Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Last week, I talked about my commitment to training and how I didn't let my spur of the moment travel plans get in the way of my training. Well, I'm happy to say that this past week was no different.

Not only did I get in all of my planned workouts but when I woke up bright and early for my long run on Sunday to thunder, lightning and flash flooding, instead of postponing my workout, I headed to the gym and ran 13 long miles on the treadmill. And you know what? It felt good.

Now, I'm not about to start heading to the treadmill for all of my long runs but it felt good to be so committed to getting that run in that I didn't even think twice about the daunting task of being on a treadmill for over 2 hours.

When I was training for the Philadelphia Marathon, I don't think I ever went a week without missing a workout. This training cycle, I've gone 25 days without missing a single workout. Granted, it's been easy. I've been living at home without a job or a car to worry about and all the time of the world but it's exactly this that is going to help me when reality kicks in next week and I go back to work, move into my new apartment and get ready for classes to start. They say it takes 21-28 days for habits to stick. Well, this habit is one I won't be breaking any time soon. I know that life gets in the way sometimes but this August, I set a goal to not miss a single workout and so far, I'm doing pretty great at it.

I move into my new apartment Friday. I start my new job on Monday and go back to my internship next Thursday. Classes start in 3 weeks and so does the start of my thesis writing. But this semester, I've made a commitment to training and using training as my me time. So as I go into these last weeks of summer, let's see what training is going to look like:

MCM Training: Week 4
Total Mileage Last Week: 32
Missed Workouts: 0
Trouble Spots: Super tight hamstrings and sore calves
Planned Mileage This Week: 36

This Week's Training:

Last week, I was dedicated. I wasn't about to let an accidental trip to Texas and a late flight home stop me from getting in all of my workouts and I didn't. I switched things up a bit, sure, but I still got all of my workouts in.

You know what I learned last week? That despite what I read in the blog-o-sphere...I don't really think that anyone runs at 5am. Tuesday night, I went to bed bright and early. I set aside my running gear and set my alarm for 5am so that I wouldn't have to bring my running stuff to Houston. I was only going to be there for a day so I wanted optimal time with The Pilot. Well 5am came along and it was pitch black outside. I don't know where you supposed-5am runners live but in my summer neck of the woods, there aren't very many street lights and running at 5am is impossible...unless you want to feel like you're running with a blind fold on.

So I got up, made breakfast, and repacked my overnight bag to include my running gear. It's a good thing I got on the first flight I tried to get on and The Pilot was still working otherwise, we would have had to turn our  less than 24-hour visit into a sweaty visit...which I didn't want to do this time around. So my question to those of you "5am runners" is...do you all live in Norway where it's daylight 23 hours a day? If not, then what time do you really run.

Anyway, we're hear to talk about training. So let's take a look at what this week is going to look like shall we?

MCM Training: Week 3
Total Mileage Last Week: 28
Missed Workouts: 0
Trouble Spots: Horrible cramps. To all of my gym teachers who said that regular exercise helps menstrual cramps...you lied. My hip flexor was still tight through the week but after Saturday's yoga fest, I'm feeling much better.
Planned Mileage This Week: 32

This Week's Training: 
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 4 miles easy (9:58/mile) with 4 strides
Wednesday: 7 mile hill workout
Thursday: Rest Day
Friday: 4 miles with 2 miles at Marathon Pace
Saturday: 4 miles easy (9:58/mile)
Sunday: 13 miles (9:58/mile)

Goals for this week: Decide what my marathon pace will be and lock it in. Since getting into the gym to start strength training was a major fail, try getting in at least 2 Nike Training Club workouts.
Current annoyances: My Garmin has been very temperamental this week.
Things to keep in mind: Electrolyte replacement is key and yoga really helps loosen up my hamstrings and hip flexors.

That's the week ahead! Today's run was great! I had never done strides before in a run and I really enjoyed the short bursts of pushing myself on a shorter run. I'm also glad I'm out of the prescribed 10:xx mile runs and am starting to speed things up. My training plan has my easy runs getting faster and faster over the weeks which is good because I feel like starting slow is really helping with injury prevention. I'm feeling great going into this week!