(not my) Marathon Training: Week 5/18

Week-beginning Thoughts:

Ugh, ugh, ugh. I think I'm still sick... or sick again. Had a great weekend, and now it's Monday morning and I'm blergh-y.

Monday

Scheduled: rest

Did: nada

Slept in as much as possible with kids. Ate like crap all day. Started period. What a time to be alive... 

Tuesday

Scheduled: 2mi WU, 6x400m hill @ 10K pace up/MP pace down, 2mi CD

Did: nada

Slept in. Felt sluggish, congested, and blerghity. This week is not going well.

Wednesday

Scheduled: 4-6mi easy

Did: 5.1mi @ 10:09/mi avg, Big 5

Well, I could feel some tightness in my chest due to congestion, but this run happened, and I wasn't any worse for wear afterwards. Success? t 

Thursday

Scheduled: 5-7mi solid

Did: 6.05mi @ 9:10/mi avg

Finally! I woke up feeling well-rested and ready for a good run, though I wasn't planning on trying to keep up with my training partner's solid pace. The 9:47 opening mile felt like it ought to have been a 9:15 for the effort I was putting in, but things opened up a bit after that. I went my pace, ignoring the two faster runners in our group ahead of me, for the rest of the mileage.

9:29, 9:08, 9:05... and then I tried for an 8:45, and wound up with an 8:26.

It felt good to push again.

Slowed to an 8:58 for the cool-down, and obligated myself to a Big 5 stretch session. So grateful to have my health and running again. 

Friday

Scheduled: 4-6mi easy

Did: 5.20 @ 10:11/mi avg

I was up way too late last night being social... and it made getting up hard this morning. Grateful for an easy run day. I've also been back on the healthy nutrition train this week, and it's made a world of difference in how I've felt. Fancy that, eh? Looking forward to pushing hard this weekend!

Saturday

Scheduled: 2mi WU, 3x4mi @ MP with 3min recovery, 2mi CD

Did: as scheduled = 16.35mi @ 8:55/mi avg

I was really nervous about this run... not from a pace standpoint, or distance, but more not being able to hold my sh__ together. I had some weird GI stuff at work midday yesterday, and spent the next 12 hours pretty terrified that this run was going to be crap-tastic. To that end, I'm proud to say I prepared for it like the mom I am, bringing a roll of TP (some of which I shoved in my shorts pocket), baby wipes (in my car), and a change of shorts... because this run was happening. lol. 

Fortunately, none of those items were necessary, and my body was completely fine. 

Normally, a sixteen mile run, would be a "gulp-here-we-go" kind of run. Today wasn't. I really like this whole "breaking it up" thing. Instead of thinking about the full distance, I took it "one repeat at a time", and that made a world of difference. 

Coming off a week of illness, I opted not to keep pace with my training partner for the 4mi segments, and just plan for 8:45s, the high side of her goal pace. These felt good-- easy, even. While I had to focus on running, it wasn't a stretch to hit this pace, and that itself feels good (especially since our warm-up was more like 10:12/mi avg and felt hard at times). 

Another friend joined us for the last repeat and cool-down. I felt soooo good for the first two, that I decided to speed up the last one:

1) 8:43/mi avg

2) 8:39/mi avg

3) 8:25/mi avg

(Goal: 8:15-8:45/mi)

Stretched post-run, and then headed off to a Song of Atlanta front row rehearsal for a few hours where we learned the choreography for the first half of one of our International contest songs. Weeeee :D

This was JUST the confidence booster I needed. I remember saying post-run, "I don't think I've ever had such an easy-feeling sixteen mile run ever." Win!!!!

Sunday

Scheduled: 9-11 easy

Did: 10.01mi @ 9:56/mi avg, Big 5

That's right. After yesterday's beast of a workout, today was STILL scheduled as double-digit mileage. As soon as I walked outside, I was hit with a wall of humidity, which had suddenly appeared overnight. Ewwwww. 

The first half of the run was a breeze, and felt super easy. Around mile , though, the humidity and heat were getting to me, and I was very glad to be done at 10.

Total Weekly Mileage: 42.7

Week-ending Thoughts:

• I think I'm finally "back" after whatever illness took me out last week. 
• I need to find a way to get more salt in my diet around the long, hard workout days. While I felt fine during and immediately after Saturday's run, I was a wreck mid-afternoon, and found myself craving all the salt. I felt like I "salted up" well Friday, but it seems like I still need to fine-tune my post-workout eating too if I'm going to avoid those after-effects... 
• Running a marathon over two days in the weekend = fun. I feel really strong- much stronger than I ever did during any of my past marathon trainings. Weeee.