Marathon training is a thing

First official week of training done! I've been doing a bit of a buildup the last few weeks (aka, just trying to establish consistency) but this was the first week that had some structure and a decent number of miles. And for the first time maybe ever, I ran MORE than I planned to. Hopefully that's a good sign. I've got like 4 different training logs going at the moment (I use Strava for GPS, Daily Mile out of habit, and recently restarted a paper training log) but I feel like the more I see the numbers written down, the more motivated I am to continue making them. So, here's a recap of week 1:

M - 2 hours of dance rehearsal

T - The short run commute (5.4 miles) at moderate effort

W - Run commute with an add on loop (6.7 miles) at easier effort

R - OFF

F - Charles River run commute with 3 miles at GMP (7:29, 7:22, 7:20) in the middle, 7.5 total. There was a tailwind so I probably went a little faster than I would have otherwise. Also did half an hour of strength work.

Sa - 5.5 fairly easy

Su - 16 miles with fast finish for last 5 (descended from 7:45 to 7:30), easy middle miles with Joy and Brianna who we ran into on the river. Haven't seen her in awhile and 5ish miles flew by while we caught up. Definitely felt better than expected throughout this entire run. A very casual 16!

Totals: 41 miles, 30 min strength, 2 hr dance

Despite some awkward injury niggles in the 2 weeks prior, this week went REALLY well. It actually was frighteningly easy to hit 41 miles running only 3x during the week...I give all the credit to the glorious run commute, which saves me time, completely takes "being lazy" out of the equation as a reason to skip a run, and lets my coworkers see how insane I am. Great success! I'm going to continue to just run 5x a week, with a long run and at least 1 up tempo or hill day for the next 2 weeks. I plan to make my triumphant return to GBTC and add structured track work back into the mix in February, which will also probably lead to a jump in mileage. This is my first time doing 4 marathon cycles back to back since 2009 it's gone 3 in a row - 2 year break - 1 that almost doesn't count - another year break until I finally got back into it at Lehigh), and I'm really hoping that all of my past 2 years mileage will pay off. But, there's a lot of work to be done first! Time to get after it.