JULY MILES + AUGUST GOALS

I seriously cannot believe July is already over!  This summer seriously FLEW by!  Hard to believe we go back to school in about a week.  WAH.  I’m sooooo not ready for the summer to be over and to be back to work already.But, July treated me VERY well this summer.  We stayed super busy with fun family activities and trips to Chicago + Branson, and - oh yeah - SETTING A BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW 5K PR!  Who can forget that?!But, really, July has been such a great month for our family and for my running.  I’m feeling very focused going into the fall and feel like I know exactly what I need to be doing to get there in all aspects of my life.  I’ve had a lot of really awesome things happen this summer - new business, new connections, new training plans - and I’m ready to see what the autumn months have in store for me.And of course, I’m excited about a brand new training cycle!  I’ve spent the last 2 weeks taking a bit of a mental break from training.  I ran what I wanted, when I wanted (which was still almost every day), and it was exactly the break I needed to get me excited to jump back into training.  I was able to sleep in while on vacation last week, get a few miles in in the morning, and call it a day.  But, I have to admit, coming home had me itching to go run my favorite routes again!And boy, does Coach have some hardcore training in store for me!  Check out my total mileage for this week…

TOTAL MILEAGE FOR JULY:  121.4 milesAVERAGE WEEKLY MILES:  30.35 milesYEAR-TO-DATE: 809.1 miles

So. what’s the next goal?Getting that 5K time even lower!  I have another 5K race in a few weeks (plus a Beer Mile!), but my real goal is the Run to the Lights 5K down in Branson in November.  I’ve won the race once before and it always is such a great race to run.  And because it’s been the week after state cross country, there has been some REALLY great competition with the high schoolers running the race!  I NEED competition to push me - I’m so competitive that smaller, less competitive races are hard for me to do well in.  And, I know this course really well since I’ve ran it multiple times before, so it is the perfect one to attempt a new PR - despite the massive hills on the course!  But, I love a good challenge!