Training Tuesday – GCM edition, Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you had an entertaining NYE.  We played Life, watched the movie Storks, ate appetizers, and toasted in 2017.  Gotta say, the performers on the “ball drop” shows were not my jam.  But I do dislike Mariah Carey so it was fun to see her technical difficulties!!  😉

As we enter into 2017, it’s time to get those Glass City Marathon training plans in order!  I know a lot of people doing the Dave’s Running Marathon In Training group, and they just kicked off their training cycle.  I, on the other hand, have decided to go with a half marathon training plan by Pete Pfitzinger.  Thanks to that suggestion from Heather, I have purchased my very own copy of “Faster Road Racing: 5K to Half Marathon” and I’m ready to get to work!  Well, get to work at the end of January because my 12 week training plan doesn’t start until then!!  So, I have about a month to just do whatever.  yeah me!!

And in exciting running news – I reached my running goal in 2016!

I didn’t have a goal to begin with, but when I started looking at my total back in November I realized I could reach a top mileage year.  My goal kept changing as I got closer to 12/31/16.  First it was just going to be past 2015 mileage of 1,812 but then I thought 1,825 would be good. I truly believe that more miles don’t always translate into a better runner, but with the total being so close, I had to go for it!   After my morning treadmill run, I realized I had an error in my math and was past my goal.

So I went out for an afternoon run and evened it out to 1,830 miles.  Woot!

On January 1st my family ran the Hangover Classic 5K.  It only cost $1 for each of us.  As a mom of a family of 4 runners, I am always so happy to join in these low dough, Toledo Roadrunners club races.

I ran with Zachary again.  This time he didn’t talk up a storm.  However, he did have a shoelace malfunction (his stupid shoe laces *always* come untied.  You would think Nike shoes would have some better laces!!) that we had to stop for.  It was a bit windy on the way out.  He asked me:  “How far have we gone?”  Me: “Only .63 miles”.  Yep, it was a bit rough for the first half.  Maybe we really were hungover!  But the way back was a lot of downhill and the wind was at our backs.  As we got down to the last .25 miles he asked if we could slow down.  I pointed out a runner in front of us and told him that I really wanted to beat her.  Sure enough, we picked up the pace and passed her.  My finish time was 25:45.  He sprinted ahead of me at the finish.

Race splits:  8:37, 8:27, 7:57, 7:20 (.10)

Here’s the whole fam at the race…

And some of my bestie running buds!

I have nothing to report for my upcoming week.  It’s so weird not being on a training plan!  I’d like to keep my weekly mileage close to 30-35 miles, and get two days of strength training in.  Also, do a weekly long run of 10 miles.  Other than that, I’m just winging it for now!

***********************************************

Q:  Are you a Mariah fan?  Did you get to see her perform Sat night? 

Q: Did you stay up to see the ball drop in Times Square on NYE?

Q: Did you get to take a lot of time off work for the holidays?  

Tuesday is my first day back to work since 12/22.  Waaaaaaaa! Back to reality.