Well, who’s ready for another week?

Today, I want to talk a bit about something a lot of runners may be familiar with-getting back up to that fitness level we tend to expect from ourselves.

When I ran my last half in April, I was coming off a winter of training with lots of speed work. I crushed my training runs at good paces. I was so much faster than I had been before.

But now it’s July. And while it’s not like I wasn’t running at all prior to the official start of my training, I certainly wasn’t running as much. I thought I was semi-prepared because I was putting down decent paces for my Crossfit Run Club runs, yet here I am at the start of half training, still searching for some semblance of speed.

Today, I did my “long” run-6 miles. It felt fine. Nothing of great excitement. I got it done, but it wasn’t fast for me. I wasn’t really pushing the pace, but I wasn’t dilly-dallying either.

It can be frustrating-knowing that once in the recent past, you were knocking out runs at a much better pace.

But I’m here to say-it’s ok. The speed and fitness will come back. Just put in the work, and you WILL get there. Heck, I’ve been knocking off seconds on my paces on ALL my runs in 3 weeks. And while I may not be where I’d like to be now, I am confident that I will be ready come race day!

In other weekend news, I refueled from my run with brunch! Brunch is a magical, magical thing, and it’s been far too long.

I met up with some friends at Ted’s Bulletin, famous for its homemade pop tarts.

I got a blueberry cheesecake one.

 

While it was good, I thought it could have used more filling!

For my main course, I got an egg sammy.

 

While delicious, it was probably about 80% butter.

We then did some touristy things. First up was the Botanical Gardens.

 

We were lucky to be there on a relatively cool day, so it wasn’t too hot! We’re currently in what people here are calling a “polar vortex.” As in, maybe 80-85 degrees? It’s fantastic. The other day, it was probably in the 70s, and I walked outside to COOL air! Crazy!

We also went to the Smithsonian art museum. I have never felt so uncultured as I did in the presence of modern art. I just don’t get it. At all. Why is one person’s big rock better than another’s?

Later in the afternoon, we walked over to get frozen custard. I got mine with lots of chocolate-but it may have been a biiit over the top!

 

Anyway, across the street was an American art museum, which was much more suited to my tastes. It had all the portraits of the presidents, so I really enjoyed looking at that!

And in other life news, I finally started Breaking Bad. I feel a little too united to Chemistry given the insane amount I’ve taken, so I kind of like the aspect. I’m “studying” right?

What TV shows do you watch?