First Streak and Weekend Highlights

Hi everyone!  Guess who's back with weekly running recaps?  It's going to get really interesting, because I decided to start my very first run streak!  In case you don't know what that is, you basically just run every day for a set period of time.  The minimum (at least for me) will be to do a mile a day.  I'm also making it a goal for myself to run with Selma at least once a week, and run with other people at least once a week.

You might be wondering why I'm doing a streak, or how long I'll be doing one.  I always like trying out new challenges, and I've always been interested in trying out a streak, but the timing never worked out.  I decided to do mine from the 4th of July until Labor Day (exactly 2 months) which is happening at a perfect time for me.  Right now, I'm not registered for any races, and have no racing plans.  I'm one of those people who needs to have a goal in mind in order to keep training, so without any races coming up I knew I had to do something to stay accountable, and decided on trying my first streak!

So, I just finished my first week, and I'm happy to say that it's been going great so far.  I'm definitely easing back into running after taking some time off after my last race and vacation, so I wasn't pushing the pace or mileage yet.  Here's a recap of how the week went, along with some fun things I did this weekend:

Tuesday

2.4 miles / 9:26 pace

This was my first run back after my vacation, so it was pretty rough!  Since it was the Fourth of July, I decided to run 4k (not quite ready for 4 miles yet) and felt pretty good.  It was hot and humid out, but I was happy to be out there again.

Wednesday

2.5 miles / 9:49 pace

Selma and I headed to the park to go for a run.  It was another hot day, so after 2.5 miles Selma was done.  We stopped to swim for a while and then walked the final half mile to the car.  

Thursday

3 miles / 9:50 pace

This was my first "speed workout" in a while, and I decided to take it on the treadmill since it was pouring all day (side note- why has it been raining SO MUCH lately!?  Anywhere else, or just Pittsburgh?).  I did this as a progressive run, starting off at about 10:30 pace and speeding up to 7:30 pace.  It felt great to run inside, out of the humidity, and to go a little faster!

Friday

1 mile / 9:11 pace

I took this run easy and just got a mile in (which is apparently the minimum that counts for a run streak).  I'll take it!

Saturday

2.33 miles / 10:01 pace

I had a busy day, so I decided to get my run out of the way super early (like 6:30!) so I wouldn't put it off.  It felt good to get out there before it got too warm, and I just took the pace super easy.

After I got home, I got ready and headed out to meet my family for a trip to Falling Water!  This was an item on my bucket list, so I was really excited to go.  The house was just as breathtaking and amazing as I expected, and our house tour was really interesting.  If you're ever in the area, I would highly recommend stopping by.  I definitely want to go back sometime and spend some time hiking at Ohiopyle while I'm there as well!

Later in the night, I met up with some friends for the weekly Jazz in the Park concert at Riverview Park.  The City Parks have all kinds of events during the summer, and this is one of my favorite ones to go to.  There's an hour and a half of jazz music, followed by a movie in the park.  They were showing Captain America, and next week is Rogue One (if anyone wants to come along let me know!!).  Best of all the events are always FREE!

Sunday

5.5 miles / 10:20 pace

I met up to run at North Park with Jessie and Maddie, then later picked up Amanda. It was a nice, fun run with some friends, and the miles just flew by!  No one really cared about pace, and we just ran what felt good, and walked whenever we felt like it.  

After we finished our run, we met up with some other local runners (and some bloggers) for mimosas and brunch at OTB at the Boathouse. It was great to meet some people that I've been following on Instagram for a while, and catch up with other girls that I haven't seen for a while.  

For my first week (which was only 6 days), I ran about 17 miles.  Not bad!  I'm hoping to bump that up to 20 miles next week, and see where we go from there.

Have you ever done a run streak?
What races do you have coming up? I need ideas!