I finished reading Lauren Fleshman’s book Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World. It was excellent and I owe y’all a blog post on that. I’ve put it off because it will not be a quick or easy one to write. While reading that book, I put two and two together and realized she was the author of my training log books I’ve used in the past for certain segments of training: The Believe Training Journals. Even though I loved that running log book, I wasn’t ready for that style as I am not in the same kind of running depths as I was then. I would use colored markers for different workouts, scribbled notes alongside progress, write how I fueled… it required a little work even though it came naturally. I ordered Matt Fitzgerald’s The Complete Runner’s Day-By-Day Log 2025 Calendar. This seemed a little more structured as my goal this year is to Run More. Do More Fitness. Drop the Pace Down. We are about 3 full months into it and I like it! And I already feel like I’m dropping the pace down!

In the back of the book, there are two full pages where one can record Races. There is space to fill 74 races!!!!! This might be a nice feature for my friend Janet 😊. I decided to turn one of the pages into, “A Record of Long Runs.”

January’s long run was four miles. And yes, that was considered long because I had been running 2 miles at a time on the treadmill around the holidays. Had to start somewhere! For one of the runs, I knew snow was coming. I thought I could finish running before it started. Nope! It was coming down and starting to stick while I was half-way. Then driving home was ridiculous and slippery. “It’s the weekend. I could have stayed at home.” But that feeling of accomplishment felt good.

At least with Michigan’s winter having received snow this year, we were fortunate enough to go cross country skiing a few times. This took place for the long run. I actually considered bringing my running shoes to the park to run after cross country skiing. Hahaha. Ha. What was I think? It is cardio enough and oh you feel sore the next day!

Utterly soaked in sweat from 6-miles of cross country skiing. Ft wet ponytail.

I even went downhill skiing one weekend and it was so much fun! Since it was a 3+ hour drive one way, yeah, I definitely wasn’t running when I got home.

I was really happy to run this month. Last weekend’s long run was windy but a pleasantly warm 66 degrees F! It was glorious!! I felt so great! Which probably explains my pace further dropping. I was shocked!

What about this weekend? Why isn’t this weekend’s long run not written in the chart? Well, my left foot is not in great shape. ☹

This is what my last week looked like:

  • Friday 03/14: Amazing 6-mile long run
  • Saturday 03/15: Rest
  • Sunday 03/16: Easy-going 3-miles on treadmill, 10 min walk with incline on treadmill
  • Monday 03/17: Bikram Hot Yoga, 60 minutes. Then easy two-miles with my cousin to chit chat. I didn’t bring running shoes with me, instead running in work-sneakers from Amazon.
  • Tuesday 03/18: Walked 1.25-miles on lunch. Walked 40 minutes around the zoo after work.
  • Wednesday 03/19: Walked 1.25- miles on lunch. Strength & Tone Fitness class (Legs and Core areas of focus)
  • Thursday 03/20: Rest
  • Friday 03/21: Woke up with heel pain when walking.

Wow! What did me in? Just being in my 30s now? Certainly not my weekly mileage as that’s been 9-12 miles/week… Running in non-running shoes, even though that was ~12:00/mile pace? Ugh. I was looking forward to my next long run! Now I find stepping down on my toes instead of my heel doesn’t hurt. I’ll admit I haven’t’ iced it yet and I spent some of the weekend sitting on the couch, but not necessarily elevated. I’m not sure if I’ll go to yoga tomorrow, at this rate. It is uncomfortable standing on it. At church today I put my weight all on the right leg. I’m sure this will go away on its own and [hopefully] it is not serious. It is not something I’m worried about [yet]. But feels a little disappointing as I felt like I was getting into the swing of things, it had warmed up for short lunchtime walks, and started seeing the pace drop. In fact, I was going to attend the Bill Roney Memorial 5k on Saturday, hoping to see my running friends, feel the atmosphere of a race, and see if the 5k time now is better than last November’s Big Bird 5k.

So while I go get some ice and actually elevate my foot, please tell me how you are doing! 🙂