Recap

At the end of last week I flew up to Virginia to spend the new year with friends.

 Richmond!

Immediately after celebrating Central Time Zone New Years at a random ice rink/bar that had a ridiculously loud DJ and $4 coors light drafts. Ugh.

Monticello! Which was amazing! I'm obsessed, now!

 Statue of President James Monroe outside his home Ash Lawn Highlands.

Edgar Allen Poe's Dorm room at UVA.

 The Rotunda at UVA.

 According to the Internets, William Faulkner lived at 917 Rugby in Charlottesville. Faulkner supposedly wrote some of his Pulitizer winning novel, The Reivers at this address. Yet, methinks this isn't the actual house he lived in? I dunno. Regardless, being a Faulkner Stalker I had to take a picture out of the car window.

James Monroe's House at Ash Lawn Highlands.

And while I didn't exactly get my 16 mile long run in (which, I KNEW wasn't going to happen), I did have two really, really good runs over the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday morning both I woke up earlier than my host and headed out for a quiet run around UVA. And I felt great. Both days. Regardless of staying up wayyyy later than I'm used to and eating a lot more restaurant food than I'm used to. Saturday morning, I felt like I could run forever... well, except my feet were giving me some issues. Still breaking in some new shoes that Santa brought me.

The weekend was great and getting in two runs of more than 5 miles each... is satisfactory for out of town runs. This week officially marks the start of serious training. Which means... diet gets cleaned up even more (LESS booze), in addition to yoga, I'm getting back into strength training and my runs are getting ramped up in mileage and in quality. Very few lollygagging around for 3-4 miles during the week like I've gotten used to.

As an example... here's this week's schedule:

Monday: Morning: flew home from Charlottesville, VA.
              Evening: 90 minutes Hot Yoga

Tuesday: Morning: Easy 7 miles @ 9:40 pace (3-4 miles with running buddy Carolyn).
               Morning: 20 minutes of Upper Body Strength Training
               Evening: 90 minutes Hot Yoga

Wed:      Morning: Pace run with running buddy Steve. 4 miles with 3 miles @ 8:50 pace.
               Morning: 10-15 minutes Abs/Core Strength Training
               Evening: 75 minutes Hot Yoga

Thurs:     Morning: Easy 4 miles with Carolyn.
              Morning: Dharma Yoga Level 2 DVD at home.
              Evening: 90 minutes Hot Yoga.

Friday:    Morning:Tempo run of 35 minutes with max pace getting up to 8:15 with Steve.
              Morning:  10-15 minutes Abs/Core Strength Training
             Evening: 90 minutes of Hot Yoga.

Saturday: Morning: 18 miles @ 9:40 pace with friend Liz.
              Afternoon: 90 minutes of Hot Yoga.

Sunday: Morning: Easy 4 miles @ 9:40 pace
             Morning: 90 minutes Vinyasa Flow Hot Yoga class.

As you can see... I've not changed much. I'm still interested in overachieving and trying to cram as much fitness into my life as possible, all the while setting myself up for failure! But, to be honest... I know it looks like a lot... but it's really not much more than I already do everyday. I do yoga pretty much every day adn run 6 days a week. So... it SHOULD be doable. Doesn't mean it will be, though.