Yee Haw, Records are falling this week!

So far I've done two of my runs this week, and can I just say that they were the most incredible runs ever? I had a feeling that I'd see some new PR's this week, since it's a drop down of mileage. I did only 10 miles last Friday, and 12 miles on Saturday (It was supposed to only be 8).

I didn't think that I would progress THIS MUCH. First of all, my run on Monday was a "blazing" 10:04 minute pace overall for 6.2 miles! I even had one mile that was actually under a 10 min pace, and I shattered my previous 5k and 10k...all in this ONE run. What's strange is that it didn't even feel that fast to me. Now going a 10:30 minute mile seems lagging, even though just last week that would have been a fast pace for me.

My run this morning was 9 miles (10 if you include my warm up). I ended up with an average of 10:07 for this one...still SUPER fast for me. In fact, I even PASSED a person. It was a very slow pass. She probably was wondering why I was passing her so slowly haha.  I find that I end up being so excited that I'm running fast that I have to try hard to chill out to keep my heart rate low. I guess it's not a bad problem to have. 

I have one more run tomorrow (8 miles) before my big long run on Friday (24 miles...eeek). Tomorrow I'm going to take a break from shattering records, and I'm going to focus on some light hill work. I need to start incorporating hills gradually into my running so that I'm not completely wiped out when I have to run tiny bits of elevation for the race. I set up a run for about 300ft of elevation gain tomorrow. Gotta eassse into it, and will probably just add 100ft each week. My hill work will definitely be walking at first, and running down the gradual side of the hill to work on my turn over. It seems like a safe amount of work to me.

Also, I caved and bought an Instant Pot. This thing apparently is a 7-in-1 machine that can make soups, steam things, pressure cook, cook rice and grains, act as a crock pot, and even make yogurt. Uh, I know that wasn't a list of 7 things. I am excited that it's a pressure cooker and I can now make bone broth in a tiny 30 minutes! I can also make a whole chicken in 30 minutes, with the meat falling off the bone. I plan on doing that tomorrow, so you will see pictures!

Instant Pot!

Another great thing that I discovered is steaming eggs in it! SO EASY AND FAST. I just set it for 4 minutes on a low pressure steam (accidentally set it for high on the first trial...nothing exploded, and it wasn't overcooked, but smelled eggy). You can just walk away, and then when it's done, I let out the steam and threw them in some ice. The eggs peel SO nicely, even if they are fresh.

I was a little scared about it once everyone started telling me how dangerous pressure cookers were. I made sure to read the directions thoroughly, and now I feel really comfortable using it. This is a start of a beautiful friendship.