Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Guess what I just did??? STRENGTH TRAINED! Woohoo! After 4 weeks of setting strength training as my "Goal for the Week," I finally did it! I went to the gym and did chest presses, lateral raises and tricep pulls.

I don't hate strength training. I just don't do it. Well, now i do. Living at my gym is no excuse to not do it. So, there we go.

Last week I talked about how getting in all of my workouts has been really easy since I got home from traveling but that things are going to get tricky once everything picks up again. That's for sure. I just found out that I have to work from 6am to 7pm on Sunday. With a 5k race on Saturday and 3 lovely ladies in town, that means I'm going to have to do my long run on Thursday this week. A mid-week long run? Who am I? Talk about moving things around! But, I'm on Day 30 of not missing a single workout and I'm not about to change that anytime soon.

You know what else? I finally hit 500 miles of running this year. I've run 100 miles this month already...that's what running 5 days a week does that to you. Last year, my highest monthly mileage was 126. I'm going to exceed that by a lot this month. Welcome to marathon training.

So let's see what else is going on in Christy's world of Marathon Training:

MCM Training: Week 5
Total Mileage Last Week: 34
Missed Workouts: 0, though I did cut 2 miles off a 6 mile workout because of knee pain.
Trouble Spots: A sore hamstring and knee that is giving me trouble walking up and down stairs.
Planned Mileage This Week: 39

This Week's Training:

Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: 6 miles easy (9:58/mile) with 6 strides
Wednesday: 5 miles easy (9:58/mile)
Thursday: 16 miles (9:58/mile)
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday: 5k race with 1 mile warm up + 1 mile cool down
Sunday: 7 mile hill workout (most likely will be done on the treadmill when I get out of work)


Goals for this week: Get in all of my workouts, keep my knee and hamstring healthy
Current annoyances: My Garmin telling me I'm running 18 minute miles because New York buildings are too tall.
Things to keep in mind: Recovery is crucial to staying injury free.

So that's my week ahead...it's moved all over the place from what my training plan calls for but hey, sometimes life gets in the way.

My questions for you this week:

• I'd really like to start taking ice baths but don't have a bath tub in my new apartment. Any ideas for how to get one in?
• Do you think it's ok to run my long run only 4 days after my last long run?
• What kind of recovery do you do after your long runs?