Illinois Marathon Training Recap Weeks 6 & 7

I missed last weeks recap so I am just combining them for this week. 
Week 6 - Dec. 17-23

• Monday: ran those 10 miles from week 5 on the treadmill
• Tuesday: yoga
• Wednesday:  Off
• Thursday: 4.5 miles with 2x1600 @ 8:41, Zumba
• Friday: Off
• Saturday: 8 miles run, 2 mile walk
• Sunday: 2 mile walk
• Total: 12.5 miles running, 4 miles walking

Week 6 was a cutback week and I still missed a 4 mile run.  I thought about squeezing it in on Sunday, but instead opted for another walk with my mom.  My mom walks almost everyday and when I am back in Iowa, I try to make time to join her.  
Saturday's 8 miler was chilly.  Cascade got about 8 inches of snow Thursday and the sidewalks and roads were still icy in places.  I walked over any icy places and my pace wasn't very steady or fast.  But I got it done.  When I was heading back home my parent's were just heading out for their walk so I joined them.  I produce a lot more heat running than I do walking and so I was a little bit cold on the walk.  I wish I had stopped at home to grab a jacket, but at the time I was still all warm from running!
Week 7 - Dec. 24-30

• Monday: 2 mile walk, No More Trouble Zones DVD
• Tuesday: Off
• Wednesday: 2 mile walk
• Thursday: 6 miles
• Friday: 5 miles with 3 @ 9:14
• Saturday: Off
• Sunday: 11 miles
• Total: 22 miles running, 4 miles walking

Week 7 was very busy at the beginning of the week with Christmas gatherings.  Since Matt and I are from the same town and most of our family is in the area, we get invited to many Christmas gatherings.  We spend Sunday, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day shuffling from place to place.  I love seeing everyone, but it is quite exhausting.  On Christmas Day, we went to 6 different places.  I am a little bit bummed because I feel like I hardly got to talk to anyone for more than 5 minutes!  All this shuffling from place to place caught up with me because I woke up with a scratchy throat on Christmas morning and on Wednesday morning I had a full blown cold.  
I got in several more walks with my family and managed to squeeze in all my training runs in the second half of the week.  Unfortunately, I had a terrible, horrible, awful run on Sunday. I didn't prepare the best on Saturday.  I wasn't very hungry all day which is a side effect of my cold.  The run started out okay, but I could tell by about mile 5 that this run was going to go downhill quickly.  I definitely did not drink enough water before I left because I was very thirsty.  My energy was lagging and I still felt pretty congested from my cold.  I ended up taking quite a few walking breaks.  I took half a Gu around mile 8 to give me a little bit more energy, but it just make me even thirstier. 
The only exciting thing that happened was that I saw a coyote!  I was running in a forest preserve and at first I thought it was a dog.  It came up to cross the path about 50 feet in front of me, looked back at me for a second, and then continued trotting on its way back into the grasses.  It scared me at first and I stopped and waited till I knew it was further away from me before starting to run again.  I would say the coyote was the size of a medium-sized dog.  This seemed quite big for a coyote in my opinion, but Matt (the wildlife expert in our relationship) informed me that coyotes weigh up to 50 pounds.  My other guess was that it was a wolf, but that didn't seem right to me.  And wolfs seem much more intimidating to me than coyotes.  Matt also says coyotes are mostly afraid of humans and it wouldn't attack me.  I'm just glad I wasn't any closer or I might be telling this story with only one leg.  

Any wildlife encounters for you lately?  I think I am about maxed out with the deer v. my car and now the coyote.