Week of September 11 – September 17
Monday: 6 miles easy (77° w/ dew point of 72°)
Tuesday: 8 miles easy (74° w/ dew point of 69°) + 45 minutes of Pilates
Wednesday: 11.5 miles w/ quality (73° w/ dew point of 68°)
Thursday: 7 miles easy (72° w/ dew point of 70°)
Friday: 8 miles easy (73° w/ dew point of 65°)
Saturday: 10 miles w/ quality (76° w/ dew point of 75°) + 3 mile stroller walk
Sunday: 16 miles easy (73° w/ dew point of 72°) + 3 mile stroller walk + 30 minutes of strength later in the day
Wednesday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 7 X 1 mile at threshold pace w/ 75 second walking recoveries and a 2 mile cool down. The goal pace for the miles was 6:10-6:15. I was SUPER intimidated by this workout beforehand. 7 X 1 mile just seemed like so much, but at least they were threshold miles and not all-out mile repeats! I ran 6:11, 6:14, 6:07, 6:14, 6:17, 6:13, 6:10. One of the hardest parts was deciding where to do the workout. I could’ve done track or road, but settled on the road. I was planning to just go out and back 7 times on a stretch that I knew was close to a mile, but after going back and forth a couple times it became a little too monotonous. I ended up running over to the mall during one of the reps and finished with three loops over there. Strava tells me that this was a “massive relative effort” and I definitely concur. I was probably working a little too hard at the end, but … I got it done. This one was as much of a mental victory and a physical victory! Both of which will be super important on race day.
Saturday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, a 6 mile progressive tempo and a 2 mile cool down. The progression was supposed to be 2 miles at marathon effort (6:30 pace), 2 miles at half marathon effort (6:15 pace) and 2 miles at threshold effort (6:10 pace). I had a hard time settling in to the marathon effort range. I purposefully slowed myself down during the first mile and ended up a little bit too slow. I picked it up a little too much from there, but all in all, the average paces were close at 6:31, 6:21, 6:10 (per mile splits were 6:45, 6:17, 6:19, 6:23, 6:07, 6:14).
Sunday was an easy long run of 2 hours and 10 minutes. I took Maurten gels at 30, 60 & 90 minutes. I had no issues at all with the gels. I like that they don’t have to be taken with water. I’m leaning towards using those in the marathon. However, they have a negligible amount of sodium, so I’d have to figure out another avenue to get my sodium in. I don’t love the idea of having to take two separate products (i.e., gels & salt tabs or gels and salty drink), so I guess the jury is still out on the fueling decision. Sunday afternoon I did my second strength training workout. It was very similar to the previous week’s workout in general, but each exercise was slightly different. So far, so good!
Total – 73 miles (67 miles of running and 6 miles of walking with the little man in the stroller)
Week of September 18 – September 24
Monday: 6 miles easy (68° w/ dew point of 62°)
Tuesday: 5.5 miles easy (69° w/ dew point of 60°)
Wednesday: 11 miles w/ quality (69° w/ dew point of 59°) + 30 minutes of strength + 30 minutes of Pilates
Thursday: 5 miles easy (73° w/ dew point of 64°)
Friday: 3.3 miles easy (70° w/ dew point of 63°)
Saturday: 8.8 miles w/ a 5k RACE (75° w/ dew point of 67°) + 3 mile stroller walk
Sunday: 17.7 miles easy (72° w/ dew point of 69°) + 30 minutes of strength later in the day
Wednesday’s workout was a fartlek on the roads. It was a 2 mile warm up, 4 sets of [3 minutes at threshold effort, 2 minute recovery, 2 minutes at critical velocity effort, 2 minute recovery, 1 minute at interval effort, 2 minute recovery] and a 2 mile cool down. I kept the 2 minute recoveries honest and ended up with 11 miles at a 7:20 pace. I didn’t look at the paces during the workout, as that is the point of the fartlek, but instead I tried to focus on effort. I think the effort was on point! Wednesday afternoon I did my first strength training & Pilates combo workout. Basically it’s just 30 minutes of strength followed by 30 minutes of Pilates. I used to do 45 minutes of Pilates, but we are shortening the Pilates a tad in order to increase the “strength” element of things. Wednesdays and Sundays will be super hard training days with either a workout or a long run followed by strength training in the afternoon. The rest of the days are “easy,” allowing for maximum recovery!
Saturday I had the privilege of running a 5k that supports the local fire department that my husband is part of.
Total – 60.7 miles (57.7 miles of running and 3 miles of walking)