The week in review..

Well, it’s my second blog post. It’s harder than I thought to think of a snazzy topic to write about, so I’m just going to write about this past week and what my plans are for the upcoming week.

I’m 6 days away from my longest race to date (a 10k), so this past week I have been sticking to my training plan as close as I can.

Monday – 2 mile run. I did this in my neighborhood. There was nothing special about it, just went out a mile, turned around and came back.

Tuesday – Cross Training. I went to Yoga Sculpt and ended up being the only student! Whoo-hoo for personal training for the price of a class! The teacher really was able to push me and adjust me more than before and it kicked my behind!

Wednesday – 3 mile run. I kinda forgot that kids go trick-or-treating on Halloween night. I’ve never had a single tick-or-treater since leaving the dorm in college many moons ago and don’t have children myself, so I was completely surprised when I turned a corner on my run and encountered little princesses and superheroes! I was going to do 3 miles in my neighborhood, but ran as fast as I could and not knock anyone down to a nearby park and ran laps. No the most exciting, but I was glad the library was close by as I really had to “go” half way through my run.

Thursday – Rest day. After work, I went to dinner with a friend and then relaxed.

Friday – Cross Training. I tried out a new Barre class and it was so much fun! The group was great and the teacher was really encouraging. You could tell a lot of us had never done this type of class before (yoga with some weights and small movements and the help of a ballet barre). Everyone was laughing at themselves embracing their inner prima ballerina.

Saturday  – I was planning to run to a class and then take the bus home, however I got a ticket to see President Obama in Milwaukee at the last minute, so I skipped all my plans for the day and spent it standing around (for 8 hours) and talking to people and listening to Katy Perry and President Obama.

Sunday – Needing to make up for yesterday, I decided to run 5.5 miles to another Barre class. The run was great! I went around Wrigley Field (one of my favorite places in Chicago) and through a number of neighborhoods and made great time. As for the class --- I don’t think I’ll be trying this after another long run! My legs were so tired from standing on Saturday and running 5.5 miles that they were shaking right off the bat in the class. I kept pushing myself, but was complete excMy legs were tired enough from the run and then we did a lot of leg work! My legs sure are hurting today.

This upcoming week, I just have two short runs and then the 10k on Saturday. I feel very prepared for it and am just focusing on trying not to start out too fast. I’m horribly bad about this, but think I’m going to do the run 2 min/walk 1 min routine for the 1^st half of the race and then see what I feel like. I would hope to run the 2^nd half but don’t want to burn out before the end.  What do you do to pace yourself at the start of a race?