Marathon Training Week 11

WOW! 7 weeks to go. I'm working really, really hard and smart (I think), to reach my goal. The goal is a 4:30 ish Marathon. That's a HUGE PR, so anything remotely close is going to be AWESOME. The two most important things I did this year is switched my tempo runs to the treadmill. I think I said that before. And added weight training. I haven't been very structured or consistent with it, but I can definitely tell that it is helping.

Monday - 1.6 km This was my mile rest day. I had a bit of hip pain from my long run the day before, but it wasn't sore while I was running, so I kept on keeping on.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. I hit a sub 6 minute tempo run this week. I am over the moon about this. I was hoping to reach this by the end of the cycle, but gosh darn golly gee, now I have to set a new tempo goal. The new tempo goal is 5:30 pace. That might be a little lofty for the next 7 weeks, but I guess this cycle has been all about the loft.

Wednesday - 9 km HILLS! On the the treadmill. This was a little slower than prior weeks, but I got it done. 8 x 500 m @ 6%.

Thursday - 8 km. Clinic night. It was the talk about the feet. General consensus was that it was probably one of the best discussions to date. It was really interesting. It was a great run. And NO SNOW! We got rained on instead. But that's ok.

Friday - 6 km. Got my run in before Costco and beer. Yep. You heard that right. My beer free streak is back to zero. Or actually 2 for the end of the week. I found this fun little app for my pebble watch that I wanted to try. It is called SoberUp. You have a drink. You click the button. It tells you what your estimated BAC is, how long until your BAC is back to zero. And your condition. Euphoric. Disinhibited. etc. Yea, I know. Not much to do with running. But hey.

Saturday - 1.6 km. Mile rest day. And a little bit of strength training.

I'm trying a new program. We will see how that goes.  The gist is that you work your way up from very easy to very hard exercises in 5 categories of movements. Pulling. Squatting. Inline Pushing. Perpendicular Pushing. And Bending. Starting with 2 sets of 12 reps in each exercise. 20 minutes. 3 times a week. I should be able to manage that. Monday is a rest day. Friday is a rest day. Wednesday is hills, so I will have to force myself into that one. I did manage to break a door on my first workout. Only 7 doors to go. oops.

Sunday - 29 km. Seriously! I am really sick of the snow. It's the end of March it should be over now. /endwhine. We were supposed to get 5 - 10 cm of snow. It turned into 20 - 25 cm. Woke up to a winter wonderland again this morning. This was a good run, but it was a clusterfuck of a run. The original plan was a few klicks, then up Rocky Lake Drive. Snow turned that into Shore - Union and back 3 times. But once we hit Shore and were about to hit Union, some other runners told us that Union was very snow covered, so we thought we'd take our chance on the Bedford Highway. Going out was not bad, but coming back was miserable in a "We are either going to get run over by a truck or hit by a road raging driver" Are road raging drivers that irate at pedestrians walking down the road, or is it just runners that make them go bat shit crazy?

Week 11 - 62 km run this week 

                - 581 km run in 2015
                - .5 lbs lost this week. 

                - 17.2 lbs lost since January 1. 

                - 12.9 lbs to lose to goal. 8 weeks to go.
                - Streaking 487 days and counting
                - Alcohol free for 2 days. 
                - 20 minutes of weights 

                - 20 days until my Boston vacation.