This past Saturday, I had a fantastic 7 mile run that included this…a 10K PR! Of course, this isn’t an official 10K PR because it wasn’t part of an official race. However, it is a 10K training PR! After a sub par week, I was really happy to get out and run on Saturday evening. Last year, when I trained for my first 10K, I ran the 5K route around my apartment twice. This is the same 5K route I used earlier this year when I started training for the Disneyland Half Marathon. Currently, my midweek training runs are over a 4 mile course. So, it was not only good to get out and run in a cool evening, but it was fun to run over the 5K course I used to run twice a week! As I got out on the route, one thing became crystal clear to me…I am stronger than I used to be. When I did those 10K training loops, the second time through was so much slower than the first. This time through, I kept my pace pretty even. The third mile was my fastest at 9:38 (only 13 seconds slower than my fastest mile ever!). So, yeah, it was a good run.

I kept the good vibes going with my first gym workout in nearly a month! It was good to be back at the gym. My performance at the gym was also on par to what I had been doing before. So, it was good to know that, even with nearly a month off, I can still do what I was doing before taking the break. Now, it’s time to get serious about those gym workouts again!

The good vibes came at the end of a very uninspiring week of training. Outside of these two workouts, I only managed one run for 2 miles on Wednesday. So, I’m not happy about that. Even that one run was disappointing. I was attempting 4 miles. However, I learned that the last two miles of my path had no restrooms on that run. So, it was a need to use the restroom that ended my training run on Wednesday. I guess there are worse reasons for ending a run early. However, it did upset me a little that I was quitting for such a seemingly silly reason. The truth is that I have a limited time in which to finish my training runs on the weekdays. So, the walk home to use the restroom meant that I had to end my training early and would not have enough time to get back and finish the final two miles. Of course, I was somewhere around a half mile from home when I stopped. So, if you count the pure walking at the end, I did finish more like 2.5 miles.

Here’s a look at this past week…

Monday – rest day

Tuesday – took the day off due to mental fatigue

Wednesday – Ran 2 miles out of 4 scheduled miles

Thursday – took the day off to take care of some personal matters

Friday – planned rest day

Saturday – Ran 7 miles (with a new training 10K PR!)

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

Week 10 is not off to the best start as I’m under the weather today. It’s just a cold, but enough of one to keep me out of work. I’m feeling better now. So, hopefully, I’ll be able to get out and run again tomorrow. I was super inspired watching the NYC Marathon yesterday! There are 10 weeks to go before my first marathon at Walt Disney World! Wednesday will mark the half way point between the Disneyland Half Marathon and the Walt Disney World Marathon. With no more races between now and the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend, I’m focused completely on getting ready for my very first full marathon.