Training Week 12/29/25-1/4/26

 Alrighty, settling in here to marathon training to start the new year. Had my biggest week yet which is promising since I'm not feeling to beat up, definitely a bit fatigued and tired but I think that's the cost of playing the marathon game. 

 Monday: 10 miles on the treadmill at 8:30. Boring day but good way to start the week off with some solid mileage.

Tuesday: 14 miles total with 6 by 1K on the schedule but the track is totally covered in snow so I took to the roads and changed it to 6 by 3 min hard 3 min off. My 1K goal was 3:20ish anyway so I felt this was good enough plus I was actually feeling really shitty going into this one. My buddy Danny joined me for the workout as well and it was a freezing early morning with some nasty wind. Overall it was a grind and the paces swapped from 5:35-5:20ish depending on if it was a headwind or tailwind for the reps. Was very glad when this was over.

Wednesday: 10 on the treadmill at 8:05. 

Thursday: 10 on the treadmill at 8:20. This winter started off really cold and windy in the Northeast so I've been leaning into the treadmill runs a bit.

Friday: 10 on the treadmill again 8 min pace

Saturday: 11.8 7:27. Was going for 18 with some hills in my hometown but Friday I had an away game 2.5 hours north for a basketball team I coach. 5 hours + on a bus there and back so my fueling and hydration was really poor. I pretty much bonked on this run and cut it short and just went straight home in SOS mode. I did bump into my buddies parents and talked to them for a while which was a nice little rest but then it was straight refueling all day.

Sunday: 18.3 @ 7:13 with a huge climb (4.5 mile long hill about 800 feet of elevation). Woke up thinking I had probably less than a 5% chance of hitting this long run but figured what the hell I'll give it a shot. I chose a massive hill as an out and back since I had no pace work included in this one and somehow managed to find a groove and really settle in. About half way up the hill I realized I'm actually not only going to finish this but have a somewhat solid day. Took some fruit snacks every 5 miles or so and was really happy with how this went. 

 

 

 

 

Total miles for the week was 84 and I felt pretty solid doing it. Really promising going forward. I also had a 28 day step streak averaging 22K steps a day that I finally broke the day after this long run. I look forward to getting back to having no days off hopefully for a while and cranking out some more solid training. I've also kept my push and pull day in here barely, just going once a week and feeling extremely weak but trying to hold onto as much muscle as I can. Recent progress picture below, a little soft but hoping to drop 5-10 lbs for the race. Sitting around 178/180 at the moment. 

 

 

 Feel free to comment on how your trainings going, how you balance running and lifting together etc...happy running.