Remember how I said I was in taper? I was apparently confused. Out of my mind. Wrong. Because my coach had one more long, long run up his sleeve. And I didn’t know about it until I was leaving the Kentucky Center of the Arts. I had gone to see Dear Evan Hansen. I was in a pretty dress and heels. I had a message come through from my coach telling me my schedule was posted and that I could choose how to run the 5K I was participating in on Saturday, but to not go 100%…because we (as in me…he wasn’t doing it with me, HA) had one more long, long run to tackle.
I flipped to my calendar and it was staring me down. One final 20-22 miler.
Here. We. Go.
Monday: INSTRUCTIONS: NO WATCH ALLOWED! FOCUS ON THE GOAL OF THE RUN = RECOVERY! GO AS FAR OR SHORT AS YOU NEED, AS FAST OR SLOW AS YOU NEED, WALK OR RUN AS YOU NEED.
Thank goodness for easy, recovery days. With as stacked as last week was with three 13.1 runs…I was happy to have the chance to rest up a little. Especially since I had a late night with the Broadway show. I slept in as much as I could…then got up to go out for an easy run. The temperatures had dropped into the high 50s. It was supposedly raining. It wasn’t. It was a nice run that morning. No pushing pace. I ran faster than I had been in the past…probably because I had no humidity weighing me down. It was a good morning for a good run. Even if I wore a hat because of rain and it didn’t rain. I ended up with just over 5 miles. No personal training…which was a blessing with the week I had leading into this one.
Tuesday: INSTRUCTIONS: BASE RUN 6-8 MILES – GOAL 7 MILES + 4-6 STRIDES – EASY EFFORT – TRY NO WATCH AGAIN
On an even more perfect morning temperature-wise, I went out in sleeves and some gloves (if temps are in the 40s or below…gloves always because Raynauds is real friends) and shorts and just let my legs do the talking. I reminded myself not to push any sort of pace. Just to go with the flow…stay in control of my breath. And let this run be the miles I needed that day. I ended up with 7.5 when I stopped. Then, I got to add strides on to the end. Six of them. And I felt fast and strong and I was fast and strong. And that’s the bonus of the cooler weather. When you suffer and die and cry throughout summer as you sweat it out…you fly in the fall. Hoping this trend continues because there comes a point where it gets too cold for me to function. And right now…we’re right in my happy place. Ended with 8 miles for the day. Also tacked on my additional hip strengthening exercises to the stretches I do every day.
Wednesday: INSTRUCTIONS: TRACK WORKOUT – 1-2 MILE WU; 7 X 800M W/ EQUAL RECOVERY; 1-2 MILE CD – AFTER 1-2 MILE WU, DO SOME DYNAMIC DRILLS TO LOOSEN UP FURTHER. THIS IS A REPEAT OF A PIOR WORKOUT. WE ARE SHOOTING FOR AROUND 3:30 FOR THE *ON* TIME (~7 MIN PACE) AND THEN RECOVERY CAN BE LIGHT BUT NEEDS TO BE JOGGING, NOT WALKING.
Wednesday was a bad day. Not that anything tragic or life changing happened. But I had a double digit run on the schedule, so I had to go to bed SUPER early on Tuesday. Then, I had to wake up every super earlier than usual on Wednesday morning. I wasn’t loving it. Not at all. I also wasn’t loving the 800s that were scheduled. I will gladly and happily force myself to do speed work when asked, but I LOATHE 800s. The instant I got up, I went and made my Maurten 160 Drink Mix up and began to drink it while I was getting dressed, putting in contacts, all the things. I got my hydration bag ready to go and I headed out for my speed work. And then…my stomach decided to be on the fritz all morning. I just think it doesn’t like having things fed to it at 3 am before pushing a fast pace. At all. So, had to stop a couple of times for that, but felt better and rounded it out. I also feel that EVERY FREAKIN’ TIME I have speed work, the road I cross on the stretch that I run for it (no track…because this area is the worst) has the most traffic of any other day, no matter the hour. UGH! But, you know, maybe it wasn’t perfect, but I hit my paces, recovered properly and wrapped it up with stretching. I also had personal training with Corey that afternoon. He, thankfully, kept it basic…challenging, but nothing too intense. And for that, I appreciate him. Also…Annie Mays didn’t have soft pretzels…so lunch was a no-go. Had to improvise. It just wasn’t my day.
Thursday: INSTRUCTIONS: NO WATCH ALLOWED! FOCUS ON THE GOAL OF THE RUN = RECOVERY! GO AS FAR OR SHORT AS YOU NEED, AS FAST OR SLOW AS YOU NEED, WALK OR RUN AS YOU NEED.
