One City Marathon Training : Holiday Edition
Happy New Year everyone! It's hard to believe that it's already 2018, but I'm really excited for a new year. So many good things to come!
The past two weeks have been a bit of a whirl-wind with traveling for the holidays. Dan and I ended up going to visit family in Florida and Tennessee, with a stop in North Carolina on the way. December was definitely a challenging month with fitting in marathon training with all of my travel (I won't complain or regret any of it because it was an AMAZING month), but I'm kind of looking forward to a more chilled January. The marathon is right around the corner, so it's time to buckle down!
I'm lumping in the past two weeks of training into this post, so here's a look at how my workouts went for weeks 6 and 7:
Monday
Rest Day!
Did some yoga (trying to add this back to my routine) and rested up.
Tuesday
3.75 miles / 8:45 pace
Wednesday
Barre Class / 1 hour
I joined Steff for a morning barre class at The Dailey Method. This one is typically a 45 minute "express" class, but we went a little long. It was a great workout that worked the entire body, but I can tell that I'm already getting stronger from the first time I took this class. We ended with some great stretches and I really liked the instructor!
8 miles / 8:51 pace
Best workout I've had in a long time! 1 mile warmup, 6 at marathon race pace, 1 mile cool down. My goal range for this was 8:55-9:00, and from the beginning I felt great (despite the barre class). Splits ended up being 8:50, 8:54, 8:47, 8:41, 8:34 for the first five. Kept feeling like I was holding myself back, so for the final mile I didn't look at pace and just went with what felt good and ended with 7:45!
Thursday
Spin Class / 1 hour
I had another Class Pass class to use up for the month, so I decided to go to Cycle Bar for a classic class. This one was fun and I got a great workout! I was a bit sore from my speed workout the day before, so I didn't go crazy at the class, and it was a great active recovery day.
Friday
5 miles
Dan and I left really early in the morning to head to Charlotte en route to visit my grandparents in Florida! We arrived around 1PM, and immediately stopped at VBGB for lunch and some beers (#priorities), then checked into our hotel in uptown and ran all around. We ended up going around 5 miles and I loved everything! Charlotte is such a great little city!
Saturday
10 miles
I made sure to wake up early in the morning before we finished our drive down to Florida to get in a run. We were staying by a nice trail that I read about called the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, which is supposed to be miles and miles long. It was a really great trail, but unfortunately was under construction about a mile into my run! I got up on the roads and ended up having an amazing run, seeing all of the beautiful houses in the area and checking out Freedom and Latta Park. I could have run for hours!
Sunday
Rest Day!
The rest of my family got down to Florida, so we spent the day hanging out.
Monday
3.15 miles / 8:47 pace
Merry Christmas! Went out on a run around my grandparents' complex while my mom biked alongside me. It was a perfect day and I had a great run! The whole family also took a trip to Disney Springs to check out the decorations and walk around, so I ended up getting in a ton of steps for the day.
Tuesday
2 miles / 9:45 pace
Went on a quick run with Dan around the complex again. I was originally planning on doing my speed workout, but my legs would just not cooperate. I felt so sluggish and awful so I just cut it off.
Wednesday
3 miles / 8:58 pace
We left Florida and drove up to Tennessee to visit Dan's family! We also reunited with Selma for the first time since our trip to Hawaii, which was AMAZING. I was so happy to see her!! I felt really stiff and antsy after sitting in a car for nearly 10 hours, so after we settled in a bit I ran around the neighborhood for a quick run. It actually felt great to move a bit! They live right by the Smokey Mountains, so I had a beautiful view on this run, and the cooler weather felt refreshing.
Thursday
Rest Day!
This was our full day in Tennessee, so we ended up spending the afternoon exploring Knoxville. We tried out a new brewery, walked around the World's Fair Park, downtown Knoxville, and the campus of University of Tennessee. Then for dinner, we went to Pigeon Forge and ended the night by watching Pitch Perfect 2. Great day!
Friday
3.1 miles / 8:36 pace
We made it home, and once again it felt great to get out of the car and go for a quick run. I kept it around my neighborhood and felt surprisingly great on this run! This was also my first run using Strava (I decided to switch from Dailymile, so if you're on please add me!) I'm still learning how to use it, so it seems like some of my workouts are a little bit off. I'll figure it out! I also did some yoga after getting home, and did some amazing hamstring openers.
Saturday
Rest Day!
I was originally planning on running, but we got a pretty decent snow storm and staying in seemed so much better. I got a lot done at home though (like un packing and cleaning everything up), and even fit in some meal prep for the upcoming week!
Sunday
17 miles
I ventured out to the park to get in my last run of the year! It was still snowy out and only 10 degrees, so I strapped on my Yak Trax, bundled up, and made some fresh tracks in the snow. This was a pretty hard run and I just took it as slowly as I needed, but it felt great when I finished! Some runs are meaningful because you hit certain paces or distances, and some mean a lot if you gut it out in difficult conditions, and this was definitely a gut it out run.
How did you spend your holidays?
Snow runs- yay or nay?
Sometimes you just have to get the long run done, no matter what nature gives you. Way to go! :)
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