Howdy, y’all! I can’t tell you how happy I am to be reaching the end of week three, mostly because I spent a good chunk of the week cramming for a midterm and then immediately taking off for a wedding weekend in New Hampshire. This week’s training had a number of fun new additions. On Thursday, I went to my first SEAC > Speed workout, which included a 2 mile jog to the store, another mile to Boston Common, and then fast hill repeats up and down Beacon Hill. Combined with another couple of miles home, this one was definitely a doozy, but a lot of fun! I met a couple of new folks, one of whom is also training for Chicago. I’m still easing my way into the Heartbreakers crew, but everyone I’ve met has been fantastic. Keep an eye out for a future post on how to find training buddies–not an easy feat!

On Friday I scooted out of work early and J and I hopped in the car to drive 2.5 hours up to his friends’ wedding, which was at a ski resort at the foot of the White Mountains. The wedding was fun, laid-back, and very personal–a lovely weekend all around. We even got to take a chair lift in our wedding clothes to get to the summit ceremony–so cool! As I always do when I’m travelling, I went and asked the hotel staff to recommend a running route. I lucked out and ended up chatting with a super badass lady marathoner who gave me some great ideas. The problem was, any way I went I would literally be running up a mountain. So out I went, at 10 am, in the warm sun, and climbed close to 1,300 feet. For reference, that’s more elevation gain than you lose across the entire Boston Marathon course. My 9:32 pace definitely felt MUCH harder than any of the low 8:00-range long runs I’ve done so far!

Either way, it was beautiful and I was so happy to get it done and enjoy the rest of the wedding, followed by a sunny Red Sox game for Father’s Day.

On Tuesday night I met up with some of my training buddies from last summer for a track workout. It was my first time doing track without pacers, so I definitely went out a little bit fast, but it was a fun challenge to work on feeling out my own pace (and so nice to catch up with the Boston Fit crew–miss you guys!)

Here’s the overall weekly recap:

Week 3

• Thursday: morning yoga, 7.8 miles (hills, drills, and thrills)
• Friday: OFF
• Saturday: 12.1 miles at 9:32 pace (running up a mountain and such)
• Sunday: OFF
• Monday: 3.5 miles at 8:44 pace
• Tuesday: morning yoga, 6.8 miles (track workout)
• Wednesday: 3.3 miles at 8:49 pace

Can’t complain too much about the lovely weather we’ve been having! We’re off to relax by the lake up in Maine this weekend. I might give my first 6 day week a whirl if I’m still feeling good. First 13+ mile long run since last summer… here I come.