Well, here we go! I took a break last month from running and now it’s time to get back into the swing of things to start training for the Mountains 2 Beach Marathon in May.

Monday 12/31

My final run of 2018! 5.1 miles at 8:22 /mile. My pace might have been fast but it was anything but easy. After returning from Hawaii, where I did minimal running and a lot of eating, it was tough to get started. The weather was colder that I would’ve liked but I wanted to run one more time on the Los Gatos Creek Trail before heading up to San Francisco.

Tuesday 1/1

Happy New Year! In Japanese culture, we celebrate the new year on 1/1 with a lot of really good food.. and it continues throughout the day. So I took a rest day – truth is, I needed it after my 5 mile run and I am also trying to build my base slowly to avoid any injuries this year.

Wednesday 1/2

4.1 miles easy effort, 8:53 /mile. First day back to my early morning workouts – this was brutal. I slept through my 5:00am alarm, my 5:10am alarm and my 5:15am alarm. It is actually amazing that I was somehow able to start my run by 5:36am. The run went “ok” and I finished with my leg circuit (2×10 weighted front squats, 2×10 weighted single leg deadlifts and 2×10 weighted lunges).

Thursday 1/3

3.8 miles easy effort, 9:07 /mile. Yesterday was hard but today was even harder. I was decently sore from yesterday’s workout so I took it easy and managed to get through this run to put the miles in.

Friday 1/4

This was supposed to be a rest day but I signed up for a Flywheel class instead – hey, at least it was still a day off from running. I really liked incorporating this in my schedule and will hopefully continue to do something like this in the future!

Saturday 1/5

Shockingly not sore from Flywheel today. I woke up and was dreading the idea of running outside with the rain and wind advisory. Despite my efforts, I just couldn’t motivate myself to run outside.. so I took my miles to the treadmill. It started well… until 3.5 miles in when I decided that I absolutely needed to stop for a break. From then on, I ran three mile repeats with my leg circuit in between. I didn’t make my planned 8 miles but it was a tough workout nonetheless with 6.5 miles.

Sunday 1/6

The weather today was worse than it was yesterday but I knew that I couldn’t wimp out of another run outside in the rain. It was so hard to get myself out the door but once I did, it was perfect. 3.8 miles at 8:17 /mile. I left my music and phone at home, ran through puddles, challenged myself against the wind and ultimately had a blast. This was by far, the best run that I have had in awhile.

Total Miles: 23