Week in Review

92 Miles
2 Doubles
22 Mile Long Run in 2:40
3 (Athlete) PRs

After enjoying a low key night out with our guests Thomas and Michelle on Saturday, I met up with Phil and a slew of other guys who were along for the ride for just an hour on Sunday morning at McAlpine.  I had a long run on the schedule between 2:40-2:50 in duration, which was really no big deal since I completed 23 miles a couple weeks ago at McAlpine.  Of course, I set out with the expectation that I would run at least 2:45.  Fueled by the fact that three of my guys set PRs yesterday (David -- 3+ min PR at 15k, Billy 30+ sec at 15k, and Brad - 2+ min at HM), I set off with a respectable pace after the second mile.  I was ready to make this long run feel awesome like it had with Laurie a couple weeks ago.  We ran 700-7:20 for the majority of the run, with a few slower miles when we turned around at the 4 mile mark. By the time 2:20 hit on my watch, I couldn't stop looking at my splits because the effect of running a workout on Wednesday and then again on Friday was beginning to take a toll on my body.  At this point, I was left alone with Charlie and I felt bad for my lack of ability to hold a coherent conversation, but it was all I could do to put one leg in front of the other.  Despite a fuel stop at halfway for some Honey Stinger chews and water, I still felt weak and lightheaded.  I willed myself to get to my car, which I did--just at 2:40 and as my Garmin beeped for 22 miles.  I stopped immediately and chugged a half gallon of orange Gatorade...not joking.  I still felt pretty awful and almost declined breakfast with T&M, but after 10 minutes, I think the gatorade started to kick in and I felt much better and met them at Owen's Bagel and Deli.

The main thing to remember is that my body was tired from two solid efforts back-to-back with less than optimal recovery days.  While I've spent the rest of the day feeling rather awful, I feel really positive about this week's events and am happy that I can at least finish out my week with a solid long run. Looking back at my past two marathon cycles, I've never done a run over 22 miles, and definitely not more than one run at 22 miles.  So far in this cycle, I've done 22 miles, 19 miles, 23 miles, 20 miles, and 21.5 miles.  Clearly I'm gaining something from these long runs and am looking forward to seeing the results manifest into something positive.  

On Friday, I was able to get some bloodwork done at LabCorp and I am eagerly awaiting the results.  I'm crossing my fingers that the results will come back with an improvement in my levels, which will likely serve as a catalyst to put me into a different mindset.

Week in Review

87 Miles
2 Doubles
20 Mile Long run in 7:09 pace
1 Workout Fail

Last week I ran about 88 miles.  This week I continued with roughly the same number.  It's funny because all I really did is take out 2 doubles from my week, and that's resulted in me feeling like I have so much more time on my hands.  I don't have to commit my entire evening to a run, or I have the option to sleep in if I feel like I need it!  This week, I focused on listening to my body and my interal sleep ticker.  If my alarm went off and I felt like I needed more sleep, then I turned the alarm off and went right back to sleep for another hour or so.  With the low ferritin level, I'm supposed to feel tired all of the time, and so might as well try to sleep as much as I can. 

Early in the week, I had a craptastic 10-mile-tempo-turned-into-5-mile tempo.  Initially, Mark had adjusted my paces to slow it down to account for the low iron, but that didn't even work.  I decided that I just need to focus on effort and not on time, and so at least going into next week I can do just that.  Leave the Garmin at home, and run based on time, without mile markers.  I threw out my second workout of the week (3x2 mile), opting instead to get in two runs and enjoy the beautiful fall weather at a slow jaunt. 

The positive note of this week was that my awesome long run streak continued as I ran 20+ miles with Laura, Megan, David, and Jason and felt amazing.  Running in the low 7's was a breeze and felt pretty great.  I've gotten in a decent number of 18+ mile long runs over the summer, and I think that will help me at Philly. 

In the act of full disclosure, I've got a pretty tight left hamstring and IT Band that I've also been dealing with.   I'm crossing my fingers that it holds up over the next couple of weeks as my iron returns back to normal levels and as I build up to longer tempos and steady state runs.  Because of this, I'll keep my mileage around 85-90, get in to see Greenapple as often as possible, and also perform my strength and stretch exercises.

Next week, I've got some 800m repeats, a 10 mile tempo, and a 18 mile long run with the last 3 miles at 6:00 pace.  I may drop one of those workouts and then try my first 10 mile tempo next week, but I haven't decided yet.

Week in Review

89 Miles
3 Doubles (10 Runs)
21.4 long run in 7:14 average
3 Hours of Dance

Technically, I'm not fully done with this week because I still have to complete another run this evening, but I'm assuming that I'm going to go ahead and complete that one.  This week could be characterized as one of those where I was working on getting myself out of a mental rut.  I actually devoted much of my time to focusing on all the positive things going on with my training right now and how I can still get in the work that I need to, given my schedule, to still accomplish a new PR at Philly.  My iron is low, but I'm not going to let that inhibit my own mental tenacity any more, as it had been over the last couple of weeks.

I tried running 100 miles a week in the summer, and now that I've had time to reflect on those three weeks, I realized that running that many miles is just too much for me physically and mentally.  I've decided to keep my mileage around 90, which will still be 12 miles more per week than what I ran on average during my Twin Cities training cycle.  Granted, I am running a 24 miler for the first time during this training cycle, and during that week I may be a bit higher, but the idea of running 100 mile weeks in a row is not comfortably feasible for me.  Additionally, I am going to alternate between running 2 workouts + 1 long run a week and then 1 workout + 1 long run the other week.

Let's be honest here -- I am anal-retentive and I'm planning a wedding...which means that I'm probably putting in too much work into the details of the wedding. On top of that, I'm working full time, acting as Vice President for the CRC, taking dance lessons, and preparing to be a wife for the time in my life.  I'm exceptionally passionate about all of these "extra-curriculars" and I don't want to give up any of these so that I can successfully run 100 miles a week. Instead, I'll keep doing them all and just run 90 miles, and trust that this change will be the catalyst to getting me back in the right spot mentally.  I already have noticed a positive change in my outlook just in this past week by incorporating these changes.

Enough about that.  The highlight of this week was definitely my long run on Saturday with six other people, which is a small feat in itself considering that nearly every CRC member was racing either Hit the Brixx 10k or the Run for the Green Half.  For two hours and thirty five minutes, I covered all of the trails in McAlpine with Laurie, Jason, Charlie, Anna, Megan, and Josh.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous for a long run and the company ensured that we had lots to talk about since we had two newcomers in the group.

One thing that has remained strong for me throughout this training cycle is my long run.  I haven't had a long run yet where I felt like I couldn't finish it, and I think that's a sure sign that I'm still in good shape and ready for a marathon.

Week in Review

90 Miles
3 Doubles
14 Mile Long Run
5k Race in 17:21

100 miles last week, 90 miles this week with a 5k race, and hopefully 100 miles next week.  The most memorable item to mention from this week was that I struggled with a tight hamstring the entire time.  My left hammy, my arch, and my calf are all ridiculously tight and I'm still teetering on the edge of potential injury.  I've been doing things as I can like band exercises and rolling more than I'm on facebook, but I still need to be careful.