Week In Review: January 14-20

This was a good week.  With my job now secure for a full year, I started the week feeling more confident at work.  I'm not going to say it's getting easier to get up before work to work out, but I do feel like I'm settling into my new routine.  It didn't hurt that the temperature came up from below -20C the week before to a high of 6C on Thursday (and just below 0 for the rest of the week).  It actually felt balmy in comparison!

Monday - Yoga
I had planned to run this morning but it was snowing when I went to bed and snowing when I got up.  I opted to stay in, doubting the roads would be in good shape.  It turned out that it must have stopped snowing overnight and restarted in the morning because when I left for work there was just about an inch of snow on my car.  Regardless, 25 minutes of yoga was still a great way to start the week!

Tuesday - Run 5K
This was my first group run for the season.  I signed up for a 10 week, winter running group through a local running store.  There were only 5 of us for the first run, but there's room to grow!  There was a girl there that I had ran with in another group a couple of years ago.  It turned out she had spent some time away from running in the past year too, so we settled into the same pace together and chatted along the way.  Unfortunately, it seemed that 2 of the others were much faster and 1 other much slower so it didn't feel like much of a group run.  Still, at least I had a partner!

Wednesday - morning yoga (40 min), night ski ~7K
After a run the night before, yoga in the morning felt great.  I used doyogawithme.com and picked Back Bending From the Base.  I haven't been doing many back bends in my yoga practice, and I felt it.  There was a time that I could do wheel pose with ease, but not this morning!

I wasn't planning to go to the night ski this week, but when the BF called at lunch to say he wasn't going to make it home for dinner, I changed my plans.  After work I had a quick bagel and peanut butter and drove out to the trails.  This week we had a much smaller group - 3 guides, and 4 skiers.  We did the 5K loop with a little add on and then skied part of the lit track afterwards.  It was a warm night, just below 0C, and perfect for skiing.  I was glad I went!

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Run  Rest.
No excuse, I just stayed in bed when I should have got up.

Saturday - 5.7K run with the Cookie Monster.
This was one of those weird runs where I felt like I was trudging along at a snail's pace, but every time I checked my Garmin, I was going faster than I thought.  (Not fast, but fastER).  It was nice enough to be out in just a t-shirt under my jacket.  I started really thinking about building these Saturday runs into longer runs and forming a REAL training plan and potential race options on this run.  More on that later.

Sunday - 7.5K 11.5K cross country ski
Normally, Sunday is snowshoe with the BF and dogs day, but this week the BF had to go to Vancouver for work.  The dogs will get a walk this evening, but I went skiing this afternoon.  On Wednesday's night ski we had been given the option of doing the 7.5K loop or cutting it off early for 6K.  Everyone opted for 6K.  The 7.5K loop is considered black diamond and has a section referred to as "Ronski's Revenge."  It's a little intimidating to take on in the dark.  I decided to tackle it today in daylight.  I don't know what Ronski was revenging, but he meant business!  Holy hills!  This was a bit of a workout.  I must have been a bit delirious from the climbing, or the big dips because I missed a key turnoff and ended up on another loop.  I figure I skied close to 12K, and rounded off to 11.5. At least I didn't make a wrong turn at this junction:

 There were a lot of cars in the lot, but I didn't see any other skiers on my loop, just some (very fresh) moose tracks.

Running this week:  10.7K
Yoga-ing this week:  1 hour
Other cross training this week:  2 hours 20 minutes
Phone a friend:  Skype with Ali!
Highlights of the week:  Dinner with friends on Saturday night, a fresh haircut, yummy homemade pizza, getting through my first presentation in my new job, starting to think about races...