Shamrock'n Half Week 1 of 10: Slow Beginnings

Going into this first week of the new year, I was excited to star training for my first "real" race of 2017, Shamrock'n Half, on March 12 in Sacramento. I'd been planning to kick the week off with 40ish or so miles, mostly easy, & to get back into the gym three times a week as I definitely slacked off more than intended as CIM approached in December. Alas, as I mentioned, I've been sick this past week, so it wasn't quite the celebratory 1st week of the training cycle I'd been hoping for.

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Grand Total: 32 miles, all easy + 1 hour karate

Monday 1/2: 8 easy

Monday is usually a rest/karate day, but since I didn't run on Sunday due to being sick/feeling terrible, I decided to take advantage of feeling good the next day. (Also too many people out sick/traveling so no karate). I had also planned to start back with my M-W-F morning strength routine this week, but at this point it was clear I was getting sick & needed all the extra sleep I could get.

Tuesday 1/3: 2 warm-up, 5 x 5:00 @ 8K pace / 3:00 jog, 2 cool down 8 easy.

Feeling somewhat better, but the gut check still said speed work was a bad idea.

Wednesday 1/4: Karate. Which is to say, Don & I went to karate, but I was still feeling so yucky that I only did about an hour's worth of kinda-sorta real work.

Thursday 1/5: 8 easy

These easy sick day runs feel pretty easy, but they are SLOWWWW. I just try to keep reminding myself that I'm sick & haven't suddenly lost all the fitness gains from my CIM training.

Friday 1/6: 8 easy.

I'd planned to do the track workout on Friday if I was feeling significantly better, but I wasn't, quite, so more easy miles it is. Ain't nothin' wrong with a bunch of slow, easy miles!

Saturday 1/7: Rest

Sunday 1/8: 12 easy

My plan was to get up early & get my "long-ish" run done as we were busy for the rest of the day on Sunday, but it turned out that instead of sleeping I was up coughing all night, so I spent those hours catching up on desperately needed sleep instead of running. The weather was pretty shitty, including a good bit of flooding all around the city & a number of very large downed trees, so while it wouldn't have kept me in if I'd been feeling better, I suppose if you have to be out sick for a day missing the nastiest weather in a while is the day you want to miss. Ah well.

I'm starting to feel a lot better (still coughing a lot, though) so hopefully I'll be able to get with the program this week!