I love a good recovery run. We were back in the 50s this morning, so I kept the short sleeves and shorts, but ditched the gloves before I even went out the door. My goal, once again, was just to let my body do what it needed to that morning. I know that I have a pretty stacked weekend, and one rest day (which will involve the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Iroquois Park), I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize how my body would feel going into those. I figured 3-5 miles would be perfect. I felt good out there. My turnover felt amazing. My breath stayed controlled. And I finished up with 5 miles. Went inside and did my second day of additional hip strengtheners with my stretches. Had to walk a bit farther to the office due to Harvest Homecoming happening downtown. And spent a good chunk of my morning standing in line for Masonic Donuts (which I can’t eat, but my office loves them…except for this year…or something). But, it was a good way to head into the weekend.
Friday: REST/RECOVERY
Full rest day! YAY!! I slept over 8 hours. Got up to shower. Did two rounds of my stretches and my foam rolling, just because I was unsure of when/if I would be able to get to it that night with the Pumpkin Walk happening. I went into work…favorite t-shirt day…ready to sit and stand at my desk to get work done, go pick up Amanda (roomie’s sister), go to get Indian food for dinner, then head (weather permitting) to Iroquois Park to do the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular. It was a bit chilly, but the worst of the rain happened while we were under the canopy of the trees. It was a good way to wrap up the evening. I went right to bed when I got home.
Saturday: RACE FOR THE CURE 5K – YOU CAN APPROACH THIS HOWEVER YOU WOULD LIKE OTHER THAN PROBABLY NOT A FULL OUT EFFORT
Let me preface this by saying that this didn’t feel like an all-out effort. Not one bit. In fact, for the first two miles of the race, I couldn’t feel my feet because I was so cold. Most of this will be covered in my official blog on the race itself, but I felt good this morning. I had a fantastic group of people running on my team for my mom, Dottie Brady, showing their support and honoring her and others in her family. I love all of them for showing up and running for this cause. So, I ended up averaging a 7:07 mile for the 3.03 (the course was either short or the GPS cut out when we went through the tunnel twice) miles, finishing third overall and first female. I had a sweet woman come over when I finished and just gave me a hug and I loved her for that. I needed it. It was an emotional race and I felt so supported by my friends and team. And for that…I am thankful. So, it may appear I went all-out, but honestly, I had more in the tank. But tomorrow’s run will be a good judgement on how I ran this one. I felt amazing the entire time…and the cheers and shouts from not just my team members, but also the people along the course and in the race was uplifting. What an amazing race!
Sunday: 18-22 MILE LONG RUN – EASY PACE – DON’T PUSH IT! AND PRACTICE RACE-DAY FUELING STRATEGY.
To be honest…I expected today to suck. I really did. After the 5K, a day full of grocery shopping, grabbing “magic sushi” during Harvest Homecoming (traffic and parking nightmare, friends), and a chilly Louisville City FC soccer match…I didn’t have high hopes for this run. I set an alarm for 5:15 am. Got up, put in contacts, ate breakfast, stretched, hydrated, got dressed, drank my Maurten 320 Drink Mix, and got ready to head out as it was getting light out. It was 36° outside, so I put on bright yellow capris and a long sleeve shirt with gloves. And I realize I would have been cold for a few miles, but I probably would have been fine in short sleeves and shorts with the gloves. Eventually. I wasn’t pushing pace at all, and I was doing what I could to make it so that when I did my Thanksgiving course at the end of the run, I could head straight home. The cooler weather was nice, but I did feel overdressed after a time. I rolled up my sleeves halfway through the run. I did practice my fueling…and I definitely have that dialed in for race day. YAY! And I felt strong, even on the super hilly back half of this run. I finished it up, feeling confident about the race four weeks from yesterday. Honestly, I’m as ready as I’m going to be. Now it’s just a matter of taking care of myself through taper. I’ve been a bit sluggish the rest of today…but aside from that, feeling good. Happy that taper has officially (for real this time) started! YAY!
Bonus Sunday inspiration was Kipchoge’s world record 1:59:40 marathon finish on Saturday…and Sunday was also the 6th Anniversary (to the day) of me running my first marathon and getting my BQ. I hope it serves for further inspiration and motivation as the weeks wrap up and I head into my 16th marathon.
I have no idea what my week will look like, save for a half marathon on Saturday of this coming week. I anticipate that I’ll be told to take this one easy and not push the pace. And that’s fine by me. I’d like to just cruise a half marathon because I’m tired. I’ve had some pretty crazy weeks these past two weeks, and I’m ready to start seeing some downtime.
Who else is happy to hit taper time? Anyone else running Urban Bourbon next Saturday?
The Celiathlete 