One week closer to Bear Mountain! After finally getting a bit of winter weather with the cold and the snow, I remember what it was like to train for my first ultras last year. Thankfully the weather has been kind for the most part and my training has been great so far.
I have felt extremely motivated and most workouts feel on-point. I can’t remember the last time I felt comfortable running as hard as I have on some of my runs this past week. I am hoping that by focusing on keeping my speed up at the same time as increasing endurance that I can see some improved results this year. While the workouts have felt great, I have been dealing with minor frustrations from my GPS watch and there simply not being enough hours in the day. Working long hours and feeling tired after hard workouts, I was not able to complete the core or treadmill workouts I set out to do last week. I am going to try my hardest to complete them this week, since I do not want to lose site of the goals I set for myself in 2016, no matter how minor.
Now for the recap!
My first run of the week was a 10 miler with The Breakfast Club. For some reason, we all decided to get out and run in weather with a windchill that made it feel like negative digits. To be honest, as miserable as I felt standing around waiting to run, I would not have finished the run without the group. After a few torturous miles in the wind, our run-leader Jenna was kind enough to treat us to coffee and bagels!
Wednesday’s run included 3-miles at tempo pace and 7 miles total. Since Bear Mountain is going to be hilly, I try to find hills for most of my runs. I ran out from Boston to Newton and had all 3 tempo miles on various Newton hills which felt great! I didn’t get to start this run until 9:30 PM, and there was something surreal about running hard that late at night.
On Thursday I had a great recovery run with Colleen that gave us ample opportunity to bitch about the strong winds and Boston weather. Having our training schedules sync up for runs is always great, and runs fly by so much quicker together! We kept the pace very comfortable to compensate for the horrible weather.
On Friday I had a unstructured run along my normal 10K loop to BC and back. It was pretty uneventful, but to reiterate, it has been nice to feel so good every day of training. No aches, no stomach issues. Just running.
On Saturday I had my best run of the week. For my long run, I decided to finally make it out to Heartbreak Hill Running Company and take on their famous Firehouse 10 miler. I decided to run to the shop, run the loop, and then run around Newton to get all 16 miles in. The run out to Newton was good and served as a nice warm up. I met a few friends and Colleen was there to do her 10 miles for the day. Once the Firehouse run started, I made my way to the front of the pack where my buddy Seth was charging ahead with a guy named John. Seth would eventually drop us, but John and I ran the whole loop together talking about goal races and our running career. It was great to meet a focused runner who helped me push the entire workout. We wound up running the 10 miles in 1 hour and 11 minutes, way faster than I had anticipated. I went back out onto Commonwealth Ave and met up with Colleen as she was finishing her loop to get my last few miles in.
Sunday was another nice and easy recovery day. After the snow, I waited until the afternoon to get out. Besides the occasional snowy sidewalk and slush puddle, it was a great run. It was warm enough that I was able to run in shorts!
Looking back on the week, I am even more excited to keep training. This might not be the most read blog out there, but just having some accountability and a chance at reflection is really awesome.
One and a Half Runners 
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