Naples Half / Broke Man's WWU Training Week 10

Photos from Monday

Welcome to another Weekly Review linkup with Hoho Runs and MissSippiPiddlin. My training cycle focuses on the Broke Man's Winter Warm Up 7 miler (this Sunday!) and the Paradise Coast Half Marathon. You can read about each race in Week 1's recap. 

Week of Jan 4 – 10
Monday: 4 miles, 9:01 pace
Tuesday: 4 miles, 8:56 pace
Wednesday: 3 miles, 8:58 pace
Thursday: 5.3 miles (speed work)
Friday: 1 mile, 7:55
Saturday: 10 miles, 10:38 pace
Sunday: 1 mile, 8:38

Total: 28.5 miles

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This week was our first taste of winter, which made it difficult for me to keep up my training.

On Monday I left work early to enjoy the snow. Fat flakes started falling while I was running. There wasn't much accumulation, but it made it difficult to see where I was going, so I took a few breaks for photos. Almost as soon as my run was over it melted. I'm not a fan of winter, but I love snow.

Dark, cold night at the track.

Tuesday's run was bad. As I said on Instagram: "Tonight's run was a stinker. Too cold, too dark after the first mile, forgot to start my Garmin, and my pants kept sliding down." I didn't leave work early figuring the track would be fine after dark. It kind of was, but my headlamp was losing power and it was so cold. I was supposed to run 6, but stopped at 4. I felt so good last week and Tuesday was the first day I cut miles from a workout.

Sunshine on Thursday

Wednesday was another weird day: I planned to do a track workout with my group, but I wasn't feeling it. It doesn't start until 6:30pm which meant waiting around after work. On top of everything I had a social day and didn't want to talk to anyone else (I'm an introvert who needs to recharge). I ran, but only 3 miles around my neighborhood. I wore my headlamp and some bright colors, but I didn't feel particularly safe after sunset so I cut it short. Another stinker, but I got out there and ran.

I did my own speed work Thursday using Wednesday's group workout: 1 mile warm up, 5 x 1000m at 10k pace, and 1 mile cool down. Thursday was 46 degrees and the run felt great. I did most of my 1000m repeats at 5k pace - but that's a good problem to have. The only bad part about Thursday was an overly chatty older guy. He talked to me almost every time we stopped near one another. It was kind of frustrating after the fifth time, so I packed up my stuff and did my mile cool down at home. I followed the workout with amazing Indian takeout. Yum.

Friday was silly. I ran one quick mile with Alex. It was silly because I drank beer at work then went home to run. Probably not the best idea.

My pace group. (I'm in the second row with a red shirt and gray hat.)

Saturday marked the official kickoff of my training group. The halves had 4 miles and the fulls 8, so I stuck with them until 7.3 and tacked on another 2.7 miles. It was nice to run with others and made the miles go much faster. The last 2.7 was hard. Even though my pace was faster, my legs felt like lead and I didn't have conversations to distract me. Plus, the run ended on a major hill. I made it through somehow. A few months ago I would have walked, but I knew I could run 3 miles and I know the training plan emphasizes running on tired legs to help get you through the mile 10/11/12 blues. After a quick nap and some lounging around Alex and I went out for sushi and drinks to celebrate a friend's birthday. We ended up at an arcade bar after and eventually down the street for late night pizza. Very fun.

Sweet new jacket.

Sunday was a day of errands. We went to Fleet Feet so I could pick up my training jacket (for year-long members). Afterwards we hit up Marshall's, Half Price Books, REI, and Whole Foods. I got an amazing glow-in-the-dark jacket. It's a men's XS and a little loose, but at least I can layer. It snowed on and off all day yesterday and was bitter cold, so I layered my new training jacket with my hi-vis jacket and went out for a mile before dark. It was insane. The ground was slippery and the wind blew me back when I headed west. Tough run and I'm glad it was only a mile!

By the way, Sunday was running streak day 70! I definitely wanted to quit this week, but I had workouts to get through. Even though I missed or moved some miles, I got them in by the end of the week. Somehow!

Do you have a favorite hi-vis product for running?
Do you have (or wish you had) a treadmill?