Training: Week of 9/12/11

I think I'm going to try to start doing this weekly training business, even though I have a log in 2 other places...more for accountability than anything else.  And to have something to write on the blog...because...ya know.

Monday: 6.4 easy, Charles River from BU.  Felt really slow and awful, it was pretty hot still which didn't help.  Lifted at FitRec which left me sore for 4 days. Time to get back on the strength training bandwagon.

Tuesday: 6.6 easy. Dean Road. Ridiculously sore so didn't bring a watch, otherwise I would have been obsessing about how slow I was running.

Wednesday: off. Because I have 7 hours of class and I'm lame.

Thursday: 6.25 easy, home from a doctor's appointment at BMC.  The doc pretty much thought I was a nutjob for running home and I was like...whatever dude. Also it was really hot at the beginning of the run, and then it randomly started pouring rain when I was about a mile from home...pretty much awesome. Also took a 90 min ballet class which was awesome.

Friday: Didn't run, but kayaked for an hour and a half on the Charles!

Yes, I live here. I know you are jealous.

Saturday: 6.5 easy, Dean Road.  I actually ran in the morning for the first time in forever, and was listening to my Badger gameday playlist and just loving my life. I was all cheerful and waving to all of the runners I passed...highly enjoyable.

Sunday: 10.2 long, Jamaicaway + the second half of Dean Road.  This. was. AMAZING!  I'm not exaggerating when I say it's the best run I've been on in months.  I feel like all summer I've had something going on where I never was able to really get into a groove when I was running...it was always just really effortful. In retrospect, this probably had a lot to do with the fact that my thyroid wasn't actually working the way it was supposed to, but whatever the reason yesterday I finally got to remember what it's like to just not care, not think, and just run. I felt so relaxed, smooth, and strong, and on top of all that I was actually running fast. So good, so good.

Total running miles: 35.9

Highest weekly mileage since the week of July 11. OH DEAR. It really doesn't get much rougher than the last 2 months...it was really good to have some confidence inducing runs this week that give me hope that I will be able to pull things together and be in decent shape come January, when I have to start training for real.

In other news, I got my Boston confirmation the other day..eeeek! It is moderately terrifying to contemplate running another marathon BUT at the same time I am sooo excited.  I've genuinely missed the madness. And I have a bunch of friends/training partners in the Boston area who are running this year, which is going to make the winter of training that much better...not to mention all of my non-runner friends are already talking about the t-shirts they're going to make with my picture on it...bahaha.

Also...GORGEOUS FALL WEATHER. Need I say more?

Let's talk about training.

First of alll....who can guess what I will be doing at 10 am tomorrow?!?!
Well..I will be sitting in Diagnostics class, but that isn't the point.  I will have my laptop with me and I will be putting that sweet sweet info in to sign me up for BOSTON!

Now this is actually a somewhat scary thing to be doing, because as you may recall, the glorious marathon that allowed me to sign up in the 10+ minutes faster than your BQ category happened almost an entire year ago.  And the year of running that has followed has been, in a word, shit. I have had motivation issues, injury issues, health issues, the fun has been never ending, and I have lost a lot of fitness.  But there is no way I'm wasting my 3:22 when I could race in my own backyard with all of my friends cheering me on in 2013, no freaking way. And I am bound and determined to put all of my life junk behind me, get my butt in gear, and spend the next 8 months getting ready to kill it in April.

So the real question is - how am I planning on regaining my long lost fitness? I'm thinking that cardiovascular fitness is going to be the easy part, since it's not like I haven't been running at ALL...my guess is my issue is going to be my legs.  Which, really, has always been my issue. So you know what that means...what up, strength training.  Yesterday was day 1 of my grand master Boston plan, which consisted of going for a run AND doing a strength workout...quite possibly for the first time since high school.  The run was sucky, since Boston apparently decided that 84 degrees and humid in September is it's new thing, and then I headed to the gym to do strength. I did a pretty standard set of lower body exercises, 3 sets of 10 each. (Fun PT fact! The ideal number of sets/reps for strength building is 3 x 8-12. Anything higher than that and you're more looking at building endurance.) All of them were just body weight except for squats + lunges, where I really upped the game and added 2 5lb weights.  Here's the sad part...I am SO. SORE.  Clearly this is an indication of the sad state of my legs, but the soreness also tells me that if I keep doing this, I WILL get stronger. And that is definitely a good thing.

As far as actual running is concerned, the plan for right now is: do it.  4 days a week ain't gonna cut it anymore. I really don't feel like I need to be doing speedwork or any insane long runs until I build up a reasonable base to start, and the first step in doing that is getting my ass out the door and running 5-8 miles every. single. day. The end.

I was going to write about my new guilty pleasure, Dance Moms, but then it got late. And I need to go running. Sooo you'll have to wait for that...I know you're crushed.