Welcome to the Dark Side

Welcome to the dark side.

Let me clarify...this dark side is in reference to daylight (or lack thereof), not running. Ugh. Just like that, the early morning daylight has dwindled down to the barest of minimums. It's not a crisis, nor will it keep me from doing my early-morning thing (usually outdoors, none the less), but it is a buzzkill.

But first things first...

Welcome to the Weekly Run Down! I am so excited to host this link-up with Deborah (from Confessions of a Mother Runner). If you write a fitness-based blog, you're invited to join the party. The link-up opens at 1:00 (EST) on Sundays and remains open through noon on Monday. We love reading about everyone's weekly fitness endeavors, training highlights (or low lights) and race recaps. We ask that you link back to both hosts, and we encourage you to read/comment on the other linked blogs as well...please don't link-drop & dash ;-)

Here's the latest happenings in terms of the Weekly Run Down:

Monday - #nevermissaMonday...in the dark 
Typically, I'm not a creature of habit, at least regarding my workouts. I like variety, and mixing things up is beneficial because it keeps the body guessing. That said, I've been doing these Monday 5K runs (with surges) for the past couple months, and they are now a staple in my regimen. They're quick, they're easy, and they have just an itsy bitsy amount of speed in them to give me a good workout without overdoing it.

another #nevermissaMonday in the books 

Tuesday - walking and biking and strength work, oh my!
The temps were kind of icky (and the air was damp), but due to be very warm by afternoon. I decided to go for a walk (and save the bike ride for after work). Gosh, I walkfess that I have been neglecting those early morning walks for the past several weeks (and have been biking instead). Oops. My bad.

runners walk, too

Later, I saddled up Gustavas for a 10-mile post-workday bike ride. Look closely....I was so eager to get out on the bike that I forgot to remove the workday necklace LOL (Don't you hate it when that happens?). At least it coordinated with my tank top, so there's that. I also did an intense 20-minutes of upper-body strength work before lights out.

Wednesday - speedwork under the lamp posts
Wednesday morning, I headed to my designated "speedway" on campus. It's a sidewalk that's the length of two city blocks, but with no intersecting streets to cross. I did five sets of intervals: sprinting one direction, then running/jogging back as a recovery. With the warm-up run there (and cool-down back home), total distance for the morning was three miles. And the intervals? Negative splits for the last three. Nailed it!

fist bump for the great workout

Thursday - #5at5 before the sunrise
Barb and I met for our weekly early-morning 5-miler. We'd been noticing the 5:00a.m. runs had been getting darker and darker (as the sun was rising later and later), but this week we were in almost total darkness until the final few minutes. Why, oh why, does summer have to end?

here comes the sun...as I'm headed back home LOL

Friday - biking with the hubby
It's gotten too dark for the early morning rides out to the lake (don't worry, those rides will still be happening, just during daylight hours on the weekend instead). I decided to ride a simple 10 miles in town, and kept the route near the college campus so there would be plenty of street lights. Also, there's not much (if any) traffic at that time of day, so I was just going to go alone. Much to my surprise, the hubby asked to come along (he's not an early-riser LOL). There must have been something in the atmosphere, because the sunrise was simply amazing...all kinds of oranges and reds lit up the sky as the sun emerged.

No filter needed for this...

Saturday - how about a brick workout?
With a half marathon on tap for Sunday, I wanted to keep Saturday's miles moderate. Barb and I met up at 6:30, and knocked out six easy-paced miles in the chilly mid-50F's air. Then, after a quick water break, we mounted the bikes and took on the hilly bike trail. I should have known something was up when the first big hill (heading west) seemed easier than usual. It wasn't until we got to the lake and started back (going east) that we realized there was a crazy head wind to battle on the return trip. Holy Head Wind, Batman! Suffice it to say there was NO coasting on any of the downhills, and the uphills were even more intense than usual. This was a major victory for me, though...not only fighting the wind, but also conquering the hills in all that crazy wind. Also, it was my 10th ride out to the lake since all this biking entered my life (a mere nine weeks ago). All told, 21 total miles for the morning (6 on foot, 15 on the bike).

that mountain bike is much heavier than it looks, just sayin'

Sunday - NewBo Half Marathon!
**updated post-race***
The big event on Sunday was my second appearance at the NewBo Run Half Marathon (I ran it last year for the first time). I was hoping for a course PR, and (if all the stars, moons and planets aligned) a sub-2:00 would be fantastic. Alas, the temps were ideal (mid-60F's and cloudy), the course was in great shape (there had been a lot of rain  last year, so there were puddles and some muddy spots on the trails), and I felt great for the entire race. Alas, the elusive sub-2:00 eluded me again...but not by much. I finished in 2:01:11, which was actually a PR for Voldy (he's the ugly scar from my surgery two years ago). It also was a 6-minute PR from last year, so I'm good with that. Stay tuned, there will be a race report in a couple days with more details.

So, another productive week in my little world of fitness. As this post goes live (early Sunday morning), there's 30 miles of running (including the half marathon), 13 miles of walking, and 35 miles of biking. There also was an upper-body strength workout, as well as continued daily planking, leg lifts and various stretching/PT exercises for injury prevention. Knock wood, the MCM training is going well. My long run this weekend, which ideally should have been in the vicinity of 14-15 miles, got swapped out for Saturday's 6-miler and Sunday's half marathon. What can I say? I'm a strong believer in the fine art of compromise and flexibility when there's a fun race happening.

In case you missed out, here's what went down on the blog this week:
Adaptability. Flexibility. Going with the Flow.
Running with your own Sherpa
Runfessing my recent reality

In other news:

Friday Fashion Flair. Don't think for a minute I'm eager for the fall season because I happen to have worn "fall" colors. I simply like the cinnamon and navy color combo. The fact that my open-toe booties are a pretty close match in color is just a bonus. As always, feel free to join the party...post a pic on Instagram, grab the hashtag (#FridayFashionFlair) and give me a tag (@runningonthefly).

August was pretty nice to me. The 109 miles in the running shoes gave me by highest monthly mileage since last fall. I was training for a marathon then, too, so the high mileage is no coincidence. We all know that biking has taken over as my preferred form of active recovery, as well as giving my non-running muscles some action on all those hills out to the lake. It's a given those 183 biking miles are also a PR of sorts. NO regrets.

And, S'mores. Usually, I'm not a big fan of the traditional bonfire treat. Friday evening, we had some friends over for a backyard bonfire. Inspired from a recent post by Marcia, I tried subbing in dark chocolate for the traditional milk chocolate....and, HoLy WoW. I may (or may not) have eaten three of them (with the pretense of carbo-loading for my weekend of running, biking and racing, of course). I'll just leave it at that.

There you have it, the latest and greatest in my world. Tell me something about your's...

...Training for a fall race? Are you keeping your runs outside (in the limited daylight) or are you taking them inside? Ever tried a S'more with dark chocolate? Would you switch a long run for two back-to-back shorter runs if you had a race on the calendar?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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