Monday, November 2, 2015

2 Weeks of Lazy (and a bit of what's next)

For the past two weeks I have pretty much been focused on recovery being lazy. And by that I mean hardly running at all and eating all sorts of tasty, but completely unhealthy food. Ice cream is my favorite food and I might have had some everyday the week after the marathon (#dontjudge).

The first few days after the race I was incredibly sore. I'd like to think I wouldn't have been quite so sore had I been running regularly leading up to the race, because wow. Literally every part of me hurt. Even weird things, like my arms. I did my first post race run on Friday. It was just 2 miles and when I finished I felt like I had just finished a long run. I was tempted to run again on Sunday, but in the end I decided to take full advantage of my recovery time.

The second week of recovery was slightly more structured. I was starting to miss running and was getting anxious to get the next phase of my training underway.

Monday 10/26: 4 miles
Tuesday 10/27: strength training (core)
Wednesday 10/28: 2 miles
Thursday 10/29: rest
Friday 10/30: 3 miles
Saturday 10/31: rest
Sunday 11/1: 3 miles

Most noteworthy in this week was Tuesday's strength training session since it ties in to my next training phase, which will basically be running + P90X. It is a 90 day plan that will take me from the beginning of November to the end of January.

The running component is fairly straight forward: rebuild my running base to 40 miles per week. I will be aiming for one long(ish) run and 3-5 shorter runs per week. There will be no intervals/tempos/hill repeats, just easy mileage with a few strides thrown in each week. Maybe some form drills. The focus is volume, not speed.

The P90X component is the part I will struggle with. I have been extremely lax with strength training in 2015. I'm blaming buying a house and losing access to my apartment complex's gym. I chose P90X because I already own it (Yay! Free!) and when the weather is terrible, I won't have excuses such as "The roads are bad, I can't drive to the gym." I'm adapting the lean schedule by replacing the cardio videos with running and doubling up workouts on some days.

As I am building my mileage during this program I will slowly be cutting back on strength training. My hope is that when February hits I will be ready to start an actual training program (5ks!) but still be able to maintain 1-2 videos per week (core and yoga, most likely).

8 comments:

  1. This sounds like a great plan. I am seriously tempted to do something like this instead of "half marathon training" for the next month and leading into Pittsburgh Marathon training. The idea of just getting the miles in and not worrying about workouts and paces and other crap sounds so nice right about now...

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    1. I'm really making an effort to keep the pressure off for the next few months. I feel like I trained really hard this spring/summer/fall and I know I am going to be training really hard in 2016. I really want to make sure when February hits that I am physically and mentally to get serious about training.

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  2. Enjoy the recovery! I think your new plan to work on strength training seems like a great idea. Personally, I feel like I lose strength during peak marathon training, the taper, and the recovery, so I could see why you would want to emphasize that before getting into 5k training mode.

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    1. Thanks! I have definitely felt that any strength I had before marathon training has disappeared. I'm looking forward to getting it back.

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  3. Just got caught up and read your race recap! I am SO proud of you for holding it together with all the ups and downs during the race. You are so strong and inspiring! Way to go girl! Great plan to keep in shape and look ahead to the future..you got this :)

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    1. Well I'm sure there are a lot of runners out there that are far more inspiring than I am, but seriously, thank you. Usually only my sister calls me inspiring :)

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  4. I seriously feel like we are on the same marathon, post-marathon, and training page through next year. Weird things hurt on me after the race (like immediately after) that nobody could explain -- my SKIN hurt to touch. Not like chafing or something, but like -- I don't know, my nerves were overfiring or something? Who has sore skin? Like what is that?

    I would love to get back into P90X but living on the 5th floor of an apartment (with a dog that's driving my neighbors nuts since we adopted him) probably wouldn't go over well with those living below me!

    I'm super excited to follow your training, too! 5k's are so going to be my summer focus.

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    1. Seriously twinning.

      You know I think I had a bit of 'my skin hurts' too. I was super cold right after the race and my husband tried to rub my arms to warm them up and it hurt so badly that I had to tell him to stop.

      I remember when I used to try to do P90X in my apartment and I was 100% sure the neighbors must hate me. Especially on plyo day.

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