Pittsburgh Marathon Training: Week 2

With the second week of training for the Pittsburgh Marathon underway, I would say it was "non-traditional."  Each run was a bit different keeping things interesting.

Monday: 3 Miles - Between the baby not being in the best of moods and the roads developing a nice layer of ice, I decided to take my run to the treadmill.  While the workout wasn't terrible, I did realize that listening to a podcast just doesn't serve as a big enough distraction compared to watching a show on the iPad.  What would we do without technology?!

Tuesday: 4.7 Miles - Most people when sick decide to lay low until things get better.  Runners, on the other hand, don't always think clearly in these types of situations.  Setting out on my workout, my stomach wasn't feeling so hot.  And, of course, the pain reached its climax when I was at the farthest point in my run  The remainder of the miles thus became speed work in a mad dash for home.  This was made especially exciting by a number of black ice patches.

Wednesday: 3.3 Miles - I felt much better today even choosing to make up the portion of the previous run I hadn't completed.  The ice had also finished melting lowering the risk of injury to just the occasional speeding car.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: 5 Miles - With the sun shining, the chilly weather didn't seem so bad.  I decided to take the miles easy so I could enjoy the elusive vitamin D and keep my heart rate in recovery mode.  I also realized today while looking at my training plan that the next many Friday miles will be at marathon pace - yikes!

Saturday: 11 Miles - I joined up with Steel City Road Runners for the workout prior to the Pittsburgh Marathon Injury Prevention workshop.  Having never run through the Shadyside neighborhood of the city, it was nice to explore somewhere new.  I also got the chance to go past one of my favorite places in the city - Phipps Conservatory.  Even though I couldn't see the flowers, it's always a welcome sight.

Sunday: Rest Day

As I finish up this week of training, the routine is starting to set in.  I'm also being reminded of the sheer amount of food I crave when making my way to 26.2.  It's probably not good that I'm making up the extra calories with chocolate-covered pretzels....

Happy running!
Sean