Week 51 Wrap-up

This week was a "step back" week for my marathon training, so I had it pretty easy--worked out well with some stuff going on at work and the fact that I had a full social calendar yesterday (which, for the record, tends to be a very rare occurence). Overall, it was a good week--I found out early in the week that my dad and my sister will be in Orlando for the marathon--very cool. My dad's trip down there is actually a gift from my mom--she wants us to have a father/daughter weekend, which will be awesome. It'll be great having them there cheering me (and the other R&D folks) on!! Also, it's been a great week from a friend standpoint--started last Saturday night with dinner with Theresa and her family, then dinner with Catherine Tuesday night, PSU/NU game and tailgate with some of my tri teammates (PSU fans), and game night last night with some of my coworkers--cutthrough Catch Phrase at its finest. I think a big challenge for me in the upcoming year will be making sure I spend enough time with my friends...they're a great sanity check for me.

Fairly easy week for training...here's the wrap up:

Run: 3:38:27, 22.28 miles
Bike: 0
Swim: 0:48:00, 1650 m
Strength: 1:25:00

Key Learnings:

1. Pace is still a challenge--it takes forever to run slowly!! But...I did a little better this week at keeping my average heart rate down--was under 140 on two runs and averaged 141 on my 6-miler today. I think the long, slow runs are helping, though...on my 5-mile pace run Friday, I set a PR for that distance...made me very happy!!
2. A full social calendar and a self-proclaimed "points free day" are a dangerous combination...my WW discipline flew out the window yesterday, so we'll see how ugly things are at weigh-in on Tuesday...yikes. I need to continue to be dilligent about getting my weight down a little more--I don't want to go too far, but every little bit helps.

Back to more intense marathon training this week--mileage jumps to 29 miles. Headed to Minneapolis next weekend to visit friends--will also be the first time I've seen Vardo since we signed up. Can't imagine what we'll talk about...

Bring on week 50!!