Weekly Work-out Wrap-up and New Plan of Attack

I did a pretty bad job of following my planned training routine this week (even before I came down with my 2nd cold in 2 months, arg!). However, I had a good time on the runs I did complete and I can't forget my HUGE PR last Saturday at the Santa's Hustle 5K, so all in all, I'd have to say the week was a success.

I also got the final kick-in-the-pants that hopefully will improve the efficiency of my weight work-outs. I don't think a single week has gone by where I did all the weight routines I planned to do. There are 3 reasons for this: 1) it's soooo boring, 2) I don't always feel like I've accomplished a lot after doing weights and 3) I'd rather burn calories during cardio. But I know it is good for me, both for general health and to improve my running.

After seeing how much Katie from RunThisAmazingDay lifts, I emailed her asking for advice on how she crafts her weight routines. I really appreciate her writing back and I'll definitely include many of the items she sent me. Even more than her specific moves, I really appreciated her reminder that going to a trainer is the best way to come up with a personally tailored, hard-as-hell routine that really will get results. It made me realize that I've just been lazy. I DID go to a personal trainer. For 9 months! It was great, she worked me super hard to failure every single time and I saw and felt results. And my running got faster. I do wish I had written down every single exercise we did, but I definitely remember enough to come up with an hour's worth of work. I think I've just been "forgetting" this fact, because doing what my trainer taught me is definitely harder than what's in the book I've been following.

I still don't think I'll love lifting but at least with my new routine, I'll know I am accomplishing something. And I think 2 times a week of a really good routine for 1 hr is better than 4 half-assed weight work-outs, right? And I'll try to squeeze in a couple Jillian Micheals videos for good measure.

Another thing I realized this week is that it's too ambitious with my current work schedule to get in a long run every week in the winter. I only have 1 day off a week so if the weather is too nasty or I don't feel up to it, I miss my 1 chance to run for the entire week. During the summer, with so many hours of sunlight, I can do some long runs on days I get home early from work. Not possible in the winter. I think I'll plan on doing 1 long run every 10- 14 days instead. More realistic. I'll ramp it up when we get more daylight.

So my plan: new weight routine and fewer long runs. And I bought the Run Less, Run Faster book about the FIRST plan and think that may be the way for me to train for my Spring marathons. More on that later!

For next week:

Monday: Yasso 800s at 7.5 (6 miles)
Tuesday (Day Off): 20 miles (I really hope I can do at least part of this outside!!)
Wednesday: weight routine
Thursday (post-overnight call): rest day
Friday (Another Day Off!!): VO2 max w/0 (10 miles w/ 5 x 1000m @ 5K pace)
Saturday: weight routine
Sunday: swim w/ Adam (pool re-opened!)

Now I'll go back to enjoying the blizzard from my couch!