Last week was not a great week workout-wise for me. I only ran about 11 miles and they were all super short runs. I had to travel to Vegas for work, so that's the big reason for it. I had long days standing a trade show booth and I was jet lagged, so just generally exhausted and busy.

Even though my mileage dipped way low, the runs I did manage to do were actually pretty good with paces in the 8s and 7s and all of it feeling easy. I'm not sure who this runner is, but I would be really happy if she showed up on race day and pushed my pace into the 6s. Who knows if that will happen since my track record at races is pretty bad, and the stress in my life has multiplied over the past month, so that's taking it's toll on me as well.

Workout summary:

Monday:
- Workout #1: Run - 3.56 miles (8:27 pace)
- Workout #2: BodyFlow
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: Run - 3.01 miles (7:58 pace)
Thursday: OFF
Friday: Run + stairs - 4.95 miles (8:08 pace)
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: OFF

Total miles: 11.52 / Total runs: 3 / Total strength/conditioning: 0 / Total core/flexibility: 1 / Total crosstraining: 0

Monday I finally made it back to Fleet Feet Mount Pleasant for a Monday Runday followed by BodyFlow (which was my only strength work for the week - blah). I ran with my friend Amy, who blogs over at The Tiny Terror, and we had a nice time chatting and trying to see the sidewalk in the dark. I'm not used to running in the dark, so that was an adventure on its own. I rarely get to run with Amy since she lives on the other side of the city, so it was good to run with her and we kept our pace conversational, but it still ended up being a faster pace than I normally run on my own without feeling like it was faster.

I left for Vegas on Wednesday but managed to squeeze a very short tempo run in before I headed to the airport.

The highlight of my week was a 5-miler with a coworker on the Vegas strip. Never mind that we forgot about the over-the-street sidewalks and all of the stairs involved there (we guessed we ended up doing about 8-10 double flights - ugh). But we had a great run and it was a beautiful morning. I didn't have my watch, so I had no idea how fast we were really going and we were talking the whole time. I did have my running app going on my phone, so I checked that when we were done and our overall pace was 8:08 for 5 miles with the last 2 miles coming in at 7:50 and 7:08 respectively (what the what?!).

My coworker's half marathon PR is 1:30 and she used to be a running coach (for high school, I think). It meant a lot that she thought I had some speed in me beyond what my current race times show and she thought my pace that day was a good pace, especially considering how easily we were chatting. Clearly I need to get out of my head on race days (as well as get some sleep and lose some of this stress - that's all been affecting me for a while, now).

Running with people also helps my speed, I think. It's been a while since I've run with other people and the last few weeks I've done it a few times. While I love the solitude of running, running with a buddy definitely helps boost my speed and keeps me from being lazy. I wish my coworker lived here in Charleston (she's in Tennessee) because she'd be the perfect running buddy and I'm pretty sure I'd have some serious race PRs.

Speaking of races, I'm running the Wando Heart & Soles 5K tomorrow. I'm hoping to channel some of that stress into a decent race. My confidence has been boosted with some of these runs lately, but I have yet to run a race that reflects my actual fitness level. Someday. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe some other day. Has anyone seen my motivation lying about anywhere?

Weekly workouts: February 1-7, 2016