Last week was a FANTASTIC week for running. And I’m sure most of you will agree as it seems most of the United States enjoyed some warmer-than-normal temperatures and very mild weather. Here in Cleveland we had amazing weather Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The cold returned on Saturday but it was still beautiful and perfect running weather so no complaints here.
I mentioned in my last training post that I would be reunited with Noemi and the Cleveland Marathon ’15 crew. Well, we reunited indeed and had a great run to show for it. I’ll tell you about it. Read on!
Perfect Running Weather, Old Friends + Spring Training Week 8
Sunday — yoga for runners
I totally convinced my husband to do some yoga with me on Sunday. I don’t know how it happened but it did and it was super fun! We did a basics yoga video and then a core video. The core rocked our worlds but so worth it.
Monday — 6.05 miles
Since we had the day off from school and work on Monday, I met my friend Candice for an easy 6-miler. And when I say “easy” I mean it was supposed to be easy. We ended up running a nice and zippy progression run. Neither one of us ever felt like it was out of our wheelhouse but it was definitely a quicker pace than it was supposed to be!
Tuesday — strength training
I spent about 40 minutes doing my PT routine for hips and glutes. It felt great. I’m starting to feel stronger. I’m really glad I’m sticking with the routine these days.
Wednesday — 6.2 miles
Wednesday was a pretty good run. The weather was nice. A little breezy but not too cold. My warm-up miles ended up being very slow. I had my dog with me and then I got stopped by a neighbor who wanted to chat. It was fine and she was lovely but unfortunately my second mile split was 23-minutes something. Yikes! The rest of the run went well and I enjoyed myself. It was challenging yet amazing.
Thursday — 6.1 miles + strength training
The weather was unbelievable on Thursday. I started off with shorts, a t-shirt, and arm sleeves. Within the first mile I went back home to change into a singlet. In February! Uncanny.
After my workout I headed indoors to work on my hips and glutes.
Saturday — 10.02 miles
Saturday was brilliant! My friend Noemi was finally in town and we had a huge and amazing group of people running together. I’ve been running with Sara fairly regularly lately, but David has been a ghost and Julie’s been injured so I haven’t seen either of them in quite a while. It turns out Noemi was the glue holding us all together because everyone made a huge effort to come out and see her!
Yes we googled it. No, it’s nothing funny. Yes, we have dumb inside jokes. Yes, it still makes us laugh.
Group runs are the best!
Aside from those friends, there were several other friends that I’ve been running with for quite some time but that haven’t all run with each other before. It was super fun. Plus we had all sorts of distances on Saturday. We had everything from 16 milers all the way down to 4 mile runners. My goal was a 10 minute/mile pace. I’m sure my coach will disagree based on the stats my Garmin spit out, but my running partner and I were holding steady at a 9:35 min/mile for almost the entire run. At one point we stopped to take pictures. I didn’t pause my Garmin which I’m sure contributed to the pace discrepancy.
After our various mileage run we rendezvoused for breakfast. Turns out long runs + breakfast is my all-time favorite recreational activity. Can’t wait for the next one!
Overall my week was pretty kick-ass. I love when the stars align and the perfect running weather creates the best possible conditions for stellar running. When this happens it makes training seem almost effortless and tons of fun. As I mentioned, we had truly perfect running weather. The long run was the creme de la creme. This week will be tough. Two workouts of substance plus a 16-miler this weekend. And my first 5K training program of 2017 kicks off this weekend so I’ll have plenty to keep me busy!
Oooh, also before I go — check out this post on the Reebok blog. These are my treadmill workouts! Such an honor to work with Reebok on this project. It was tons of fun. Hopefully these workouts will help you and others keep the treadmill boredom at bay.
Happy running and have a great week!
xo
TALK TO ME!
Did you reach 70?F where you are last week?
If you’re running intervals, do you prefer roads or track?
Linking up with My No-Guilt Life, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and MCM Mama Runs for Tuesdays on the Run, and HoHo Runs and MissSippi Piddlin’ for the Weekly Wrap.
