Running with Friends/ The New Plan

Had a great week of running this week. I had no purpose for the runs this week except to get some easy mileage in. Also, with my relaxed schedule of training this week, I made a conscious effort to run with friends this week.
This is how the week went:
Monday - 3 miles easy - excited to be running again. I also eased back into a few push-ups, planks, and some additional core work.
Tues - Kelly came out to run one of my 5 mile loops. It was a sunny, beautiful run.

This is Kelly on the left. This pic is from Dec. 2008. We ran the CellularSouth Half Marathon in Madison, MS last Dec. She is one of my yoga teachers and is great at it.

Wed. - today I went to my first yoga class in 3 weeks, and I walked 5 miles with Amber.

Thurs - met Dawn at the Longleaf (rails to trails) for 7 miles. We managed to finish our run before the rain. Yay!This is a pic from a few years ago. (from the left-Charles, Dawn in orange,Kily,Jim, Ginny (note to self - never wear stripes that go around, not to worry shirt has already been discarded), and Amber is on the right, in black. Amber is pregnant and will have the baby in Dec. So exciting!

Fri - today I met Jennifer to run on some hills we ended with 3.7 miles. (Jen - we need to get some pics of us for our blogs)

Sat. - yikes a solo run - I have been getting spoiled with the company. It makes the runs go by so fast when I am chatting with friends. Today, I ran 7.3 miles. I had to "fix" that .7 from the Fri run. (yes, it was bugging me). I also ran today with a new hydration belt to give it a try. It wasn't too bad, but does add some weight for sure. I will need to do a few more runs with it before adjusting 100% to it. I will not use it all of the time, but it will be nice to use it from time to time instead of driving out to drop waters. Also, when I get used to the extra weight, and then go to a race and run without it, I will feel like I am as light as a feather and will feel really FAST. The run today was in South Louisiana. It was cool, but the humidity is definitely alive and kicking (kicking my butt) in S. LA.
So this week, I ended with 27 miles of running and 1 yoga class. Today, I will go for a walk, hopefully around an hour, but definitely a minimum of 30 min. and I will do some yoga, with core work emphasis.

So the plan goes like this. I have 8 weeks until the Rocket City marathon in Huntsville, AL. To mix things up a bit and keep myself entertained, I will be doing some short speed work. Basically, I will be doing speed work for 5ks, but keeping my long runs in so that I can run Huntsville. I will be running 200s, 400s, and maybe some 800s. I will run more 200s than the others because "that's my favorite," and that's what helped me to pr in the 5k (23:06) in 2008. I hope to run a few 5ks and see what happens with those for a few weeks. Around mid Jan. I will start my training for Boston. At that point, I will go back to the longer intervals - 800s, 1600s, etc.

Quick note on the diet, weight, food side. I have maintained my weight loss which I am very excited about, however, the past 4 days have been BAD. My plan is to STOP the backsliding right here, and get back on track. As we go into the holiday season, I do not want to undo my HARD work over the summer. Also, I want to be ready for Huntsville, and really ready for Boston and weight gain is NOT a part of either plan. After eating so well over the summer,(healthier than ever before) I received some disappointing medical test results (cholesterol & blood pressure). It basically depressed me and I gave myself permission to eat horribly for several days, which accomplishes nothing positive. So I said it, I will regroup, put my pity party aside, and get back to my better eating. I MUST!