January Recap

Hey-o!

The first month of the year has come and gone. Well, that was quick!

Month Recap: January 2018

I ran lots of treadmill miles this month. I am so thankful to have the treadmill as a training option. It can actually be a great tool to use for speedwork and of course, it is also great safety reasons as well. If I am doing a workout on the treadmill, I like to listen to music and if I am doing an easy run on the treadmill, I like to listen to podcasts. Distraction is the most definitely the key to a successful treadmill run!

Workouts: I didn’t do many workouts this month, comparatively speaking. The first part of January was spent tapering and the middle of the month was spent recovering, but I was able to get in a few workouts towards the end of the month.

2 mi. WU, 8 mi. tempo (6:44 avg.), 1 mi. CD

3 mi. WU, 4 mi. tempo (6:45 avg.), 1 mi. CD

2 mi. WU, 10 X 400 (85, 89, 88, 89, 89, 91, 90, 90, 92, 89), 2 mi. CD

 3 mi. WU, 2 X 2 mi. (12:44 (6:22 avg.) and 12:52 (6:26 avg.)), 3 mi. CD

1.5 mi. WU, 6 X 800 (3:02, 3:03, 3:02, 3:03, 3:09, 3:08), 2.5 mi. CD

Favorite workout: I think my best workout of the month (and likely my favorite because of that) was the 8 mile tempo that I did the week before the marathon. I ran this one on the treadmill, so perhaps it felt a little bit easier because of that, but this workout went really well and was a huge confidence builder for me. Up until that point, I was unsure if I would even be ready to run the marathon. Granted, I didn’t end up running the marathon at the pace that I trained to run it in, but that’s really not the point anymore.

Races: Only one this month! The First Light Marathon. It’s tough to race a marathon and do other races in the same month due to the taper beforehand and the recovery afterwards.

Favorite race: I have a sneaking suspicion that even if I had run several other races, First Light would’ve still been the favorite!

Paces: My paces ranged from 6:22 (during 2 X 2 mile workout) to 9:40 (first mile run post-marathon).

Miles: 241.6! Less than normal, but still very respectable.

Longest run: 26.2 miles. I expect that this will be my longest run for the year, but who knows …

Shortest run: 5 miles. This is typically my standard, go-to easy run distance.

Favorite run: In the midst of all the treadmill miles, I did manage to get outside and run with friends some as well. One run in particular that stands out was a mid-week, early morning run with Rebecca and Jessica. We met at Rebecca’s house at 4:30 and got in 8 miles. We don’t all get to run together during the week very often, but when we do, it is always wonderful!

Least favorite run: I don’t typically have a least favorite run, but this month, I most definitely did! It turns out that I have a limit when it comes to cold weather running and I found that limit on January 17, 2018.

Rest days: 3!

Strength training: I’ve been doing 5 minutes of planks + 5 minutes of upper body several times per week. For the planks, I alternate as I go from doing them on my elbows, to doing them on each side (still on my elbows though), back to my elbows and finally do doing them with my arms straight. For the upper body stuff, I am doing a minute each of bear crawls, dips, pushups, dive bombers and then plank pushups. I likely should modify this routine a bit and not do the same thing every single time, but whatever … it seems to work for me and I’m actually doing it, so that’s a win.

Coming up: I’m planning to run the Joe Cain Classic 5K next weekend and otherwise, I will contine to train for the Wine 10K in Birmingham the first weekend in March. I’m excited about both of those races!

That’s it for now. Talk to you soon!