Well hello there HAPPY FRIDAY! Today is one of those days when I am more than ready for the end of the week. This week has been exhausting and long, but we were blessed with a snow day today! I love lake effect snow even when it doesn’t result in a day off from work, but getting that snow day call just makes it even sweeter.
I started my day off with a short yoga session. I spent Thanksgiving break recovering from a regular cold, but just as I thought it was getting better it started to get worse. This week was spent recovering from Bronchitis and putting on Winter Music Concerts for my two elementary schools. It was a busy week but so rewarding to see the kids excited and proud of their hard work! I am just about back to normal now but thought I would take this weekend a little easy from running since the cold plus speed usually makes my cough even worse. Come Monday I will be back at the running plan.
Monday and Wednesday were rest days this week because of our music concerts. Tuesday was a short interval workout. I ran 5 x 400s and felt great! It’s been tricky getting out before it gets dark, but I’ve found a great path in my neighborhood that is a quarter of a mile. If it starts to get dark before I’m able to get outside I can just run this short path back and forth for my interval sessions and be right by my house. This makes me feel much safer knowing I can get back if I need to! Plus all of the neighborhood lights make it easier to see and keep me away from any traffic.
Next week starts to get into the double digit weekend runs. I don’t feel like I’m really training for a race until I start to get those longer runs in once a week. Nothing compares to that feeling of coming in before lunch time having run for a few hours and still feeling pretty good. I think half marathons are a great happy medium between short distances and the full marathon. Those long runs still give me the satisfaction of a long run but aren’t nearly as depleting as the marathon training runs.
The plans for this afternoon include making a gingerbread house, making Christmas cookies, watching a Christmas movie and eating ice cream! Oops, I think I should have run today. Tomorrow my family will be heading to Chicago for the Christmas Festival on Navy Pier. Chicago is one of my favorite places around the holidays and I can’t wait to see it in the snow this year. We are supposed to get another 8 inches of snow by the end of this weekend. Winter is really kicking in this year! I can’t complain though. Running out there just makes me feel like a super hero when I’m facing the elements.
Hope you have an amazing weekend! Don’t forget to enjoy some Christmas treats. I’m all about balance in your diet, but it’s okay to splurge sometimes and let yourself not feel guilty. These treats only come once a year. 🙂
