My first official week of fall training is finished! Despite the very un-fall like temps, I did pretty well. We're still hitting triple digit heat indexes here a lot of days, but it doesn't seem quite as unbearable as it was in July (although the insane humidity persists). 

I'm currently training for Lumiere's 2-Course Challenge (10K + half marathon) at Disney's Wine & Dine event, which I'm running with a friend at her pace, and the Kiawah Half Marathon, which is my fall goal race. 

I'm doing the run less, run faster plan (as planned) and I'm feeling really good. Right now my coach only has me doing one speed session because my other runs are all heat training, which is pretty brutal on its own. We'll keep this schedule through the Disney Wine & Dine races, then add in more speed work in the 5 weeks between Disney and Kiawah.  

Workout summary

• Monday: 
  • AM: BodyFlow 
  • PM: Barre 
• Tuesday:  Easy run - 6 miles (watchless), 85 degrees
• Wednesday: Rest day
• Thursday: Progression run - 4 miles (8:03 pace)
• Friday: Barre
• Saturday: Family bike ride - 9.75 miles
• Sunday: 
  • AM; Family bike ride - 3.5 miles 
  • PM: Long run - 7.02 miles (9:08 pace), Heat index 95; Dew point: 76

I had a packed week in general between work projects, appointments, and socializing, which makes me even more happy that I was able to get in so many workouts.

MONDAY
Double workout day for me! What a great way to kick off the week with duel strength and core sessions and I'm planning on continuing this every week as much as I can. 

TUESDAY
This was my first training run of the fall season and I was still a little fatigued from the double strength workout the day before, so I decided to run by feel and without a watch. It felt hot. Really hot. Not much to say about that run other than that. 

WEDNESDAY
This day was a rest day, but Meadow Beagle went to the vet for a physical therapy consultation. Our old girl has some back issues and we're going to be doing regular therapy with her to keep her healthy and as pain-free as possible. She got a mini massage plus some laser therapy (and she loved it!). She was bouncing around the house and feeling awesome afterwards. Note to self: schedule a massage for yourself, too! 

THURSDAY
I took it indoors to the treadmill for a speed session. It's just so much easier to hit my paces when I'm inside right now. I did a 4 mile progression run and hit some good paces. It didn't feel hard until mile 4 when I was at sub-8, but I also think some of that was mental. Even though I despise the treadmill, I could definitely a feel a difference in my running with being inside as opposed to the horrible humidity outdoors.  

I also went to the allergist for testing and it's official: I'm allergic to Charleston. I discovered all of the wonderful things I'm allergic to that flourish here. But we have a plan to get me back into good health, so at least things are moving in the right direction and I can continue living in this wonderful city. 

After my allergist appointment, B and I headed over to visit a friend from Pennsylvania who was in town for the week. The house she was staying in had a pool, so my little water baby got to swim.   

FRIDAY
After a busy (but productive!) week at work, I was more than ready to relax over the weekend! I met the same friend from Thursday night out for dinner and had a light meal before heading to a special barre class at Barre Evolution.

Barre Evolution just launched an ambassador program and I'm excited that I was selected for the first round of ambassadors! They held a special class for us on Friday evening where we could all meet and then had champagne afterwards. 

Along with my ambassadorship, I get a special discount code for people to get their first class free. If you live in or visit the Charleston area, check it out! Go to BarreEvolution.com, select the $10 introductory class and then use ChristineE to get the free class.

SATURDAY
I did some cross training with the family on an almost 10 mile bike ride. We also made a stop for some coffee, bagels and donuts. B has his first donut and it's safe to say he was a fan. 

SUNDAY
We started out the day with a shorter family bike ride - just 3.5 miles to and from the coffee shop. We tried to get B a bagel, but he seemed to think bagels were donuts and was very upset when we presented him his bagel. So we caved and got him a donut. Donuts two days in a row. Parent fail.

But little B was a celebrity in the coffee shop. They remembered him (and his long surfer boy hair) from the previous day and everyone in the shop said goodbye to him using his name as we were leaving. He loved it! So precious!

I did my long run on Sunday evening. I was hoping it would be cooler by 6 pm when I headed out to run. I guess it was cooler, if you call a heat index of 95 and a dew point of 76 "cool." I should have waited until a bit later. I'm so over this hot, humid weather, though.

This has definitely been the hottest weather I've ever run in. Looking back over last year's summer runs (my app captures the weather), most were cooler than the ones this summer, probably because I was running at a different time of day and also because we had a record breaking July here this year. But they say heat training is almost as good as altitude training. This better pay off in the fall!

And that was my week! And of course, I've been up way too late every night watching the Olympics and the amazingness of Simone Biles and Michael Phelps and all of the other summer Olympic athletes. 

Is it feeling like fall where anyone else is (and by fall, I mean is it less than 85 degrees)? Can I live vicariously through you?

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin'  for their Weekly Wrap post. You can check out all of this week's posts here.