Training is going. Even though it has been harder to get out the door in the past two weeks than it has in a long time – kind of like groundhog day with these snowstorms, sub-zero temps, black ice – I’ve done it pretty much every day. Not all runs have gone completely as planned, but for the most part I’ve just tried to be flexible and careful when the conditions are rough.
looking forward to hot coffee helps during cold runs!
Luckily the weather hasn’t really affected my workouts much, and I’ve been doing two each week – one on Tuesdays and one during my long run on the weekend. Some are standard workouts (400s, 800s) and some are from Coach John and/or the Jack Daniels book (marathon training plan A). The workouts from the book are a little wacky, but I think that’s why I like them. They’ve been really helpful in mixing up long runs and pushing the pace in different ways. I’ve also been loving creating the workouts on My Garmin Connect and uploading them to my 220 – it’s so much easier to just run and not worry about when intervals are up and whatnot. Oh, technology.
Last week’s long run: ~5.5 mile warm-up; 4 x 12 minutes at ~MP with two minutes rest in between; ~5 mile cool-down
Had to do this on Sunday due to work on Saturday and not wanting to get up at 4 a.m. beforehand. It was COLD, about 20 degrees, and I stubbornly did not take a water bottle with me because I was out of hand warmers and didn’t want my hands to freeze trying to hold it. The repeats went well and made the run go by semi-fast, but I also didn’t take any fuel in and about halfway into the cooldown I felt so pooped. I ate and drank when I got home, but I felt exhausted the rest of the day and think it was because I failed hardcore at fueling and hydrating during the run. Definitely need to practice what I preach more…
This past Tuesday’s speedwork: ~2.5 miles warm-up; 12 x 400m with equal recovery in between; ~2 miles cool-down
Haven’t actually seen the dirt track on the reservoir in weeks due to snow and ice, so did these on the 102nd street transverse in the park and it worked perfectly because it is almost exactly 400 meters long. After my third repeat Betsy joined and we did the rest together, which helped immensely with monotony as we got some good chats in during the recovery. Broke the workout up into three sets of four in my head to make it more manageable and kept most of the repeats around 6:45 pace. Even though the last set was definitely tough, I liked this workout a lot and don’t think I have done enough short, quick stuff in the past.
Saturday’s long run: ~5.5 miles warm-up; 4 x 1 mile at 10-15 seconds quicker than MP with 1 minute easy in between; 5 minutes easy; 3 x 1 mile at 10-15 seconds quicker than MP with 1 minute easy in between; ~4.5 mile cool-down.
I was a little worried about ice since it had snowed so much this week, but Central Park was clear and the West Side Highway was decent (below 58th street – above was a mess), which is where I like to do the workout parts of my long runs. The repeats were challenging but doable and I got into a nice rhythm. Took a small handheld water bottle and one peanut butter Gu (around mile 9 or 10) and it helped keep me going for the final repeats and cooldown.
Mileage has hovered around 62-65 miles the past two weeks, and if I’m still feeling good it’ll probably jump a bit more in the next month. My goal race is in less than 10 weeks now, which doesn’t seem like a whole lot of time. But, after last year’s marathon of marathons and marathon training, I feel a lot more relaxed towards this one and that’s probably a good thing.