Training Week #3 of 42

This week was... challenging to say the least. We've bumped up to 80 hour weeks at work until we file (which is March 25th) and at this point, it's all I can do to work til 1am, crawl home, get in bed, and wake up to get back to work. so I'm making an executive decision that for the next 2 weeks until we file, I will be running only. No cross training, or strength training. 2 weeks will not kill me to lay off the "extras" but trying to do everything on 5 hours of sleep a night might cause me to crack.

That being said, this week was still a success in my book, although it was a cutback week and those are always easier to do :)

Monday - Spin Class (as planned)
Tuesday - 5 miles (as planned)
Wednesday - 5 miles (as planned)
Thursday & Friday - unintentional rest days - I worked til 1am both nights and just needed to sleep in the next morning
Saturday - 10.71 miles hills in clermont @ 10:45 pace - super strong! Felt great....
Sunday - 5 miles at... get this.... 8:07 average pace, last mile was sub-8. I'm getting so fast and it's amazing. I know 8 minutes a mile might seem to slow to a lot of you, but for me, that's a 5k pace and I'm super proud of it.

Some highlights (in pictures) from this week. Oh, AND as soon as freaking busy season is over I will be catching up on blogs (2 weeks!) I feel like a terrible blogger, I barely have time to post my own nonetheless read others eeeeks. I miss catching up.

Anyway yeah, picture highlights.

Received Ultrarunning in mail (always motivating) and I posted this pic earlier this week;

What I didn't mention was that look near the back of the magazine in an article about Peanut Island...

Finisher #29 - that's me :) 37 miles baby!!! Yes I was 3rd from last but whatever I finished!!! :D

Boyfriend and I celebrated one year together by a late-night dinner at Capital Grille (after working all Saturday in the office of course :D) and then spent the night at Peabody hotel! He treats me like a princess...

Tried "brown rice" couscous as a pre-long-run meal... it was yummy!

In the Mail...

Getting this in the mail makes me a happy girl :-)

Training Week #2 of 42

The "tired" phase is starting to ease into the "wow I can really start seeing results and this is exciting" phase. I felt so strong this week, paces that used to feel like speedwork feel easy. Hills are feeling "natural" to me and spin classes no longer leave me worried that I'm going to fall down the stairs due to my quads giving out on me after. Things are good :)

Just in time for a cutback week this week! Yayyy I can't wait. 25 miles will be nice.

Here's how this week went down;

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 5 Miles - Medium Effort
Wednesday - 7 Miles - Medium Effort
Thursday - Corework (w/weights) and Lunges (w/weights)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Speedwork! 5 miles at 8:30/mile pace
Sunday - Hills - Hard Effort - 13 miles at a 10:30/mile pace

Elevation map from today..... total elevation gain 1,300 feet. Hello San Francisco I'm coming for you!!

Training Week #1 of 42

This was week #1 of training for Ancient Oaks 100-mile Endurance Run in December (keep in mind the date hasn't been set yet so the week # may change when it is).

I feel great, if not really really tired. The week went down like this;

Monday - 45 min on the elliptical. Training plan said "spin class" but after the half marathon on Sunday,  I was wiped so I opted for this instead. The goal is "cardio" so I feel like this was a success. Also added 10 minutes of corework.

Tuesday - 5 mile run @ 10:10/pace - felt tired, but good to get out there. This is my first real experiment into "active recovery" rather than just taking time off so the transition is definitely.. tiring. Also added 15 minutes of "real" corework with weights this night. I was sore for days - score!

Wednesday - 7 mile run @ 9:19/pace - started to feel good again and this was a strong run. Surprised myself by realizing that "active recovery" works :)

Thursday - Spin Class - 'nuff said

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - 10 mile run @ 10:49/mile pace in the Clermont Hills! This run felt so strong and I was so happy with it given that I was sure I was going to feel super tired from the week's workouts. 

Check out that elevation! :)

Sunday - 6 Mile Run at a 9:19/pace. My legs were sore from Saturday, did NOT feel like running. Even talked to a friend to try to get her to tell me it was okay not to run. Thank goodness she told me to go do it. This run felt amazing after the 1st mile. And 9:19 felt easy after yesterday's hills. Score :)

Overall, it was a great week, strong training week and I'm ready now for week #2. 

284 Days - 19 Hours - 29 Minutes - 12 Seconds Until AO 2013