I need to remind myself that meteorology is an inexact, dynamic science.

Monday: 4.2 mi, road
Tuesday: 5.3 mi, road (5 x Wabasha Street Bridge)
Wednesday: 5.4 mi, paved trail (Mississippi River Trail, 40 @ tempo)
Thursday: rest
Friday: 4.2 mi, road
Saturday: 8.2 mi, road
Sunday: 12 mi, trail (Afton State Park)
Total: 39.3 mi

I spent most of last week frantically switching up my running plans with the changing forecast. There were storms predicted almost every evening, and they never materialized. Well, they did materialize Saturday morning, the worst possible time to manifest.

The dynamic weather forecast meant I kept pushing back my rest day and shuffling around my workouts. Normally I wouldn’t do two speed workouts back to back, but I wanted to make sure I got them both in. For the bridge repeats, I tried to do them in control, rather than as fast as possible. I didn’t want to be fading at the end and desperate to reach the top. I think I did a pretty good job of being consistent!

Obviously there’s some variation, but there isn’t a huge dropoff at the end.

Wednesday’s tempo wasn’t that pleasant, but I got it done, and I managed a 10:41 pace despite the heat and despite a lack of desire to get it done. I had planned on making Wednesday my rest day, so knowing I had to slog through another day was sort of depressing.

Friday was terribly hot and I didn’t get out to run until about 8:30. I did a slow run around my neighborhood, which was fun. I found some new cool houses and other little nooks and crannies that I hadn’t seen before. And also some crazy house that looked like a compound for preppers/militiamen. I’ll try to get a pic of it but also they might think I was a census taker and shoot be or something.

Saturday morning, I got up early to run a 5K with my friend near the Bell Museum of Natural History. It was a celebration of Apollo 11, with a space-themed kids’ race and a very cool medal showing the phases of the moon. Since I am not an idiot, I understand that a finishers’ medal doesn’t mean I won the race, but I also appreciate unique, aesthetically pleasing tokens. Runners also received free admission to the museum, and I have not been to the new location, so I wanted to take advantage. My friend Samantha, who also ran the Night Nation Run with me last year, joined me since she also loves space and science and the natural world.

Five minutes before the race was to begin, the lightning and thunder started. The race was postponed for thirty minutes, as per policy, but that was wishful thinking. The sky opened up and poured, and the thunder and lightning continued, until there was no way the event could finish in time before (I assume) the permits expired and the museum had to open. So we sat around until the museum opened and then checked out all the cool stuff they had there.

I still had to run though! That was frustrating. I was tired from getting up early, and from waiting to eat, and from getting actually cold for the first time in weeks, but once it cleared up, I hauled myself off the couch and ran from home across the river and the freeway to Summit. I did my first run up Ramsey Hill, which wasn’t terrible, and then did a little circle around the cathedral before running down Summit. I was supposed to do a marathon pace run, but I didn’t have the energy thanks to the early morning wakeup and the humidity.

Sunday I went to Afton State Park to run. I was supposed to do 16 miles but got a bit of a later start than planned, and ran a bit slower than I thought I would. I really enjoyed the run though, there are so many lovely places in that park! It took 3 hours to complete my 12 hour run, so I figure that time on feet is more important than actual miles run, and I got in a lot of hills. I do need to start putting in some longer runs, but I don’t feel like I missed out by skipping those 4 miles.