Training in the beginning of a year is always fun for me. I feel excited about the year ahead and continuing to improve, and it's too early in the year to have had things blow up on me :)
I don't have a goal race at the moment. I'm hoping to run a half around May/June, but still feeling too nervous to sign up for anything given the flux of the pandemic, vaccination, etc. In the meantime I'm aiming to stick around 40-45 miles a week and build a nice strong base before I (theoretically) start marathon training in early summer. I was registered for St. George last year, so that will likely be my goal race for the fall if it ends up happening. My other main goal is to work on my mental game. I'm taking a few minutes of every run to really hone in on a specific focus area (anything from mantras/positivity to tuning into my body to running without a watch), and I'm trying to prioritize my sleep.
Here's what happened last week:
Monday: Day Off. Huzzah! I did a little easy yoga and that's about it.
Tuesday: Hill repeats (30 sec/60 sec/90 sec up at 5K effort, easy down, rest two minutes in between sets). I did 3 reps. I'm sure those of you that live in a hilly or mountainous location would be unimpressed by our hill, but I really, really hate it. I did not sleep well on Monday and woke up with a massive headache, so let's just say I'm happy to have survived. I was v. excited for a brief moment when my hamstring didn't hurt at all on the hills, but then I remembered I had to take some ibuprofen for my headache. C'est la vie. (5.2 total miles)
Tuesday evening: PT for 30 minutes - lots of hamstring stuff and a little bit of calf work. My friend the 40-lb bag of cat litter and I are getting to be quite close.
Wednesday: VERY easy miles in which I didn't look at my watch at all. The only time my heart rate spiked was when a girl running in the opposite direction informed me she had just seen some coyotes and to be careful. I didn't see any coyotes, fortunately. (4 total miles)
Thursday: 8 miles at a "moderate" pace. I have been trying to add in strides on Thursdays, but today I was on the struggle bus thanks to another crappy night of sleep. The pace felt much harder than I wanted it to feel, which is a great advertisement for getting a decent night of sleep.
Thursday evening: PT again for ~ 30 minutes.
Friday: Another "easy-ish" day. Fun fact - I ran the same pace as Thursday, but because I got enough sleep, it actually felt reasonable. Probably should have run slower today, but... that's what happened! (5 total miles)
Saturday: Long run day! Last week's long run felt magical, so I'm not surprised that this week was a bit of a letdown after less sleep and some work-related stress playing in. I spent most of the middle of the run searching for a port-a-potty, so that was fun. My feet hurt quite a bit afterward, which has prompted me to consider bumping up the timeline for another shoe purchase. (14 total miles)
Sunday: Recovery miles. I slept in a little bit, which is always nice. I try not to look at my watch during recovery days and really just go at a pace that feels good. (5 total miles)
Sunday evening: short PT session after dinner (~20 minutes).
Total: 41 miles
Positives: Not giving up on runs when they feel hard, pretty okay hill workout considering how poorly I slept
Negatives: Not getting enough sleep last week!
What did your training week look like?