January recap

Where the eff did January go? I swear it was just yesterday I was creating my training calendar for January...and now all of the boxes have been crossed off and it's on to February's thrilling [and higher mileage, and more workout-heavy...] training schedule!

So January...I'm really happy with this month of training.  Here are the boring stats:
Total miles: 192.9
Days off: 8 [probably 4 of those were completely off, others with some XT]
Workouts: 7 [2 hill reps, 1 mile repeats, 2 fartlek, 2 tempo]
Longest run: 17.3 miles
Weekly mileage range: 39.4-51.2

I am really amazed and pleased with how I've been able to bounce back into pretty heavy training after 2 months of pretty much failing at running thanks to my IT band problems. Having a training calendar to follow was the BEST thing I ever could have done for this training cycle - I'm totally loving knowing exactly what I need to do and just going out there and getting it done.   And since I was only running 5 days a week for most of this month, I was actually pretty surprised to see I got that close to 200. Probably because if I put a given distance down on my calendar, I will without fail end up running slightly further...because I'm kind of a weirdo...yeah. :)

This past week was pretty fantastic in terms of running, my first week over 50 miles since like...early October haha...exciting!  I had a few really great workouts...interspersed with some kind of crappy recovery runs, but I guess that's the point of those, right? I had a session of mile repeats on the schedule for Wednesday which I was totally DREADING...like ever since I put this workout on the schedule a month ago I have been looking at it with fear.  The workout was 3 x mile at 5K-10K pace, which really isn't even so bad if you go on the 10K end of things, but mile repeats have been something I've detested since the first time I ran them [high school XC senior year...Mondays were long interval days, which we did around this 800 meter loop around a church.  I HATED Mondays...].  I was totally thinking about putting it off but since it was like 40 degrees out I just had to throw myself out the door and do it.  Didn't feel great on the warm up, so I was obviously still not excited to run fast.  Buuut off I went on my first interval and it was like....magic!  It felt SO GOOD to run fast...it was like flying.  I finished the first mile in 6:10 and practically had a heart attack - I can't even REMEMBER the last time I ran a 6:10 mile!! Like...a year ago?  So after that I was pretty jacked to finish the workout.  I dialed it back to 6:23 and 6:29 for the last 2 since there was no way I was holding that 6:10 pace...but holy hell!  I had no CLUE I could still run that fast!  I mean I guess it's not like speed just disappears when you start doing longer distance training, but it was just really thrilling to see that marathon training doesn't mean I have to give up all of my fast-ness :)

That was really my only "speed" workout this week - I had a 10 miler on Friday that was kind of a challenge just because it was SO cold and windy!  I'm really not one to whine about the cold - I am from Wisconsin after all and the east coast winter has been sooo mild compared to the crap we got in Madison - but Friday was pretty unpleasant, the wind was just AWFUL!  I once again ran to work because its so time efficient, and all in all it wasn't a bad run at all, but I was so ready to be done by the time it ended...my face was frozen and I was sick of running what seemed like endlessly uphill and endlessly into the wind haha.

I ended up doing my recovery run between shifts at work on Saturday which was pretty awful, and between that and the whole "double shift" thing I was NOT looking forward to my long run on Sunday.  As I think I said some other time, this time around with long runs its not so much that I'm worried about going the distance, its just a big time commitment when I could be being a bum and eating food on the couch hehe. But I got out the door.  I was planning on doing an 8 mile loop at the reservoir, stopping at home, and then going out for another 8 miles.  By the time I got to the reservoir though, I had fallen into a really easy pace that I felt like I could just maintain forever...soo I decided I would roll with it and just kept running laps around the reservoir until it got dark - ended up being like 10.5 miles from when I started.  I'm actually really pleased about this because the thing about running at the reservoir is you don't have to stop for lights or anything, so it's just constant running, and that's really always something I need to work on pushing myself to do - not relying on those little breaks to get me through the run.  I did finally get stuck at a light at Cleveland Circle, so I went to tie my shoe...when I looked up, there was a PUPPY sniffing my face!  It was a little baby golden retriever, so completely precious. Definitely boosted my mood =)  I stopped at home quickly for a gel and some water, then headed back out for my 4.6 mile loop - definitely glad I only had 4 miles to go at that point haha.  My first mile was pretty fast, so I decided to just go with it and try to stay sub-8 for the whole last section...the result? 7:49 average pace, woot woot! It wasn't easy or anything, but I really felt surprisingly good for having run 16.6 miles, so that was awesome!  Running 5.5 more miles for my 22 miles will be nothing, right?

After I got back, the BF and I headed out for burgers and beers at our favorite neighborhood spot.  I LOVE the Wachusett blueberry beer that they always serve with real blueberries...it's way too entertaining to watch them float around on the bubbles hehe.   They had the X-Games on, and the event was basically long jumping on a snowmobile...WTF?? Is that really considered a sport? All they did was propel the snowmobile off a jump and see how far it went...that just seems silly.  But anyway, it was nice to just devour a bunch of tasty food after a long run!

Well I've been pretty busy with work lately, hence the lack of posting on here!  Sometimes I feel like my training and life is just too boring for anyone to want to read haha.  But anyway, I'm looking forward to racing the Super Sunday 10K this coming weekend - my first race since the marathon!  And oh yeah...the LOST SEASON PREMIERE tomorrow!!! The BF and I are having a mini party with island themed food and of course some "Dharma beer"...hehe. :)

Month #1 of training for marathon #2 - DONE!  Let's see what February has in store...