One City Marathon Training : 1

And we're back!  I absolutely love training for races, so I'm excited to kick off a new training cycle (ps- if you want to hear more about the race I'm doing next and why I picked it, read this post!).  This was a great week, filled with some new cross training and fantastic workouts.  Even with some less-than-ideal weather, I was able to fit in all of my runs!  I know I'm not the only person that feels like a rockstar when I'm outside running in a downpour or on a snowy blowy day.  That counts as double mileage, right?

As always, here's a look at my week in training!  I liked my graphic so much from Buffalo Creek, so I decided to keep it for this cycle as well!  Maybe it's good luck, since I got a big PR!

linking up with Steff, Holly and Tricia!

Monday

Body Pump / 1 hour

This was my fourth ClassPass class for the month!  I'm working on a full post about all the classes that I tried and what I thought, but this one was a great workout.  It's really similar to what I used to do at my old gym in Squirrel Hill- high rep, low weight strength class.  The time flew by and I could tell I had a full body workout.

Tuesday

4.5 miles / 9:27

First run of my marathon training plan!  I set out for an easy run and wanted to do between 3 and 4 miles.  I felt great and the weather was perfect that I accidentally went an extra half mile.

Wednesday

4.5 miles / 9:13 pace

In my plan, I have marathon pace runs as well as tempo pace runs.  Sometimes these workouts aren't really "tempo" because the pace isn't sustained for a long period of time, and that's exactly what this workout was.  The goal was to do 2 x mile at the tempo pace (which, according to my plan is between 7:50 and 8:15).  I did this workout in the morning and felt great from the beginning!  I had to keep slowing myself down and ended up with splits of 7:50 and 7:46.  A little fast, but the workout was so short that I couldn't help myself.  #sorrynotsorry

Thursday

Barre / 1 hour

A few weeks ago, I went to a class at The Dailey Method and ended up talking to the owner about my blog.  She was so excited about it and asked if I wanted to host a local blogger meetup, which I immediately agreed to!  I reached out to some of my local blogging friends and some other girls that I follow on Instagram but haven't met in real life, and ended getting a great group to agree to come. The class was really challenging, but it was so great to meet everyone in person.  Good workout and good friends..what's better than that?

Friday

Rest Day!

Much needed!

Saturday

4 miles / 8:56 pace

This was definitely one of those grit-it-out and get-it-done type of runs.  All day long it was pouring down rain (not like a nice little shower, but full on downpour).  It was also pretty chilly out, but I knew I had to get this run in!  I ended up running pretty quickly (probably just because I was freezing and soaking wet), so overall this was a good run.

Sunday

10 miles / 9:14 pace

This run was crazy!  I started out later in the day, after I met up with some friends at brunch, and it started to snow as soon as I got to the park.  Once I started running, the snow turned to hail and the wind kicked up, so I just switched my watch display so I didn't see my pace, and ran by effort.  I felt really great the whole run!  My plan calls for a 5 minute "strong finish", which is just picking up the pace at the end of the run.  I ended up running the last mile a little faster than my marathon race goal (8:46!!), and it felt great!  I was shocked when I saw my overall pace, and felt like I could have kept running more miles.  Great way to kick off my training!