Apr29
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A recap of last week’s workouts leading up to the 2018 Boston Marathon. I hit another personal record in weekly distance!
Happy Tuesday! I had another high mileage week last week – another new record for me! Thankfully my mileage is backing off a bit this week – I was ready for that, mentally and physically. I’m about 9 weeks out from the Boston Marathon which seems very far away, but also very close. I’ll be tapering before I know it!
If you missed yesterday post, I shared what training plan I’m using for the Boston Marathon and other training plans I’ve used in the past. Read that blog post here! I’m also giving away a copy of the book that has my training plan (and some other goodies) on Instagram.
Last week’s workouts
M – Crossfit
I’m so sick of the WODs at our CrossFit gym lately. I actually dropped my membership and am now on a punch pass. Part of that has to do with my marathon training and part of it is that I just don’t enjoy the programming lately. It makes me sad! Has anyone else gone through this with their gym?
T- 7.5 miles, 8:44 pace – Recovery Run with 6 100m strides at the end
W – 12 miles, 8:22 pace – Medium Long Run
It was pouring rain and cold (mid 30s) and I was SO grateful to have the company of a new running friend!
I had a 60 minute massage. I typically do deep tissue but we did a relaxation massage to try to get my muscle to release and lower my cortisol since I’m so stressed out lately. ha!
Th – Cyclebar
The folks at the new Cyclebar in Winston-Salem let me host a private class for friends and blog readers. It was so much fun! Tommy has a membership at Cyclebar and is really enjoying it. I think I’ll probably join him more often after marathon training ends. (Please pardon the random sweat spot on my shirt!)
F – 10.1 miles, 7:48 pace – Lactate Threshold Run
I eased into the run, gradually increasing my speed and did the last 6 miles at half marathon pace, about a 7:15 minute mile (or tried to anyway!). Like last week, the first few miles felt awful and then the tempo pace felt great. It was challenging but I enjoyed it. However, I’ve got to find a better route for my tempo runs. It always seems so hilly!
Sa – 5.1 miles, 9:06 pace – Recovery Run
This run felt AMAZING. It was 55 degrees, overcast, with a light mist and no wind. It was so nice to have warmer temperatures and no rain after some pretty icky runs all week! I’m so ready for spring.
Su – 20.2 miles, 8:42 pace – Long Run + Hot Vinyasa
I was a NERVOUS wreck on Saturday leading up to my long run given the forecast of 100% chance of pouring rain and 15 mph winds. While I planned to start my run at 7 am, I woke up WAY before my alarm and was out of bed at 5:15. I texted my friend Christian to see if she was going to join me or not (she’s an early bird riser), and she decided to pass so I headed out for my run around 6:20.
It was dark but incredibly peaceful. There was NO one else out, even as it got lighter, probably because the forecast was so bad but the weather was shockingly calm for the first 1.5 hours. It rained off and on for the second half of my run and the wind picked up. Then a TOTAL downpour started at mile 17 and I regretted intentionally choosing a hilly finish. I was so ready to be done. But, I made it through and it was so much better than I was expecting.
Total Miles: 55 miles!
How I’m Feeling:
Considering I’ve never run this kind of distance, I am SO happy with how I’ve been feeling. I was completely wiped out on Monday – I almost felt sick – but I think it was just not sleeping well on Saturday night and then the long run setting in. I did a very easy recovery run on Monday and didn’t worry about my pace one bit; my first mile was almost a 10 minute mile. My training plan has forced me to do is listen to my body. I really enjoy the recovery runs now and don’t get hung up on “I should be running xyz pace.”
In Meb for Mortals, he talks about how elites have a much bigger range in their paces because they truly go easy on recovery days, sometimes 2+ minutes per mile slower than race pace. So I always remember that – if slow is good for Meb, slow is good for me. 🙂
Your turn:
I’ve been googling marathon running blogs because it’s helpful to hear about the highs and lows that others go through as well. But, it dawned on me today that SO many of my readers have run half and full marathons! Leave me a comment and tell me how you coped with long run nerves. It seems to be getting worse not better! If the run is over 16 miles, I wig out.
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8 responses to “Last Week’s Workouts – a 55 mile week!”
Well, I’ve only run one marathon and my long runs were late fall early summer, so way easier to get out the door weather-wise. But I broke it up mentally into two runs. I first focused on getting to 10 miles, then other than my 2 20 milers, I had a single digit countdown. I have no idea if this strategy will work next winter when I’m training for Boston and it’s potentially negative degrees outside. My friend who is a very seasoned runner and has even won a marathon, said winter training is sometimes better done by time than mileage because effort is harder in the winter. So instead of saying I have to go out and run 18 miles, just run for the amount of time it would take you to run that. But your weather – not minimizing it – is so much milder than ours.
I totally break up runs too, e.g. two 10 milers or four 5 milers or one 10 miler + one six miler. It helps a lot.
And I totally get the training by time/feel rather than mileage because I have to do the same thing in the summer here – it gets SO humid and hot. I am so lucky that our winters are much milder though!!!
Love reading your recaps! I qualified for Boston in Oct 2016, but only by 1.5 minutes, so I wasn’t able to get in for 2018. I’m planning to run an early fall marathon before Boston 2019 registration in hopes of getting a time fast enough to guarantee me in next year’s race. It’s great to see how other people are training for their full marathons, and especially love your reflections on recovery runs. I’ve been known to go out too fast on supposedly easy days, so I’m going to really focus on making those days count when I start training again. Random question I’d love to see addressed: how early do you get up for your runs, and how, if at all, have you adjusted to running long (more than 1.5 hours) in the morning before a full day of work?
Oh, that’s such a bummer you qualified but didn’t get in!! Hopefully next year! I’ve decided to focus on being REALLY good at recovery days 😉 and also training so much harder has forced me to use those days as recovery!
I should do a blog post about this since I keep getting asked about it. There are a few differences I’ve made since running long before work: I don’t walk Maizey in the mornings before long runs, I don’t really do much with my hair or makeup and I go in a little later than my usual (and just stay later into the evening). Some days I’m able to work from home so if I can time that with a long run, I do. But, I also only live 5 minutes from work so that helps a LOT.
Text your friend and they will tell you that you will do great (and to stop being silly about it ;)).
hehe noted
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a 16+ mile long run, but when I was marathon training for the second time I learned that it seemed help me to have one glass of red wine with my (early) dinner the night before my long run. It made me feel more relaxed going to bed and seemed to help me actually sleep until my alarm went off – usually at 4 the next morning!
ha! That is AWESOME. I used to have a habit/superstition about having a hard cider the night before a race – I think it helped me relax, to your point! I rarely drink these days so I easily feel “off” the next day, but it may be worth trying it for super long run days! And 4am alarm – OOF. I’m so lucky I don’t have to get up that early!!