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This was a pretty good step back week.\u00a0 For the most part the temperatures were great although the humidity tried to ruin that whenever it could. A good week was topped off by a good weekend of camping and hiking around to celebrate my 27th birthday!!<\/p>\n
Monday:<\/strong><\/span>Four comfortable miles<\/em>. It was a little hard to run comfortably with 80% humidity but I managed to run 4 easy miles in the 70 degree temps. I tried out a new loop downtown running to Nicollet and making a square through the middle of downtown.\u00a0 I probably won’t do it again because I had to stop at a lot of intersections which really broke up the run (good and bad!) I did the 4 miles in 30:49 threw in a couple of accelerations and completed Week 3 Day 1<\/a> of the hundred push-up challenge (completing a total of 64 push-ups), and other core work.<\/p>\n Tuesday:<\/strong><\/span>7-9 miles.<\/em> Met the training class at the Edina Community Center again (for the last time) for a 9 mile run.\u00a0 We had a good run and I felt pretty good throughout. It was to be a conversational run and we had discussions during the early parts as to what a conversation actually meant! We did 3 loops around Bredesen Park; 2 on the inside and one on the paved outer loop.\u00a0 Our leader got us a little lost on the first loop! Our overall run was 9.75 miles in\u00a0 1:12:17 which is 7:24 pace.\u00a0 Our fastest mile was a 7:08 and our slowest was a 7:54 (1st mile).\u00a0 Overall it felt like a very solid run with a lot of pace variation throughout.<\/p>\n Wednesday:<\/strong><\/span>Four comfortable miles. <\/em>I ran in the evening again and didn’t really like it! It was 83 without any real humidity so it should have been fine, but I felt tired and sluggish.\u00a0 I was a little impressed to see that I ran 29:07 for 3.75 miles which is around 7:40 pace.\u00a0 Most definitely a little tired! A total of 72 painful pushups for Week 3 Day 2<\/a>.\u00a0 I didn’t think I was going to be able to make it through.<\/p>\n Thursday:<\/strong><\/span>Rest Day! <\/em>It was a nice day of rest!<\/p>\n Friday:<\/strong><\/span>8 mile run. <\/em>This was a very wet run so I was quite glad when it started raining.\u00a0 It was about 70 degrees at the start but 98% humidity – so it could have rained pretty much at any point.\u00a0 I ran toward downtown – across the Stone Arch Bridge – around Hennepin and Boon Islands across the Plymouth Bridge and back home for a nice 8.75 mile run! I did this easy run in 1:12:57. It spit a few rain drops while on Boon Island but didn’t start raining until I was on the West River Parkway heading home!\u00a0 This is a very scenic run. 82 pushups on Day 3 of Week 3<\/a>!<\/p>\n Saturday:<\/strong><\/span> 10-12 miles. <\/em> After the run Friday morning we packed the car and headed to the Minnesota North Shore<\/a> and went camping at the Finland State Forest Campground<\/a>. I almost didn’t run but decided I really couldn’t miss the opportunity to run on some very scenic trails.\u00a0 I decided to run on the Superior Hiking Trail<\/a>, north from Lake County Rd 1. I had to power walk within the first mile as I hit some steep inclines! The trail was quite rugged, as to be expected, with a lot of rocks and tree roots, so even the downhills where quite hard and dangerous. It was worth every second of the 1:20:25 run and every inch 1,500 elevation gain over 4 major “summits”. Talk about some amazing vistas!\u00a0 They made it worth the effort for the ~7 mile run. It was cool up there as well – not sure an actual temp, but I started in long sleeves and got cold even while sweating.\u00a0 The air off Lake Superior has a nice cold tinge to it.\u00a0 After the run I waded into the Baptism River at Lake Superior for a nice ice bath!<\/p>\n Sunday:<\/strong><\/span>Cross training. <\/em>Lots of hiking and exploring waterfalls for my birthday!!<\/p>\n Weekly Mileage:<\/strong><\/p>\n Running –\u00a0 33.3 miles<\/p>\n Hiking -15 miles<\/p>\n