Training recap week of 1/26 (Pixie Dust Challenge Week 4)

Happy Monday!  Did you all have good weekends?  Mine was incredibly productive - solid running, took a Refine class, cleaned (including laundry) and did meal prep for the week.  It felt so good to be productive - but I wasn't running around like a chicken with my head cut off, it was a relaxed productivity which I like even better!

Who watched the Super Bowl?  I did... but mainly for the commercials.  Neither team is my team (honestly, I'm not a big football fan in general), but I was rooting for Seattle.  You know what I was a fan of?  The half time show.  I love Katy Perry and I thought it was a great show.

Anyway, this weeks workouts went well.  I got all my runs in despite snow on Tuesday and some freezing temperatures on Saturday.  Haven't really started to ramp my mileage up yet, but this week's schedule called for my first tempo run (starting slow, just 3 miles plus warmup/cooldown).  Honestly, I had no idea how this would go, so figured if I could keep them at 9:00/pace, I'd be happy.  My 3 miles ended up faster than 9:00/pace and the average for the whole run was 9:00/pace.

I was pretty happy with that until Thursday, when my easy run felt horrible. My legs felt like bricks and it was pretty slow.  Win some, lose some, right?

I also got my 4 cross training workouts in.  I think I can actually see some abs coming in!

Monday
Scheduled: Rest
Actual: Rest
Cross training: Love Your Legs and Booty (Tone It Up)

Tuesday
Scheduled: 3 miles easy
Actual: 3.05 miles, 29:01, 9:31 pace
Cross training: Summer Arms (Beach Babe 1 DVD) and 3 Moves for a Sexy Upper Back (Tone It Up)

Wednesday
Scheduled: 5 miles total, 3 miles tempo pace
Actual: 5.06 miles total, 45:25, 8:58 pace
Tempo Paces: 9:07, 8:24, 8:01

Thursday
Scheduled: 3 miles easy
Actual: 3.00 miles, 31:41, 10:33 pace

Friday
Scheduled: Rest
Actual: Rest
Cross training: Tone It Up in 30:00 Workout (Tone It Up)

Saturday
Scheduled: 8 mile long run
Actual: 8.00 miles, 1:17:48, 9:43 pace

Sunday
Scheduled: Rest (Cross Training)
Actual: Rest
Cross training: Refine Method class

Total miles: 19.12

Total January miles: 77.04

Miles until goal (1,250): 1,172.96
Cross Training: 4/4

How did your workouts go this week?  

Morning runs

What is it about morning runs that I cannot get on board with?  I am getting better, but it is so hard to get motivated for them.

My schedule had me doing a 5 mile tempo run today and I knew with the weather report calling for heavy rain, I did not want to do it after work.  Plus, I have a some errands I need to do before leaving for SF tomorrow (and I still need to pack...grrrr, I hate packing), so I just knew it was not going to be possible for me to do it after work.

But when my alarm went off this morning, I could not get moving.  I snoozed until I could not anymore if I wanted to get my run in and I still had to cut a mile from the tempo portion (ended up 1 mile warmup, 4 miles tempo and 1 mile cooldown).  It was to the point were I was waiting for my Garmin to sync with the satellites and I was thinking to myself - 'If I went back to bed right now I could get an extra 60 minutes of sleep'.

I did it, but my paces were definitely a little off.  It probably didn't help that I (obviously) did not get up with enough time to eat something prior to my run so I was running on an empty stomach.  

I used to not be able to run in the AM at all, but I've gotten better and now it seems like just speed workouts are hard.  At least I can get my easy runs in in the AM (when I can get out of bed).  Since it seems I can run in the AM as long as my pace isn't a priority, I am going try to start doing them in the AM and see if I can train myself to get better at it.

But, at least I got my run in today (even if it was short)!

Good week

Got a good week of training in. On Monday, I did an easy 3 mile run at a 9:45 pace. I was going to try to go swimming as well Monday night, but wasn't able to get it in. On Tuesday night, I had a Terrier workout. We did Tempo intervals. I had a surprisingly good run. Really pushed myself as opposed to making reasons why I should run slower. Pretty happy with the workout. Last night I just did a light active recovery workout. Tonight is my Terrier swim.

This weekend going to go for a bike ride. Shannon and I are going to meet on Saturday morning and do some loops of the park. Pray for no rain!

Its cold outside...

The weather has definitely turned cooler...which is making running slightly more difficult. Went running Tuesday night at Niketown - had a great run. Did a 3.5 mile tempo run and felt good with a comfortable pace of 8:50. Excellent.

Running the NYRR Holiday 4M tomorrow morning. Should be another cold one. Still taking it kinda easy tomorrow. Don't want to over push my body post Chicago/Philly. Last race of the year! Then a new racing season starts in January - already looking forward to it!

Tuesday Workout

Last night was our last "hard" workout before the marathon. We have already begun to taper. It was fairly simple last night - 3 lower loops, 2 at tempo, third on faster. I actually only ended up doing 2 loops. I was feeling like I was getting a cold, so i decided to take it easy as not to wear myself out and actually get sick.

Tuesday night workout

We had group training last night - warmer then Saturday, but still decent running weather. We did a full loop of the park (6 miles) as a tempo run. First mile was a warm-up and the next 5 were at a pace 30 seconds slower then our 10k pace. Did pretty good.