Boom! Consecutive 20 mile training weeks…yes! The last time I did that was in March when I was pretending that I wasn’t injured.

It was a cut back week, so I only had an 8 mile long run. This week is pretty heavy week with a long tempo and another 10er. Then I get a brief one week taper and RACE. I usually do a 2-week taper, but the 80/20 plans don’t appear to give you a giant taper. You aren’t training at such a high intensity, so your legs don’t need that longer recovery before race day. We’ll see if it works for me. My 13 mile training run came after two 10er weeks and it was my best run of the year. Solid plan.

So, I tried this new thing last week. Vegan Before Five. I don’t know if it’s really a thing, but I made it one. I ate vegan for breakfast and lunch and then ate meat as part of my dinner meal. I liked the way I felt…less bloat, more energy. And then I stopped doing it over the weekend and didn’t do it today. I’ll get back at it once I can hit up the grocery store for some more Amy’s Kitchen meals. Those things make my day, especially the burritos. I also need to start making some vegan frozen lunches myself.

We had our first XC meet of the year yesterday. The boys both did very well. It was WET, but thankfully not super muddy. They got to splash through several puddles. It was fun watching the kids fight the urge to slow down through the puddles and let instinct take over.

Tiny Boy ran a 10:06 2K (8:02 pace) and Runner Boy ran a 10:26 1.5 mile (6:57 pace). Tiny Boy’s 1 mile PR is 8:29, so he did pretty darn awesome. Runner Boy has never run a XC race under a 7-minute pace. We rewarded the shiny new PRs with pizza buffet. Boys who run get their monies worth at pizza buffets!

Stay neon! Check out the boys’ socks…the love of neon runs strong in our family!