Weekly workouts: 10K training week 9 (10/19-10/24) + postpartum week 18

I still took it a little easy this week since right after my upper respiratory issue cleared up, I got smacked with a head cold. The joys of having a baby in daycare and the petri dish they become! Fortunately, Baby B only had some mild sniffles this week (much improved from his awful fever two weeks ago), but I ended up with a full-blown cold (and now D has it, too). Essentially, I've been sick for two weeks. I can't remember the last time I was sick for two weeks straight. I guess that's what happens when you're trying to juggle full-time work, life, running and working out, and an infant all while functioning on significantly less (or much more broken) sleep than you're used to.

But anyway, I'm starting to feel some sparks of my old self once in a while when I'm out on a run. This week was definitely one of those weeks, even though I was taking it easy. During hill repeats - we did half mile, quarter mile, half mile up and down the Ravenel Bridge (attack on the way up, easy on the way back) - I managed to maintain a sub-10 minute pace while busting up the hill. Not as fast (yet) as I was before, but a definite improvement from earlier in this training cycle when I was slogging up the same hill at a much slower rate. And I was hacking and coughing thanks to my cold, so once I'm healthy again, I think I'll see even more improvement.

Saturday's run was even better (and involved a bit less coughing), with my easy pace clocking in at 9:16 for five miles. Haven't seen that since early in my pregnancy.

I'm still not feeling super confident that I'll have a great finish time at the 10K next weekend, but Saturday's run gives me a little bit of hope. I'd really love to at least run sub-9 minute miles and come in under 56 minutes. Maybe if I'm completely healthy by that time and the weather cooperates (no wind, please!), I'll feel so great compared to the past few weeks, that the faster pace will come automatically? That might be wishful thinking on my part, though. We'll see. At this point the training is banked and there's not much I can do except get out and run next week.

And I'm all ready to start my first round of postpartum half marathon training two weeks after I finish this 10K. I'm all signed up for Charleston Half training with Fleet Feet for this year and I'm definitely feeling ready to tackle a half again after going through an easier training cycle with less distance.

The week in workouts

Sunday: OFF

Monday