Marathon Training Week 2 Update – Time Crunched

Well, Week 2 of marathon training was a little tricky for me. Fran was away on a work trip for a week, so I had a little less wiggle room for fitting in my runs. (Side note: single parents are AMAZING. I don’t know how you do it.)

First off, SO HAPPY the heat finally broke! This week was much kinder to runners, for sure. This is what Week 2 of marathon training looked like for me:

This week was the introduction of interval training (speed work), in the form of 800m repeats (basically half mile repeats). I opted to do the speed work on a treadmill because I didn’t have access to a track, and finding the right spot to do it in the park was going to consume too much time for me. I’m thinking of joining a local gym near me that has a track (as well as some awesome kiddie classes), so that will definitely help for future intervals.

That said, speed work is about the only thing I can do on a treadmill where I really enjoy it. I had a lot of fun, I went faster than I should have for half the repeats, because I felt so good and strong! Despite being solo-Mama, I was a running machine this week!

I even managed to squeeze in some strength training – something I want to make more time for in future. I did some hip abduction work, as well as knee extensions, with a few deadlifts and some upper body moves too. I’m not sure I’m capable of doing a strength training workout without incorporating deadlifts at this point. #obsessed

LONG RUN: My long run was awesome this week. It was 9 miles, it was about 1,200 degrees cooler than last week, and it felt comfortable and meditative. Plus, I wore my amazing new fluorescent pink tights. Win, win, win.

One fail of the week was that I had to do a 6 mile run on a treadmill because I was fitting it in where I could and didn’t have the option to run outside. I tweeted that I was looking for great running podcasts to listen to, got some awesome suggestions, then proceeded to kill my phone’s battery trying to download them all. All of them. All at once. Because that’s how I roll, and I had a Blackberry FOR THE LONGEST TIME so I don’t know things like, pick one podcast and try it first. So, 6 miles on a treadmill with no entertainment, I think we all know how I feel about that.

OTHER AWESOME MARATHONERS: My friend Gillian checked in with me, to let me know she chalked up 20 miles last week (also her week 1 of training!) and that she was similarly thrilled with the heat! She wrote, “I shamelessly took two of the four runs indoors.”

 MILES FOR WEEK: 26

Don’t forget to share your mileage/stories/photos with me if you’re also in the middle of marathon training! I’d love to include it in my weekly update posts! 🙂 Don’t be shy!

Do you listen to any podcasts when you workout? What’s good? I want to download it! (Responsibly, this time).