Marathon Training Monday (except it's Wednesday...) - Week 6

 

After 7 days of recovery, it was back into the grind last week...

Monday: 1 hour gym cross-training (cardio/abs)
Tuesday: 1 1/2 hour run (8.73 miles)
Wednesday: 1 hour SEAL Team workout
Thursday: 1 hour run (6.1 miles)
Friday: 1 hour gently-heated yoga
Saturday: 2 hour run (12.25 miles)
Sunday: Nadda! Totally OFF

TOTAL MILEAGE: 27.08 (+ ~2 miles from STPT workout)

Here we go again with the 4:15AM alarms! Tuesday was another 1 1/2 hour run. I mentioned wanting to continue being cautious in my last update, so the night before I'd decided to stick with the gym for some cardio and ab work by myself. Tuesday's run was a doozy---it included fartleks during the first half hour, followed by a tempo/fartlek combo during the remaining hour. Pulling into the parking lot, I anticipated a bad run but it ended up feeling pretty darn good. That's not to say that by the end I was faux-ning (Fake running? You know, running at a walking pace?). A major milestone was me passing Garland during one of my fartleks 45 minutes in. WHAT?! YES! It'd definitely happened. Total time: 1:21; average pace: 9:18; fastest mile: 8:10; slowest mile: 10:44.

Just like this time last year, it's a struggle for me to figure out the appropriate speed for fartleks and tempos. I feel a tab bit faster this year, but also haven't raced since last year so my sense of pace is off.

Fartleks = "Speed play", unstructured interval runs; We've been told this is roughly your 5k pace.

Tempos =  "Comfortably hard" run aimed at increasing your lactic threshold; We've been told this is roughly your 10k pace.

These are best found by feel, and not necessarily by aiming for pace goals on a GPS watch---which is where the struggle lies. My Garmin, can't live with it and can't live without it.

Ahhh tomatoes + CARB-Y TOAST! And yes, I'm still eating eggs. We've officially upgrading to buying crates of 18 instead of just a dozen at the store.

I actually went to a SEAL Team workout last week! It was hot and humid and unfortunately leg-focused, but there was some arm and core stuff tossed in that made it worthwhile. Thursday's run included some speed work again. I planned to pass on it since I was coming off of a leg workout...then, of course, just went with it. Total time: 53:58; average pace: 8:51; fastest mile: 8:11; slowest mile: 9:34.

I took Friday off of work to make an extra-long Labor Day weekend, and was fairly productive with my time. I made my first attempt at creating homemade marathon nutrition bars/bites for long runs, as an alternative to my typical energy jelly beans and waffles. They were a bit of a miss...but I think I know which things to tweak (less or no applesauce, swap out salted pistachios?). Then I headed to a gently-heated yoga class with a friend. It was definitely a workout, which included a ridiculous amount of time in pigeon pose (OMG ouch!).

Saturday's run was not particularly easy. Honestly, I think it was because I was thinking too much. I miss completely zoning out and running by feel! That's what I used to do and is why I love running so much. This run, I obsessed with staying around a 9:30 min/mile pace for the first hour (on the slower side) and then attempted to run by feel on the second hour, which still included me glancing at my watch every few minutes to make sure I wasn't going too fast/slow. WHATEVS. This was definitely a baseline run since: 1) This is the first of four weeks we'll be doing 2-hour runs on Saturdays and 2) There were a lot of hills, like never-ending inclines. I noticed my foot hurting a bit during the middle of the run...I'm kind of wondering if yoga is bothering it since the discomfort has been popping up on Saturday runs following yoga? Total time: 1:56:16; average pace: 9:29; fastest mile: 9:04; slowest mile: 10:14.

After the run, we stretched, grabbed breakfast, showered and hurried down Interstate 64 for an overnight sail trip up around Matthews County with Garland's family. It was perfect weather and so nice to get in another sail before all the fall activities begin! Also, what's better than a rest day bathing in the sunshine and salty air? <3

I'm currently planning to run the 2014 Richmond Marathon this November 15th. Every Monday, my posts are dedicated to this journey to the finish line! I'm training with (and following the program supplied by) with my local fitness group, SEAL Team PT.