Look, it has been pushing 50 degrees for most of December so I really have no excuses right now. I had a solid week this week, although my mileage isn’t as high as I had planned when I was laying out the two-marathons-in-six-weeks plan.
Sidebar: Right now I’m leaning toward just doing the one-loop (8 mile) option hard, really racing it.
I am glad I front-loaded my week and got in two good runs Monday and Tuesday. If I had known what work was going to be like Thursday and Friday, I would’ve made Wednesday a harder day, too.
Last Sunday I picked up a pair of New Balance Hierro trail shoes — really a trail tweak of the Boracay I’ve been wearing (currently on pair number 3). With wet roads Monday and some black ice (it has been cold in the mornings but then warmed up nicely), I threw them on for a 6 miler before work.
Sidebar 2: Anything before 6:30 a.m. I consider FURLY. I stole this term from some cycling friends in town … It stands for “f’ing early.” Unless that’s not what it stands for, in which case I like my made-up definition just fine. This week had a lot of FURLY action in the first part of the week — four workouts started before 6:30.
So, nice 6 miler to kick off Monday morning, then I dropped by the gym for 25 minutes on the spin bike in the afternoon. I thought about doing a core class, too, but decided I wanted to use that time to pick up stuff to cook dinner instead.
Tuesday I met up with my friend Chelsea, a trainer at my gym and recent Ironman finisher, to run on the treadmill. I had to start before she got there, and it was hot as blazes in the gym, but it was fine. I’m always a little slower on the treadmill. Then Tuesday night is Power Hour Yoga night, in which I got my butt kicked. Half moon pose is not my friend.
I had Wednesday set up as a recovery/rest day, so I did an easy 4 in the morning and that was it. I had a huge to-do list for after work and made it through almost all my errands. Of course, those included picking up wine and getting my nails done, so …
Thursday is when things started to go a little sideways. I was going to run early, but when I got up the windchill was 24*. I can deal with that, but I like to ease into it … I hadn’t even run in tights yet this year, much less full winter gear! And it was dark. Nope. So I went ahead and got up and went to work, thinking since I got there at 7 a.m. I could leave early.
No such luck. I was reminded why I prefer to run before work — I am in school public relations and I never know what’s going to happen. We had a situation that kept me at the office until about 4:30, which isn’t too late, and I still made Pilates Strength class. Actually, I briefly thought I had time to squeeze in 3 on the treadmill before, but not quite. (Especially not after I ran into a friend in the locker room.) When I finished class, I had a text from my husband that he was getting home from work late … so I thought maybe I had time to run while he was en route. Nope, but he was interested in running with me when I got home. So we took off for an easy 3 later than I would normally run but it was good. I’m not used to running in the evening when it’s dark — there’s a lot more traffic than there is at 5 a.m.!
Unfortunately, as soon as we got back, we’d had developments in the work situation and I ended up working for about 3 more hours. Whoo hoo.
I knew Friday had the potential to be similar, so I hit up an early-morning spin class at the gym but skipped the core class I normally do after so I could be at work earlier. Ended up staying at the office until 5:30 — last person in the building. I had a couple projects that I hadn’t finished due to the other situation, so I wanted to get those off my plate (I’ve got a meeting first-thing Monday, too).
Worth mentioning that I sloughed off a hard couple of days with a great dinner at Artensano Tapas, one of our favorites in Louisville. If you’re around here or visiting, be sure to stop in. Sit at the bar; the bartenders are all fantastic. Get the albondigas and patatas bravas for sure.
Saturday I attemped to sleep in but didn’t do a very good job — was up around 7:30. I did lounge around a bit before running from home — it was cold and foggy, which we had a few days this week. Weird. I convinced hubs to go to the gym with me, so I hit up Pilates and he got in a swim. Team Green back in action!
Sunday I did do a pretty good job of sleeping … almost 10 hours, but I think my watch counted some dozing-off time on the couch. When I got up it was 29* but the forecast was promising 40* by 10 a.m. so I hung out at home for a while, getting some laundry finished and reading Chrissie Wellington’s biography (thanks Chelsea!).
Originally I had planned to run trails Saturday and long on roads Sunday, but Sunday was the better day for both trails and long runs. I waited until 10 a.m. and it did in fact hit 40*. That, my friends, is shorts and t-shirt weather! (And gloves, if you have Reynauds like me.)
I had one of those days where I had to keep convincing myself to keep running — mostly mental, but a little bit of tired legs, too. My plan was to do 12, which would get me to 40 for the week. My previous plan was to do 16 on the roads to get ready for possibly running the trail marathon, but nothing about that sounded appealing anyway.
But, 2 miles in to the run I was convincing myself that as long as I did 6, that would be okay. Then I got to 4 and convinced myself to run the next piece of trail. And then the next, which would get me 10 miles. So I talked myself into running another piece. Finally I was at 7.5 and I could turn around and still hit 12. I also only had one water stop and had only eaten a small breakfast around 8 a.m. Poor planning on my part. Soon thereafter I ate a ton of queso and had a margarita and I regret nothing.
It really turned out to be a respectable week — 40 miles plus 21 miles of spin, yoga, Pilates Strength and Pilates.
This week I’ll try to push to 45 — at one point this was going to be a taper week for the trail marathon, but that was also when I thought I could re-peak and hit 55 last week. LOLZ. So I’ll train through and make adjustments next week if I decide to run the full marathon. I’m also considering a 5k on Saturday, along with starting back into some speedwork. Lots of cross-training again this week!
I’m cashing in some vacay and taking the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s off, so I’m hoping to get in two really good weeks of training then to build a nice base for the spring.
Oh, yeah, spring. TBD but leaning toward Carmel Marathon again (ran in 2013). Triple Crown is likely. Also considering hiring a coach — would love input from people who have worked with coaches! I had a couple of informal relationships with cross-country coaches I know who put schedules together for me for a couple of marathons. This would be my first time working with someone who a) I’m paying and b) focuses more on the marathon.
Wow. That’s a lot! If you made it this far, you’re a trooper. (Or my grandma. Hi Momma!)
TGRUNFIT 
your mom made it this far too 😉 great job kiddo!