half marathon training {week 6}

Halfway there! Or, I would be halfway there, if I started this twelve weeks before my training, but since I built in two weeks extra, I'm not really halfway there.

This week went really well (which always makes me nervous because that means I'm pretty much due for a bad week). Monday is pretty much always a three mile run, which is good because I can't run right after work on Mondays. It's really hard to get in the mindset that I have to come home first, then wait for Shane before I can head out the door. It makes it really hard to go. I don't like to leave once I'm home! I finished 3.1 miles in 29:47. It still amazes me when I finish in under thirty minutes, because I thought that would never, ever happen. I do feel like I'm going to have a heart attack when I finish!

Tuesday was great, because I met my friend Barb so she could show me some new running routes around my school. I'm getting tired of running the same bike trail twice a week. In nine months I've running, I've never ran with anyone so I was a little nervous. I'm not very good at multitasking, so I was afraid that talking while running would result in me falling on my face. I'm thankful to report that not only did I not fall, but I had a great time. Four miles goes by pretty quickly when you spend most of it chatting! Bonus, I found some new routes to run, which will come in handy during the work week.

Wednesday I did my Tough Mudder workout. Once again, I did not die. This is good.
Thursday I just had to run two miles. I did part of the route that Barb showed me and ran into my school's run club as I was almost finished. That was awkward, especially when one boy started cheering and yelling that he loved me. I pushed it up to a fast pace to put some distance between myself and them and finished in 19 minutes.

Then came the lake effect snow warning that was predicted to hit Friday afternoon and be at its worst throughout the night. The tricky thing about living in this area is that the prediction for where the band will hit is never 100% accurate, so I knew we could wake up to anywhere from a dusting to a foot of snow Saturday. I didn't want to chance it and miss out on my long run Saturday. Plus, I attended Beth's You Capture workshop (look for a post this week on how AWESOME it was) this morning, so I knew I'd have limited time anyway. With all of that, I decided to do my long run Friday night. If I was to list things I wanted to do on a Friday night, run eight miles would not be on it. But, you know... dedication and all that. I'd hoped to get out before the snow hit, but I had no such luck. Although there wasn't any on the ground when I left, it was like running in a snow globe. In case you're wondering, that's not very fun. The wind was pelting huge flakes straight into my face and my hood kept blowing down, until I managed to tuck the front of it underneath my headband. I almost went home at 2.5 miles when a gust wind actually blew me off the road. I'm pretty stubborn, though, so I made the decision to walk into the really bad wind gusts and save my energy. I am sure I looked like a nut for being out in that! Once I made the decision to not fight into the really bad gusts, it did start to go a little more smoothly. I was still running 95% of the time and conserving my energy when I couldn't fight the wind. And when the wind was at my back? I felt like I was flying. By the last two miles, the sidewalks were pretty drifted and I was taking it slow because I couldn't see the sidewalk through the snow and didn't want to twist an ankle on an uneven portion. Despite a fairly erratic pace, I still managed to average out at 10:28, which I'll take.
When I left, there was no snow sticking. After eight miles, it looked like this.

Next week is pretty similar, except that my Tuesday run is six miles. I am hoping that this was my last crazy snowy run for the year, but that is probably wishful thinking!