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?