This week marked the final week of my training cycle leading up to the Grand Tetons Half. I mixed things up a bit and moved my hill repeats to Sunday, went on an easy run on Tuesday morning, and with that, my final run prior to the race was behind me. I lifted on Monday and Wednesday as usual but took Friday off. My goals for this race were simply to have fun, so I didn’t cut back on lifting like I normally would. Knowing that I’d miss strength training all next week due to travel, I didn’t want to miss any more time in the gym than necessary.

I hit the hill about 3 hours later than usual, so I ran in the sun and was greeted with heat and humidity that I wasn’t used to this spring. Somehow thought, I managed to cut 30 seconds off my average pace while doing the exact same workout. Just before starting my final hill repeat, I saw three friends from my MRTT chapter and we stopped briefly to chat.

 

On Tuesday I hit my local neighborhood alone since my runner friends were on the hill doing repeats. I slowed my pace to about 30 seconds slower than usual, mostly due to not pushing to keep up with my friends. I guess for the week, my pace was a wash!

Thursday was a travel day, ending in Logan, Utah where Bill and I lived while he was in grad school. It was fun exploring where we’d spent the first two years of our marriage. We checked out the USU campus, the canyon, and even saw Ragnar teams waiting for their first runners to come in from their first legs of Ragnar Wasatch Back. Interestingly, they had started at the Utah State University stadium where Bill and I used to run up and down the stadium steps.

Our view for two years

USU Maverik Stadium

As part of our stay at the Utah State University Conference Inn, we were treated to USU’s famous Aggie ice cream and both chose blue mint which is the same as the traditional green mint chocolate chip, something we ate way too much of while living in Logan!

 

On Friday morning we drove to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, about three hours north of Logan. We were reunited with the beauty of the majestic mountains and reminisced about hiking to Lake Solitude while on our honeymoon and making day-trips while living just three-hours south. The most important thing to do, though, was to pick up my packet and check out the new course that had to be redesigned just this past week due to a bridge being closed because of high water.

 

With a race start of 6:30 AM, I was out of bed by 3:45 on Saturday morning. Fortunately, my body was still on East Coast time, so it didn’t complain too much. I’ll write a full race recap in a couple of weeks, but for now, suffice it to say that the only other race I’ve run with such a beautiful backdrop was the Big Sur Marathon. I’d been somewhat nervous about how my lungs would handle the high altitude, and between the cold air (31° – feels like 27°) and high altitude, I could definitely feel the increased workload being placed on my body.

I ran steady and pushed, but didn’t overdo it. My goal continued to be to have fun and take pictures along the way. I felt pretty good, but aways felt like I was working harder than the pace on my Garmin (affiliate link) showed. With a loose goal of running between a 2:15 and 2:30 race while telling myself I would be okay with a 3:00 finish time, I shocked myself with a 2:10:07 (9:54 pace) and placing 2nd out of 44 women in my age group.

 

For more pictures from beautiful Utah and Wyoming, check out my Instagram.

 

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

Looking ahead to this coming week…

  • Wednesday – Please be sure to join me for my monthly Wednesday Word linkup where this month’s word is dedicated.

 

In addition to what I mentioned above, here’s a complete run-down of my workouts (completed mostly in our home gym) from this past week…

 

  • Questions:
  • Have you run one of the National Parks Halves? ~ Shenandoah Half  and Grand Tetons Half for me! 
  • How early do you cut strength training back prior to your races? ~ When I ran marathons, I stopped lifting legs three weeks and upper body two weeks prior to the race, especially if I was racing. 
  • Did you race this weekend? ~ I did, I ran the Grand Tetons Half!

 

And that’s a wrap… 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 Wendy from Taking The Long Way Home for their Weekly Wrap. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!