Morning lows from 46* to below 0*...just another week in Missouri!

Week of January 2-January 8, 2017

Mileage: 62, with a really exciting tempo run, a double, a fresh snow run, my first 20 miler of this training cycle, two bootcamps and some extra core work/yoga.  My mileage also (barely) exceeded my highest week of my last marathon training cycle, which was 61.3 miles!

Monday - 3.1 mile shake out (7:23) after bootcamp!  I was able to stay for all 60 minutes of bootcamp since I was off work, and I was able to run in daylight and 40 degrees afterward.  The 3 miles I ran was actually scheduled for Friday, but since I'd swapped Monday and Friday last week I'd just had a day off, and I decided I would enjoy this little run much more on Monday in 40 degrees than on Friday when the forecast said it would be 12 degrees (it ended up being even colder than that)!  I have spent a lot of time checking the weather lately.

Tuesday - 12 miles with 2 warm-up (7:31), 8 tempo (6:06), 2 cool-down (7:33).  I was so pumped about this workout I wrote a post about it here, which also helped this weekly recap not be excessively long (although I guess that part is still subjective)!  I also did a 15 minute core workout in the evening...trying to work on little additions like that.

Wednesday - 12.4 miles total; 8.2 in the morning (7:26) and 4.2 at lunch (7:40).  There was a wind chill of 4 degrees for my morning run, which is getting towards the lower limit of what I will run in.  I over-dressed like a boss and told myself that if it was too bad I would just run 4, go to work early, and then do the 8 at lunch.  However, in my 10 lbs of clothing I was actually comfortable and then hot (and very sweaty)!  This was a major victory because I'm not sure I've ever not been freezing at that temperature, but I bought some new cold weather gear this season that was clearly worth every penny.  I came away from the run being less worried about marathon training in the Missouri winter for the next 7 weeks, which was big for me mentally (unfortunately, that feeling lasted only about 24 hours; see Thursday).  For my second run it was a heatwave of feels like 20 degrees!

Thursday - 8 mile (8:22) snow run.  I woke up to a flurry of texts from Missy and Danielle debating our group run plans after we got a surprise 2 inches of snow overnight (neither of them wanted to run as we had planned; both for valid reasons).  Those texts were followed by a text and call from Albani's school announcing her first snow day of the school year.  That was followed by me hemming and hawing about running outside, but once I saw on Strava that other people in my area were running in it, I decided I had no reason not to (plus, the wind chill was 6 degrees, which was warmer than the day before!).  Be stronger than your strongest excuse, right?!  I also decided that if it was too bad, I'd stop at 4-5 miles and then run the rest of my day's mileage inside after work.  The snow definitely slowed me down, and I need a better shoe traction set-up before trying that again, but I got in all of my miles for the day (although not a step farther!).  I feel like this should count for more than 8 easy miles, as it felt like more effort!  I skipped my strides at the end of this run for safety reasons (I ran a set of strides that wasn't scheduled last week, so it evens out, right?).  Also, I'm not going to lie, the thought, "Maybe I should switch to the half in February" crossed my mind during this run!  I later did 20 minutes of yoga at lunch at work, showing just how slow our days are when schools are closed...I liked the hip opening routine we did, though, and would do it again - shocker!

It looked prettier after the sun came up (I took this on my drive to work)

Friday -  Bootcamp (45 minutes) plus an elliptical warm-up (25 minutes).  I definitely made the right decision running on Monday instead of Friday this week!  The roads would have been hazardous to run on this morning after having traffic on them and re-freezing.

Saturday - 20.2 mile long run (7:21 average for the whole thing; 4 miles progressive fast finish in 7:05, 7:02, 6:52, 6:23) - marathon training is getting really real now!  I was extremely thankful that the roads were clear for this one, and that we didn't have anything going on during the day so I was able to run when it was warmer out!  It was a balmy 23 degrees/feels like 15 when I started, probably pushing 30 degrees when I finished, sunny the whole time, and I dressed perfectly for the conditions and was comfortable the whole way.  Missy ran with me from mile 3 to 13, and that was wonderful and also split the run up nicely because when I ran her back by her car I took a gel (she actually drove alongside me for a bit and gave me water so I didn't have to stop running to drink; she is the best!) and only had 3 more miles until I started my progressive fast finish miles.  My goal on those was to drop 5-10 seconds per mile, but the last mile I pushed because I wanted it to be under marathon goal pace.  I can only hope I can finish my marathon with a 6:23 mile!

Marathon training is getting real when your splits require 2 screenshots

Sunday - 6.3 mile recovery run (7:51) in "feels like" 5 degrees.  I considered running after church when it was warmer instead of before, but that disrupts my family's normal routines, and I figured I'd done enough of that for one weekend by running my 20 miler mid-day on Saturday.  My legs were tired, but overall I didn't feel as bad as I expected considering that I'd finished my long run about 16 hours before starting this one.  I also was plenty warm - even hot when the wind was behind me - so I'll say this week I successfully learned how to dress in wind chills of 4-6 degrees.

Next week is supposed to be much warmer, and on Friday morning I'm flying to Arizona where it will be much warmer!  I haven't been able to figure out a way to just stay there for the 6 weeks between my two Phoenix-area races...