This week in training: A Santa Ride, increased mileage, and cookies

That's right. Those of you who know me know that cookies play an integral role in my training, primarily via fundraising. Thanks to the lovely friends who were at the Santa Ride in memory of Warren as well as those other lovely friends who know good baking when presented with it, I raised another couple hundred dollars for LLS this week.

On Sunday's ride my legs were totally whipped from last weekend's track training, and I expect the same will be true tomorrow and every Sunday for the remainder of this season. I did my long run on Wednesday (4 miles!) and am pleased with myself for that. The big news is that today I ran (jogged) all of 5 miles with my buddy, C, who will now also be too tired to ride too hard on Sundays and will likely be my company for the rest of the season on that, too.

I didn't run on Thursday: I felt kind of icky the whole day and got home after dark. I realized when I got home that all my running clothes were dirty, too, so that sealed the decision to take a sometimes necessary off day. I did walk the dogs 2 miles yesterday (and after today's run, too, because why not?) in addition to shorter walks on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I've had plenty of time on my feet.

Today's stats:

Average pace: 10.50 min/mi (10.59)
Distance: 5.02 mi
Time: 0.54.22 (0.55.09)
Average Heart Rate: 157 bpm

Here we are after 5 miles. Check out my new hat! Also free!

I mentioned the wonky HR stats before our ride last Sunday and C suggested that I was wearing the strap just too low, since then I've had it jammed right up underneath the girls (and tightened a bit more for good measure) and I haven't seen the weird max or spikes that I was before. Problem solved, for free!