towpath marathon training, week 1

Week 1 of Marathon Training is in the books! I can already tell this will be super fun to train during the Midwest summer..

Monday

Cross - 30 minutes on the bike

Well, this happened on Sunday, but the celebrations are still continuing for CLEVELAND! We finally won a championship!! It still doesn't feel real even more than a week after our victory.

Tuesday

Speedwork

6 mi / 8:39 pace

This was a 3x1600m(1mi) with a mile warm up and cool down (well extra cool down because I wanted to finished with a even 6 :P).  This wasn't too bad considering I am running through my hilly neighborhood before 6a.. 

Wednesday

Bike, 32 minutes on bike

I should probably mention that my training plan calls for biking and rowing as cross training (and swimming but water and I do not get along). So these biking warm-ups are similar to my runs where they have a warm up and cool down, and then either some tempo difficulty, or biking hard/easy (intervals).  

Thursday

Tempo

6 mi / 8:46 pace

Lifting

This broke down to 2 mi easy (I am literally still asleep for that first mile, I think my body liked West Coast mornings better), 2 mi tempo, 2 mi easy. That first mile of the tempo is in the direction of where I need to be. Not reading too much into paces this first week thanks to not being completely acclimatized to the humidity (but do you ever get used to it?!).

Friday

Rest

I still have to get the paperwork in for Ollie but I am sure he will be coming into work!

There is a little family-owned Italian restaurant within walking distance of my place. This is dangerous. Our appetizer was pasta that was cooked inside a wheel of parmesan cheese. Not kidding. Then, I had light Sicilian pasta for my entree. Reasons I love running: I can afford to have pasta as an appetizer AND an entree.

Saturday

Long Run

13 mi / 9:24 pace

This. was. a. struggle. I am still trying to pinpoint exactly why this run sucked so much. Excuses I have come up with so far: I have been pretty stressed and did not rest enough on Friday, did not mentally prepare myself for the humidity, did not have my route completely planned, the energy gels I had didn't work well, etc etc.  It hasn't taken me over 2 hours to run 13 miles in almost a year but hey, it can go only up from here right?!

Sunday

Lifting

My gym doesn't open until 8 which is kind of nice. I used to stress about getting up early enough to get to my old apartment's gym before anyone else got there. Now, I have no choice but to get a little bit of extra sleep.

Then, volunteering for our float and booth at the STL Pride Parade. It was a HOT one.

Tons of people getting pelted with Laffy Taffy! Pelted like..we hit so many people in the face. People were ducking. Fear was real.

This was my...second lunch? The 13 mile hanger kicked in and this was not sufficient. (Egg white sandwich basically)

Loved these guys.

We traded dog treats for Dole Whip.  Best deal of my life thus far.

Overall, a few good signs from my workouts/runs this week, but definitely some improvements to be made.