Holiday Celebrations & 1 Week Until the 3 Bridges Marathon

Hello there! How are things?

I’d say that things are a bit busy over here, and I’ve been slacking a bit on my blogging. But I’m happy to have these weekly recap posts to keep me accountable! I’m still settling in at my new job and the holidays are always busy. I’m sure things will slow down and I’ll be writing more here again soon.

Until then, I’ll still be linking up with Jess from Jess Runs ATL with my weekly recap of training. Just one week to go before the 3 Bridges Marathon in Little Rock, Arkansas!

(I am also linking up with HoHo Runs/Mississippi Piddlin, who host similar link-ups to Jess’s and mine. Check them out!)

Here’s how training went this week:

Monday: Crazy Minnesota weather: this day started at 50 degrees and then dropped to 20 degrees by the end of the day. I just had to get out in the morning, so I could run one last time in shorts before winter arrived. I did 6 easy miles (super easy, like a 9:40 pace). It was such a nice morning!

Tuesday: The first real winter storm in Minneapolis hit overnight. We woke up to slippery roads and terrible traffic. I thought that I was lucky to take the bus since that meant I didn’t have to drive in that mess, but even the bus took a lot longer than it normally would.

I opted for the treadmill after work, 7 miles at a 9 min/mile pace. (Our treadmill was the best investment ever for our household!)

Wednesday: The roads were still pretty bad, so again I opted for the treadmill. I had a few miles at marathon pace on the schedule: 1 mile warm-up, 3×1 mile at marathon pace with 2 minutes to recover, 1 mile cool down. 5 miles total (I cut the cool-down a bit short in the matter of time.)

More Netflix & Treadmill!

Thursday: Rest day! I had to be to work for a 7 am meeting, so I rode in with Dustin- a nice benefit of working in the same building!

After work, we met some friends at 112 Eatery for dinner/drinks before heading to the State Theater to see Nick Offerman (from Parks & Rec). His show was funny, but we didn’t get home afterwards until nearly midnight. Much too late for me to get up in the morning, so I knew Friday was unfortunately going to be an unplanned rest day. TWO rest days in a row.

Friday: Yup, couldn’t get up early as I expected and after work was my company’s holiday party at the Hewing Hotel.   No time to run after work either…

Zero miles. A couple of s’mores 🙂

Saturday: I slept in on Saturday before deciding just to head down to the treadmill for my long run. 10 miles easy at a 9 min/mile pace. I zoned out to some Netflix and it wasn’t too boring.

We had a second holiday party that evening at a run club friend’s place. It was lovely!

Dustin, Matilda (the vizsla) and I ran 7.4 miles at an 8:40 pace. It was in the upper 20’s and the paths were mostly clear; of course, it helped that it was light outside.
Summary: About 36 miles of running.

Later in the afternoon, I had a call with my coach to chat about my race plan for Arkansas. I had already re-adjusted my goal from a PR to something more attainable based on how I’ve been feeling since the NYC marathon. He is always super positive and optimistic though and still thinks I should go for it, but we agreed to aim for sub-3:40 as an “A goal” and something in the 3:40’s as a “B goal.”There’s no runner tracking or anything for a marathon this small. I’ll probably post to Instagram first, so follow me there!

Tell me- are you managing to fit in your runs around all the holiday celebrations? Share your tips please! 🙂

And please join Jess and me for our link-up, details below: