Cleveland Marathon Training week 1 recap

Time is flying so quickly! I cannot believe that week one of training for the Cleveland Marathon is already done. It was a great training week and I can only hope that the rest of training goes as smoothly (HA!).

I started my training on Monday. Early morning running on Monday just seems to start my week off right. I had 6 miles on the plan with four of them supposed to be at marathon pace (MP). I got those done and felt like I could have run more MP miles. Definitely a good sign! The "off season" speed work sessions are already showing their benefits.

Tuesday, I succeeded in getting my strength training in. I will not be making the same mistake I did in my last marathon training, to let the miles and the tiredness get to me and slack off on strength and core work. Those workouts are just as important as getting the miles in. My good friend and running partner, Jamie, had found this impossible extremely difficult workout, Iron Strength from Runner's World, and I've been working on it. I was able to make it through two sets of all the exercises and three of some. I will definitely be continuing with this workout, hoping to someday make it through as many sets as they say you should be able to do. New goal!

Wednesday, just an easy 6 miles, a "quality run", on the schedule and got in an afternoon 10K (6.2miles). Thursday morning another easy run, 4.4 this time. However, I did some of the core and arm sets from the Iron Strength workout in the afternoon. I decided to use Friday as a complete rest day (as if there is ever such a thing as a parent?) and wanted another core/strength workout for the week. (See? I told you I am serious this time!)

Saturday morning Jamie and I had planned for our long run. She had 8 miles on her plan and I had 10miles. The weather forecast was not good. Weather wouldn't keep me from running, just from GETTING to our meeting place. I got up Saturday morning and the news said the roads were just slushy, but cars were traveling fine. (We had gotten some ice and snow during the night). I was ready for my first long run of this training cycle.  And more importantly, I had new running clothes to wear! During the week, I had received a new sports bra from Amanda for being the first to reply to her tweet. Definitely in the right place at the right time that morning! Thank you, Amanda, it was honestly the most comfortable one I've ever worn! It's from McDavid  and I would definitely recommend it.  Also, I had ordered a new running jacket, you know, just in case we have more than one day of winter in a row. It arrived on Friday and I was super excited to try it out on Saturday. Since I love everything that I wear from Brooks, I figured I would love this too. (I did, by the way).

We got to the trail (just a paved one) for our run, put on our Yak Trax and started making the first footprints in the fresh snow. There was about two inches of fresh fluffy snow on the trail. It was BEAUTIFUL!

I don't mind running in snow, especially when it is as beautiful as this! It's so quiet and peaceful early in the morning. We saw some animal tracks and were trying to figure out what the animals were. For someone raised in the country, I sure don't know much about animal tracks! Anyway! With the snow, it definitely made for a more challenging run! We went slower than normal and hoped that we would not be too sore come Sunday.

I ended my first training week with a recovery run on the treadmill. Knowing I usually run much slower on the treadmill (I just find it so much harder to run on it!) than outside, I jumped on while the kids were playing. The easy miles were just what I needed to work out the kinks from the snow run on Saturday.

Week one stats:
Monday: 6.01 miles
Tuesday: Strength Training
Wednesday: 6.2 miles
Thursday: 4.41 miles & strength training
Saturday: 10 miles
Sunday: 3.65 miles

Total for week one: 30.28 miles 

There will be weeks when I do not hit all my workouts that are on the plan. That is ok.  I will make adjustments as necessary, and that is exactly why I chose to have a coach this time. I was lucky enough to find a free coach (no way can I afford one right now!) and my main goal is to have help establishing the right training plan for me and helping make adjustments during training if needed.

I am so excited that I had a great first week of training. Hoping the good weeks outweigh the bad, and that I continue to have fun!

Hope everyone else had a great week of running (or biking, walking, or swimming!)! As I always say, it doesn't matter what type of activity you do, as long as you do something!