RNR Raleigh Training: Weeks 2 & 3

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of Christmas, road trips and running.

My devil elf.

Week 2: This was a crazy week between work and the kids' holiday events at school. The result in terms of running was nothing very impressive, just some more base building. A last minute trip to South Carolina cut out a 4th day of running for the week. But snuggles with my 7 week old nephew made up for it.

• Wednesday: 3.1 mile progression run with strides on the treadmill at the gym. Rush home so the hubs could get to work early
• Thursday: 5 miles on my go-to trail for hill training. Pretty chilly, but nice to be outside
• Sunday: 10 miles in South Carolina

Total miles: 18.1

We drove to South Carolina on a whim to visit my husband's sister and her 7 week old baby. I was able to find a rail trail in Greenville, which I was pretty excited about. I figured a rail trail would be a perfect place to run my long miles and not get lost. Famous last words. The first three miles wove through the downtown area with quite a few twists and turns. The trail was usually clearly marked, but there were times where I made a wrong turn, stopped and stared for a while before finding my way. When I was finally out of downtown the trail straightened out but I was almost immediately halted by a freight train stopped across the the trail. I waited for a while trying to figure out a way around and almost gave up and headed back when it finally started moving.  Just as I turned around at 5 miles the skies opened up and I spent the rest of the run in a torrential downpour with no rain gear. It was quite the experience, but I was grateful for the new scenery.

 

Week 3: Finally my schedule allowed me to add a 4th day of running to the mix, even with our second road trip within a week. 

• Tuesday: 3 treadmill miles
• Thursday: 6 miles on hills. This was a great run for me because it was the first time I made it all the way around a challenging 3 mile loop twice. It's been a goal of mine for a while now but I always manage to talk myself out of it.
• Saturday: 11 miles through Lancaster County, PA. This was definitely one of my favorite runs in recent memory. It was sunny, yet chilly and the scenery was just amazing.
• Sunday: 3 easy treadmill miles at the hotel

Total miles: 23