Weeks 5 and 6: Seems I've fallen into a pattern

Two weeks of training AGAIN! Lucky you. We'll see if this truly is a pattern or if I can get myself together every week from here on out. There are only 10 weeks left after all!

Week 5:
In week 5, I went to AKT in Motion, Uplift Strength, and did tempo and long runs. I totally missed my speed workout and didn't even try to make it up. It was also a crazy nutso week at work, which made getting up early to run impossible (since I was at work till late...). There was one night where I almost had the cab drop me at the gym, but I decided against it and just went home. Definitely the right decision. Also in week 5, I discovered that I was ACCEPTED to the NYC HALF! At first I was like, oh mannn, I don't want to do this race! But then I discovered that it's at the perfect time during my Paris training - March 16, three weeks out from April 6, which will serve as a great gauge for my fitness. Woo woo! Just don't be 25 degrees again, mmk?

Tempo: 2 mi warm up, 3 mi at 7.5, 1 mi cool down. I still remember the first time I ran 4 miles at 6.8 mph. It seemed SO FAST. And then I ran a whole dang marathon at that pace. It's so interesting to me to see progress and how quickly something can become the new normal, especially if you practice it. You've got to run fast to get fast, amirite?! The 8 minute mile (and especially the sub-8 minute mile) is still something that scares this relative running newbie. It feels like I shouldn't be able to do that, but I CAN DO IT. It's weird. But I'm going with it.

Long run: I went to East Hampton with 7 other girls for the long weekend. We rented a house, and it was awesome. I brought all my cold weather running gear thinking I'd totally run outside...maybe not the whole 12 miles that I had on the agenda, but maybe at least 6? Welp, I ended up running all 12...and actually went more like 12.5 or 13 (Garmin started late and the jury's out on Map My Run). I'm SO glad I got it done but holy moly it was hilly and cold that day. Thankfully I had lots of wine to make up for it.

Let's talk about AKT in Motion for a moment, shall we? To start off, KELLY RIPA does AKT in Motion, so you KNOW it's good because Kelly Ripa is adorable and crazy fit. It was new to Classtivity in 2014 and I decided to try it since it's the opposite of my usual bootcamp faves. (By the way, I took this Buzzfeed quiz and got bootcamp...not at all surprising, since bootcamp is an addiction.) AKT is a dance cardio type class where you basically bounce off the walls for an hour straight. Today I did my second AKT class, which was a bit different than the first (i.e. had some barre class moves, which we did not have in the first class I took). There's a lot of dancing, jumping, and working up a sweat throughout the whole class. There's some choreography to learn as well, but take it from a girl who CANNOT dance - you can do this class. No one cares if you look like an idiot. I seriously don't look at anyone else in the class except for the instructor. I especially don't look at myself in the mirror because otherwise I'd be aware of what an ass I'm making of myself, but I figure that as long as I'm always moving, I'm doing what I need to do. Check out Laura's blog for a more in-depth review of AKT (along with just about every single other NYC fitness class - such a good resource!).


Week 6:
YOU GUYS. I DID ALL (three of) MY RUNS. And went to a barre fitness class. This was a momentous occasion and I hope it means that the rest of my training is going to be awesome. You'd think that running just three days a week would GUARANTEE that I'd get them all done, but that is sadly not always the case. Fingers are crossed for getting them all in the rest of training!

Tempo: My legs were super pissed at me on this day. I actually went into this run thinking, this is going to be awesome! And then my legs were like, mayyyybe not. 1 mi warm up, 5 mi at 7.3, 1 mi cool down. I bumped it up to 7.4 for the last half-mile because well why the heck not? Still took me a while to get into it and never really felt super awesome about the run.

Speed: SUCH A GOOD SPEED SESSION. I was extremely pleased that my speed had not left me despite my abandonment of it for two weeks. 10 min warm up, 2 x 1200 at 8.1 and 4 x 800 at 8.3 with 2 min RI, 10 min cool down. This was done on a Friday night after a busy week, and I'm SO glad I got it done. I semi-watched Real World in the background (that show is still on? And people still want to be on it??) which had good entertainment value, but I mostly focused on my tunes. Speaking of, anyone have any good music recs? I'm desperate.

Long run: Maybe I'm a wuss, but I saw freezing temperatures and I totally decided against running outside. And I had 14 miles to run. So where did I go? ...

GANG'S ALL HERE!

Yup. The treadmill.

Two hours, one minute, and 43 seconds on the same damn treadmill. Luckily, I had a movie (Blue Jasmine), a snack (Picky Bar, obvi), and hydration (Nuun!), plus some music for when the movie ended (it was only 1 hr 38 mins long). It really wasn't that bad! I broke it up into 1 hour (6.87 miles), 6.13 miles to get to 13 miles, and did the last mile at 8:18 pace. I also messed with the speeds during the run, toggling between 6.8, 6.9, and 7.0, which helped keep my brain busy. And honestly, as soon as I stepped foot outside to walk to the gym, I felt like I'd made the right decision. I have a lot of winter running gear now, but not enough for this weather. Serious respect to all the Manhattan Half runners and anyone else who can brave these temps, but I, sir/madam, am not one of them. At least I don't hate the treadmill!

