Doing Work

Hey guys!

A quick update on life & NYC training … 11 weeks to go!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were super easy runs and relatively low mileage. Overall, I am feeling good after the 30 miles, as far as no injuries or niggles, but oh my word, my legs were heavy for a few days this week! I did a few runs without my Garmin, because I just wanted to run by feel and not push it too much.

I was definitely in procrastination-mode with my workouts this week. By Thursday, I knew that I had to bite the bullet and get one of them done. I opted for a treadmill workout, since we are all too quickly losing our daylight in the mornings and I had to get my workout done before work. I had 6 X 1 mile repeats on the schedule with a goal range of 6:05 to 6:15. Um, yeah, I wasn’t feeling too confident going into this workout that those paces were actually going to happen, but here’s what I did …

2 mile warmup: starting at 6.0 mph for 2 minutes and increase the speed by .2 every 2 minutes

1st & 2nd miles: averaged 6:15 (9.6 mph) with .25 mile recovery at 6.5 mph after each mile

3rd & 4th miles: averaged 6:11 (9.7 mph) with .25 mile recovery at 6.5 mph after each mile

5th & 6th miles: averaged 6:07 (9.8 mph) with .25 mile recovery at 6.5 mph after each mile

0.5 mile cool down: at 6.5 mph

I felt a lot better than I was expecting, so that was a pleasant surprise! I was supposed to do a 2 mile cool down, but I had to cut it short to have enough time to get ready for work. I was completely soaked by the end of the workout and when I walked outside, I realized that it was way cooler outside than it was in my little sweat box inside. I didn’t get the memo that we had a “cold front” coming!

Friday was a much-needed rest day. Physically and mentally, I was worn out by the end of this week. We turned the early alarm off Friday morning and Daniel and I decided we could just as easily run after work. That definitely didn’t happen! I was in my pajamas by 5:30 and Daniel didn’t end up getting home until fairly late anyway. My training schedule doesn’t specifically have “planned” rest days, but I try to just listen to my body and take a day off if I think I need one. I “napped” from 5:30 to 8:30, woke up to eat dinner and was back in bed by 9:30. Yep. I think I needed some rest.

Saturday is always an early morning and my training group had 11 miles again this week. The weather was still a little cooler than it has been and everyone ran really well! We got to go out on the boat Saturday afternoon and the bay was really pretty. It seems like it has been choppier than usual this summer, but yesterday we finally had some nice calm water. I went skiing for the first time all year. I can’t believe that I haven’t been before now! Brooks likes to keep a close watch over me while I’m out there 🙂

The bay is really active right now, with lots of seagulls, pelicans and porpoise. We saw a few shrimp along the shore and a bunch of really tiny catfish. It’s getting to be prime Jubilee season, so hopefully we will catch one of those really soon.

This morning I was supposed to do 16 miles with the middle 8 up-tempo at 6:45 to 7:00 pace. When we woke up, it was raining and I was extremely tempted to sleep in, but Daniel convinced me that if we didn’t go ahead and run we wouldn’t go later. Ugh. I knew he was right. Thankfully the rain wasn’t too bad, it was more like a little drizzle once we got going, but the humidity was back in full force and I wasn’t feeling great. I scrapped the tempo miles and was just in survival mode. I actually started feeling better with about three miles to go, so I decided to pick it up a little bit at the end.

My coach has told me before after a “failed” workout, that is better to adjust the goals mid-run than to give up. By doing this, you can save a good workout from going bad. This is also good practice for race day, in case things aren’t going exactly as planned. So today, instead of just giving up completely, I was able to get a decent long run in with a “fast finish.” A fast finish long run can be beneficial for marathon training, as it teaches your body how to run faster on tired legs, depleted fuel, and late into the race.

Even though the workout didn’t go exactly as planned, it ended well and of course, a nice run in the rain is good for the soul. This pretty much parallels the rest of my week as well. It didn’t go exactly how I thought it was going to (but it’s a good thing I’m not the one in control), but it ended really well and my soul is content. Like I said before, God’s got this. He is always guiding me and continues to amaze me with His timing and His blessings.

I’ve got a really busy week ahead (I do realize that my frame of reference for the term “busy” has gotten a little bit skewed after having so much time off recently, but still). Time to rest and recharge before that takes off.

What are looking forward to this week?