I think it stormed almost every day this week. Not only does this freak the crap out of my beagles and cause them to cower for hours under furniture, it also means that paddleboarding gets canceled and I miss my crosstraining/core work. It also means the trails are a mess. So no paddleboarding for me this week, but I did get my shoes nice and muddy. 

Workout summary:

• Monday: OFF (couldn't make it to SUP)
• Tuesday:  Track Tuesday  - 4.65 miles (9:08 pace) + 15 minutes yoga
• Wednesday: Easy run - 3.08 (8:44 pace) 
• Thursday: OFF (SUP workout was cancel because of storms)
• Friday: Trail run (easy) - 4.01 miles (9:06 pace)
• Saturday: Bootcamp workout 
• Sunday: Long run (very easy) - 7.08 miles (9:29 pace) + 15 minutes yoga/flow

Total miles:  Run -  18.82 miles / Total runs: 4 / Total core/strength workouts: 3 / Total crosstraining: 1

My days off this week were Monday and Thursday since those are my usual paddleboarding days, and I didn't manage to get other workouts scheduled. 

On Tuesday, I hit the track for a sort of painful speed workout and ended up running the entire thing in a crazy downpour. My coach had me do 5x800s at a target pace of 7:15 with 400s as recoveries and a short warmup and cool down. My paces were a little off and I thought I was going slower than the targets, but was actually faster for all but the last one with splits of 7:00, 7:02, 7:05, 6:47 and 7:30.  My 400s were very slow slogs and/or speedwalking (thus the overall slower pace of 9:08). I was tired since B is teething and we had a bit of a rough night the night before. 

But I can tell just a few weeks in that my speedwork sessions (I've done three now) are starting to show up in my regular running. The heat and humidity were back this week, but my easy paces on shorter runs (including on the trail) were faster, but felt about the same as my easy paces a few weeks ago. I also hit the highest mileage I've run, both in my long run and in my overall weekly mileage, since early June. I definitely had a lazy summer with low mileage and short runs.  

As usual, I'm still struggling to figure out where to fit in a solid strength workout that's straight-up strength and not core/yoga/flow or crosstraining (SUP). I did get a bootcamp workout in this week, but I'd still like to do a little more for strength than bootcamp. I think I could probably fit in a second workout on Wednesday, but I'm not sure that would work every week. It would just depend on my and my husband's schedules. But I am pleased that I've been getting more crosstraining and core work in, and I'm sure that's also helping contribute to some of my improvements. 

Even thought it's early, I'm feeling good so far in this training cycle. But it's also a short training cycle. Usually for half marathons, I do 12-13 weeks. This time, I have 10 weeks and only 9 weeks to get long runs in, so there's no time to waste lollygagging around.

In other news, Little B moved up to the toddler room at daycare this week (so big!), I ate a cupcake on Monday for lunch (because Monday), and the heat and humidity turns me into a sweaty mess (yay).