I started writing weekly recaps in the beginning of the year and after a grand recap of 1, I missed last week. To be honest, there wasn’t anything much to write about – I was slowly limping back to some painful miles after almost 2 weeks off to sickness. I was back to normal by wednesday/thursday, but was still very much overwhelmed at having lost the base I was trying to build. So instead of jumping right back in, I took a step back this week to focus on the things that are most important right now – continuing with the mileage. I’m at 14 weeks to London Marathon and time on my feet is the most important ROI at this point. 

Over the weekend, I let go my dreams of another 10 miles, and just wanted to get out and run whatever I could. But after having a minion with the flu on my hands, motivation was absolute rock bottom. On an impulse, I reached out to Julia and Julie of RunWalkRepeat. Turns out we were all free for some short miles. It was perfect to get out to run with someone. I had not done run/walk in a very very long time, but soon fell in step with the other two members of #TeamLoki. Yes, we crazy girls are all into Loki/Tom Hiddleston; although Thor/Chris Helmsworth also gets huge props from me. But I digress …

Monday – Treadmill 3 miles/45 min – Ran very slow on the treadmill for some base miles. It was boring and I wanted out, but I changed it to 5min/1min run-walk and finished up.

Wednesday – Treadmill Hill Repeats (4 x 3min) – Kept the number low since it was my comeback plus it is absolutely torturous on the treadmill. 

Thursday – 5 at 5. I had planned to do some mile repeats, but the cold and fact that I had done hills the day before instead of tuesday like planned made my legs heavy. And I opted for a direct run. We negative split it strongly.

Also attended Spin classes with friends. The classes were conducted by Ashton, the cycling coach with former Get-Fit Atlanta, and wow! I’ve never had a spin session where my triceps, hips, quads, everything hurt!! If I can move my morning run, I can see myself giving much more effort into the spin class.

Saturday HMP run 5 miles  – I moved the original plan of a long run to Sunday and instead opted to run with Mr. FauxTriathlete. And in order not to bore him, the run turned out to be 1 mile warmup, 3 miles at Half Marathon Pace, 1 mile cool down.

Also spent some much needed time with my minion helping her on the bike. 

“Will you teach me how to go up the hill like my friend (out of saddle)”, she asked?
And I pretended like I knew how and tried to teach her and she got it. 
Shhhh… Don’t tell her that mum doesn’t know how to ride out of saddle yet.

Sunday Trail Run 6.5 miles @ 1hr 45min – I had grand plans of running awesomely for 2 hrs, but the comeback week forced me to take it less. My legs were heavy and tired and I kept looking at each hill with regret that I used to be able to run up those easily. This combination of HMP pace run on Saturday and trail run on Sunday is actually a very good idea for future weekends in the training. Or maybe a long run on Saturday and a shorter trail run on Sunday. 

I loved this section of the Kennesaw Mountain. There were lots of little brooks and streams gurgling. This one that I got a photo off had a rock on the other side that I wanted to sit at. The brook disappeared under and came out of the other side of the trail. And I counted 7 little drops for the water.

 My usual route is around the Kennesaw Mountain. Barbara (Fitter after 50) took us up Pigeon Hill on a new (to me) route that was mainly walking up rocks and steps. I had my lower back and butt hurt badly when I’d climb. I bitched about it for a while until I remembered the historic significance of the Kennesaw Mountain – I wasn’t climbing up the mountain dragging cannons behind me and dig in trenches fighting a war that I was going to lose. Suck it up girl, and work on figuring out why my back was hurting after the run.

I wish I could say that I was as good with nutrition as I was with keeping up with my runs. Sadly, the Influenza the past week threw everything off and there was hardly anything fresh to cook at home. It’s back to grocery shopping this week and healthy eats!

And since I started the post off with Loki, here’s one with both Tom Hiddleston and Chris Helmsworth. Because, why not? Right! 🙂