My second to last week of training!

• Monday, cross-training: Enjoyed the first extended practice of the 90 Days of Yoga course. My legs were extra stiff after Sunday’s run, and my left quad was quivering in some of the poses — but it was clearly what I needed to get my day started. I’m looking forward to diving into this practice a bit more and really getting to know it.
• Tuesday, tempo run: This run was less than stellar.  I wanted a 1-mile warm-up, 3 miles @ 9:34, 1-mile cool-down.  Unfortunately, it was dark, pouring rain, and I couldn’t read my Garmin, much less see the ground in front of me.  So I had no idea what my splits were, whether I should push it harder or not, and I was afraid of going all out and taking a spill (breaking your knee cap after falling in broad daylight on a bright, sunshine-y day will do that to you).  So I ended up running a disappointing 10:01, 10:16, and 9:57.  I know from my last tempo runs that I’m actually capable of this workout, but surely the rain and darkness did me in this time. Note to self: It’s not summer anymore.
• Wednesday, cross-training: Level 2 of the Shred, plus 15 minutes of extra leg, glutes and abs moves.
• Thursday, cross-training: Wanted to do my speed training, but it was pouring in the morning, so did Level 3 of the Shred instead.
• Friday, speed training: Plan was 1-mile warm-up, 3 miles @ 9:01 pace (with 400-meter rest intervals), 1-mile cool-down.  I’d be lying if I said this workout didn’t intimidate me.  In fact, I was down right dreading it because I knew it would kick my ass.  And it did, but in a good way.  I managed the first two splits at 9:06 and 8:59, and pushed through the third one to get a 9:14 — not bad considering that I didn’t do this workout on a track and had to swerve around pedestrians, traffic, etc.  It was so, so hard and I really wanted to give up. But it’s good for my body to have to push through at a tough pace even on tired legs.  Plus, these paces put my race pace (which should be closer to 9:40) in perspective.  Maybe I can PR at this 10K!
• Saturday: Rest.
• Sunday, “long” run:  I had mapped out a 7-mile run so that I could end up at Kottbusser Tor to watch some of the Berlin Marathon with mein Schatz, but I took a wrong turn somewhere and ran 9 miles instead. Whoops! Thank god for my smart phone and Google maps, otherwise I never would have found my way.  In any case, I was aiming for 10K with a 6:15/km (10:04/mile) pace (borrowing mein Schatz’s Garmin, which is set in kilometers), plus warm-up and cool-down. Ended up with 6:13, 6:14, 6:28, 6:34, 6:15, 6:19, 6:19, 6:24, 6:21, 6:24. Not completely on pace, but  I felt like I could have easily pushed the pace harder at a few points, but decided to save my energy instead.

The Bremen 10K is next week!  To say I’m obsessed with figuring out my race strategy would be an understatement.  I’ve always done pretty well in half-marathons by starting off cautiously, pushing it up a notch in the middle, and then going all out at the end.  But the 10K is not really a long enough distance to let yourself take it too easy at the beginning and then expect to make the time up over the course.  Racing this 10K is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone!  More on my goals once I figure them out.

P.S. For those Ryan Gosling fans, there’s an awesome tumblr called Hey Runner Girl. SOOO great.