Week in Review 3/14 - 3/20 (Marathon Training)

After my awesome weekend in Moab, it was back to training starting with a local group run to celebrate Pi Day and ending with another road trip west - this time to Monument Valley, which is located a little over 4 hours southwest of me, right on the Utah/Arizona border. There's a group, called Grand Circle Trails that puts on stunning Ultra Marathon's in some pretty amazing places, so when a friend asked if anyone wanted to go with her to volunteer at the Monument Valley Ultra, I decided to tag along! The views were definitely one of a kind and I was happy to check off another place from my bucket list! It's amazing how many scenic locations are within less than 1/2 days drive from me that I haven't been too yet - must keep working towards seeing them all!!!

Running
Total Weekly Miles: 52.12

Monday

Easy 6

Actual: 3.14 mile Pi Day run with the Mesa Monument Striders run club + 3.03 warm-up / cool-down.

Tuesday

Rest or Xtrain

Actual: Rest

Wednesday

9 Miles with 3 x 1 Mile @ 7:45, 1:00 Recovery

Actual: 9.5 miles with 3 x 1 Mile @ 7:30, 7:30, 7:35, 2:00 Recovery. I didn't mean to do a longer recovery, just didn't double check my plan beforehand. Otherwise, I was very happy with how this went!

Thursday

Easy 7

Actual: 7.15 at Connected Lakes with Loki, 9:44 average pace. He had so much fun!

Friday

Long 16

Actual: This was originally scheduled for Saturday, but since I was driving to Monument Valley that morning and then volunteering all afternoon, I moved it to Friday after work (thank goodness for daylight savings!!). 16.11, 9:53 average pace.

Saturday

Easy 6

Actual: Because of said Monument Valley trip, I only managed to get in 3 miles, 12:31 pace (the left picture was still on the drive, the run was on trails and sandy dirt roads).

Sunday

10 with 10x20 Second Strides, 1:00 Recovery

Actual: 10.16 miles, 11:07 pace at Monument Valley before we headed back home. The first half was on the Wildcat Trail, the second half on the dirt road that runs through the park. Gorgeous! I did do 3 unofficial strides...but forgot to do the rest (I did the first 3, then was going to do finish them after I got over a big hill, but forgot!).