Tobacco Road Marathon Training - Week 1/11

A fresh new training plan, wheeeee!

Monday

Planned: strength

Did: 45 min strength training

Got up early and did a solid 45 minute strength training workout, including both bodyweight exercises and weights. It's been a while since I did more than ~15 mins at a time, so it felt great to get this done!

Finished 2 bodyweight workouts from last week:

15 min AMRAP: 4x each jump squat, Russian twist (R+L=1), shoulder taps (R+L=1), up-downs

18 rounds

30-27-24-21-18-15-12-9 reverse sit-ups + 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6 alternating plank toe taps (L+R = 2) + 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3 touchdown squats

11:38 total time

Then did another 20 mins of weights.

Harley helped coach me through it.

Tuesday

Planned: intervals

Did: 6.26 mi @ 8:31/mi avg with 4x800m

Goal for the 800m intervals was 3:27 according to the training pace calculator I used to develop my plan. I met the downtown group and did my usual ~1.5mi warm-up, then started off on the 800s.

Splits were 8:24, 8:23, 8:24, 8:26, and I put a full 400m recovery (walking the first 100m) between each one. 

Only had time for 4 repeats (would have liked 6...maybe I'll stay at the track longer next week or something) but felt good that I was hitting my goal paces or better without struggling too much. They felt hard but not like I was going all-out, which is exactly what I wanted to feel. I'm kind of glad I had the goal pace in mind because I might have gone out too hard on these otherwise.

Wednesday

Planned: 8 mi (with optional 2x2mi tempo)

Did: 8.06 mi @ 9:15/mi avg

I opted out of the speed miles since this is my first higher-mileage week in a whiiiiile, and I don't want to overdo it this early in training. Plus mentally I was craving a nice easy cruise while listening to some podcasts on this lovely chilly morning, so I did exactly that. It was great!

Pretty winter sunrises 😍

Thursday

Planned: Altamont

Did: Altamont, 5.67 mi @ 9:16/mi moving avg

Back to the mountain this morning! Man, it was hard... I had to stop and walk for a couple hundred yards on the climb up. Glad to get it done but ooooof, need to stay regular on that so it's not so painful!

Friday

Did: 3.2 mi walk

Didn't really have anything planned today, and got distracted with a lot of work stuff before I realized I needed to get out and do something, so I went for a mid-afternoon walk which was chilly but quite nice.

I'd wanted to do virtual yoga, but they raised the price from $10 to $17 and I just... didn't feel like it. It's not that $7 is gonna break the bank, but just didn't seem worthwhile today. Maybe once this omicron business calms down a bit I'll go to some more in-person classes (which are 100% worth it).

Saturday

Planned: 14 mi EZ

Did: 13.73 mi @ 8:34/mi avg moving pace

Welp, definitely went out too fast on this one... part of that I attribute to trying to warm up, although the cold never stopped being a problem for the whole run! It was in the 26-28F temp range the whole time, and I'm pretty sure I never felt my fingers after I got out of the car. Still, a great way to start the day and run a new route (hills!). 

Sunday

Planned: 7 mi MP (8:01/mi target)

Did: 7.03 mi @ 7:31/mi avg pace

I was not excited about this run. I very nearly said "forget it" because it was cold and raining almost all day. About the time I finally got dressed and went out to park at the trail, the rain started coming down even harder. I sat in the car talking myself into getting out into the cold wet afternoon and pushing myself to run fast. Finally I got myself out of the car and headed off on the trail. I knew an out-and-back to the SRT crossing at Duncan Chapel would be about a half mile short of what I needed, but that was reasonable and I put that in my mind as the goal. Of course just a few minutes into the run the rain picked up and it was falling quite steadily. I settled into what felt like a hard-but-sustainable pace, never looked at my watch, just kept moving. I ended up LOVING this run, felt strong and happy at the end despite going much too fast. 

Rained on and happy

Week-ending thoughts:

Ran almost 41 miles this week and I feel GREAT. Very happy with how the first official week of training went and hope I can sustain the energy and success over the next 2.5 months 'til race day.