Week 11, on paper, looked like an easy week. After 3 weekends of long runs, this past weekend, I only had to run 4 miles. Easy…right?

Like Luke Skywalker, I headed into this week ready for an easy one. I should have listened to Princess Leiah. It’s a trap. After weekend runs of 8, 6.5, and 9.5 miles, I slacked off this week because I knew that it was going to be an easy week. Like Luke, I sprung the trap and found myself in quite a battle.

***Side Note: How great was Empire Strikes Back?***

Of course, my slacking off wasn’t intentional. I missed 2 workouts this week. On Wednesday, I felt the need for a mental break from training. My head was feeling a little congested by the end of my work day. So, I thought taking off a workout at the gym would be no big deal. I was wrong. That congestion continued on through the night, causing me to lose several hours of sleep. Then, when that seemed to go away, something got in my eye and it took me another hour before finally falling asleep. The lack of sleep almost caused me to miss the day of work. I was 5 minutes away from calling out. However, I found a way in. The problem was that I had very little energy all day. To complicate things even more, I forgot to put my ice pack things (that keep my lunch and dinner cool during the day) in the freezer the night before. So, I had to buy lunch at work and wouldn’t get dinner until I got home. All of that doomed my Thursday run. Lack of energy killed my motivation to go out and run. So, the result? Two workouts missed. I tried to make one of them up on Friday to no avail. I was still trying to get back to functional all of Friday.

Like Luke Skywalker, I battled back.

The bad week of missed workouts, corrected itself on the weekend, however. Saturday called for my second magic mile time trial (read about my first magic mile here) and 3 more miles after that. When I knew I wasn’t going to get any kind of workout on Friday night, I went out to scout a better location for my magic mile. The thing that sucks about living in a more urban setting is that most of the tracks are connected with a school and are closed to the public on the weekends. I went to a few locations I found that had tracks to find them all locked off. In my scouting, I did find a nice park that, according to MapMyRun, had a half mile loop around it without any traffic lights to alter my time. So, that’s where I chose to run. Saturday night was a great night for me. I knocked 54 seconds off my previous magic mile time, finishing the mile in 9 minutes, 45 seconds! I was targeting a time of 10 minutes (39 seconds faster than the first magic mile). So, I was on top of the world at finishing 15 seconds faster than I had hoped for! That energy carried me through the next 3 miles. As a matter of fact, the next 3 turned into 3.10 miles because the first 2 of those 3 were faster than I’d done 2 miles before. I was on target for my fastest 5K of the year. However, 2 traffic lights took the record down. Oh well. It was a fantastic 5K anyways! I felt amazing at the end of it!

Here’s how week 11 played out…

Monday – Rest Day

Tuesday – Ran 3.10 miles

Wednesday – Unplanned Rest Day

Thursday – Unplanned Rest Day

Friday – Rest Day (scouted locations for magic mile locations)

Saturday – Ran 4.10 miles (with one Magic Mile)

Sunday – Elliptical Machine for 30 minutes, abs, leg press, chin ups, dips

So, I finished 3 workouts this week. It’s the lowest total of workouts since before I began this journey towards the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend. I’m determined to get back on it this week and hit all 5 workouts. 11 weeks of training in the books with 7 to go until the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend and Dumbo Double Dare.