Marathon Training Week 8

My plan for the week was cross-train, run 4, 7, and 4 miles, rest, 7 mile run, and 15 mile long run.

Last week felt harder than usual. The holidays were part of it, but I also had more alcohol than usual. Even one or two drinks does not make for good runs when you are not used to having alcohol more than once a week.

I have a half marathon race in my training plan for next weekend, so I signed myself up for the Nike+ Women's Half Marathon on January 15. It's a virtual race that you can run wherever you want. My half marathon is most likely going to be on a treadmill. Crazy? Maybe, maybe not. I went beyond crazy a long time ago ;-)

Sunday - 2 yoga podcasts. Did the same one as last week (which had the wrong pose guide, but I followed it better than the first time) and another one (which I followed along even without the pose guide). Also did some calf raises.

Monday - 4.6 mile run in my hometown. Kept it relatively easy. It wasn't too cold but was windy. The mile where I ran straight into the wind was significantly slower than the other miles. Good to know. Also did pushups, lunges, abs, and lower back.

Tuesday - 7.6 mile run in the AM. Cold and somewhat windy. Cold is tolerable as long as you are dressed appropriately. Which I was.

Wednesday - 4.6 mile run on the treadmill, plus upper body lifting (increased the total weight by 4 lbs), squats, and planks. My first midweek day off because I only work 4 days a week now. It was really nice to go to the gym not at the crack of dawn and be able to spend as much time as I wanted doing my exercises. New Year Resolutioners tend to go to the gym in the evening, hence I will not be going to gym in the evening anytime soon. The gym was reasonably busy but not crowded. Got on my favorite treadmill (yes, I have a favorite treadmill) and had plenty of space in the mat area for strength training. A girl could get used to this.

Thursday - Rest.

Friday - 7.2 mile run. Two loops on my regular running route. It started out kinda eh. My pace was slower than usual. It was fairly cold. I didn't feel the need to push it. There was a dusting of snow that was pretty and didn't interfere at all. Then a rabbit (not an actual rabbit, but rather a runner ahead of me) passed me just as I headed out on my second loop. The rabbit was running faster than me, so I figured why not try to keep up with the rabbit? Halfway through the second loop, I had stayed about 15 feet behind the rabbit and was already down 7 seconds per mile. The rabbit turned around and started chatting with me, and so we ran together at the faster pace for about a mile. I even kept up a comfortable conversation for that mile ... while running at an 8:05 pace. What! That's nuts, and good to know because I was concerned about overtraining and am less concerned now. Thanks, rabbit, for turning my so-so run into a pretty decent one.

Saturday - 16.7 mile run. The weather on this run was a gift. I went out with not one piece of cold weather gear. No fleece. No gloves. No cold weather tights. It was 55 degrees by the time I was done. I forgot to account for some .1 and .2 mile bits when I planned my route, so I ended up running a half mile farther than I meant to. The weather was so nice that I didn't mind. Stopped a few times (mile 4 to cross a street, mile 8 to pop into a supermarket to use the restroom, and mile 12.5 to fill up my water bottles and eat some pretzels). Pace was good. Pretty consistent in the first few miles and slightly faster at the end.

Total Miles: Scheduled - 37 Actual - 40.7