This week was a step-back week in terms of mileage, and I wound up stepping way back by skipping my planned Saturday race. I’m fine with that, though. I’m now easily up to a 7-mile long run, and next week I’ll be doing a whopping 7.5, so I think I should be fine. This weekend I decided it was better to let my body recover from a very (ahem) festive birthday party.

I really needed some extra motivation for Mondays speed run, hence the loud neon pictured above. It worked.

Monday: 4 miles, speed workout. I did 4x 400m as the tofu of the sandwich, layered with 400m recoveries, all between two delicious one-mile slices of warm-up and cool-down bread. So tasty. Fast paces are capable of being fairly fast-ish these days. Recovery paces are glacial.

Tuesday: PT. Did all the floor stuff: various leg raises, bridges, clam shells, hip openers, etc.

Wednesday: 4 miles. Miles 1, 2, and 4 went by pretty smoothly, quickly, and without incident. Mile 3, on the other hand, was a hot mess. I have no idea what happened, but I felt fatigued and phlegmy, had to stop and blow my nose, and dropped my pace by about a minute. It was also near the end of mile 3 when I passed by the home of an elderly woman who happened to be going in her front door. When she saw me running by, she let out a long, loud, theatrical, guffaw of laughter. So obviously I was doing something right.

Thursday: Power Vinyasa. I love this class and I’m so happy this new studio opened in town. I really wish I could afford to go twice a week, but the 8-class pass is $88 and I told myself I could only afford it if I made the 8 classes last for 8 weeks. So, I just try to get the most out of it when I go.

Friday: Rest day.

Saturday: Hangover day. Friday night, I went out with a bunch of friends to celebrate two birthdays (CW’s and that of another good friend), so, as was only appropriate, I drank twice as much as I should have. Due to Friday night’s debauchery and a gross rainstorm, I skipped the 10K race I had considered for this morning. I wasn’t feeling that jazzed about it, anyway, so it was no big loss. I wasn’t pre-registered, either, so I don’t think it even counts as a DNS.

Sunday: PT on the schedule tonight. Will edit later with whatever I do.