Houston Marathon is January 15th, that is my next big race. I am realizing that January may not be the best time for me to run a marathon since the real meat of the training needs to happen in December. December is a tough month for most people, add in that I have craft sales (last week included one on Tuesday night, then another Fri, Sat, and Sun) and Christmas orders to get done... Last week my training included: Monday- total body conditioning and 30 minutes of stairs, Tuesday rest day, Wed was total body conditioning and 6+ miles including 8 x 40 second hill repeats, Thursday 40 minutes of stairs getting progressively faster over the course of 3 rolling hills, Friday I wanted to run 9 with 5 at half marathon pace, but I ran out of time so ran 4.5 with 3 at a fast pace (7:06, 6:46, 6:40), Saturday rest, Sunday 18 after dark (on a gloriously warm December evening) about 1 minute slower than marathon pace. Not exactly the training week I was hoping for, but still quite a bit of quality.
I've been noticing my stress fracture site a little bit since NYCM, so I will try to be careful. Last year after my second fall marathon I could feel the site of my pelvic stress fracture acting up a bit. I ended up having to drastically cut back my running to make sure I made it to Boston safely. I really want to try to avoid that this year if I can. I may shift into a LRE (long run equivalent) rather than a long run this week, meaning that I will do cardio for the amount of time it would take me to get in a 20 mile run trying to keep the intensity equal to or greater than I would have running. Last year my LREs frequently included stairs, spin class, and some elliptical. Occasionally I took my LRs to the snow and did them on snow shoes. Based on the weather so far this week, I won't be hitting snow shoes for the LR(E) this week.
So far this week has started well. Yesterday I did total body conditioning, 15 minutes of stairs, followed by yoga. After the 18 on Sunday, I had been feeling tight, so I decided yoga would be a good call on Monday. Today I can feel the last few days, I am tight and sore between the shoulder blades, my glutes are a little sore, I can feel my inner thighs... I guess I did some good work yesterday. Today I got in a very comfortable 6.5 with friends. I still have to figure out when the LR(E) will happen since I would like to do a 5 mile race on Sunday and may get the chance to do a VO2 Max test on Thursday. I'm pretty sure that this week will be a bit less hectic than last week was, so I should be able to fit the workouts in.
This morning I had been intending to work on one of my Christmas orders, but I ended up doing something far more valuable- made soup and some stuffed acorn squash. Having healthy home made food to eat should make this week a lot easier to get through. I still need to find time to do that order, and a few others, also need to get the house cleaned and decorated to be ready for an open house next Monday. I don't anticipate having a ton of free time soon, but I think I should get everything done in time.
