Week 9: Another Rough Week?!

Is it possible to have 3 bad training weeks in a row?! Training has been SO TOUGH lately. First a little injury (my fault), then I was sick, and, this week, I was mentally drained! I thought about this picture a lot this week:

Looking back on my workouts this week, I did a lot better than I felt. I've been so bummed about a work situation this week that I let it affect the joy I feel after finishing a run/workout. For cross training, I found a love for Hip Hop (thanks to my co-workers). This was my second week to attend the class and I plan on going again this Monday :) SO MUCH FUN AND SWEAT!

This week, I began hill workouts for the first time. It was actually fun and a good change of pace. I haven't discovered many appropriate hills in Gahanna but I remembered one from the 10-miler I did in April...I just had to find it! I went on an adventure down a trail on Tuesday and, fortunately, the hill was only a 4 minute jog from where I started! Yay for me!

The rest of the week involved workouts to prep me for my BIG run on Saturday (4 mile easy run, 6 miles at marathon race pace, and a rest day). How long was my big run, you ask? 18 MILES!!! Oh-em-gee! I almost sharted in my pants when I saw that in my training program! I was nervous, fo sho...didn't know what to expect from my body. I did take notes from my 14 mile run from a few weeks ago (the one that caused the knee owie) and decided that I wasn't above walking if I needed to...and I knew I would need the walking. Not only was walking part of it, but stretching was a must. I did the first 12 miles at a 9:47 pace and was actually able to run most of the remaining 6 miles (final pace for 18 miles was 10:09). At mile 15, I started feeling some hip pain that was really getting to me (that's when I had to stretch) but I remembered the picture above and knew I had to keep going...DON'T GIVE UP! I finished the 18 and I'm still alive today!

I still have 9 more weeks of training before my big race and I'm excited to see what my improvement will be as training comes to a close. I'm still trying to decide on an appropriate goal for my marathon. Based on the 10-miler I did earlier this year (time was 1hr 29min), I should be able to do my marathon in 4:10:23...but I'm not confident I can keep this pace. My 2005 marathon time was 4:35:57...so I at least want to beat that time. Anyway, I'm looking forward to this next week being a better training week for me!

Love you all!