Jedi Jen's Quest to 26.2 - Week three recap

1/16/2012:

Day fifteen marked the start of week three. Usually I run on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, but I needed to switch up my schedule a bit for this week. I woke up on Monday morning and got in my four miles before the professional development at school all day. It felt like my body knew it was off schedule because I had an especially difficult time waking up, but I woke up eventually. ;)

1/17/2012:

Today was the start of week two of the Newbie Training at Red Coyote. It was awesome to have another great turnout with the cold temps & wind. My sister is doing this program & I did the intervals with her. I gave her a goal to keep our walking/running pace under 15 min/mile and she definitely met that goal! She really pushed herself too as she had boot camp earlier that day - so proud of her! 

1/18/2012:

The seventeenth day of training turned out great! I ate a little better before the run and people were actually out running! I love exchanging a friendly "morning" to those crazy enough to be out with you! I wanted to finish my four miles under 45 minutes...and I did! 

1/21/2012: 

Long run day! All week I find myself being excited for my weekend long run. My middle of the week runs give me a burst of energy, but the long runs make me feel so accomplished and I usually get to share them with friends rather than run alone. Thursday through Saturday I was in Tulsa for a music educators conference so I had to miss my time with the OKC Landrunners, but I got to run in Tulsa! My friend, Rachel, is also a band director who is training for the full marathon so we got up crazy early (4:30am) to get in our 11 miles before our band business meeting. My plan called for 10 miles, but hers called for 11 so I went the extra mile with her. It's only a mile, right? ;)

The weather the previous two days, at day and night, had been incredible. Well, Saturday morning it was...different. Before our run the temp was:

Yeah, it was a bit chilly. But, we didn't let that get us down. We went after those 11 miles!! We ran along the river in Tulsa. This was also our first double digit run since the Route 66 Half Marathon we ran in Tulsa in November. Around 5:45am or so we started seeing other runners out - it was just fantastic. I love running in Tulsa. They make it available & easy and the community is runner aware! The last mile we ran into the wind and I found it a bit tough, but we didn't give up. Felt great to accomplish those 11 cold & windy miles...and get to talk about girl stuff and band the whole time! 

And btw, it got colder as we went. Our water bottle actually froze! Post run temp & wind chill:

Right after finishing our long run down by the river! :)

Thumbs up to great friends & great training runs!

Bring on week four!!