plus my new Garmin 110) motivated me to run some of my fastest times yet, with sub 10 min/mile pace averages for both, and a blisteringly fast (for me) 8:56 last mile of my 5 miler today. 

There is little that can beat running in high 60s weather, with a cool ocean breeze blowing off the surf, the sounds of waves crashing below and every care in the world blowing away. 

Weekly Running in Review

During this lovely holiday week, I had a lot of running to do. 

 Already tired from the last two weeks of running, I knew it would feel a bit tough to get in this "big week mileage," before I get a rest week, next week. 

While my legs can certainly attest to being tired, I'm really happy with all my mileage. I had a great 6 mile run with a friend on Wedneday, which made the miles fly by (and gave me a "bonus mile" since I was only supposed to do 5), and Ed ran my 10 miler with me while we were in Orange County. We left early enough to catch the cool weather, and we were able to keep a good pace, 10:47 average, with a 9:33 final mile.

 To say the 3 miler on Christmas was hard would be an understatement, but Ed kept me going. And, that got me 101 miles between Thanksgiving and Christmas (not sure if this 'counts' exactly, since it includes the run on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I'm still proud, since this is significantly more mileage than I've run in a long time). 

I'm still on the fence about this week's long run - it's supposed to be a recovery week of only 7 miles, but the idea of running a half marathon on New Year's Eve sounds appealing (or it did before all the mileage this week :P). 

In any event, I'm happy to be going into 2012 as a runner!

Weekly Running in Review

This week marks the 4th consecutive week of running, as I get into full swing of my training. I've been feeling really great, especially with my 9 miler yesterday, where I had a 10:32 average pace, and a last mile of 9:42! This is speedy for me, so I'm thrilled. I was also proud to have gone for a run between my staff meeting and a parent night meeting on Wednesday, even though my coworkers thought that I was a little crazy. It really helped to break up the evening, and was a wonderful stress reliever.

Coming up, I get to look forward to a 5 miler on Wednesday and a 10 miler down in Orange County on Christmas Eve.

It's fun to be a runner again!

Running Amidst Chaos

Okay, so maybe chaos isn't a fair assessment of the past week, but it did, in moments, feel chaotic to be attempting everything in my week that happened. I had a 2+ hour planning meeting, a full day training, a presentation to my collegues (teaching them something - why is it always scarier to teach adults than children?), a 2 hour curriculum meeting, and was observed twice on Friday - in the morning to receive coaching for my Language Arts program, and in the afternoon to be filmed for a research project.

All of this (particularly the staff presentation and the science filming) left me with knots in my stomach and countless hours prepping. If this week had fallen even a month before, I would have used it as an excuse to have a few more glasses of wine, and to take the week off of running. However, as this was week two of my training, I had to fit in my runs. Instead of an unhealthy week, I was able to get stress relief in a fun and healthy way and rack up 23 miles this week (including 7 milers on both Saturday and Sunday).

I'm excited about this month's training, and am considering signing up for a half marathon on the 31st to celebrate New Year's Eve :)

Everything went pretty well, and I'm looking foward to a hopefully calmer week.