Weekly workouts: January 25-31, 2016

Whew! It's nice to be back. I've had a positively crazy January between travel, starting a new job, two half marathons, and yep...another cold (thanks, daycare!) that turned into an upper respiratory infection. I have never had so many colds and upper respiratory infections in my life as I have in the past 18 months that B has been in daycare. It's really awful. But that's life.

This time around, I'm just working on maintaining mileage (so between 25-35 miles per week) while adding a second speedwork session in and I'm attempting to get in two strength workouts and one yoga. I'm not training really specifically for any race, although the Cooper River Bridge Run and the Palmetto70 Relay are my two major races this spring. But those are pretty short and manageable. My mental well-being needs a break from half marathons, and too much racing in general. 

So, here's what training looked like this week. 

Workout summary:

• Monday: Run 3 miles
• Tuesday:  
  • AM workout: Track - 6.02 miles - WU/CD and 10x400s w/ 200 recoveries (8:52 pace)
  • PM workout: Strength/conditioning at Journey
• Wednesday: Easy run - 6.03 miles (9:06 pace)
• Thursday: OFF
• Friday: OFF
• Saturday: 
  • AM #1: Group run at Fleet Feet - 3.37 miles (8:25 pace)
  • AM #2: Barre class at Journey
• Sunday:
  • AM workout: Long run - 8.13 miles (8:39 pace)
  • PM workout: Yoga at Journey

Total miles:  26.55/  Total runs:  5 /  Total strength/conditioning: 1/ Total core/flexibility:  2 / Total crosstraining: 0

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Despite a really chaotic start (and a generally stressful and chaotic week - seriously, is this ever going to stop?), I got in some solid workouts. Best of all, I hit the track again for the first time in months. And it was the best track workout I can remember having in quite a while. More on that in a minute. 

Initially Monday was supposed to be my track workout, but I had to make a last minute change because of unforeseen circumstances, so I ended up with only 3 miles that day. Nothing exciting there. 

Tuesday was my track day and I had 10x400s at a 7:00 per mile pace target with 200 recoveries. Since it's been so very long since I hit the track (I only went once or twice during Charleston training and it was early in the training season), I had no idea how this was going to go. Shockingly, it went really well. I started a little fast, but not too fast because I finished at the same pace as I started. I jogged my recoveries and picked up my warmup and cool down pace to my regular easy run pace. My splits came in at: 6:17, 6:40, 6:46, 6:39, 6:37, 6:35, 6:43, 6:34, 6:47, 6:17. I was pretty pleased. 

Tuesday night I dragged my shredded legs to a strength and conditioning HIIT class. Oh wow. I was so, so, so tired and I was wheezing like crazy and had to use my inhaler way too may times during that class. But I finished it and limped back out to my car and hit the sack early that night. 

Wednesday was originally scheduled as a tempo run, but because my original track workout got pushed from Monday to Tuesday, I ended up just doing an easy run instead. And I wheezed my way through that. At that point, I realized my cold had turned into a upper respiratory infection and that all of that congestion was not going to go away on its own, so Thursday I took the day off from all workouts and went to the doctor to get meds. Yay for steroids and antibiotics. 

By Friday, I was breathing much better and my head had stopped pounding from all of the congestion. And Friday was supposed to be my long run day, but B got sent home from daycare with loose bowels on Thursday afternoon, so he had to stay home with us on Friday. No long run (or workout of any kind) for me that day. It was probably a good thing to take the extra rest day anyway.

Thankfully, B did not share his stomach problems with me, so I was able to squeeze the rest of my weekly workouts in over the weekend. 

Saturday I ran with Fleet Feet Mount Pleasant's Bridge Run 10K training group, and I guess if I have a goal race this season, it's the Cooper River Bridge Run. After taking a break for a few training cycles, I signed up for their training program again. I still have my online coach through Daily Mile, but I wanted to train for the bridge run with a group. It's a huge race and I thought it would be fun to have a group there at the event. I'm following my coach's training plan and we added a 5th day of running in for me this time around instead of four from the fall cycle. So I run a short run on Saturday's with the group, which will range in distance from 3-6 miles. A good distance for that 5th day of running, and it's an easy run as well. 

Post-group run, I went to Journey and did a 45 minute barre class. My quads were screaming all week since they have not been accustomed to the harder workouts of speed and strength lately and this class got everything all stretched out. Wonderful. 

Sunday was my long run - only an 8-miler, though. It was nice to have a short long run since I've been pretty tired and sore this week between the sickness and the aforementioned track and strength work. Despite sickness, stress, and being tired, it ended up being a great run with negative splits and my last mile coming in at 8:12. Not too bad. I followed that up with a Sunday evening yoga class at Journey. 

Overall this week was a pretty strong return to training-but-not-training after laying low after the Charleston half - not by choice - mostly because of schedule nuttery.

 At least my body is ready to start the new week. My mind? Not so much. But here we go.