I’m so happy to have finished week #11 of this training plan. This training cycle just seemed to go on forever and I felt like I was going nowhere. Well, I’m finally here, the last week of training (week 12) has me doing lots of short and easy runs this week and to be honest, I’m relieved!

Week #11 started off a little shady with a missed workout Monday as I just wasn’t “feeling it”. Seriously, that was my decision to not work out! The good news is that the rest of the week went off extremely well!

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

Monday June 6th: Stretch & Strengthen | Nothing. As mentioned above, I just wasn’t into working out. My husband and I took the opportunity to start cleaning the house/getting organized for Lilly’s birthday party that we’d host on the weekend.

Tuesday: 8k | 8k. Had an amazing evening run that turned out to be a negative split that I worked hard for. Once I figured out that it could happen, I worked hard to maintain my pace and increase it each kilometer. It honestly felt amazing!

Wednesday: 10 x 400’s | 10 x 400’s Treadmill. This too was a successful night of running after a full day. I jumped on the treadmill with a lot of caution and a little fear. How am I going to do this 10 times? I ran for 2k to warm up and then started increasing my pace. In the end, I ran 9k and nailed each 400 progressively.

Thursday: 5k + Strength | 5k. Though this run was on my schedule, life just wasn’t going to line up for me to run it. I was on the road all day with work and NEEDED the night to get ready for Lilly’s birthday party (clean house). It sounds like our house is super dirty but it’s not….we just have stuff everywhere that needed to be put away.

Saï asked when I was going to run and I said I wasn’t. This surprised him as he knew I needed to run 5k. We went on and started cleaning/organizing etc. and finished roughly around 8:40pm. I decided that since it was still light out, I could get in a 5k. So off I went, in the rain and pounded out a sub 30 minute 5k…something I haven’t done in months!

Friday: Rest Day | Rest Day. Nailed it again! I even enjoyed this amazing “root beer”. This beer is amazing….just like root beer…so good…so bad as you can consume many! It’s Canadian 😉

Saturday: 5k @ Pace | Party Day at our house! We hosted 12 girls for Lilly’s 6th birthday! CRAZY! No running.

Sunday: 19k Long Run | 19k Long Run. Krystol and I were going to meet at 6:30 AM and head out on the trail for an extremely flat 19k. At 6:20 my phone beeped and my husband said “what time are you getting up”…..After looking at my phone, “oh shit”….NOW!!!! I jumped out of bed, went to the bathroom, got dress, shoved a 1/2 piece of bread with peanut butter in my mouth, went back to the bathroom and then tied up my laces as Krystol waited in her car.

Wow, I felt so terrible for not being ready! Luckily, she’s the most laid back person I’ve ever met. Off we went. The first 10k was great…like I was loving it. Lots of chatting back and forth. Around 13k the wheels started to slide a little and I needed a few random walking breaks here and there.

Post run selfie.

Somewhere around the 15k-16k the wheels were starting to fall off and the struggle bus was coming in to pick me up. The last 3k was horrible for me. Krystol takes breaks only if I do, otherwise she’ll just keep running comfortably. I don’t now if it was the lack of prep beforehand, lack of fuel during (Honey Stinger Chews, Nuun and Water) or just the fact that around the 14k mark I struggle lately with running. Who knows??!?!?!

In the end, we got it done in 2:07:xx. Add on another 2.1k and you can probably figure out what my finish time will be. I’m not upset about this long run or the time it took me to finish. I’m more frustrated with my struggle and feel that my “fitness” is not where it should be. However, having said that….my hamstring feels great! So, THAT is a pretty good win for me!

KM run this week: 41 km

KM run this training cycle: 384 km (woah!)

Overall: It was a really good week for me and it’s finally nice to feel like it was a good running week.

What’s next: This week’s training plan as me doing the following: Stretch & Strengthen, 6k, 30 tempo run, 5k, rest, rest, RACE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m hoping to post a few times this week about the race and how I’m feeling about it but haven’t had a lot of time for blogging lately. If you want a short version of how the training is going, check me out on Instagram.

How was your weekend?

Anyone race? Train?

How long goes it take you to get your house ready for a party?