*UPDATE* WEEK#7 COMPLETED

Week#7 is now in the books. 22 total miles were run this week and the Saturday run was extremely difficult and painful. My weekday runs were all strong, nothing unexpected and everything went fine. Beginning Thursday I started adding in resistence band exercises with my stretching IN ADDITION to starting up my running diet that was given to me earlier in the week by my nutritionist.

Saturday's run was 12 miles and was scheduled to be relatively the same course as last Saturday - just add one mile. But I made two decisions on the morning of the run that really changed things. 1) Because the weather was supposed to be 80 degrees today, I decided to sleep in a bit and push my run into the later part of the morning. (I have read several articles that say the single most difficult and tragic thing that can happen is to train at 50-60 degrees, then race day comes and the temperature jumps to 75-80. The hydration process really gets interrupted and it affects your performance.) Well, needless to say this is a VERY BIG CHANGE...and I am glad I did it, but the next time I do it will be on a shorter run. 2) The second thing I did was that I plotted a course that goes uphill, downhill, flat, uphill, downhill, flat every every three miles. So what I did is run 4 laps of this course for a total of 12 miles. Bottom line: all the muscles you THINK would hurt.......HURT! Glutes, Hips, Knees - all the "hill climbing" muscle groups. I would say the only part of me that really, really caused me any significant discomfort was the top of the patella on my right knee. Pretty sore and I will be mentioning it to my acupuncturist.All in all - a HARDCORE run that saw me really want to walk several times...but I didn't and I am proud of myself. I finished the 12 mile hill run in a very pedestrian 2:36:40 (13:03/MI).Considering the hills that were tackled...I am willing to accept that. Granted I was off my 12:00/MI pace, but as I stated...that's ok. I finished without walking.

Week #8 INCOMING!! This week sees 3 mi Monday, 5 mi Wednesday, 4 mi Thursday and a flat 12.8 (no hills) on Saturday. Total mileage for week #8 will be 24.8.

Mileage dedications: Mile#3 I dedicate to Katy. My little "scooter". I remember how right after she was born I immediately launched myself into weight loss and exercise. Mile#4 I dedicate to Tori. My stick o' dynomite. Who needs a bobcat for yardwork when I have her. :-)
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