Week Two was pretty much the same schedule as Week One, except we changed up the long runs a bit...same mileage, just different distances. Recall, of course, that I went longer last Saturday than I was supposed to!
Monday: 6.21 miles. Nice and easy at an 8:30 pace. There were flurries coming down as I ran.
Tuesday: It snowed 4-5 inches overnight, which basically shuts down St. Louis, so I headed indoors for my track workout instead of trying to do it in the snow. I ended up with 6.49 miles, including a rough estimate of 5x800s (our indoor track is 8 1/2 laps to the mile, which a bunch of twists and turns instead of being oval shaped). The 800s were slower than last week, which I account to the extra turns, the fact that I run indoors on the outer lap, and the imprecise measurement I gave myself for the 1/4 lap to round it off. They were all in the 2:50s, so I felt okay about it.
Wednesday: 7.36 miles with a 30 minute tempo thrown in. The tempo was tough...I ran the same route as the week before, but the sidewalks had snow-packed trails worn in. It was tough, but I managed a 7:33/mile pace for 30 minutes in between my warm-up and cooldown.
Thursday: Hills again! Ended up with 5.87 miles, including 4 ups and 4 downs on the nature trail hill. It was snow-packed, too, so my splits were slower than the week before. It's all good training for the high altitude miles at Western States, right?
Friday: 1.05 miles by myself at 3:45 a.m. I had a 4:30 departure for the drive to Kansas to welcome home my brother, so this run was early. It gave me a nice jolt of energy before the long drive mostly in the dark.
Saturday: 13.19 miles in Junction City, Kansas. I ran it mostly on the shoulder of the roads because no one had shoveled. It was faster than it should have been, about 1:45 total, but I felt good and I really wanted to get back to my family. I had mapped out a route on MapMyRun.com, and in spite of not remembering the street names once I got out there, it turns out I followed my plan perfectly. The highlight of the run was at Mile 9, when I looped back past the hotel. My mom was driving toward me, and she honked a hello as she turned into the parking lot. I noticed a Sheriff's car following her, and he turned in behind her. I circled back to the lot to see that he'd activated his lights. She was parked and didn't see him, so she hopped out to unbelt my nieces...only to be told to get back in the car. Lucky for her, she got off with a warning for her alleged 42 in a 30. (And 30 mph on that road?! It has 4 lanes!)
Sunday: I ran a solid 17.12 miles in about 2:43 out at the Lewis & Clark Trail along the Missouri River bluffs in St. Charles County, about 15 miles from my house. I did two loops on the Lewis Trail, an 8 plus mile loop that involves a few ups and downs along with a lot of single track. As you can see from the sign, I did it faster than the Department of Natural Resources anticipated.
The views of the River are beautiful, and there are remote sections where things are very peaceful. On my first loop, the path was snow-packed and pretty slick in a few sections, but the afternoon sun made a few miles a bit muddier on the second loop. I broke out my Brooks Cascadians for the first time, and I think I'll be buying another pair or two because I loved them!
Total Week Two Miles: 57.29
Pretty solid back to back weeks! In fact, I've never run that far in a 14 day period before! Bring on Week 3!
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