Pittsburgh Half Marathon Training: Week 1

The first week of training for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in some ways represented both the joys and challenges of running.  In some ways the weather couldn't make up it's mind, but that's Pittsburgh for ya (or should I say yinz)!

Monday: 3 Miles - This day began the official training cycle for this race.  I'd like to say things felt great, but the weather (cold and rainy) put me in a funk.  My legs just didn't want to move no matter how hard I pushed and every ache and pain seemed to flair up.  To top it off, when I attempted to sync my Milestone Pod, it had never recorded any of the run.  I was just hoping that this was not a foreshadowing of how the next 12 weeks of training would be.

Tuesday: Rest day

Wednesday: 4 Miles - The best way to describe how I felt during this run compared to Monday is somewhat akin to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Though the weather had gotten colder, my body was more responsive and alive.  Even with a slight snow flurry blowing through around mile 2, I bounded along with ease.  But, like my prior run, my Milestone Pod didn't record this run either.

Thursday: 4 Miles - The trend of Wednesday's run carried over to Thursday.  The only challenge that I faced at this point was that the snow had continued overnight and into the next day leaving little room on the berm of the road to actually run.  Traversing through the few inches of powder and maintaining my balance made for a great workout.

Friday: Rest day - 30 minutes on the stationary bike during my planning period at school.  Figured I could do work just as well on that as at my desk!

Saturday: 4 Miles - Well, the weather decided to not play nice by dropping to -8 with windchill.  I had seen the possibility of this happening and just hoped that all the weather predictions were wrong.  No such luck!  I thus resorted to the treadmill letting Sherlock on Netflix distract me through the miles.

Sunday: Rest day

Overall, a good first week and only eleven more to go!

Happy running!
Sean