This is how my week started out. My training plan came through Sunday evening, before I had gone to bed. I opened it…expecting a lot less intensity and fewer miles. What I got was a repeat of the week of speed work. I actually replied to my coach’s message with, “Well, this wasn’t the week I was expecting.” He knew I was fresh off a 22 miler, and told asked me if I felt like I was too beat up to do it.
Honestly, I knew I could do it. Mentally…I didn’t want to. This was taper. Right? Physically, though, I knew I could do it and told him as much. And so…the week of speed work returned…with a vengeance.
Let’s get into it…because while the workouts are all a repeat…how I ran them definitely was different.
Monday: INSTRUCTIONS: BASE RUN 6-8 MILES – GOAL 7 MILES + 4-6 STRIDES – EASY EFFORT – TRY NO WATCH AGAIN
I woke up on Monday morning feeling restless and tired. It’s been happening a lot this training cycle – I’m just not able to sleep well after long or hard workouts. And that, my friends, sucks! A LOT! So, I was tired. But on top of that, my left hamstring (which apparently wants to be tight after every long run I do on hills) was tight and sore. AND…on top of that, I had a few other aches that were niggling at me. I got dressed, feeling moody, and went out for my base pace run…not even sure if I’d actually be able to do it…and not really sure I could do the strides at this point. The good news is…after about 2 miles, it all felt better and I really started to flow. I didn’t push the pace at all this time…but I did decide that things felt good enough to do those strides. I knocked them out, feeling a bit of speed in my legs and was grateful that everything seemed to work itself up as I warmed up. I did my additional hip strengthening exercises afterwards when I was working in my morning stretches. And later that day, I met with Corey for my personal training session. He, being an athlete himself, was very considerate of my hamstring and we worked with it and around it. Later that night, I made sure to foam roll everything really well. I had commented on my training plan that my hamstring was bothering me, and Daniel (my coach) did reply with that if I still felt beat up, to cut out the speed work tomorrow and just do a base pace run. I went to bed early, per usual, uncertain of how my morning run would go.
Tuesday: INSTRUCTIONS: SPEED WORK – MONA FARTLEKS W/ 1 MILE HARD EFFORT
Well, my hamstring felt much better when I woke up on Tuesday morning. That was a good thing. And while I had an out…I decided that unless something didn’t feel right on the 2 mile warm up, I would do the speed work exercise that day. And this particular day was none other than – Mona Fartleks. If you’re an avid reader, you’re very familiar with these by now. If you’re just joining me on this journey…here’s how these work: 2 mile warm up, 2×90 sec, 4 x 60 sec, 4×30 sec, 4×15 sec (with equal recovery after each at a pace faster than base pace), 1 mile hard effort, 2 mile cool down. I felt good this morning. Really good. I hit all my paces hard and fast. I recovered, keeping it faster than base pace. And I managed to hit 3 new records on my Garmin. Of course, I deleted these because they weren’t under race conditions (this is just how I do it…some people would have kept them, and that’s fine). So, you could say I was feeling much better. I surprised myself that day, even managing a 6-minute something mile for my one mile hard effort. I don’t know HOW I did it…but I did. And I won’t argue with the data. After a shower, I did my second day of additional hip strengtheners with my morning stretches.
Wednesday: 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 was looking forward to Wednesday. I really was. Because this was the morning I got to chill. I actually slept in an hour later, knowing that my run would be shorter and easier. This was the one day this week that would not have some speed element in it. And I was going to chill and just enjoy it. And while some of my splits registered faster than they felt (not that that is a bad thing…but I really try to keep easy miles easy on these days), I didn’t want to overdo anything. I ran 5 miles, nice and easy. That was my day. Just my morning and evening stretches and some foam rolling. I went to bed just after 7:30 pm because I knew what hell awaited me in the morning. And it was a double-digit weekday run.
Thursday: INSTRUCTIONS: 11-13 MILES WITH 3 MILES FAST FINISH – GOAL 12 MILES – EASY DOES IT UNTIL FAST FINISH AT THE END.
