New year, new training plan! As I shared in an earlier post, I have started working with a running coach. I am getting back in shape and gearing up for a June marathon – Grandma’s in Duluth, Minnesota. Now that I am back to training, I will share my training recap every other week. Once I am closer to the marathon, I will share my training recap weekly. But until then, here we go! You can always follow my progress daily on Instagram, where I share all my runs.
Week of January 1
Monday – New Year’s Day! Kicked off 2018 with a 3.5 mile easy run and core work. My new plan calls for core work twice a week and for someone who was not regularly doing core work – ouch! Haha.
Tuesday – My first workout in forever. 6×400, 4×200 plus warm up and cool down and strides. A total of 5.5 miles and man that was hard!
Wednesday – REST DAY is the BEST day! Always!
Thursday – 3.14 easy miles. Man oh man this was the beginning of the ridiculous cold streak. It was literally frigid and running was pretty terrible. It snowed Wednesday night and DC folks suck and clearing their sidewalks so the run was extremely difficult. Plus core!
Friday – Freezing again. I ran 5 miles – 3 of those sub 9 for my tempo. The trail was AWFUL – big chunks of it were still covered with snow and ice. Unfortunately that would come back to bite me in the butt!
Saturday – 8 miles for my first long run of 2018. It was cold but I was bundled up smartly. However – the day was just a comedy of errors. I woke up to frozen pipes, so no water. Then right when we were starting the run, my hand warmers burst in my gloves. What the what?! The bursted hand warmers released this black, gritty gross substance. Yay. But the actual run was fine – except I was a bit sore from the run on snow and ice on Friday.
Sunday – 4 easy miles to end the week.
Weekly mileage total: 29.1
Week of January 8
Monday – Easy 3 to kick off Monday. Plus core work.
Tuesday – I ran after work because I stayed up way too late watching my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide WIN the National Championship!!!! It was cold and the track was dark and there was an icy patch but I got it done. 800 / 4×400 / 800 plus warm up, cool down and strides for 5 miles total. That was really freaking hard. Also – I had an intense level of soreness in my thighs that made everything difficult.
Wednesday – rest day!
Thursday – Tempo Thursday because I knew I’d be traveling to New York City later in the day. 5.5 total, with tempo miles at ~8:45ish. It felt comfortable but hard if that makes any sense.
Friday – I was still uncomfortably sore and woke up in NYC feeling ill. No run.
Saturday – Because I was STILL in a great deal of pain, I listened to my great friend Jackie who is a medical professional and did not run and went to get checked out. Luckily – nothing serious. It turns out that the trifecta of getting back in shape, the cold and (probably mostly) running on terrible services really did me in!
Sunday – I was SO happy to be back to running. 3.25 easy miles.
Who else is back on the wagon now that we are in a new year? Anyone else running Grandma’s? (A LOT of Oiselle gals are running it!)

I’ve been wondering where your recaps have been! Glad to see they’re back! I honestly don’t know how you do it with all your work traveling. I really admire your dedication. I hope the second half of January treats you a little better!
Dodie recently posted…“Run Fast. Eat Slow.” Ginger Molasses Granola
They are back! 🙂 Training is hard with lots of travel, for sure. This morning on the treadmill was brutal!
I started my training for the Shamrock Marathon on Christmas Day. It’s been an interesting 3 weeks so far because of the crazy weather, lol
I’m not running Grandmas but I have a few friends that have done it and they LOVED it! Lots of positive feedback about that race.
Yeah – I did a TON of research and I’m super stoked about Grandmas!! This winter is so dang hard, lol.
I am base building for a half in April. I’m getting excited because I just picked out my training plan. A new training plan is always all full of hope, don’t you think? I have heard a lot of good things about Grandmas. I’m looking forward to following your training through this cycle!
Lisa @ TechChick Adventures recently posted…Training Tues recap – back at it!
Full of hope is exactly how I feel at the start of a new training plan! Perfect words.
looks like 2018 is off to a great start. also maybe you shared this elsewhere, but how did you pick your coach?
I did – search back a couple of posts 🙂