Revel is 33 days away!- The last last two week's worth of workouts: a brutal 17 miler, and a much better 13 miler

The week before last was tough because of the heat. My long run was a bit frustrating.  But, then the heat let up and this past week ended up being much more pleasant. So let's get to the updates

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.

I climbed nearly 1000 feet and
most of it was during the first
8 miles

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

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 

I can't emphasize enough how much cooler the weather was this week.

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.