Boston Training: Week 3 Summary

My life has been crazy the past few weeks and my blog has been suffering. I am OK with that though because most of the crazy is the GREAT kind of crazy. I have had to prioritize and social media has kind of fallen to the wayside. Most mornings I leave my house between 5am and 5:30am and get home after 8pm. I am going to try and do better, but I don't see life settling down for awhile - but again all of this stuff going on in my life is good and makes me happy. My running is going really well. I had one of my best tempo runs ever this week and I have never been more motivated or committed. 


TOTAL: 50.13 miles

1/16 (Monday) - 5 Miles EASY AM
I had the day off of work and planned on going to the pool, but there was a change of plans had the opportunity to run on some new (to me) paved trails in Reston. It was chilly, but the sun was warm and the company was awesome as well.
1/17 (Tuesday) - Hill Workout
Monday night seems to be the night of tossing and turning. I close on my condo today, so I am feeling a bit of anxiety. I woke up to the sound of rain. Ugh...5am, 42 degrees and rain. Great. This has to be my least favorite condition to run in. No excuses though. Come April 16 in Boston, it is possible the conditions may be identical or worse! Every run like this makes me a little tougher and more confident. It ended up being pretty comfortable out and the hills were great. I didn't want to stop after my cool down. It started raining pretty hard though once I was done.
1/18 (Wednesday) - 8.30 miles EASY AM
It's so warm outside! It was in the 40s when I started at 6am! The wind was brutal heading north on the Mt. Vernon Trail, but pushed me as I turned around and headed back towards Old Town. I don't weigh myself regularly, but decided to jump on the scale this morning. I was surprised to see that I am already at the weight I usually am at during my peak training week in a marathon cycle. Looks like I am going to have to start paying more attention to my calorie intake. I know that if I drop below where I am now, I will start to feel sluggish and run down.  
1/19 (Thursday) - Pool Running 2 hours
I feel like I have not been in the pool for a long time. I guess it has been 10 days. The air was warm, but the water was chilly which only made me move my limbs faster which isn't a bad thing. I was cranky when I woke up, but it's amazing what a couple hours of cardio can do for the psyche.
1/20 (Friday) - Tempo
I'm actually seeing improvement! In just a few short weeks! I'm not saying it was easy. Quite the opposite really but today we did a 3 mile, 2 mile and 1 mile workout and I knocked down my times on each one. I ran my 3 miles in 21:06 (7:07; 7:02; 6:57); my 2 miles in 13:58 (7:00; 6:58) and then my 1 mile in 6:48! Phew. I was happy to run with Brett, Stephanie and Cheryl (for the 3 mile). It does help to run with others. Even though I fell behind them, they kept me motivated!  
1/21 (Saturday) - 4 miles EASY AM

We had some bad weather here on Friday night/early Saturday morning. I planned on running 8 easy miles with CAR, but the run was canceled, so I settled with a fun 4 through ice and snow. It wasn't ideal. But this is why I run...to get outside and feel the fresh cold air in my lungs.
1/22 (Sunday) - 14 miles LONG RUN AM
Brr. I was not super excited to get out of a nice, warm, cozy bed for a 2 hour run in 28 degree weather. Once I got going, it felt good. The paths were still a little slick and the wind was rough coming back from Hain's Point but I felt strong - especially the last 4 miles which is what is important. My pace was all over the place during the run, but my last 2 miles were 7:50 and 7:29.