Good morning everyone and happy December!! This is my absolute favorite time of the year. I look forward to Christmas each year and can honestly say that it never gets old for me. We’ve had a really mild fall/winter so far in Michigan but it sure looks like that’s about to change. We’ve got snow in the forecast this afternoon and many times in the upcoming weeks!
So far, the hardest part of running as it gets later in the year has been finding a time to get outside while it is still light outside. When I leave for work in the morning it is still dark, and when I get home most days I have about 45 minutes of light left. Because of the lessening hours of light, I’ve been doing most of my short, speed work runs during the week and the longer ones on weekends.
Tempo Tuesdays are my short intervals runs, and Thursdays are my tempo runs (I think I may have switched those days;). Last winter I did the same thing and it worked really well for me. I ran two half marathons that winter and was able to PR in both of them! I’ve been surprised so far this training how quickly I’m able to get back to those old paces, even when it’s been a full year since doing any speed work. It always feels great to really push yourself and see that running ‘faster’ paces is not actually as hard as you’ve built it up to in your head.
Last year I had access to a treadmill all winter and was able to do my interval work every week on that treadmill. I really like how specific I could get with the treadmill in terms of speed and interval length, and used it to push myself to a new speed whether I thought I could do it or not. I also loved that you were always in control of the incline. This was a big shock to me as I have always despised treadmill running and never been able to run more than 3 miles on one (talk about a mental block). This year I have no treadmill access and have been doing all of my interval sessions outside in the neighborhoods. This is much harder for me mentally because it’s harder for me to push myself to new speeds when I don’t think I’m capable of going faster. We will see how it progresses!
This week will be tough for me running wise because it is concert week! One of my schools has their concert on Monday and the other on Wednesday. The logistics of these concerts never fail to bring me stress, plus they take up the entire day plus the evening, so my runs might be pushed back to the end of the week. By the end of the week I will be celebrating the (hopefully;) successful concerts with plenty of Christmas activities and LOTS of Christmas treats! Specifically ice cream and cookies.
I hope December is off to a great start! Three weeks from today is the big day 🙂
