Week 5 August 29 — September 4

Monday: First day of senior year!! Today I started my senior year at the University of Pittsburgh. I had Afro-Caribbean dance and one of my museum studies classes today. Last year I took West African dance and loved it; I really enjoyed studying the historical significance of each dance and then learning how to perform the dance we just studied. I am excited to learn about dances from a different region in the world and eventually perform them for our class recital! Catch me at my recital on December 10^th!!

Tuesday: 4.10 miles on the elliptical at a 9:25 min/mile pace. After my 10 miler I was feeling a very sharp shooting pain in my left foot, plus my calves were still very tight and swollen; I decided to take it easy today by running on the elliptical. I tried to make the workout more intense by running with resistance and switching up the incline every once and a while. Overall it was a great workout that did not further aggravate the pain in my feet and calves.

Wednesday: Dance class and 3.75 mile HIIT workout on the treadmill. Ice and rest truly work miracles when you sustain overuse injuries; when I woke up today I noticed that my calves were no longer swollen and the sharp pain in my foot was subsiding. I was super happy to finally be feeling better because there is nothing in the world I love more than letting my inner goofball out and dancing to the beat of my own drum. Every Monday and Wednesday I literally get to dance to the beat of a drum in my Afro-Caribbean dance class!  Later in the day I did some cardio on the treadmill because I still wanted to actually RUN, but not exacerbate my injuries.

Thursday: Rest Day.

Friday: 5.2 miles on the treadmill at an 8:46 min/mile pace (splits: 8:51, 9:28, 7:50, 8:50, 8:03). The weather in Pittsburgh is very unpredictable. I swore the weather man said it was going to be nice all day, but it stormed in the afternoon when I was supposed to be running. I guess the storms were a blessing in disguise because I was able to do one last workout on a soft surface before my 11 mile run this weekend.

Saturday: Rest Day.

Sunday: 11 miles in 1:48:27 (splits: 11:31, 10:10, 10:02, 9:40, 9:53, 9:45, 9:13, 9:05, 9:40, 9:34, 9:19). All day I put off running. I knew I needed to run 11 miles, but after my 10 miler last weekend I was not looking forward to doing it all over again with an added mile. I am happy to say I ran 11 miles and actually enjoyed every minute of it! The weather was beautiful and I had no pain in my calves. I listened to my favorite podcast (shout out to the schmoesknowshow!!!) which had me smiling the whole time. I was able to comfortably run a 9:49 min/mile running alone. I am cautiously confident to officially set my race day goal pace at 9:30 min/mile. Like most people I tend to run a little faster on race day. The atmosphere gets me so amped up to run to the best of my abilities, and in 17 days I will get to see what I am really made of!!