Ahead of Schedule

Last week's training called for 3.5 miles on Tuesday and Thursday, then 5.5 on Saturday or Sunday. I used Monday last week to redeem myself on last weekend's 5 miler, so I ran on Wednesday too. I think my legs are finally getting the hang of the new style of running. I still go back and forth between the balls of my feet and not. I think I can do this!

I went and ran on Sunday with some of the slower girls in our training group. It's so nice to have someone to train with and keep you going. Only problem is that I was torn between keeping my own pace and keeping with the girls. I finally had to tell myself to do what I have to do. Luckily one of them stayed with me too. The other girls are involved in a training plan with the local marathon training group, and their plan is based on time--mine is based on miles. They had to do 1:10 and I had 5.5 miles. We started off not knowing what distance/time we were going to run. The other girls were just going to see how they felt. The trail we took is a towpath trail along the river, so it was an out-and-back. We ended up turning around at 3 miles (not sure of the time, though) and doing a total of 6 miles, in 1:06. It was an 11:03 pace, which is great for us/me for a long run. So, I'm a week ahead of schedule in my training but I'm cool with that. We'll see how things go, I might need an rest week in there somewhere :)

This week is a stepback week. I have 3 miles on the schedule for Tuesday and Thursday, then a 5k race on the weekend. I haven't done a 5k in a while, so I'm pretty excited to see what I can do.

I also won a workout DVD from Fit Bottomed Mommas (thank you!). It was a Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge. I've done it twice already and really like the concept. There are 5 minutes of warm up, 10 minutes of Phase 1 Cardio, 10 minutes of Phase 1 Strength Training, then 10 minutes of Phase 2 Cardio, then 10 minutes of Phase 2 Strength, then 5 minute cool down. I was really sore after day 1, but I'm really starting to like it. It might become my "off day" training.