Marathon Training - Week 5

So. Much. Snow.  We've had so much snow lately. Top that with how cold it's been and you are left with an icy mess of crap, that is really hard to run on. We did have a small reprieve on Thursday where it was very sunny. That turned the icy mess of crap into a slushy mess of crap, that was even harder to run in.

An interesting article popped up in my news feed. It struck a chord with me, so I thought I would share it and my thoughts.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. They set various types of goals

     Process goals and Outcome goals. Long term and short term. Running goals and goals that are not running related.

2. They enjoy the process

     Enjoy the easy runs. Enjoy the hard workouts. Realize that all your runs are not going to be great, and that you can't let that deter you from the greater purpose.

3. They value consistency

     Doing the rights things day after day, week after week. Following a running plan. Getting enough sleep. Eating the right foods. Injury prevention exercises.

4. They run at a few different speeds

     It's like a running anthem, if you want to run faster, you have to actually run faster. Don't run all your runs at the same pace. Spice it up. Add some intervals, tempos, or hills.

5. They take their recovery seriously

     Recovery is when the magic happens. Muscles rebuild. Recovery keeps you from getting injured. 

6. They focus on quality over quanity

     Don't get sucked into junk miles. Make every mile count. 

7. They recognize and celebrate their acheivements.

     This is a hard one for me. I'm too hard on myself. No one likes an unappreciative runner. Celebrate your runs, and your ability to run even when things don't go the way they were planned. Be gracious when someone congratulates you on a run, regardless of how you feel about it.

Onto this week's training runs.

Monday Mile rest day. It was a little harder than it should have been, but not completely unexpected after my weekend away. Added some weight lifting.

Tuesday Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. Another hard go. I had to adjust my pace a couple of times. 

Wednesday Went to Bedford with the clinic to run a 10km tempo. It was pretty bad. It was not a tempo by any stretch of the imagination. 

Thursday What I didn't realize until this morning when I woke up was that on one of my many slip and recovers from last nights run, I had twisted my back. I headed out to Bedford for the clinic talk and a steady 8km. The talk was really interesting. It was about injury prevention. Something that I got from it, that I'm going to keep watching is my resting heart rate when waking up. Basically if your heart rate is 7bpm higher than normal, then you are stressed and you should rest. 

I actually had to cut this run short at 6.5 km. I twisted my ankle (for lack of a better explanation of what I actually did) on the uneven snow mess, and every time my foot twisted it would hurt more. So between that and my back hurting, I said screw this, and headed back. I was so done. 

Friday And... I wake up this morning to find that my hip is sore from last nights run. UGH!!!! I was planning on doing my 6km steady today, but now with my hip being sore, it was a mile rest day with some weights. The hip didn't really hurt while I was running on the treadmill, so there is hope.

Saturday I think it was -19 or something like that this morning. This weeks 16km long run was scheduled for 7:30am Run 11km before the 9:00am Running Room's 5km fun run. I came up a little short. 15.5km. The hip was pretty mad at me when I was done. I also broke a coil on my YAKTRAX. I'm pretty pissed at that. You pay $50 for something that lasts 2 freaking weeks. 

But in typical Angela fashion, my husband and I went candle light snow shoeing in the evening at Martock. We had a great time. But it sure was cold. They had stations set up around the course. chili, hot chocolate, apple cider, chocolate fondue. They had a band play for an hour and then they had a round of fireworks. 

Sunday I slept in until 10:00am. That is unheard of.  I spent most of the day completely exhausted. I could barely muster up the energy to run my mile. No weights today. The whole day was spent in my PJs.

Week 5 - 43 km run this week (I was 3km short of goal. I missed a 6km steady, that I ran Monday of Week 6)
             - 262 km run in 2015
              - 0.9 lbs lost this week. 

              - 8.5 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 21.5 lbs to lose to goal. 13 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 445 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 37 days. 
              - 50 minutes strength training this week.