As of last Sunday there are 17 weeks until I run my 7th marathon. Just like labor, I’ve blocked out the pain I experienced at the New York Marathon and am excited to train for and run this race. As I said before, I am running as part of the Seaside Striders Running Club and am receiving custom coaching and will be running with the club twice a week. Jim has been giving me plans since early December, but this week officially kicked off training. Sadly I’ve been fighting a cold since I returned from Costa Rica two weeks ago so training hasn’t been quite as great as I hoped. However, I felt pretty good last week and got in all my workouts!
I am tracking my workouts in my new Believe Training Journal, but I still enjoy sharing my training with my readers along with some extra thoughts about how everything is going, so this will be the first of 17 weekly training recaps! I plan to incorporate strength training into my training and have already discussed this with my coach. I will probably switch to yoga for the final 6 weeks of training, but until then, it’ll be strength training! Right now I’m trying Core de Force, the MMA-style strength and cardio based workout program. There are six workouts per week but I will only be doing three on top of running. I also hope to get in 1 yoga session per week, but it may be a little ambitious.
Here’s how week 1 went:
Monday: 5 mile run with 3 x 5 min tempo intervals. I did this workout on the treadmill at 6 a.m. becuase Mike was out of town and I knew I had to get it in before Siena was up. I did NOT want to do it but as soon as I got warmed up it felt really good.
Tuesday: Core de Force Dynamic Strength. I really like this workout! It’s actually one of the longest workouts (47 minutes) but it flies by. It’s 12 rounds with three strength training moves per round. The first six rounds are unique and then the second six rounds repeat but with some variations to make it more difficult. This is a full body strength training workout but focuses on upper body and core. 
Wednesday: I did a quick Core De Force MMA Speed in the morning. This workout is 27 minutes and is cardio based kickboxing moves. I used to do Turbo Kickboxing at 24 Hour Fitness back in the day and I’m pretty familiar with the moves (it’s just a series of jabs, hooks, upper cuts, kicks, etc.) so it helped me follow along. It’s a fun workout!
That night I went to the group speed workout (we don’t do the workout on a track – it’s just along a sidewalk that is 1,200 meters long with easily identifiable markers at each 400). The workout was apparently “easy” as everyone was surprised by how short it was. Either way, I felt GREAT! I hit all my paces and was able to keep up with the group that I usually try to keep up with but generally fail to. We only ran 5.5 miles in total with 1 x 1200 at 1/2 goal pace, 2 x 800 @ 10k pace, 3 x 400 @ just faster than 10k pace and a final 1200 at 1/2 goal pace with 90 seconds recovery between. At the end we did a set of 4 strides and some group core work. We also start every speed workout with drills and strides. It’s a long workout.
Thursday: 50 minute recovery run. I hit the trails near home while my mom was over watching Siena. It felt good to run initially but my legs felt heavy. Sometimes these recovery runs are harder than the speed workouts! 
Friday: Core de Force Power Sculpt. I got up early for this one and was glad I got it done!
Saturday: ~14.5 mile run. I was supposed to run 14 but my friend Kelly and I made a wrong turn on some new trails and I forgot to start my Garmin at some point so I’m not exactly sure how far I ran. Either way, it was fun to run with Kelly and catch up. I had to run 5 miles without her at the end and those miles dragged!
Sunday: Rest day. I hoped to do yoga but I started feeling sick again (a sore throat) so I tried to nap during Siena’s nap and spent much of the day on the couch when I could.
Weekly Totals:
- Running: 29.5 miles
- Strength Training: 2 hours
This was a great start to my training. I felt really strong at the group workout and can tell that I’ve already made some significant progress since starting to work with Jim. I’m trying not to let the little voices in my head tell me that missing training for Costa Rica and my key workout the week after I returned due to a cold will set me back. I’m confident that the training I’m putting in is solid and that I’m going to make progress toward my goal. It’s about consistency, not perfection!
Before I go, I want to invite you to my next Challenge Group on February 13th! My challenge groups will now be 4 weeks long – the new Beachbody on Demand All Access gives you access to every single Beachbody workout ever created. They created this new plan to encourage people to think of their fitness journey as longer than 21 days or 90 days (or however long the program they’re currently doing is). I really like this idea becuase I’ve always encouraged people to join as many challenge groups as they want. You can definitely get results in 21 days but true change takes longer. With BOD All Access you can do 21 Day Fix for 3 weeks and then try 21 Day Fix Extreme or add in any of the bonus workouts (there are 4!) you’d like (read this post for a rundown of the difference between these two programs). You can also try one of the many other programs. Either way, the challenge group includes daily accountability in a private group within the free My Challenge Tracker app. Please feel free to reach out to me at fitnessfataleblog @ gmail.com if you’d like to join or would like more information! I can help you decide which program is best to incorporate into running or triathlon routine as well!
What is your favorite type of training run (tempo, track, hill repeats, long run, recovery run, etc.)?
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