This past week completed week 9 of my 16-week Run Less Run Faster (affiliate link) training cycle for my OBX Half Marathon. I was thrilled for cooler mornings even though the day temperatures heated up pretty high. The cooler mornings were just what I needed to finally hit my goal paces on my track repeats and tempo run!

Tuesday’s track repeats were probably my favorite and easiest workout to date during this training cycle. I was scheduled to run 2 x 1600 at a 7:40 goal pace and 2 x 800 at a 7:27 goal pace with 90 second rest intervals between each repeat, bookended by a 1-mile warm-up and 1-mile cool-down. I hit my 1600’s at 7:35 and 7:33, and my 800’s at 7:26 and 7:16 paces. Boom! Thank you cooler mornings! Even if it was 99% humidity, the 61° made it tolerable.

With the sun rising a little later each morning, it’s just getting light as I finish up my workouts and it’s tough taking pictures of my run before I head home. I took my GoPro with me even though I didn’t expect much of a picture, but have to say that I love how my right Brooks Glycerin 15 (affiliate link) is all that’s in focus, and I deemed this picture a keeper!

 

Thursday’s tempo run was pretty straight forward – run a 1-mile warm-up, then 5 miles at an 8:28 goal tempo pace, and finish it up with a 1-mile cool-down. I hit my tempo miles at 8:34, 8:27, 8:19, 8:29, and 8:23. Again, the cooler morning air made hitting my goal paces so much easier.

Even though my friends were out on the trail doing their own tempo thing and we weren’t able to run together, it’s always comforting to know they’re nearby. When I least expected it, Bill came riding toward me and turned to accompany me. After a couple of miles, I told him I’d be fine and for him to take off and get his own sweat on. Since it was dark and I didn’t bother to take any blurry pictures, I stopped to take this as I passed by on the trail. BTW, Carolina Brothers makes great barbecue!

 

Since I hadn’t seen my shenanigizer friend Erin in a really long time, I made sure to show up at a run where, rumor had it, she’d be joining us. We had a great MRTT showing considering we had a team of our Saturday morning regulars running Ragnar DC. I took this picture at one of the groups’ turnaround points (other runners were at various other paces and are not pictured).

 

I was scheduled to run 13 miles so Kim and I continued on to turn at 6.5 miles. When Kim and I were about a mile from the end of our run, we saw Bill riding toward us. He turned and kept us company for about a half mile and then continued on for a 52-mile ride.

 

My plan called for me to maintain an 11:06 pace, but as I’ve mentioned in previous weeks, I feel really comfortable running my longer runs at a 10:30 or so. Kim and I finished our run at a 10:18 average pace, a little faster than I’d planned, but totally doable.

The clouds were gorgeous so after saying my goodbyes to Kim, I walked up to the bridge overpass for some running pictures. Just as I set my GoPro up, Helen ran by. She and I met about a year ago when she called me from the running store and said, “Your shoes are here and they’re gorgeous!!!” (affiliate link – my color is no longer available) Of course, I dropped everything and ran to the store to get my new shoes. After she and I chatted for a little while we realized we followed each other on Instagram. I love meeting virtual friends in person, and love how awesome the running community is!

I explained to Helen how I take my Instagram photos (tips can be found here and here). I offered to take some pictures of her running solo and then we made a few passes by the camera together.

 

Remember this little mole from last week? Look closely in his front left paw. He wasn’t dead, he was just passed out from a night of partying on the trail! Fortunately, my parties on the trail include running and having fun with my friends, and if I were to pass out, it would be from physical exhaustion.

 

Yesterday morning, I found yet another small rodent passed out on the trail, but without a bottle near by. As my client who had her art major daughter photo shop the bottle of booze in the other moles little hand hilariously said, “I wonder if they went to the same party?”

 

In case you missed it, this past week I posted the following article:

Looking ahead to this coming week, tomorrow I’ll post my September Race Linkup. Please feel free to join me and let your friends know which races they can find you running this fall. I have another throwback race recap scheduled for Thursday and hope to have my Shenandoah Half Marathon recap ready to post on Tuesday or Wednesday. This past week’s excuse for not getting it written is that on Thursday afternoon, when I had a four-hour hole in my schedule and time to write my recap, my blog was down. I spent over an hour and a half on the phone with GoDaddy before I finally got it resolved, leaving me with not enough time left over to finish my recap.

In addition to the runs I mentioned above, here’s a run-down of other workouts I completed this past week…

 

Fitness tools beyond the equipment in my gym that I used during the week included:

Cameras used for blog photography include:

 

  • Questions:
  • Are your runs parties on the trail or quiet and reflective times? 
  • Have you ever passed out? ~ I used to faint after donating blood. I would be fine until I’d stand up to leave and then, boom! I finally just quit donating. That was years ago, so perhaps I should try again…
  • Did you race this weekend? 

 

Have a great week!

 

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

 

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I’m linking up with Holly at HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!

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