For the first time in three weeks, that treading water feeling is gone. You know the feeling…the laundry is a week behind, the sink is overflowing with dirty dishes, the trash needs to be taken out (twice!), the fridge and pantry are bare, and you haven’t been able to take a spare moment for yourself in days…er…weeks.

I conquered all the things this weekend. The house is in order. The laundry is caught up, the sink is empty, and the groceries were bought. I read a book for pleasure…and no, it wasn’t a running-related book! I got all my runs in, including a very enjoyable 9 miler with Mr. Neon late Saturday morning. I have a detailed to-do list waiting for me at work tomorrow that should keep me on task and get my week started off right.

Of course, this feeling could be very temporary. It could unravel tomorrow.

But for now I will revel in the orderliness and cleanness of everything. And I will go to bed early tonight, ready to conquer tomorrow. I’ve got a progressive track workout of torture waiting for my on our iFit account.

Looks fun, right? I’m not sure I’ve ever set a treadmill to 7.5. I’m pretty sure I’ll be spending those 2 minutes trying not to fall off the back of the treadmill and smacking the wall.

So here’s the rundown from this past week:

Tuesday – Week 15 Key Run #1 – Track – 4×800 (8:16) (400RI)
5.0 miles – 48:34 – 9:48 pace
Another treadmill programmed workout. I can tell these workouts are making me stronger.

Wednesday – Swim XT

Thursday – Week 15 Key Run #2 – Tempo – 1mi Easy, 5mi MP (10:09), 1mi Easy
7.0 miles – 1:11:20 – 10:11 pace
Since my easy pace isn’t far off of my marathon pace, I just pushed buttons between 5.8, 5.9, and 6.0. This marks my longest run BEFORE work. I really didn’t want to get up at 5am, but I’m glad I did.

Saturday – Week 15 Key Run #3 – Long Run – 9mi @ MP+45
9.0 miles – 1:35:56 – 10:39 pace
I LOVE SLOWING DOWN! For the past 6 months, I’ve been pushing the pace, working on my half PR. For the marathon, I knew it would be a lesson in slowing down. I imagined that would be slow and annoying. I told Mr. Neon while we were running that these slower miles actually went by faster because nothing hurt and I was able to just zone out and run for the love of it. We actually ran the whole thing…no walk breaks other than two very brief nutrition breaks and two quick stops to refill water bottles. No slowing to jog, just steady state running. And we ended with a +30 pace instead of +45. Oops.

Workouts this week:

Week 15 Key Run #1 – Track – 1200, 1000, 800, 600, 400 (all with 200RI)
Week 15 Key Run #2 – Tempo – 1mi Easy, 5mi LT, 1mi Easy
Week 15 Key Run #3 – Long Run – 10mi @ MP+45

I’ve got a 10K race on Saturday, so we’ll see how that affects my long run. I plan on pushing it, maybe hoping for a PR depending on the weather. So I might just substitute a hard 10K for the 10miler.