I slept really well coming into this workout. For that, I was relieved. But, I still woke up sort of dreading this run. First of all, it was cold outside, in the low 40s. It was windy. And I really hate double digit runs on weekdays. I work very hard and sometimes put in long days, so when I have to wake up 30-60 minutes earlier than I normally would to squeeze in marathon training…it makes me grumpy. I get the value of an occasional mid-distance run during the week, but as someone who already runs pretty early in the morning…these get really hard to fit in more often than not. My body felt good, and I made sure that I kept my pace truly easy for the first 10 miles. Then, I just pushed it on the last 3 miles. I did this better than I had the week previously that I had done this same week of workouts…which was nice, because I was also fighting headwinds on my uphills (that’s not an exaggeration…my hills all had me running INTO the wind). But I got it done. And it was a relief to put it behind me. I showered and started to do my stretches (which I had intended to do twice because I had plans that evening), but remembered that I needed to make Friday’s lunch for the office because I wouldn’t have time to make it tonight before we’d have to head out the door to Derby Dinner (I won tickets). So, I did that…then finished my stretches…but never did get to foam rolling or the second round of stretches.
Friday: REST/RECOVERY DAY!
Thank God for rest days!! I was up WAY past my bedtime on Thursday night with Derby Dinner Playhouse. It was fun. But I was tired and really ready for bed when I got home (and still had to change, brush my teeth, take out contacts, etc)…so I crashed hard. I set an alarm for my usual Friday morning time and woke up with the alarm, but wasn’t ready to get out of bed. Fifteen minutes later…I did haul myself out of bed to shower, stretch, drink coffee, and get ready for work. I left the office shortly after lunch to head to Slugger Field to pick up my packet for the Urban Bourbon Half Marathon. I met up with my friends Corey, Paul and Melissa…and that was fun…but I sadly had to go back to work. I finished up the day, went over to Dragon King’s Daughter for “magic sushi”…and then went home to settle in, stretch and foam roll. I went to bed at normal time…and set an alarm with enough time to get up and get ready without feeling rushed.
Saturday: URBAN BOURBON HALF MARATHON AT MARATHON PACE
I’ll have an entire blog on this race. Let’s just say, I still finished sooner than I probably should have. But my plan to line up with the 1:45 pacer was thwarted by the fact that there was a 1:40 pacer and a 1:50 pacer. So I figured if I stayed in between them…I’d be doing fine. I forgot how much the hills in Cherokee can beat up your legs. Thankfully, my training partner, Christine, often had us run that particular way and route around the park, so even though it had been awhile, my legs had done it often enough. I started off way too fast…eased it back…got killed by the hills (thank goodness my marathon is flat)…ran through the best water station run by MRTT/SRTT Louisville where I got a ton of screams and cheers, and then…finished strong, even though the legs were pretty much done by the 15K mark. Press on. Get it done. I officially logged a 1:42:48 half this week, purposefully easing back on the pace. I’ll take it. OH…and this was my 40th half marathon I have run to date. And that was with 2 years of little to no running due to injuries. Not too shabby!
Sunday: 11-13 MILES WITH 3-5 MILES FAST FINISH – EASY DOES IT UNTIL THE FAST FINISH AT THE END
Ever have one of those days where you want to be excited about the run that is assigned to you, but just can’t. That was this morning. I really, really, REALLY didn’t want to run a third 13.1 miles for the week. I was fighting it all morning. And I was in a very bad mood when I realized that the sunrise wasn’t until 7:59 am. I hate this time of year ONLY for that reason. That and winter coming too soon. But the temps today were a beautiful 57°-60° in the morning. I decided not to wait until it got light out, but to go ahead and put on some reflective gear, get some mileage done, then ditch it at home before finishing it up. That’s exactly what I did. And I kept a pretty steady pace for those first 8 miles. Then…I picked it up. The first two fast finish miles felt fine. It got hard after that. The legs were not wanting to push and I just had to keep giving myself those pep talks and letting it feel hard. I was glad to finish up that run, for sure.
For it being taper, I logged 60 miles this week. I’m really hoping the intensity and mileage start to go down from here. I feel like I’m getting stronger, but I’m feeling pretty beat up at times…so a nice taper would feel amazing right now. And I love long runs, but I just want to be sure I feel ready, able, and rested for November 9th’s starting line.
Feeling very inspired, confident, and ready right now. Three more weeks. Let’s do this thing!
The Celiathlete 