Week 1 in Review-77 Days Until MI Half

 Overall, this first week of training went well. I got in my first long run of the year, and it wasn't too painful. I mean it was, but I am recovering nicely today. Could barely walk yesterday and took a really good nap after eating a huge breakfast....Today, I will do a little gentle stretching and ice the knees a couple times and I should be good to go tomorrow.

Monday- I did an easy 4.15 miles. I am not really sure why, but my RW Smartcoach has my easy run paces at 12:15. I feel like I am walking when I go that pace. So I definitely am trying to make a focused effort to have my pace be slightly slower than my normal pace, but not too much slower. If I can stay in the 10 min/mile range, I think that is good. My body tries to go at 9 min/miles so I have to make a concentrated effort to go easy. I made up a new rule on yesterdays long run-I need to stay conversational. And since I don't usually run with someone to talk to, I am going to sing what I am listening to. I may look stupid but maybe it will help.
4.15; 40:37; 9:47

Tuesday - Rest Day. Intended to start my cross training with this rest day and do yoga. But I really needed some extra sleep so I didn't get up early to do it. And as per usual, if I wait until the end of the day, it's really hard to make myself do it...So I actually rested. It was much needed.

Wednesday - 5.04 Miles Tempo run. For some reason my legs felt really heavy today. I had to really push hard to stay in the 9 min/mile range and I did it for the entire run until the last mile when I slowed down to 10:10. 
 5.04; 49:22; 9:47

Thursday - 3.99 mile easy run. Felt really tired on this one-again. Knees hurt a bit and just really wasn't feeling it. But I pushed through and finished....and really took is easy like I was supposed to. 10:27 average pace and stayed over 10 the entire time. 
 3.99; 41:40; 10:27

Friday - Rest day. Since I've been feeling so tired the last two runs, I decided I am going to wait another week or two before starting with the cross training. Slept in today and it was really nice.

Saturday - Long Run Day. Was a little psyched out for this since I hadn't run anything over 6 since the half...but it actually felt pretty good. I think my ending average pace was a little low due to some GPS issues when I went through the I-90 Bike tunnel before hitting the bridge. Based on the splits, the pace was probably in the 9 min range, rather than the 8:49 RunKeeper has recorded. But overall, it was a good run. The hills in the last mile really are killer though. 

8.81; 1:17:39; 8:49

Sunday-Rest. Sleeping in, catching up on stuff and tracking the week's training stats. 

Good first week. Ready to jump into Week 2. Happy running this week!