Monday July 6^th—This was a complete rest day for me. Normally I walk or bike or do something. Today…..nothing. It helped that it was raining the entire day with no break in sight. We ordered take out for dinner and I had a chicken parm grinder and then later we got blizzards. What an awesome and much needed rest day!

I’m going to share with you a picture from the 2008 Boston Marathon. I got an email that they were opening up the vault to past races. How exciting!! I couldn’t afford to buy these photos back in the day so was super stoked to be able to buy them today. I hope they open up 2005 as that was the first year I was there.

Tuesday July 7^th—Opted for the treadmill today as my legs were feeling so beat from all the running that I’ve been doing. I’m thankful to have a treadmill, especially on days like this and also in the winter when its too cold to get outside. I don’t run much inside during the nice weather but a lot more when it’s cold. My run today had a little spice in the middle. It was 3 mile warm up, then 8 x 1 minute speed (pace between 7:00-7:15) with 1 minute easy recovery in between, cool down to 9 miles. This went well and I enjoyed the different scenery and softer surface!

Wednesday July 8^th—Legs feeling much better today.  Getting out for my run was much easier. I was scheduled to go 5 easy miles but went 8 since I had the time and for the challenge.  We are going to be finished this challenge by end of this week, which is so much faster than any of us had anticipated! 

Afterwork, I went out for a 4.25 mile walk.  And now my legs are back to feeling like crap LOL.

Thursday July 9^th—I woke up today and my heel was a bit off (tender) And my legs, let’s not even go there.  Wow.  Hurting. On my schedule was this crazy fartlek pyramid 5k to 15k but I opted to just go easy miles and see how I felt.  I got my 7 miles in and they felt ok, manageable.  But after I was just not feeling well.  I iced my heel and said some prayers that this was a fluke thing and not anything serious.

Friday July 10^th—Was going to do the run that I missed yesterday today but decided that I wasn’t going to push myself. There really is no point in that. So I ended up taking my mother in laws dog for a short run (a little less than a mile) and then getting out by myself for another 7 miles. My heel was feeling much better, which meant the ice helped and I really think it was just me doing too much.

Saturday July 11^th—My rest day can’t come soon enough. However, I knew that we were so very close to being done our race across America that I needed to get my miles in. Luckily on my schedule was an easy long run! YAY! A lot of times my coach will schedule speedwork built into my long run and it can be a doozy in the summer heat. I love the summer heat but it just makes it more challenging. I went out for 7 miles and then stopped back home to change my shorts and fill my water up. Anyone else do that? I was sweaty again very quickly but it was nice to have dry shorts for a minute LOL.

Once I got back and showered, I then entered my miles in and then saw that WE FINISHED the race!!! It was an amazing feeling to have finished and we came in 3^rd place. About a week or so behind the 1^st and 2^nd place teams and those runners were ultra-runners. What a confidence booster. But also, my body was ready for a break. When we signed up, we talked about doing 30 miles a week, but I ended up running/walking a total of 394 miles in 1 day short of 6 weeks. My other teammate did 419 miles. CRAZY!! It goes to show you that you can do hard things! You can push through! We all got on a zoom call to celebrate with a virtual happy hour.

Sunday July 12^th—I think in my mind I was ready to be done and not run today. We were done the challenge and so I should take the day off, right? NO! My rest days are on Monday and on my schedule, today was 8 miles- going from easy pace to moderate. I just went with what felt right because that first mile was complete and pure misery. It’s like my legs forgot how to work. But I kept going and got my 8 in and it felt great to get my run in. I even went a different route and ended up finding another track that was open… BONUS!! And this track was clay, not gravel. Double Bonus!

We went to visit my cousin in the afternoon and she has a trampoline- I was in my glory! My husband won’t let me get one for our house ☹️

I ended the week with 52 running miles and 6 miles of walking.