And now we are in WEEK 7 of Paris Marathon training. Wild. Here's my plan for the week:
Monday: AKT in Motion - check!
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Yoga at Laughing Lotus
Thursday: HILLS with Jen (having a buddy will make the better, right?)
Friday: Uplift Strength
Saturday: Run
Sunday: OFF!

Questions:
What's the farthest you've ever run on the treadmill?
Freezing temps or treadmill?
Dance cardio classes - yay or nay?

Weeks 3 and 4 - California running is THE BEST

Happy New Year all!

My recap is a bit late for a number of reasons this week... First, my Thursday night flight got canceled due to a snowstorm in the Northeast, and I couldn't get on a flight back until Sunday. Then, when I finally got back on Sunday night, I got home and discovered that the heat was broken in my building! I ended up sleeping there that night, but haven't gone back to sleep there since when I was there for 20 minutes the other day my fingers almost froze off. Thankfully, I hear the boiler has been replaced and heat is back!

Anyway, lucky for me, I was in California all week so I got in some amazing runs in glorious, sunny weather while wearing shorts and a tank top. In January. Ahhhhmazing.

Since I'm combining two weeks in one, suffice it to say that I got in all my runs in week 3, did tempo and long runs in week 4, and replaced my speed work in week 4 with a Barry's Bootcamp speed sesh.

Week 3

Tempo: This tempo had a one mile warm up and cool down, and 5 tempo miles at 8:30. Let me tell you - I was scared of those 8:30s. I thought for sure I would not be able to hold them, and even told Dan (who ran along with me) not to push me too hard if I couldn't make it happen. But guess what? It happened. Every single mile was below 8:30, ranging from 8:10-8:23, and the overall average was 8:26! I was so proud of myself for this run and obviously had to take a selfie with the ocean to document its awesomeness.

Me and the ocean, after 7 miles of California coastline.
This picture also won me a year to DailyBurn!

Speed: My first track workout on a real track! I programmed the workout into my Garmin the night before, with distance, goal speeds, and rest intervals. Dan and I ran down to his high school to use their awesome track, so I had about 2 miles of warm up, followed by 1200m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m, 200m with 200m rest, and some cool down miles (which ended at Golden Spoon, where I devoured our "shared" froyo). This workout was HARD. First off, it was HOT that day. Second, I didn't have a treadmill where I could control the speed - I had to do it myself. I definitely took some longer-than-planned pauses, but I finished strong and nailed the speeds in three of the five intervals.

Long: I did an out and back course along the Back Bay. The weather was perfect. I felt awesome. My average pace was lower than the previous week's 9 miler. I chicked a guy. The end.

Beautiful Back Bay in Newport Beach

Week 4
Tempo: After I got back from California, I was a little zonked. Readjusting to the timezone took me longer than expected, I had a bad week in general, and did I mention my week ended with a root canal?! Getting myself up and moving for this run was not easy, but I'm glad I did it. This run involved 1 mi warm up, 4 mi at 7.3, 1 mi cool down. I don't know if the treadmill was off (I feel like it MUST have been), but I felt insanely good running at 7.3, so after two miles at 7.3, I upped it for the third (7.4) and fourth (7.5) miles.

Speed: I was supposed to do 5 x 1000 (probably the distance I struggle with most), but it didn't happen (hello, root canal). I went to Barry's Bootcamp and we did a LOT of speed work - didn't touch the incline the whole time, but I did have a number of opportunities to sprint my ass off and two opportunities to run 800m in 4 mins (which I did, and surpassed, because I knew I was missing an important speed sesh).

Long: My first official cold winter outdoor run - the first of many over the next 12 weeks! I have to say, I'm quite proud of this run. Not only was I spoiled with delicious weather in California, but I was also running on mostly flat surfaces. Central Park's outer loop is not such a surface. I ran 5.5 mi from home, and 5.5 mi back for a nice 11 mile run. It was colder than I'd expected it would be, but I was dressed warmly enough. I saw Evann twice on my run, which was great! All but one of my miles was below 9 min/mi, for an average of 8:49. A bit lower than my California long runs, but much hillier and windier! My legs were so tired at one point - I just wanted the hills to be OVER with. I took a few breaks as needed, but charged up Harlem Hill like the badass that I am (ha). I think I earned the mini-nap that followed.

So here we are in week 5 (!!!).

Here's the schedule:
Monday: AKT in Motion - check! Got my butt kicked. So fun, so sweaty, so hard.
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Uplift Strength
Thursday: Run
Friday: Off? Currently signed up for Barry's Bootcamp, but I just don't think I can make it to Chelsea by 6am!
Saturday: Run (going to be away, but do plan on making this happen!)
Sunday: Off

Questions:
What's your typical cross training workout?
What do you do when you "miss" a run while training?