Catching up

These past two weeks have been interesting running weeks. From it being dangerously hot to missing a long run and altering a recovery week to traveling to Ohio again to getting cross training in by foolishly dancing, all in all it hasn't been too bad. I managed to get my mileage in the low 20s last week despite being out of town for four days and am once again focusing on hitting 30 or more this week. Missing my long run a week ago still did some great things for me. My group run on Wednesday was 5+ miles of hill repeats and I kept thinking, "Would I be doing this if I ran 10 miles a few days before?" I felt great doing those hill repeats and felt the strongest I've felt in a while, all thanks to a couple of days rest. I no longer feel like I missed a crucial moment in my marathon training and I'm glad I didn't force myself to make up anything.

If all goes as planned this week, I'll be running a half marathon on Saturday more so to do a long run with a group. It'll give me a chance to run a longer distance a little harder than usual, but not go all out. I'm not training for a half marathon, so I'm not setting a goal for this race. The best think to do is to just keep telling myself this is my long run and not a race. I'm doing this for the free moisture wicking shirt ... not to race. I'm not tapering this week just to run harder on Saturday. I want to be able to walk comfortably the next day and not have the post-race soreness. I want Monday to be a normal running day for me.