Hello........It's me.

I feel like the Adele song should be playing in the background of this post, because it's been THAT long.

 I seriously had PLANS to write more posts, but the days started getting away from and I was still in recovery/base building and didn't feel like what I was doing was that interesting. If you want to know about  what my running was like in the off season, I can definitely share that with you! More so, it was super hard for me to be motivated to write. I'd start and somehow get distracted by something and completely forgot I was in the middle of writing a post.   Well, training is back and I am back too! WEEEEEEE!

I am still using my coach, Mat,, who really got me to my ultimate 2015 running goal of qualifying for Boston.   If you're somewhat new to my blog, you can read here about why I decided to hire coach. Training started last week for everyone running the New Jersey Marathon, a race I haven't yet completely committed to.  I love training, the structure of training and my running friends/teammates, so I will just see how it plays out.

I kept it pretty light in my off time, usually around 25-30 miles a week and NO speed work or racing.  I did a few races, but just ran for fun and wasn't gunning for a PR.  My body was tired and I was thankful for the time off.  We are back in action and training mode now so  here's what last weeks plan called for:
               

24

Coach Nark's Plan

4-5 miles slow recovery pace

Off

8 miles w combo group workout

6 miles slow recovery pace

Off

5-6 miles w moderate tempo

12-13 miles longrun - 36-38 weekly miles

Monday:

5.47 miles

0:50:00

9:08 pace

Met up with Kristen for some miles after work. It has been so mild in upstate NY and it was 60 out! When ran up to the capital and the state plaza to check out the trees.

And then I ate it pretty hard on our last mile. #graceful 

Tuesday: 

5.02 miles

0:46:35

9:17 pace

Met up with Allison for some easy miles.  My legs felt pretty heavy and I'm honestly not sure they would've moved any faster.   I went to a strength class after our run and then did some modeling. J/K

Wednesday: Combo speed workout with a huge group of teammates

9.17 miles

1:18:07

8:31 pace

Combo workout was :

-1-2 miles easy w/up to track

-On the track  8 × 100m striders on straightaways then SUPER slow recoveries on the corners.
- From the track, ran to nearby hill and did 8 × short hill reps (20-30 secs) w SUPER SLOW jog down recs.
-half mile easy pace run then, 2 × 3-2-1 Fartlek with recoveries of 2-1-1 in between each rep.

-Cool down for rest of miles

I don't stop my watch during workouts like this, I just use the lap key for the speed portion. 

Thursday: 

Planned to run my recovery run, but getting home around 8:30 from the speed workouts just makes me super tired.  I put off my run and just went to a morning strength class.

Friday:

6 miles

0:52:49

8:48 pace

 Laced up and ran solo on our local bike path.  I've been really trying to focus on keeping the recovery runs super slow and the easy runs eassyyyy!

Saturday:

3.14 miles

0:34:30

10:59 pace

My SIL came to town to run the Albany Last run!  I stuck with her and she did such an awesome job!! She has never run in the cold and she really stuck it out! So proud!

They started the race off with some fireworks! 

Sunday: 

13.2 miles

1:56:47

8:51 pace

 Some of our team headed to VT to run long, but I couldn't make that happen and luckily a few other couldn't either!  We kept it pretty conservative and easy and the miles really flew by! 

TRAINING WEEK 1:

Total Mileage: 42 

Total Time: 6 hours, 18 min, 48 seconds

Total Calories: 4,264

Some other exciting things that have happened over the past couple weeks:

I turned 30! 

 

was selected as an ambassador for Honey Stinger ! This is one of the only products I use consistently throughout my training.  I use their waffles before a run or race, their gels and chews right before and during races and their bars after a long run or race if I'm not planning on eating right away. 

And was selected as member of  Nuun's competitive athletic team, Team Nuun! You don't even know about my love for Nuun.  I probably have 1 or 2 tabs a day. It's a strong strong addiction. I was so pumped to be selected to represent them during my 2016 racing season! 

And finally, I got into the NYC half lottery for the 3rd year in a row! This is my absolute favorite half and up there in my top 3 favorite races! There was a bit of panic when I saw that there was a processing charge from NYRR early on in the day and then it disappeared later that night.  Okay there was a lot of panic and basically I was told I wasn't in if my card wasn't charged. Then I got the confirmation email and my card was charged the next day.  Nice try, bank! 

Sorry for the long winded post.  I had a lot to catch up on!! You can at least rest assured I'll be back every Monday (or Tuesday) to recap my week of training and if you're lucky, maybe even some extra posts thrown in during the week :) 

If I'm not back by the weekend, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! I can't wait to spend time with our family and friends!

Have you stareted training for any spring races?  What are you running?

How are you spending your holiday weekend?!

Happy running you sweet friendzz!!