Week 2: LR Fail/Workout Win

A confession: I was a naughty little marathoner this week.  I skipped my long run in favor of going to Cape Cod with a bunch of PT girls. Obviously I can't make a habit of this buuuut I have to say it was pretty fantastic to blow off ALL responsibilities [school, running, cleaning the apt, the works] to spend a day sunning on the beach, reading trashy magazines, frolicking in the ocean, and drinking sangria. And since that one day was probably the only real "vacation" I'm going to have all summer I really had to go all out and not spoil it with an early, hot, 14 miles, right? The night before I was all "oh, I'm going to get up at 5am and do it!" Haha riiiight....funny funny joke.  The alarm went off and clearly THAT wasn't happening...maybe someday I can turn myself into an early morning runner, but I just haven't made it there yet.

I feel a little guilty but it's water under the bridge.  Despite skipping the LR I still got in 34.6 which isn't really marathon training mileage, but it's not horrible - had I done the run I would have hit 50, which I plan to do this week.  I did get in an AMAZING workout with GBTC on Tuesday - we did a speedy 3+ mile warmup (think 7:25 pace speedy), followed by 4000m of 300m @ 3K pace, 100@MP, 10 minutes of rest, and then another 2000 m of the same thing.  I actually had a nice little pack of a couple other girls to run with and it was FANTASTIC - we went into the workout hoping to average around 7:15 for the overall pace (including the slow 100s) and wound up with sub-7...a number which I have NEVER seen in a workout over 1 mile reps. Hilariously the first 4K was also technically a 4K PR for me (I'm sure I've run faster ones within my fastest track 5Ks, but still)...granted I haven't run one since high school CC but it still cracked me up a bit - just looking at how far I've come since then.   It was SUPER hard but running with a group was incredibly helpful, I was always motivated to chase the one girl who was just slightly faster. Then we did a relaxed 3+ mile cooldown which was the perfect way to end a 10+ mile day. That was definitely the highlight of my week, and honestly, after doing a workout like that, I feel slightly less bad about skipping the LR.

Nothing else too exciting on the running front this week - the heat has still been pretty unbearable and my schedule has forced me to do several runs in the heat of the day which has just been horrendous. I am leaving my job in a couple of weeks - I feel like it's really cutting into my study time for school and much as I'd love to have the extra money, I'm out here to be going to school, not working, and it's just entirely too much at this point - so that will free up a bunch of nights for some running after the sun goes down which is excellent news for my marathon training anyway.  I did OFFICIALLY register for Baystate on Tuesday - with only 200 spots left I didn't want to take my chances - and of course it was terrifying as always when I hit that "submit" button.  I wonder if I'll ever get to the point where registering for a marathon won't be a huge deal? Probably not.haha.

Hmmm...back to studying the shoulder and wrist complexes...fun times.  I haven't been a very good student along with being mostly a lazy runner this past week...it's time to crack down, hit the books AND the roads!  Have a great Monday!