Welcome to the Weekly Wrap. Weekend running shenanigans and a huge running milestone.  What a wonderful end to October!  This weekend was a reminder of how much I love running and the running community.  Linking up with Holly and Wendy.

Monday 10/22

Run: Easy miles. I have been having such a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.  Normally, I am able to get up and out the door by 5:45am.  Lately, It’s been closer to 7am.  The lack of daylight is a factor, but man am I tired.  Luckily this was just a slow, recovery run, just under 9 minutes a mile pace.

Other: Agility Drills + Abs and Arms class.  I’ve started to make a weekly speed date with another athlete at EDGE.  We run through agility drills on the speed ladder before the abs and arms class.

Tuesday 10/23

Run: Speed workout.  Just could not execute this.  My legs felt heavy and I had no pop in my step.  Was supposed to do 1, 1.5, and 2 mile repeats, starting at marathon effort and crescendoing up to tempo effort.  I was able to crescendo up to… slower than marathon pace.  *Facepalm*  Again, my energy was super low.  I’m going to try a modified version next week.

Other:  New blog post! Published 5 training tips for the off-season.  This week was the last week of my off-season, when I’ve been spending about 85% of my time in aerobic zones and 15% in speed zones.  The focus has been building a base, working on strength and mobility, and doing lots of different fun runs to mix up training.  As many of you enter off-season, or the down time between races, check out the post for some off-season training ideas. Read it here. 

Wednesday 10/24

Run: Strength + Easy.  Hit the 606 after strength class for 5.5 recovery miles.  Nothing remarkable.

Thursday 10/25

Run:  Speed.  Probably the most fun I’ve had in a speed workout!  I call it the “Up to Fate Fartlek”.  Randomly assign a number to 30s intervals from 30s up to 3:00.  Then pull a number and run that distance hard, pull another number and run that as recovery.  It was a lot of fun not knowing the workout ahead of time and only being able to focus on the one interval at a time.  I corralled Al into running it with me and we both agreed it was the most fun a fartlek has ever been.  The sunrise on the 606 was amazing too!

Other:  Published a guest post.  Earlier in the month, Robyn asked me to write about trail running for the EDGE blog.  Since a lot of people at EDGE have been curious about starting up on the trails, I gave my top trail running tips.

Friday 10/26

Run: Easy Run + November Project.  Easy recovery miles down to NP with Nez.  It was PR day again since it was the last Friday of the month.  I chose to run for about 20 minutes before stopping to do band work and core exercises.  I carried my resistance bands in my running pack with me, knowing I had slacked on doing my PT exercises this week.

Saturday 10/27

Run: 13×1 Relay.  Kicked off my weekend running shenanigans with my favorite November Project Chicago event.  For the past 4 years, November Project Chicago has put on a 13×1 mile relay.  Form a team of 13, and each of you run your fastest mile, to total a half marathon.  In 2015, there were just 2 teams, both from November Project.  This year, the relay grew to 10 teams, the biggest yet!  Multiple running groups came out, plus a team from November Project Milwaukee, and even a random group that just found the event on Facebook.  LOVE IT! I was on the competitive November Project team, hoping to beat the competitive 3Run2 team (they won last year).  Unfortunately we came in second place to them again, but it was still a blast.  I ran in a dragon onesie which was clearly the best sweat-wicking, breathable, anti-chafe costume ever.

Sunday 10/28

Run: Flying Pug Trail Race.  Now this is my favorite event that EDGE Athlete Lounge hosts!  So much running fun in 48 hours! The Flying Pug is a 5 mile trail “race” out in Maple Lake.  It happens twice a year, once in October and once in May.  I have not been on trails much in the last two months (partly the reason I am itching to do a big Spring ultra again next year), so I was happy to be back.  Although it was chilly and really muddy, as always I had a blast.  This was the third Flying Pug I was able to attend and this time I ran a PR and won first place female!  The trophy was a hot pink VELVET statue of a pug with wings. Definitely the cutest and funniest prize I’ve ever won.

And that’s a wrap! Weekend running shenanigans and a huge running milestone.  This week, I totaled 40 miles of running for the first time since before my injury.  Woo!  My two favorite events back to back made for one fun-filled weekend.  It was a weekend that reminded me how much I love the running community.  Who else would be like, “Yes, a 13×1 mile relay sounds FANTASTIC” or “Sure, let’s go race 5 miles through the muddy trails for the chance to win a hot pink pug statue”?  Man, I love runners.

Did you participate in any weekend running shenanigans?  What’s the weirdest prize you’ve ever received?  Let’s stay in touch!  Follow me on Instagram or Facebook for more food/fitness related posts.  

Happy running,

Becca