Hard to believe this is already the end of one block of training, five more to go! Week 5 is going to be rough based on the snow and my ability to find safe places to run, so I might be doing some substitutions instead, we’ll see what I can figure out.

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday: 5 miles, tiny loops
• Wednesday: 7 miles, tiny loops.
• Thursday: 4 miles, tiny loops.
• Friday: Rest.
• Saturday: 14 miles. Super cold once again, ended with an ice beard and a frozen, unusable water bottle.
• Sunday: 5 miles, tiny loops.
• BWF/Core work/Yoga/Meditation: Did the BWF routine once this week, so staying on track with that! Had the first of three snow shoveling sessions from the storm (followed by a walk through the neighborhood with some hot cocoa!)
• Stretching: Stretched after each run!

One of the scheduled runs for this week got shifted back to last week due to the Van Gogh exhibit, but otherwise, still on track with everything!

• Monday: Rest. Went and saw the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit, which was really cool!
• Tuesday: Rest.
• Wednesday: 7 miles, tiny loops.
• Thursday: 7 miles, tiny loops.
• Friday: Rest.
• Saturday: 16 miles. Super cold, started out about 10 degrees, with a real feel down in the single digits. Ran loops around the Highland Park Reservoir, with an out and back down to Penn. Managed well, but was dodging a lot of snow and ice, especially when I was on Penn.
• Sunday: 6 miles. Tiny loops between the worst of the rain.
• BWF/Core work/Yoga/Meditation: Did the BWF routine once this week, so staying on track with that! Also had an early morning of waking up to shovel snow, which I always half consider a strength workout, although this wasn’t heavy (or all that much) snow this time.
• Stretching: Stretched after each run!

Another weird week schedule-wise due to the holidays, as well as having to pull one run from next week into this week due to shifting schedules to see an art exhibit (the Van Gogh experience)

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday: 5 miles, tiny loops. I’ve found my watch overcounts if I go counter-clockwise (also, as I just learned, known as widdershins) around my neighborhood, and undercounts if I go clockwise. Trying to figure out what’s going on.
• Wednesday: 7 miles, tiny loops.
• Thursday: 5 miles, tiny loops.
• Friday: 7 miles on the trail. Had the day off so headed to the trail for my speed work: 12-15 (ended up ~14) minutes VO2. Certainly I lost speed since my last training cycle, but that’s to be expected, but not as much as I thought at least!
• Saturday: 5 miles, tiny loops.
• Sunday: 14 miles. Hit up the Westmoreland Heritage Trail. It was chilly, but great running weather.
• BWF/Core work/Yoga/Meditation: Did the BWF routine once this week, so staying on track with that!
• Stretching: Stretched after each run!

Oh boy, back at it! At this point, I’m training as if I’ll go to Eagle Up (had to use my registration), but with the pandemic, I will be playing that by ear as we get closer. I also had to use my registration for O24, which is the month before EU, but it’s also much, much smaller, so much like Miakonda (at least right now), I feel comfortable going there.

Either way though, back at it, after a fall of not much running. It’s nice to be back on a schedule, although I’m already sick of running in the rain, and it’s only the first week! This week, and next week are also a bit strange due to the holidays, so while I got all my runs in, the days they happened was all over the place, and will be again.

And of course, I still have my notes from Miakonda that I need to turn into a race report. It was a tougher race than I expected in a few different ways, and I’ve had trouble finding all the right words, but I am still working on it. Anyway, back to it, here’s what I did this week:

• Monday: 7 miles, tiny loops.
• Tuesday: Frontrunners Holiday Light Run! Joined everyone downtown as we ran around looking at the lights! Always a great time, and I’m so glad we did it this year after not having it last year.
• Wednesday: Rest.
• Thursday: Rest.
• Friday: 7 miles, tiny loops.
• Saturday: 5 miles, tiny loops. Then headed to my parents to celebrate Christmas all day.
• Sunday: 13 miles. Hit up the Westmoreland Heritage Trail. I just have to be careful with this, as they pulled all the port-o’s from the trail, so I have to plan things around the bathrooms at Blue Star (and there might be port-o’s at the parking lot in Duff Park, I’ll have to check). But nice to have a long run on the trail again.
• BWF/Core work/Yoga/Meditation: This time around, I’m going to be mindful of doing this type of cross training, but I won’t let myself feel as guilty for missing it as I have in the past. I did do the BWF routine (on Festivus, for the joke about feats of strength), but I also need to make sure I’m giving myself a break and some grace to take care of my mental health as well.
• Stretching: Stretched after each run! This will be super important, especially these first few weeks as I’m a bit creaky and my hips (just like always) are very uncooperative.