My "fourth trimester" is drawing to a close soon and I'm certainly feeling more and more recovered by the day. This week was the first speedwork session I did in about a year. And it definitely wasn't super speedy or truly a speedwork session, but I pushed myself a little bit. And that's the point of a workout like that - pushing yourself a to go a little faster so eventually you will be a little faster. This was the first time I could tell my core isn't as strong as it used to be and I know I need to keep at it with BodyFlow, CXWorx and Barre to keep strengthening that.

The speedwork/conditioning session consisted of 20 minutes of continual running at the track - speed on the straightaways and recovery (i.e., jogging) the curves. I held my straightaways around an 8:30 to 8:45ish pace for most of the run and jogged very slowly to recovery (no walking, though!). By the end of the run, I was much slower on the straightaways, so clearly I've got some work to do with endurance. My speed is also greatly diminished since speedwork used to be significantly faster than that (and often in the few months right before I got pregnant, my regular old runs were at least that speed and sometimes faster). I'll get there again someday.

I also hit up the beach for a run. I like to do this at least once a week because running on sand gives me a different workout than running on the pavement. This week, I ended up at the beach during high tide, so there wasn't a ton of beach to actually run on. The beach was extremely slanted, so it's good my beach routes are out and backs so my legs get tortured equally on the uneven surface. I ended up splashing through the ocean for a good bit of the run, but that's part of the fun of it! It made the run more challenging, but a good workout.

And one other thing I tried this week was new shoes. Bad idea. I've been a Brooks devotee pretty much since I started running. I wore the PureCadence for the first year and a half or so, then last fall I switched to the PureFlow. I thought I'd be adventurous and try something different, so I got the Mizuno Wave Rider 17. Bad, bad, bad idea. I wore them for my run on Sunday and they were okay. They weren't quite like my Brooks, but I gave them another chance for speedwork and my feet were screaming by the end. I felt like they were pitching me forward too much onto my toes. Not good. Thankfully, Fleet Feet has a generous return policy so I went back and got a new pair of my beloved Brooks. If it's not broke...

The week in workouts

• Sunday:* Neighborhood run - 1.8 miles, 9:44 pace
• Monday: Rest
• Tuesday: Run/track conditioning - 2.09 miles, 9:43 pace + 30 minute HIIT workout
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Neighborhood run - 2.02, 10:01 pace
• Friday: Unintentional rest (I intended to run, but the day got away from me and D was out of town for work, so I couldn't get a run in before picking up B from daycare)
• Saturday: Beach run - 3.2 miles, 10:12 pace

Total miles: 9.11

*Normally I do my workout weeks from Monday to Sunday, but the 10K training plan I'm doing with Fleet Feet runs Sunday through Saturday, so I'm switching it up for now.

This entire week was a little crazy and I didn't get any BodyFlow or barre workouts in because of D's schedule for work. These things happen. But now it's new week, and I'll be getting a few more core workouts in.