Mom in the Mtns

Hi everyone!  Here’s what I was up to in week 7 of HTH training:

Monday: Rest day

Tuesday:  Skinny Raven’s Urban Challenge run!  Despite collecting a ton of raffle tickets (I even did burpees at one of the raffle ticket checkpoints for extras) I didn’t win anything.  But I did score a free water bottle at one of the check points and got a free shirt from ASICS for trying on their newest shoes!

Wednesday:  HTH group training session at the track.  My stomach had been hurting all day and it was super windy and raining, and the coaches said it would be the hardest workout of the whole training plan.  Lovely.  We did two sessions of 10:00 tempos with a 2 minute break in between, followed by another 5:00 tempo.  This was the first tempo workout where I couldn’t maintain the same speed each time because my stomach hurt so bad (the second 10:00 session was 30 seconds slower than the others), but I’m really proud of myself for pushing so hard when I wasn’t feeling so well.  Ironically I left practice and felt better than I had all day!

A little rain can’t stop me and my running partners from running fast!

Thursday:  I did my own hip-opening yoga routine before work

Friday:  Pre-race rest day and the HTH bracelet reveal party!

Saturday:  I ran the Alaska Run For Women 5 miler and it was kind of a hard race for me.  Official recap coming later this week, but I’ll tell you now that I managed to PR!

Sunday:  It was hot and sunny out at 7:30 pm but I got my long run done!  2 hours = 9 easy miles with 10 minutes of warm up/cool down.  Fun fact:  This was my highest milage week in a while with almost 19 miles of running!  And I’m honestly feeling pretty good and having less hip/glute pain than I was a few weeks ago.

Now on to the fun stuff:  I was so excited to be able to attend the HTH bracelet reveal party at Her Tern on Friday!  I had to miss it last year because I was living in Seward, so there was no way I was going to miss out this year.  It’s a party that is open only to runners of the Her Tern Half, and it was really fun!  I loved getting to hang out with all my fellow runners in our non-running clothes and have some fun shopping and eating.  We were able to check out the official HTH race merchandise by Brooks and the finisher’s bracelet.  It’s a new design every year, and this year’s design is the bottom one (the other two are from the previous 2 years):

It has the race finish line coordinates on it!  I am beyond tempted to buy the matching necklace.  We also got the chance to vote for the One Lucky Guy that’s going to be allowed to run with us.  I’m in love with all the race stuff and I have no idea how I’m going to pick just one shirt to buy.  There are like 5 tank tops I’m in love with, along with these shirts:

Photos courtesy of the HTH Facebook page

I’m loving the training group and the fact that this year I’m getting the full race experience of events and training runs with a great group of girls and coaches.  This is the first time I’ve ever felt like I was part of a running community, and it’s awesome!  I’ve been showing up to Skinny Raven events lately and have been recognizing so many people through this group.  I’ve gone from being a solo runner to doing most of my runs with other people and I can tell it’s making me faster and pushing me harder than if I was running alone.  I’m already sad that the group will be over in a month but I know I’ll be running with some of these girls once it’s over!

Have you ever joined a training group to get ready for a big race?  Would you rather get a medal or a bracelet at the finish line of a half marathon?