Tuesday: 7.1m easy 8:38/pace

Wednesday: 8.1m easy 9:10/pace

The days where awful, horrible things happen around the world to innocent people, makes me just want to give up on humanity. It kind of turns my heart to stone and I question the point of trying to be a good person. Turns out, during the bad times is the best time we can try to reach out in our communities, even on the tiniest level. You never know who you can inspire or touch or pay things forward. #Orlando

I can’t tell you enough how happy and excited and surprised I am at the amount of support and donations already coming in for the birthday 50K. So many of you want to run with me and support the National MS Society and i couldn’t be happier. Thank you guys! It’s the little things that make me realize there are way more good people in the world than bad.

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It’s freaking summer yo. I’ve upped my mileage for ultra training, but i’m not going to be doing much, if any, speed work until after July 4th. I’ve been base building (upping mileage week to week) since I returned from Colorado almost a month ago. It’s amazing how slowing down pace can help build a solid foundation of miles. In the past if I were to hit a 40+ mile week it was SO difficult, tiring and almost always put me on the verge of an injury. I’m running smart & slowing down to enjoy this phase of training!

Here’s the fall plan:

1. Base build until July 4th and use July 4th weekend as a cutback week.
2. July 5th through mid August throw in 1-2 days of speed work in each week.
3. Saturday, August 13th run a 50K for MS for my birthday (tentative date! What does everyone think of running on a Saturday?)
4. Recover the week of my birthday and take another cutback week.
5. Start marathon training for Philadelphia Marathon (again tentative, but i’m leaning way toward it.)
6. September 11th – The Parks Half Marathon. It’s the same local one that starts in Rockville, MD that I ran last year. I’ll use this as a speed gauge.
7. September 16th-17th My first Ragnar Relay! I will cover 18ish miles in a dirty smelly van and love every second of it!
8. Take another cutback week after the two weekends of racing.
9. October 15th- Baltimore Running Festival 1/2 marathon (tentative) I’d like to use this as a hard effort for marathon training.
10. Run a marathon. (Philly is on Nov. 20th)
11. Sometime in the fall/early winter take a freaking vacation on a beach.

Solid right? Well not 100%, but i’m so ready to tackle some big races this fall. I feel strong and ready. Planning out cutback weeks will be the only way I can mentally get through so many different types of races.

This is what I do on Thursday mornings and think about late at night. I can’t help it. I love running and dreaming up workouts.

Is your fall race schedule planned out?