Week 2 of training is officially done, 8 more to go!
I almost feel like weeks 1 and 2 were more like “pre-training.” Long runs of 5 and 6 miles are barely “long” enough to make training feel legit to me. A 7 miler planned for later today though finally makes it start to feel real. I don’t just randomly run 7 miles unless I’ve got a reason!
Here’s what the plan looked like for week 2:
And here’s what went down:
Besides a switch up of my rest day, all went according to plan.
Monday:
Unlike week 1’s long run this one felt much easier. I started off slowly, didn’t take any breaks besides a quick stop to get the bug that flew directly into my eyeball out and finished with a 8:53 pace overall. Some random guy on a bike flew past me (scaring the crap out of me since I had my headphones on and didn’t hear him) around mile 4.5 and yelled back “looking great!” I have no idea if he was being serious or sarcastic but it kept me motivated nonetheless.
Tuesday:
I started NROLFW stage 3A and OH MY GOD my legs! Let’s just say that ending an already tough workout with 2 “body matrix” intervals of squats, lunges, and jumping squats & lunges makes it difficult to move the next couple of days. It was like Jillian Michaels in 30 day shred on steroids.
Wednesday:
How I even made my legs bike 15+ miles after NROLFW the previous day, I don’t know. Somehow I did it though and maintained a pretty good 14.4 mph on baby blue.
Thursday:
Mind wanted to run, legs did not. Ended up switching my rest day to give them one more day to recuperate.
Friday:
A wet tempo run on fresh legs.
The best part about running in the rain? Having the bike trail to myself. I passed one other runner and we both head nodded like “yeah, you must be training too otherwise you wouldn’t be out here.”
Saturday:
An 11+ mile bike ride with about a million dead bugs caught on my shirt, in my eyes and in my mouth. I might wear Ulysses’ motorcycle helmet next time because swallowing bugs is really getting old. After the bike ride I made my way to the basement for NROLFW 3B. This workout was way more arms oriented than Tuesday’s. Thank the good Lord.
Sunday:
3M pace run. My initial goal for these runs was to average 8:20-8:25 miles. I’m finding it very hard to maintain that pace though. My body either does 8:45 or 8:00. My average pace this run was 7:59. I need to work on slowing down a bit because there’s no point in running that fast, I definitely can’t maintain it for 13.1 miles.
Total Weekly Round-up
- Run: 13.5 miles
- Bike: 26.6 miles
- Strength training sessions: 2
On to week 3!
What did you do this weekend?
What distance do you consider a “long” run? I think half training warped my mind last year because now I’d say 7 but last year probably would’ve said 5. It’s all relative I guess!
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Right now, a long run is 4.5 miles. But I haven’t run distance in quite some time. Crazy because last year a long run was 6.5 miles!
And haha no .. Monday’s aren’t happy. But I think we say Happy Monday to psych ourselves, and others, out?
Way to go! That’s awesome. I’m not a rainy-day runner, but then again, I’m rarely training for anything.
Training does screw up your sense of what a normal long run is. Mine used to be 9 – 10 miles, but when I do anything now that’s between 9 and 12, I feel it’s a rest week (silly marathon training!).
I like your headband. Where did you get it? I use hats, but am noticing that I’m breaking out like a 13 year old boy and may want to switch to get my nice skin back.
Well, my skin is far from nice but, it’s a bondi band. I only have 1, hence why you see it in almost every running picture but the thing is amazing. It’s the only one that stays on my head and I like how wide it is b/c in the winter I can pull it over my ears to stay warm.
My long run on Saturday was 20, but now I’m in taper! Yay.
This weekend I did my training run, went to the fair, then ran a 5k. It was pretty awesome, if heavy on the running.
I’d probably say anything 7 and over is pretty long. I used to consider 10 and up long…but since my injury I’d lowered my standards. Haha. It definitely is all relative!
you ran in that shit? it was AWFUL out!!! Go you!! Yeah, so anything over 7 mi gets counted. Under that, it’s just cardio.
It was more awful looking at it from inside, but once I was out there it was kind of fun, I swear!
You had a great week! It’ll be here before you know it!
Anything past 6 miles ish is a “long run” in my eyes. Looks like you had a productive week!
I remember feeling the same way at the beginning of my training plan– THIS Is training!?! But then…the real long runs kick in :-)
Great week :)