Friday, September 4, 2015

Fitness Friday x 2

Since I kind of ditched the internet for awhile while I was at camp. I'll share a brief version of 2 of my training weeks!

Saturday - I headed out to a group run for this 14 mile long run on Saturday, since I knew our weather would be pretty unpleasant on Sunday. High winds made coming home pretty rough, but I got through it.

Sunday - Just rest and recovery.

Monday - 3 easy miles on the treadmill. Again, it was windy and just cruddy outside. But day one of vacation with Emily!

Tuesday - Tempo Intervals: 1 mile warm up, 2 x 2.5 mi at 8:20-8:30 pace with a 4 min rest, 1 mile cool down. I felt like this was going to be easy, but it was definitely not! Maybe because of the accumulated fatigue, or the humidity, or a combination of it all. But this run was tough. I managed to hit the paces though at 9:58, 8:22, 8:24, 8:32 (rest) 8:26, 8:29, 8:24, 10:19.

Wednesday - rest and packing!

Thursday - My first day at Zap! We arrived in a later group, so we headed straight to the park for a run. I managed just under 4 miles at an easy pace, usually around 9:45 average.

Friday - Steady state run at the park. I ran this with one of the other campers who definitely runs much faster than I do, but he was taking it easy as he is in taper mode for his upcoming marathon. So we did 1 easy loop around the lake, then a steady 3 at 8:45ish, followed by a cool-down mile. You wouldn't think it, but running on even a hard packed trail is much more taxing than running on roads. It makes for some strong legs!

Saturday - the hardest long run of my life. I recapped it more in my camp post. It was tough, but I got it done. Hooray!

Sunday - The morning of our last day at camp we were supposed to do a "prediction" run around the camp. There is a relatively flat trail right around the grounds, but it's only about 1/2 a mile long. So the prediction run was supposed to be 3 loops, and you guessed your finishing time. I was so tired though, and really needed the rest, so I opted out of this with a few other campers.

Monday - still resting, and trying to get back to the swing of things in real life!

Tuesday - Basic tempo run, except it was 8 miles long. 8 miles! On a week day! Holy crap folks, we have hit peak marathon training. The rest of my mid-week workouts are 8-9 miles, with easy runs varying between 3 miles on low weeks and 7-8 miles on high weeks. Yikes.

Anyway, this run was pretty good. I started off thinking there was no way I'd hit the paces (8:20-8:30) for 6 miles, but I eased into it and was able to keep pace relatively well. It was only 61 degrees, but 100% humidity so that made things tough. But talk about feeling like a rock star when this was over! Paces were: 9:58, 8:30, 8:22, 8:33, 8:31, 8:30, 8:24, 9:56.

Wednesday - I absolutely, 100% did not want to get out of bed this morning for my bike ride. I even reset my alarm for an hour later, and rolled over to go back to sleep. About 30 seconds later, I talked myself out of bed. Cross training is especially important in this month, and I knew it would be good low-impact activity for my hip which was aching a bit after Tuesday's workout. So off I went for a slow, 7 mile ride, averaging 13.4 mph. Of course, now, I'm glad I did it. I do wish I could have a nap today though. Early bedtime for me tonight!

Thursday - Easy 7 miles. I was up super early again for this run so that I could get it done before heading into work. It was dark, of course, but also very foggy. I've started listening to the Serial podcast on my runs, which lent a special sort of creepy factor to this run. I definitely felt like the boogey man was out this morning. Maybe that's why my paces were a bit fast for an "easy" run. I averaged 9:32 for this one. "Easy" pace is 9:35-10:20. Whoops!

Friday - Another easy 7 miles on the schedule, and I was able to slow it down a bit more for this one. Probably because of the accumulated fatigue in my legs. 22 miles already, and I haven't even done my long run yet! Average pace of 9:44.

So marathon training is in full swing and ramping up. I think my top week peaks at 36 or 40 miles. Which actually is on the low side for traditional marathon training, but it seems a lot to me! Also, being tired all the time is starting to become normal.  I actually went to bed at 7:30 on Thursday night. No lie. I'm not as hungry as I thought I'd be yet, but I certainly am not turning down food. This girl loves to eat.

How's your training going? Do you feel like a zombie when training for distance races?

2 comments:

  1. Peak marathon training is so crazy! Everything gets warped - and the next thing you know you're doing 8-10 miles on a weekday. Yikes! So worth it come race day, though.

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    1. It is crazy! I told my husband that I will need even more of his help around the house in the next few weeks. And lots of patience!

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