I’m finally getting to last week’s training recap and weekly wrap. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! It was week five of marathon training and things seem to still be going well. The Vernonia Marathon is 102 days away. Here’s what last week looked like from Coach Dawn’s plan:

Monday – Plan: 4-5 at recovery pace/HR. Actual: Ran 5.01 early miles. It was fun running while it was snowing but it didn’t last long. Average pace 10:13.Tuesday – Plan: Treadmill – Hills. Warm up 2 miles easy at 1% grade.
4 x 8-10 seconds fast at 6%
*Rather than 7% which felt a little steep for you, focus on as much grade as you can get and get in a good sprint. Do as low as 5% and up to 9%
Ease back down and recover 2 minutes at 1%, then repeat.
After set of 4- Recover 5 minutes at 1%.
Then do 5 minutes at 5% (Try to pace it as slow as you need to run all 5 minutes, but if you need a break you can do a minute recovery at 2.5 minutes)
Cool down at 1% until you reach 5-6.

Actual: I did the 2 mile warm up at 1% grade and then did 4×10 sec but kept it at 7%, then did 8%, 8% and 9% for the last one. I felt good and I wanted the challenge even if it was steep. The 5 min was tough too but I got it done.Wednesday –Easy 5-6. Pace- 8:45-9:00 but if feeling fatigued, and if this pace feels too fast, just run at comfortable pace.  Actual: Ran a good 6.01 miles before work. Average pace was 8:49.Thursday – Plan: 10-15 minute warm up-
Then 1 min on/1:30 float intervals x 6 sets
1 min. paces- aim for 7:40-8:00
1:30 float pace – 8:30-8:40
So rather than have a really easy recovery, this is a “float” – So you keep up a decent pace in between sets.
Then easy/recovery pace until you reach 6-7 miles.

Actual: I thought I ended up with 6 miles and stopped when my watch reached the end of the mile lap which I thought was 6 but since I made a workout on my Garmin, the actual miles were off since I ran intervals. But anyways, I thought the workout went pretty good. My 1 min paces were 7:42, 7:48, 8:14, 7:40, 7:58, and 7:48. I’m not sure what happened on that middle one. My float paces were 8:36, 8:37, 8:37, 8:34, 8:35, and 8:33.Friday – Plan: Easy 3-4. Recovery pace/HR.
You can add a little more if you need here to end up with 40 for the week. Actual: I ran 4.2 early miles to make up the distance I missed on Thursday. Average pace was 9:41.Saturday – Plan: Easy 14
You can do the last 2 miles at 8:35-8:50.

Actual: I did an easy 14 miles and did not see that I could have ran the last 2 miles at 8:35-8:50 until I was done. But I did pick it up on the final mile to 8:52 since it was going well. Average pace was 9:16. I fueled again with two servings of UCAN before the run and used nuun to hydrate. I felt fine energy wise and am really liking UCAN.I ran some of it with my sis and when I finished we decided to do a jumping pic. 🙂Sunday – Plan: Rest day. Actual: Rest day.

Total miles = 40.09 miles. I ran a good amount of miles and I’m happy marathon training is still going well.

As for the rest of the week:

Perry the Elf had his final days at the house. I’m sure the kiddos will miss him.

We left for the Seattle area on Friday and the kiddos were excited to see their cousins. Here’s a pic with all their cousins together with Lolo and Lola on Christmas Eve.Family pic. Christmas day was filled with family, great food and fun times. It’s always great to spend time with family.

My 8 year old got a cup stacking game which the kiddos seemed to have lots of fun playing. I did too. 🙂 Have you tried cup stacking?

Best wishes to a Happy New Year! Are you ready for the new year? Any races coming up?

I’m linking up with HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin for the Weekly Wrap.