For this training cycle anyway...
Saturday - rest day, mostly spent driving in a car but also walking around Gooseberry Falls and climbing a lot of steps. Not so restful....
Sunday - Last truly "long" run of 12 miles. It was beautiful out, and an amazingly crisp 40 degrees. I will take that! This run was supposed to be at my easy pace, around 9:45-9:55. Which I did, until I scared a black bear cub up a tree along the trail I run on. Yes, a BEAR. I didn't stick around to wait for mama bear to show up. I booked it to the end of that trail section where it dumps out into a little town, and definitely did not go back the same way!
Monday - 7 miles on the bike, averaging 13mph. I've been having some discomfort under my hip, sort of towards my quad. I was thinking IT band, and after discussing with my coach, she thinks it's the beginning of hip bursitis. Awesome! Yay, taper injuries! So I will be icing it a few times a day, and doing some hip opener yoga & stretches for the next 2 weeks.
Tuesday - 7 mile taper tempo - 1 mile warm up, 5 miles at Marathon Pace (MP - 8:55 ideally for me), 1 mile cool down. I had such a hard time really honing in on this pace. I felt like I was all over the map from 8:30 to 9:05. Tempo paces ended up being 8:48, 8:46, 8:50, 8:56, 8:50. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself, but I really wanted to lock into that 8:55 and keep it.
Wednesday - Yoga with Adriene: lower back pain video, hip opener sequence, and pigeon pose. My hip is starting to feel better already, but yesterday I started to get some sciatic pain after sitting at my desk all morning. I think it's sciatic pain, anyway. It's right at the top of my glute, kind of towards my spine. It's more just tender/uncomfortable than actual pain, and doesn't travel down my leg. So maybe it's more just a pulled glute? I don't know. Over it.
Thursday - Another taper tempo, 6 miles. This one was broken up as a 2 x 2 mile with 3 min rest in between. The idea is to squeeze that rest in so we're not taxing my body so much this close to race day. This one went a little better than Tuesday's tempo run, but I still felt like I could do better sticking to the pace throughout each mile. Tempo paces were: 8:51, 8:56, 8:53, 8:57. My hip is feeling much better, but still not 100%. The sciatic pain I had is nearly gone, although my piriformis is super tight. So maybe it's working itself out. Massage today to get out all the kinks!
Friday - 3 easy miles. Paces were 9:45, 9:35, & 9:45. I didn't get quite enough sleep last night, thanks to Book Club keeping me out late. So even though these were easy paces, I think that coupled with getting the massage yesterday made this run feel a little harder than it should. The massage therapist loosened a lot of things up, and for the most part I'm feeling much better. She said my hip flexor was really "stuck", and she loosened it up but it was a bit sore this morning. So I'm icing it as we speak. I'm really ready for my legs to feel "fresh". When does that happen?
How's your training going? When do you feel "fresh" in the taper period.
Sounds like overall things are feeling a bit better so that's good. I have a half this weekend for my last long run of marathon training. Hope your yoga continues to help as you gear up for race day!!
ReplyDeletePS - What was the book club book this time? You always have good suggestions! :)
This month we read Yes, Please by Amy Poehler. It was good, but I think you kind of have to be an SNL or Parks & Recs fan to really get into it.
DeleteNext month we're reading The Whip by Karen Kondazian, and I am really excited about that one! It's about a female stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo.
Ahhh a bear?! There are bears out on a trail where I ride my bike, but I've only ever seen them from far away. My dad and a friend saw one on the trail once and had to stop and wait for it to go back in the woods before they could pass.
ReplyDeleteUgh, good question about the fresh feeling! I've been running a little faster a little easier, but I think that's more due to the weather than anything. My legs don't feel awful but they don't feel fresh either. One week! The countdown is on!
I've noticed my paces tend to be a little of the faster side as well, but I do think that is because of our weather cooling off. My coaches say that it's common to not feel "fresh" until the middle of the week right before the race. So...hopefully that's true!
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