In making my goal last week, I forgot that I was going to take it easy going into a run week. So my 3 strength training routines did not happen. I plan on repeating the goal for this week. I really want to make it a habit to get 3 good routines a week.

Welcome Lora and Audrey! The exercising aspect becomes so rewarding. Audrey, I know how that snacking goes. I felt the same way the last couple of days. Way to go!

As for this week, I think I’d better stick to one session each of cardio and yoga. I would love to make it a habit!

I did get up into the 60s last week. I ran 7 to 9 miles most of the weekdays, taking advantage of the back neighborhoods near my house for when I was running in the dark during rush hours. On the weekend, I ran out at Bradbury Mountain again where some of the guys were aiming for 20+ miles and I actually was the one to turn back early (I only wanted to run for 15 miles.) Got to see a pileated woodpecker early in the run. I hadn’t realized that it was going to snow on Sunday, so I didn’t run until around 9:00 a.m. I had planned on running on the trails near my house anyway, but that became a near certainty as I had no interest in fighting traffic on snow covered roads. I ran around 7 and a half miles, only a mile and a half or so of it on roads. The rest was discovering some new trails that I’d had trouble finding before the snow fell and hadn’t been back on for a while. I got waved at by a 2 year old riding with her dad on a snowmobile, and got chased down by an ATV pretending to be a tank (the tires were replaced with tank treads which lifted it off the ground an extra couple of feet) – I saw them behind me while running through a field and thought it was a machine for grooming the trail since I could tell it wasn’t a snowmobile. When I got in the woods, I picked up the pace until it caught me about 3/4 of a mile later when I got to see exactly what it was. After they passed me I turned back and retraced my steps, and discovered that that thing had been following me for over 3 miles. I turned off the trail to get home faster since I had only wanted to run for an hour.

All told, I ran 60.7 miles last week without any problems. This week I am going to cut back a little (it’s been 4 weeks since my last cut back) and probably run in the low to mid 40s. I haven’t decided on specific workouts yet. I might join in for a hill workout with a group downtown on Thursday, and Saturday I am skipping the run at the mountain to do some short easy miles. Sunday is the first race of the season, a 10 miler, and I am in better shape than I’ve ever been at this point since I moved up here to Maine. I need to get there early since I’m helping run the registration table until it comes time to warm up.

My goal this week will be to run the race in less than 60 minutes. I haven’t really gotten much in the way of speed work done this month like I’d planned, but I am feeling good and can’t doubt my base right now so I think that a sub-60 shouldn’t be too hard.