I guess this is turning into Training Update Tuesday. I'll keep this one short and sweet because if I'm going to get up for my run tomorrow morning I really should go to bed...like...NOW. So. In a nutshell last weeks training: STRONG. That seemed to be the theme and I was totally on board with that. As the week progressed it seemed like things were really clicking and that had the majority of my 51 miles feeling smooth and strong. Monday: Yoga DVD. Rodney Yee FTW.

Tuesday: Eight treadmill miles. Temps were in the negatives. I just couldn't bring myself outside.

Wednesday: Five snowy morning miles, followed by a kick-ass indoor track workout. I knew when I went to bed on Tuesday night that Wednesday was going to be a strong day. I could just feel it. And it was. The track workout was 6x800 on five minute cycles with a lap jog (160m at the indoor track) and a little bit standing rest before the five minute mark ticked past. We followed this up with 5x160 (one lap). My paces were strong: about 6:00/mi for the 800's and around 33 seconds each for the 160's. Although I was tired by the fourth 800 I was able to finish strong and then kick-hard on those 160's. I ran a total of 5.5 miles on the track, 55 laps total. It's a lot of around and around and around, but honestly I love every minute of it. I could do it all day every day. Well...maybe not. But it's a great way to make winter running fun (and bearable). Indoor track, I love you.

Thursday: Five recovery-paced miles on the treadmill.

Friday: Eight mostly easy miles with 3 up-tempo miles in the middle. Realized after I picked the route that I wanted to do some tempo-ish miles in there and forgot about the hills on this one. So there were hills in mile 2 and 3 of the three tempo miles. Which is why I'll call them "up-tempo" instead of "tempo" :)

Saturday: Four easy miles. And on Saturday easy happened to be sub 8's. Nice. I think it was the 45 degrees and fewer layers that made me feel like flying. (Swapped Saturday and Sunday's runs again due to a scheduling snafu lack of communication between my husband and I. Actually he communicated perfectly clearly...I just wasn't listening. Oops.

Sunday: Sixteen Hilly miles. I did this run on Sunday afternoon. It was beautiful, a little chilly but beautiful. I went into this run just wanting it to feel easy; I knew it would be hilly (1174 feet in elevation gain) and gave myself permission to take it easy. I felt strong the entire run and it wasn't until after the major hills that I realized my pace had remained steadily in the mid 8's. The past few weeks I've been hard pressed to get some of my runs out of the 9's. But on Sunday 8-8:20 felt so comfortable it was almost shocking. Especially considering all the hills. I finished the run with a nice 8:25 average.