Week of March 13-19
Monday 3/13- 6.2 Miles 50 Minutes General Aerobic running and then 6 x 25-second strides at 10k pace. The general aerobic pace felt a little strained because it was 80 degrees outside.
Tuesday 3/14 8 Miles, 2 miles warm up, strides, 2 x 3.5 Miles at goal pace with a 400-meter recovery in the middle, and a short cool down. I don't have the time to workout in the mornings. So I usually do most of my runs on my lunch break. This workout was humbling. I went to Cornerstone Park to avoid traffic and there was no shade at all.
After my warm up I stopped briefly to wet down my hat and to get a quick drink of water. It was a toasty 84 degrees my Goal pace was 8:10-8:15 per mile. For the first interval, I hit 8:08, 8:10, and 4:12 (8:24 pace) during my 400-meter recovery I got to wet my hat down again and jogged for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. During the second interval, I bailed early at 2.1 miles and my splits were 8:08, 8:15, I took a short recovery for about two minutes and then picked it up again for .4 miles. The heat made this workout feel so hard. I ran a short cool down and then drove back to work.
Wednesday 3/15 4 miles recovery. I was so tired, and it was hot again.... I brought a bottle of water with me and it helped. I didn't listen to any music either. I think I'm going to race the first half of the marathon without music (more on that later)
Thursday 3/16 Rest, that night I stretched and worked on hip mobility exercises
Friday- 17 Miles- with 2 x 3 downhill miles at goal pace.
I took the day off from work so that I could run in the morning and I also had to head to the DMV to renew my driver's license. I knew that it was going to be warm again so I figured I had no choice but to run in the morning. I got started at 8:30 in the morning and it was around 68 degrees and by the time I finished it was 82 degrees.
My coach had suggested a route that would have me climbing for the first half and then running downhill for the 2nd half. The Revel Marathon is downhill, so I need to practice running tempo pace downhill. The plan was to take it easy going uphill.
**Tangent**
During the 2nd mile, I was being a careless idiot and I was nearly hit by a car. There was an elderly couple driving a Lincoln Towncar and they were coming out of their complex and making a right turn into the road. I assumed that the car would make a full stop at the stop sign The woman in the passenger seat saw me, and I thought she had told her husband that I was there. He didn't come to a complete stop. I was lucky that I had enough time to get out of the way. It scared the shit out of me, and I did my best not to let it rattle me. After that, I stopped for every red light and intersection crossing. I have to be more careful!!!
**End Tangent**
During the run, I had to stop a few times for red lights, and I stopped at mile 7 to buy a bottle of water.
Shortly after this, I had a mini meltdown. I had been climbing for awhile, and when I was opening up my second gel, I tore the tab off the top of the gel. I tried to put the little tab in a pocket and I ended up spraying gel all over the back of my shorts and legs. I stopped for a minute to just eat the fuel and to pound water.
This run was starting to piss me off because my wireless headphones wouldn't stay in my ears.
Grrr. I ended up just taking them out of my ears and carrying them in my hand during the tempo portion.
Fortunately, the downhill tempo section went well. I didn't get stuck at any red lights. Here's the data.
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| I climbed nearly 1000 feet and most of it was during the first 8 miles |
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| I ended up hitting the wrong buttons on my Garmin during the first interval. |
Saturday 3/18- Rest, Two rest days off this week? Sweet!
Sunday 3/19- 55 minutes recovery with hills. I find myself wanting to run hills even on recovery days. I enjoy climbing somewhat. I also live near the foothills of Sunrise Mountain. An uphill or downhill grade is just a fact of life
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| My version of the duck face selfie |
Total mileage for the week 40.7 miles
Week of March 20-26
Monday 3/20- 4.5 miles, 45 minutes recovery effort. I had been expecting another one-hour general aerobic run, but I was happily surprised to see a short recovery run on the calendar. It was hot again, and I forgot to bring water. But, 45 minutes recovery was manageable.
Tuesday 3/21- 6.5 miles- This was a step down general aerobic run. 20 minutes recovery pace, and then 40 minutes general aerobic effort, It was a little windy, but the temps had dropped a few degrees. I spent the first mile cursing my wireless headphones. I ended up having to wear them backwards with the left earbud in the right ear, and right earbud in the left ear to keep them from falling out.
Wednesday- 3/22 10 miles- 2 miles warm up 6 at goal pace, 2 miles cool down. I didn't bring my phone with me because I didn't want to deal with the headphone situation again. I brought my old school iPod with me, but in the end, I never used it. I chose a route that was hilly, and I had honestly been stumped trying to figure out which way to run. I didn't have time to drive to the park, and I also didn't want to have to worry about stopping for red lights. I had planned on a route that would be uphill for 5 miles, and then back down for 5 miles.
When I took off the winds were crazy!! The route that I had planned would mean that I would have to run 5 miles uphill and into the wind, after two miles I bailed on that route and I chose an isolated bike path. This bike path always makes me feel sketched out. It's isolated and I worry about stray dogs in this neighborhood. Anyway. I ran three miles uphill on the path, and the wind was at my back. The uphill miles felt easy... But, when I flipped a u-turn I was greeted with strong headwinds. It felt harder running downhill into the wind. Here's the data.
At least the weather was cloudy and cool
Thursday 3/23- 4 miles trail. I woke up tired. I had wanted to skip running, and I didn't want to run my usual loop around the business park. I am so over all of the traffic near my workplace. #suburbansprawl I drove out to the trails and it hit the spot. This run was 50 percent trail and 50 percent road. But, the change of scenery was nice
That night my husband came down with a nasty sinus infection.
Friday 3/24- 13.2 miles 1.5 miles warm up 10.5 miles steady state, 1 mile cool down. I had 16 miles on the calendar and I had planned on skipping my lunch break to leave early to run after work. However, my husband was really sick. I left work early at 11:30 to check on him, and I decided to let him stay in bed and then I would go pick up our son from school. That left me two hours to knock out a mid-long run. I ran two six mile loops around my neighborhood. It was a route with plenty of rolling hills, but I didn't have to stop for any red lights. Halfway through my run, I stopped by my house to grab a bottle of water that I had left on the porch. During the run, I was worried about my husband, and I was worried about being late to pick up my son, this run went by surprisingly fast.
Here's the data.
Saturday 3/25-Rest
Sunday 3/26- 7 miles recovery and a few strides- My husband was still sick, so I didn't get to head out for my usual Sunday morning run. I bought groceries instead and then took the kids over to grandma and grandpa's house for a visit. They were nice enough to watch the kids while I went for a run.
Total Mileage for the week 45.1 miles
I had planned on discussing my strength training and I was going to give a few honest (not sponsored) product reviews. But, this post is getting super long so I will save that for the next time.
Thank you for reading.
