Another awesome week of running, even though the temps continue to rise and the humidity is here to stay! 

I set a few records this week, too.

The first: I ran 6 times in one week. I don't know if that's ever happened since I started running and if it has, it's only been one or two other times. I don't plan on running 6 times every week right now, but eventually I'd like to get there on a regular basis. I'm just enjoying running so much again that I can't wait to hit the road right now! It's a good feeling. 

The second record was for the month. While it wasn't my highest mileage month ever, I did run more total runs in one month since I started running 5 years ago. Yes, even more runs (and more mileage, actually) than when I (under)trained for a marathon. This month I ran 21 times. It was also my highest mileage month since last October and my average overall pace has picked up. 

And lastly, I also rode more biking miles than I ever have in a single month as well. No wonder my butt hurts. Seriously. I understand padded pants now. 

You guys, I think I'm back. Finally. 

Workout recap

Last week's workouts

• Monday: Barre
• Tuesday:  Easy run - 5.02 miles @ 8:58 pace (splits: 9:18, 9:03, 8:59, 8:55, 8:38)
• Wednesday: Easy run - 3.08 miles @ 8:40 pace (splits: 9:07, 8:33, 8:28) + 30 minutes barre using Daily Burn
• Thursday:
  • Speedwork 5X800 repeats (6:51, 7:01, 7:06, 6:58, 7:10) with 400 recoveries and warmup/cooldown - 5 miles total 
  • 5 mile bike ride
• Friday: Easy run - 3.01 miles @ 9:02 pace (splits: 9:23, 9:05, 8:49)
• Saturday:
  • Easy run with friends - 2.90 miles @ 9:40 pace
  • 10 mile bike ride
• Sunday: Long run - 7.01 miles @ 9:11 pace

Not only am I back, but I exceeded my running goal of 5 runs for the week. I only did one barre class, but I also did a Daily Burn yoga workout, so at least I got two strength/core/flexibility workouts in. 

I negative split all of my shorter runs this week again. My long run wasn't quite as pretty because it was just so hot (81 degrees and 98% humidity - yay?) and I felt like I was boiling, but my last mile was still the fastest. 

I ran easy runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Saturday I ran with friends by the beach and we had brunch afterwards (bRUNch), complete with Bloody Mary's. I'm sensing a theme here. 

My speedwork session on Thursday was tough. I hit my paces, but they were hard. I feel like my normal pace is faster right now and I'm negative splitting all over the place without even trying, but my speedwork isn't quite as great yet. Since I never really did speedwork as consistently as I should have, that's not surprising. I'll get there.

But even though the oppressive humidity is upon us (and climbing), I'm feeling better than I've ever felt as a runner. The paces I'm running are easy now. Before, even on the coldest of cold perfectly non-humid days, breathing at these paces was still hard even if the pace felt okay. And now I know it wasn't a fitness thing. It was an asthma thing. I can't wait to see what I can do when the temps drop in the fall. For now, I'm slogging through summer. 

This week outside of working out seemed to fly by with work. We had some trouble with B and waking up in the middle of the night a few nights. One of those nights, I spent 3 hours awake trying to get him back to sleep. But even though I had some interrupted sleep, my energy is amazing. I haven't felt this good or had this much energy since before I was pregnant.

On Saturday, we got to catch up with some friends from Charlotte who came into town to camp at the campground near our house. It's always good to see my Charlotte peeps! And B had fun playing at the playground there. Win-win. We relaxed and drank beer with friends while he entertained himself on the playground. 

Since it was so disgustingly hot this weekend, we decided to hit up the aquarium again. B loves the sharks and sea turtle so much! He talks about it all the time! 

And we got some good news about our sweet Meadow Beagle this week as well. I took her to her oncologist and we got the all-clear that she's still in remission from her nasal cancer last fall. Yay! Sweet girl is still feeling good. 

And that was my week. A little bit of sleep deprivation, sharks, sea turtles, and otters (oh, my!), time with friends, some good runs, and a complete lack of doing anything related to art or design (outside of my job or this blog - I need to fix that ASAP). 

How was your week?

Posts you may have missed:
Three common running errors (and how to fix them)

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin'  for their Weekly Wrap post, as well as Eat, Pray, Run DC for her weekly training recap.