Grand Rapids Marathon - 10 weeks!

Just 10 weeks of training remain before my first marathon! Eeek!

Monday
Rest Day! After a crazy weekend with family Monday was a much needed rest day. I had the day off work and, after a tearful goodbye to my sister, I took the most wonderful nap.

Tuesday
Distance: 10.25
Pace: 9:05 average

I believe this workout called for 5 miles at half marathon pace. I wasn't really feeling it with the heat (low 80s) so I decided to break it up a bit. I started with a two mile warm up and then ran three miles with each mile getting progressively faster (7:59, 7:43, 7:33). Then it was another easy mile followed by 2 fast miles (7:57, 7:42). I wasn't sure if I would be able to manage a 6th fast mile, but after a recovery mile I managed to finish out the run with an acceptable 8:04 mile.

I drank plenty of water during my run, but I still felt pretty dehydrated after the run. I had an upset stomach and the chills for the rest of the evening. It was pretty awful. I might try Gatorade or something for my next hard run.

Wednesday
Distance: 4.0
Pace: 10:14

This recovery run was hands down the hardest run of the week. My legs were destroyed from Tuesday's workout. I thought about cutting it short/walking home/quitting-running-forever for the entire 4 miles. Somehow I made it through and I was happy to discover that on Thursday my legs felt much better! I could not have handled another run like this one.

Thursday
Distance: 11.2
Pace: 9:36

I was worried that I would want to bail on this run so I made plans to meet up with my friend Maria part way through my run. We live quite close to each other and whenever I see her out running, I switch up my route so that we can run together. I know from experience that her company will make the miles just fly by.

I ran 5 miles on my own and then ran another 4 miles with her. We finished our run about 2 miles from my house it worked out perfectly to get to 11 miles for the day.

Friday
Rest day! After logging 25 miles over the previous 3 days this rest day felt well deserved!

Saturday
Distance: 7.25
Pace: 9:29

Hands down the best run of the week! My only issue was trying to keep it easy so I would be able to make it through Sunday's long run. I felt amazing!

Sunday
Distance: 17.0
Pace: 9:25

I had originally planned on running 16 miles, but I decided to bump it up to 17 at the last minute. I kept thinking about how I've already had two great 16 mile runs this summer, but anything longer than 16 has been a struggle. I thought doing 17 this week might make it mentally easier to take on 18 next week (or 19 if I'm feeling crazy).

The first 3 miles of my run had some pretty big rolling hills. I was definitely glad to get that part of the run out of the way first! The next 3 miles had an overall elevation loss with a few small climbs to keep it interesting. This was also a nice twisty road through the woods. The remainder of my run was pretty much straight and flat and repetitive (to get the needed distance I ran the same portion 3 times).

I was feeling pretty good as I approached the 12 mile mark. I noticed that my pace had moved from the 9:30s to 9:10! I knew that if I didn't try to reel in the pace I was going to be struggling to finish my run. I also noticed that after 2 hours of running my legs were getting tired. I read somewhere that running short bursts at a faster pace can help wake your legs up when they are tired/sore. So I gave that a try and it definitely helped! I just had to be careful not to get too carried away and end up picking up the pace. I feel like miles 12-15 were the hardest part of the run, but it was more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge.

I was able to get the pace back down to the 9:20s until I hit mile 15. At that point I decided I didn't need to hold back any longer. I let myself speed up a bit, and found myself running at my sort of goal marathon pace for the final two miles (8:38).

Total: 49.7 miles 

This week has me feeling so much more confident than I was a few weeks ago! I feel like my training is back on track and that taking it easy for a couple weeks was just what I needed. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, since anything can happen in the next 10 weeks (including a possible half in 6 weeks, I haven't decided!), but yeah, I am feeling pretty damn good right now!

ETA: I've decided to link up with Tuesday's on the Run, since, you know, it's Tuesday and per usual, I'm talking about running. 

