Boston training week five. The one where nothing exciting happens.

As my title has already led you to believe, nothing exciting happened this week.

That's not to say that nothing happened. I had a perfectly good week, my workouts went as planned and the weather was good enough to allow me three outside runs. Amazing! So fun!

My foot, after getting hacked up last week seems to be on the mend. Probably, if I took a week off like they suggested I never would have noticed it. I said to my DR "A week???" And he said "For you, no. Maybe a day." So, knowing that there was nothing that could be done to harm things, off I went with no issues other than a teeny little pain that one might expect. And now I am fine.

I had three pretty serious workouts this week.
I did 6x800's on the treadmill with 5 done in 3:32. Sadly, I have zero sweaty basement selfies to share. (how did this happen? who knows..) But I did them and I was a bit like "woof" because speed work at that pace, apparently, is a challenge for me.

I took my hill work outdoors. For me, this is key. My treadmill only goes up and when one is preparing for Boston one desperately needs downhills too. So I did that and it was good.

Running up a hill, on a dry road in February. WHAT?

I then had a progression run, also outdoors which I felt good about. My goal was to bring the pace from just under 9's to absolutely not one step faster than marathon goal pace. As usual this was all a bunch of guesswork but ended up right on target. Also, over rolling hills.

At the top of a rolling hill....

I had expected to take to the treadmill for my long run and was pleasantly surprised when the previous nights snow had melted in the nick of time. I thought it was a decent 17, not amazing, not terrible. Just getting the miles in on slightly tired legs but no drama.
Well, other than the weather. The temp was great, shockingly good actually coming in at 45 when I headed out. As I ran thru my town not only did the temp wildly fluctuate but it went from brilliant sun, to clouds, to temporary gale force winds, to rain. Fairly crazy.

45 degree long run. Pretty fabulous.

Somewhere in there was a boring basic 6 miler on the treadmill and that was it. I finished watching Dance Moms season 5 and have no idea what crap show I will turn to next.

44 miles for the week which is exactly where I need to be right now.

I was asked (by throngs of readers. or one person) what I do for cross training. Honestly, very little. I attribute this to my very active, basically cross training job. I also do have some time limitations and yoga, weights, and TRX just don't fit into the plan. I'm also not that motivated to fit more hours of athletics into my life and since I'm not shooting for an Olympic berth I can get away with this laziness.

I do a few basic exercises to work on my trouble areas (weak hips, glutes) and I have a very boring basic routine that I do for core, more so I don't jaggle around like a bag of mayo on a horse than for anything running related. So yeah, don't look to me for cross training inspiration at this point!
(or do? keep it simple? not a bad plan now that I think about it.)

Resistance band sideways walking thing. Does wonders for the hips.

I got a birdfeeder which is totally unrelated to anything else I have said today. Currently I seem to be attracting squirrels, two slightly slower than average sparrows, a pair of tufted titmouse (mice? I said tit haahahaha) and one delightful woodpecker. In my spare time I am basically a closet birder. I do wish the squirrels would bugger off though....

My little friend!!!!

Oh, and since the weather was all summery and what not I busted out some post run IPA's. From this weeks collection emerged a favorite for the week. They make another of my favorites, Boom Sauce which is quality.
While I might not have a good cross training plan I always have a good plan for beers. This is key.

Drink this, it's totally decent.

So that's all from week 5 of training. I'm hoping that the weather report for next week improves or it's back to the treadmill for me, and with no more Dance Moms I'm going to be awfully bored....

The weekly wrap up
Miles: 44 which is good
Favorite TV: Dance Moms.... Such junk!!!
Favorite beer: Lord Hobo Steal This Can
Low temp: -14 (on Monday AM)
High temp- 46! On Saturday
Favorite food: This amazing creme brulee with an almond cookie from The Oxford House. OMG.