I Run with Fast Women

This has been such a long week! I don't know about you, but I'm very glad Friday is here! Last night, I attempted to gather together a Thursday night run with our running group, the F'N Runners. During the week, they normally meet at 5pm on Wednesdays. As I am just leaving my office in downtown Chicago at 5pm, I can never make these runs. Also RFK meets at 5:45pm to promptly start their group runs at 6pm. I can never make those either because I don't get home until after 6pm. Our group met at 6:30 on the trail. Considering this was the first meeting, I'd say attendance was high.

L to R: Michelle, Melissa, Genevieve, Kate, me, Amanda. Photo credit: Maggie

It is hard to get a good photo of everyone in the dark while we're also wearing reflective gear. We're going to plan to go again next week and hopefully there will be more folks to join us! I ran with Kate and Maggie for 6 miles (with a quick bathroom break at mile 4). We completed the 6 miles in 51:23 (8:33 pace). It is nice to run with fellow people our same pace and age group! Overall, I had a great time and hope to do it again next week! :)

Reflecting on my workouts from this past week, I didn't run as much as I wanted to. Monday I hit the gym and lifted. Tuesday I took a rest day for Valentine's day. Wednesday I planned to run when I got home from CCD but it was raining and I was too lazy to go to the gym. Thursday when I ran with my group I realized it was the first time I had run since Sunday. Since my work schedule has been pretty crazy, I've been logging more miles during the weekend. I have to get into a better routine of more consistently logging miles instead of bulking up when I have time. I also need to add speedwork back into the routine, especially if I want to break 40:00 for the Shamrock Shuffle this year. When your workload becomes too much to handle, how do you make time for your runs? I've struggled with this recently and I after this week, I'm going to get back on the right track! I have to spread out my workouts without risk of overtraining. Thanks again Hal Higdon for more of your great advice! (Yes, I'm still reading the same book I keep talking about.)

In other news, Abdi Abdirahman will be running the Shamrock Shuffle this year. Too bad I'll be crossing the finish line after he's been long finished. Maybe I'll see him at the post race party and we can become besties? TBD. If you are also running this race, click here and let us know! A blogger meet up is in the works folks! :)