Sister fun & an accidental PR

I usually limit my posts to just running content, but I thought a recap from my weekend with my sister was in order. I also went on two runs with my sister, so it kind of is running related! Also if you are ever in the Michigan area and want someone to eat/drink/run with, you know who to ask!

I kicked off my four day weekend with a quick-ish 5 mile run after work. It was a bit hot out, but I managed to find a few sprinklers to run through which felt amazing! I was hoping to have time for 6 miles, but even with cutting it down to 5 I was in the shower when my family showed up. 

Once I was showered and ready to go, my sister, Colleen, and I took the little miss to the park so she could run around a little bit. After that we were STARVING so we headed to a brewery for some much needed food and beer. Colleen and I also made plans to run 4 miles together the next morning. My niece gave me the following bit of running advice: If you see any zombies during your run, don't be scared. They are just people in costumes. I wanted to make sure to share that with you just in case you run into any zombies during your next run.

I wanted to run 10 miles Friday morning, so I started an hour early while everyone was still sleeping. After 6 miles I looped back to my house to grab my sister. Colleen had repeatedly warned me that she was going to be super slow and we would be running 12 minute miles. I repeatedly told her that I didn't care as long as we were running together.

Apparently the heat/humidity of Florida has been holding her down because we ended up running at a 10:30 pace AND we were talking the entire time. Also I can't believe she hasn't broke 30:00 in the 5k yet, because she is definitely ready! She also tried to tell me that 5ks are boring now that she has run a couple of half marathons. Haha! Not if you are racing them! This also might have been the reason that I pushed the pace a bit for the last mile which meant she accidentally set a new 5k PR on her Garmin! Nice work, sister! Sorry I made you work so hard!

The rest of the day was a blur of parks and food and beer. Actually that was pretty much the theme of our entire weekend together: take my niece to the park (or better, get the husbands to take her to the park while we went shopping!), eat lots of food, drink lots of beer.

On Sunday I had 14 miles on my schedule and I had convinced Colleen to join me for the last six. After running 8 miles on my own, the plan was to run to a park about 6 miles away and have the rest of the group meet us there with donuts! Unfortunately everyone else slept in too late to make that plan a reality so we had to call my husband to come pick us up. At least we still stopped for donuts on the way home!

Colleen and I used to be really close when we were younger, but during college we ended up drifting apart pretty badly. Fortunately in the past few years we have been doing an excellent job at rebuilding our friendship. I had the best time running the Disney Princess Half Marathon with her and loved the endless phone calls about training and costumes leading up to the trip. Running with her again last weekend really made me realize how close we have become this year. I can't wait to see her again soon and hopefully we'll be training for another race together as well!

Grand Rapids Marathon - 11 weeks to go!

My weekend with my sister was AMAZING! I did end up a bit short on my weekly mileage, but I think it balances out if you consider the time spent chasing an almost-four-year-old around the park every day.

Monday
Rest Day

Tuesday
Distance: 8.75 miles
Pace: 9:15

Wednesday
Rest Day (unscheduled)

Thursday
Distance: 5.04 miles
Pace: 8:49

This should have been a slightly slower run, but I had to run a bit faster to squeeze in my miles before my sister arrived. Even though I cut this run from 6 miles to just 5 I was still in the shower when they got here. Oops!

Friday
Distance: 10.43 miles
Pace: 9:56

Saturday
Rest Day

Sunday
Distance: 14.17
Pace: 1 mile easy, 7 miles at MP (8:38 average), 6 miles easy

Total: 38.39 miles

I originally had 43 miles planned for this week, but when I decided to take a rest day on Wednesday, I knew I wouldn't have time later in the week to make up the run. I decided I would rather spend time with my sister's family then obsess over a few extra miles. I also wanted to get the most out of my cut back week so I would be ready to start building my mileage back up this week.

I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I am feeling pretty good about my training right now. Cutting back was the right decision and now I feel both mentally and physically ready to start tackling some higher mileage weeks again (with a sensible build up, of course!).