Besides all the other stuff, this past week has not been the greatest on the running front. My one "quality" workout day turned out to be not-so-quality due to a late lunch that caused some major stomach issues on the tempo portion of my run [aka, nearly puking on the side of the bike path...lovely!] Afterward I was feeling better enough do do some circuits with one of my WTC buddies, which also turned out to be an awful idea as I was ungodly sore for 3 days afterwards and ended up taking an extra day off as a result - FAIL! None of the other runs from this week were particularly notable with the exception of my long run - another 16+ miler, and while this one was a bit slower, it was a morning run [ugh] and I may or may not have stayed out a bit too late the night before. Also, it poured the ENTIRE time which I wasn't excited about at the outset but turned out to be pretty fabulous. Running with my friend Claire for 12 of the 16 miles was great...it was such a nice change from just being lonely! Highlights of the run included being forced to climb under a fence to get to the trails we wanted to run on because they had been blocked off for a beer festival, and people trying to ID us as we just wanted to use the bubbler. Yes, sir, we are trying to break into a beer festival 3 hours before it starts wearing sports bras and shorts and soaking wet...obviously!
So anyway, here's the rundown of the week...not great, but whatever. We move on.
Monday: off (planned)
Tuesday: total miles was 7.65 with a 30 minute tempo run in the middle [giant fail thanks to my stomach. I was maybe rocking 7:30 pace during the tempo? So not good.]
Wednesday: 6.7 easy (7:25 pace. I don't really know if that's right though..) [oh yeah, I totally forgot I ended up cutting this run short too. Apparently I hadn't eaten enough on Tuesday or Wednesday because I felt dizzy and like my legs were shaking underneath me by mile 2. Unfortunately I didn't realize how much this would eff up my day until I was beyond the turning back point, but luckily there was a cutoff I could make to shorten the run at least by a mile or so. Still, a pretty worthless run.]
Thursday: off (unplanned = FAIL}
Friday: easy 8.5 (7:36 pace) [finally, a non suck-fest! I was planning on doubling this day but ended up doing all my miles at once because it was raining and I like rain :)]
Saturday: 16.6 long (8:23 pace) [marathon goal pace, hello!]
Sunday: 6.3 easy (7:38 pace)
Total miles: 45.7
Days off: 2 (FAIL)
Suckfests: 2 (Tues/Wed combo platter)
So the plan for this week, especially since last week kind of failed, is that its going to be a HARD week. I'm going up north with the BF next weekend and running a half marathon the weekend after that, so long runs are going to get a little sketchy with how long they actually are. This is fine, since I'm still plenty of ways out from marathon day, but nevertheless I want to put my miles in when I can. Yesterday was my day off of running, but I decided to take to the pool and swim a mile...which turned into a mile and a quarter because I was feeling that good...without stopping! I really, really enjoy swimming. It's such a nice change, especially when its hot out, to just be in the water, and I feel badass when I just keep going and going and going as people around me keep stopping for breaks. Thanks, distance runner's cardiac system!
Today I did a 9 miler which was kind of rough, due, AGAIN, to stomach problems...seriously, my tummy is soooo finicky about what it will accept before a run. Any other time, no problem, but if I'm going to be running around its going to eff me up if what I ate wasn't fantastic. So today was also my last day at my job, and my managers got a cake for me [which was one of about 7 different things that almost started me bawling]...pretty sure the massive dose of frosting, combined with my crappy Bowl Appetit lunch, wasn't sitting so well. But anyway. As if it hadn't been an emotional enough day, I came to realize that this was most likely going to be my last run through the Arboretum. For those who've never been to Madison, the UW Arboretum is a gorgeous, gorgeous place with tons of trails and a 10K loop that goes through it that is extremely popular with runners and cyclists. The first time I ever ran this loop, I was about to be a college sophomore, and my freshman year housefellow was a runner and invited me to come run it with him. At the time, I was not all about distance running - 5 or 6 miles seemed like a long run to me - and so this 7.5 mile epic journey was just ridiculous in my eyes. I can't even count the number of times I've run through it since then...long runs, summer runs with Nicole, lonely runs when I just needed to think or get over a bad race...anyway. Sentimental value lies on that road for me, to say the least. As I ran I found myself thinking about all this, and suddenly 'Baba O Riley' came on my ipod and I had to fight to keep myself from just crying, again! Well then I started to hyperventilate and needed to stop and it was just absurd. But I really don't care...it's another one of those things that "normal" people just don't understand. The memories, and the sweat and tears and rubber worn down from your training shoes that lies on these trails that we come to know as runners are hard to leave...especially when its in a place as beautiful as this.
I really suck at putting pictures up on here...oh well!
So yes - hard week this week. My plan for tomorrow is to do 10 miles with the first 2 at goal marathon pace (8:20), next 2 at HM pace (~7:45-7:50), next 2 at 10K pace (~7:20-7:30), then back to HM, and finally marathon again. Sounds like a fun little progression-ish run...I kind of made it up but it sounds good to me. I don't have much of a solid plan for the rest of the week other than that I think I'm going to attempt 17 or 18 miles when I get home, just because I know I won't be able to do much longer than 10-13 over the next couple of weeks and I want to get a really solid long run done before that. Soooo we'll see how that goes! I'll probably get lost...I haven't run in Tosa in like 2 years...ooh well!
OK, well I really think this post is long enough now...maybe if I would post more than once a week, this wouldn't be such a problem!
2 comments:
Sounds like a good progression run plan to me!
Thanks for the speedwork advice. I really want to try that...how long of a rest did you get in-between each repeat?
last week was not really bad silly. but i can certainly understand being hard on yourself and not wanting to take 2 days off. i'm pretty whiney on myself about that too.
nice job on the long run and keeping it slower than your usual pace! don't get down on yourself if your long runs are slower than goal mp - it's not a bad thing. long runs are mostly for 'time on your feet' and you have a speed day (or 2) during the week to work on speediness.
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