Week in Review

~78 Miles
14 Miles Long Run Steady State
2 Workouts
16+ Hours of Traveling in 36 Hours
3 Days in Illinois

Phew, am I tired after this week. Not because I ran some inordinate amount of mileage, but because of the travel that ensued in a trek to visit my family!  On Friday, after a long layover in Atlanta, I finally arrived in St. Louis to be greeted by my parents and my boyfriend!  We went to Whole Foods for dinner and then made our way from St. Louis, Missouri, to Normal, Illinois to visit my grandma.  After four hours in the car, we finally arrived at 10PM.  The next day, Garrett met my entire Dad's side of the family and fortunately he gained their approval. After that, we drove to Canton, Illinois to see my mom's sister.  I passed where I ran the Illinois State Cross Country meet four years in a row, and I got such a strong sense of nostalgia.  Oh, the glory days!

My legs were tired this week but I had the honor of running 8 miles with my 62 year old dad on Saturday.  I cherish moments like these because I know his days of keeping up with me are limited, so I take advantage of his company when I can!  I also got to run 14 miles at an average of 6:40 pace with the SIUC Cross Country Freshmen and Sophomores.  I forgot to put on suncreen and now I'm ridiculously sunburnt.  I hate when I'm so stupid I forget to put on sunscreen when I am running from 12:30-2PM in Illinois.  I lead the way and took them from campus to the hilly back country roads.  About halfway, we stopped at my parents' house to get some water and fresh watermelon juice!  The guys loved that part of the run most. 

For this next week, I'll be in Carbondale, working remotely from the SIU Coach's house while Garrett helps put a new roof on my parents' house.  In case you're wondering, my parents live outside of town so they can't get cable or wireless internet....so I have to come to town to get that sort of luxury!  I'll spend the next 6 days eating fresh food from my dad's garden, running with the SIU girls, and showing off Garrett to my hometown friends.  Although I'm still working, I already feel like I'm relaxed!  It is quite possibly because I don't really have to cook my own food and it's certainly nice. 

In terms of running, I'm doing a fartlek on Tuesday with the SIU girls and then on Friday I'm doing the 3x3 mile workout around the SIU campus lake. That should be a tough one, but at least the campus lake is flat!