Echo Canyon Trail | hellyontherun

Yay!!!! I finally got my internets back! Actually, about 30 minutes after I posted Friday’s post from my phone, it was back! You guys brought me luck ❤

Last week was a tough running week but the running I did do was pretty awesome.

On Monday, I headed to the treadmill and hit 7 miles at a 9:29 pace. I felt so good and could’ve kept going but reeled myself in 🙂

Sweat.

Tuesday, I was back on the gym and rode the bike 10.5 miles. But in my typical break-the-RLRF-rules, I met up with my run club in the evening for a 4 mile run that ended up being AWESOME.

Woohoo!!!

The reason this made me so happy is because I’ve been getting down on myself with my paces. I feel like I’ve hit a rut and have been struggling with every run it seems. I know the heat is a ~~big~~ huge factor, but not being able to get the times I “want” has been blowing my runner’s self esteem. Finally having a run that not only did I feel good but the times were what I liked was the pick-me-upper I needed!

That being said, I feel like this is something I need to work on–not putting so much focus on times and running for running. It’s hard for me to do this because I feel like there should be a purpose for every run and when I start to feel like there’s no improvement anywhere (pace, splits, distance, etc.) I start to get down on myself.

Anyway, Wednesday was supposed to be Christmas in July at track with my run club and I took my kids because my husband was out of town. I thought maybe my oldest would have fun running around the track. Yeah….no. As soon as we got there she threw a huge fit and we lasted all of 10 minutes before I packed both of them back in the car. On our way home, my daughter ended up throwing up all over herself and the car 😦 It turned out she had a stomach bug! I felt so bad for dragging her out in the heat and not realizing that her fussiness was due to her being sick. She had shown no signs earlier; but, after the car episode, the vomiting continued into the evening. I ended up taking her to the ER to get checked and I was so glad I did. She stayed home with me Thursday and Friday to recover and no running was done in those days.

Saturday, I met up with my run club for my long run. I had 9 miles on my plan and I was worried how I’d do considering I hadn’t slept well or run the past two days with my sick daughter. I ended up completing all 9 miles (yay!) and at a good pace– 9:52/mile.

Sunday, yesterday, I met up with the #RunEatTweetAZ crew for an early hike. My Arizona blogging buddy, Jeremy @ Confessions of an Amateur Athlete, created this group of local bloggers and once a month we meet up to run/hike and discuss all things running and blogging. There’s food afterwards of course 🙂 I missed the first meet-up but there was no way I was missing the second.

The alarm went off at 4:10 a.m. (<—-yes, crazy o’clock) and the plan was to meet at 5. I got there right on time only to find the trail CLOSED. What?!? Apparently, it didn’t open until sunrise and according to the ranger’s handy weather app, that wasn’t happening until 5:33…..

The line to park–

Once we got the parking situated, we all met up at the start and then headed on up. It was so fun to meet with bloggers whose stuff I’ve read and finally put the stories to a face. Like Zucchini Runner was late to the Phoenix Marathon this year (like, really, really late. Like they had already rolled up everything late.) but still ran it!! (<—Edited to add link to awesome story) And I also wanted to meet Shane @shootskdenaloha.com because he seriously has the best collection of compression socks ever.

At the top, Jeremy (aka-King of Selfies), took the necessary achievement pic and we all hung out enjoying the awesome weather that was happening.