I was doing so well with the regular blogging … for a few weeks. And then, as I often do, I fell off the blogging bandwagon. In an effort to reboard the wagon, I’m back tonight with a recap of the last three weeks of training. A three-week day-by-day would be all sorts of boring, I think, so I’ll hit the high points.

Week 4: January 29-February 4
32 miles run
One day of cross-training (cycling)
Three days of strength training

That week, I had my first tempo run in ages. The workout was 7 miles total, with 2 at tempo. It felt better than I worried it might. I also had a ten-miler with three at goal pace. I don’t really know what goal pace is, to be honest, so I shot for around 7-minute miles. That was hard, but not impossible. Overall, a pretty decent week of getting back in shape.

Week 5: February 5-11
39 miles run
Three days of strength training

Highlights of last week included my first weekday eight-miler (a fartlek run) in quite some time, running in Denver before a conference, and the Loveland Sweetheart Classic 4-mile race. The day of the race was 11 degrees and snowing. It was cold and miserable and awesome all at the same time. I’ll write a separate post for a race recap.

Week 6: February 12-19
We’ll go the day-by-day route for this week:

Monday:  30 minutes easy cycling, then strength training

Tuesday: 6 easy miles, then core work

Wednesday: 8 miles with the last three progressing to tempo

Thursday: Rest day. We had parent-teacher conferences, and the weekend forecast looked lovely, so that sounded like a perfect combination of reasons to rest Thursday and run the next three days.

Friday: I had the day off, thanks to conferences the night before. Although I spent most of the day grading and emailing parents who didn’t come to conferences but whom I needed to talk to, I took a break in the morning for 8 hilly miles, then another in the afternoon for some gym time.

Saturday: 4 recovery miles, plus core

Sunday: 13 miles. It was 50 degrees at 8:00 a.m. Colorado is weird.

Total: 39 miles, two days of strength

I’m still feeling rather out of shape, but I feel a bit stronger and fitter every day. I’m also relearning to balance higher mileage, strength training, and, you know, life.

What’s on your race calendar?

How do you balance training and life?