Hi all. This is week two of my training. And I’ll get to my workouts (and flub ups) in a moment. This was a tough week for me (sometime I’ll tell you the whole story) but for now, suffice it to say I experienced being deeply and unexpectedly misunderstood and felt saddened and defeated as a result. So before I tell you what my running schedule looked like this week, allow me to share a video from a Ted Talk that gave me a great deal of encouragement when my friend referred me to it today. We all experience moments when we put something out into the world that isn’t understood or received well by others. It can hurt like hell, but it’s up to us to grow from hard times and move forward.

Training this week:

Sunday: 4 slow miles on my favorite route near my house.

Monday: Speed work: Warm up and then 26 minutes of alternating between one minute of running hard (at my mile trial pace) and one minute of jogging. Then a cool down.

Tuesday: Metaphorical and literal headache—no running.

Wednesday: Was supposed to be my pace work but my “headache” continued and I didn’t run for a second day. I should have. It always centers me.

Thursday: Pace work: Warm up and then three one-mile repeats with a two-minute break between each. Carol challenged me to get to the point where my LAST mile was my fastest (which would mean I’d have to save up energy in the first two miles rather than start too fast as I did last week). This week mile 1 was 9:37; mile 2 was 9:34; mile 3 was 9:33. Success for now. The ultimate goal for my 10K training is that each training mile would be 9:30. Next week I’ll do three one-mile repeats with only one minute of resting in between.

Friday: 3 slow miles through my neighborhood.

Saturday: Long run: 8 miles again.

Confession: I only did my 3-minute core exercises once this week. I promise to do better next week.

How was your week runners? What did you run through? What slowed you down? Whatever your week was like, you made it through. Well done!