Highs and Lows- Week 9

WEEK 9. You know what that means?! (you probably don't). It means that I'm half way through marathon training!! It also means 9 more weeks until baby making kicks in full force. And, hopefully, 9 more weeks until I get my BQ.

 

This was the first week in a long time that I looked at my training plan and had to give myself a mental pep talk. I had 53 miles planned (my highest in 4 months) including an insane track workout, a "casual" 10 mile run during the week, and my first 20 miler of the season (with race pace miles planned). Increased miles during the work week always make training a reality for me. That's when you know crap is gettin' real. Here are this weeks highs and lows:

 

LOWS:

• Three 3:something o'clock wake up calls. When the weekly miles increase, my sleep decreases. I think I had two 3:40 wake up calls and one at 3:50. It was rough. I can't make myself go to bed earlier (believe me, I've tried). For some reason, I've had trouble staying asleep this week. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I can't seem to fall back asleep. I knew things were rough when I fell asleep in the passenger seat on our commute home last Thursday!
• My 10 miler. I debated whether or not this was a high or low. I did enjoy my first 4 miles with Dani and the last 6 with Lynn and Tamara. They are some great girls. I decided, though, to make it a low simply because this was day 3 of getting up early and I was SO SLEEPY. If I could run and sleep without falling, this would have been the day to do it. It did end well with a Schneider's donut.
• Hilly Sunday. Second week in a row for hilly Sunday to be on the low list! It's never the running partners, of course. They are the ones who get me through these runs. Today, it was fatigued legs. I fully expected the fatigue after my long run. Honestly, I ran way too fast today. I probably would have felt a little better if I added 20-30 seconds per mile. Fortunately, the number of hills were minimal BUT the intensity of them was high...a steeper quarter mile hill and a gradual, will-this-ever-end kind of hill about a mile long.
  

  

  It wasn't just hilly Sunday, it was sweatband Sunday!

 

HIGHS:

• The mother of all track workouts. Seriously. So many words/phrases crossed my mind before, during, and after this workout. I got the idea from my friend, Lynn. I converted minutes to appropriate mileage and performed it on the track. I also did an extended warm up because I needed 9 miles that day. My warm up was 3.5 miles and a lot faster than it should have been (Average pace 7:59...oops). That's what happens when your friend is chatting with you about sex and child birth. Bahaha! This first interval (see pic) starts with 5k pace and subtracts a few seconds each time the interval distance decreases. For me, the 1200m segment was the toughest at the beginning because, mentally, I felt like I had to run another mile repeat. Theresa and I ended up hitting all of our planned paces except for the 600m interval. For me, that was the point I felt my legs become like jello. It took everything I had to try to make pace for that one. I walked away from this workout thinking "This was the absolute hardest workout I've done in YEARS." Our overall workout, including warm up, intervals, and recovery periods, averaged 7:55 for 9 miles. Of course, I was thrilled about that considering my goal for my full.
  

  

  That killer workout.

• Recovery Run. My Wednesday recovery run was exactly what my tight body needed after that track workout. I got to meet Allison and run with the non pregnant version of Megan! (P.S. Megan is a rock star. I can only hope to get back to running that quickly after my next pregnancy! You go girl!)
• My first 20 miler. O.M.G. One of my goals for this training season was to practice pre-run fueling (and of course fueling during runs). I woke up 1 1/2 hours before my start time to try to eat. I was able to eat most of an egg and a powdered donut. I also took three gels during my run (mile 5ish, 10.5ish, and 14.5ish) and drank 48 oz. of Gatorade/Water mix. No GI issues, no need to pee! Workout: 7 mile warm up, 3 x 3 mile repeats at MP (marathon pace 8-8:12) with 1 mile recovery, cool down to 20 miles. It was so dang humid and hot that I told myself I would be happy with my workout if I could successfully complete 2 of the 3 intervals...especially since I'd be solo for the last 6 miles. My crew really helped me through the first 14 (Marion, Karen, Amber, Caty, and Dani). Much love to you ladies! Overall thoughts: pace felt great but the weather was wearing the body down a bit. I'm very happy with my result and feel more confident about my ability to BQ in November.
  

  

  The 7 mile warm up and first 3 mile interval.

  
  

  

  [1 mile recovery, 3 mile interval] x2, 2 mile cool down

  
  

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What's next? I spontaneously bought a bib for Run for the Health of It, a 4 miler in Westerville on Labor Day. I'll stroller run that VERY SLOWLY with James tomorrow. I will turn it into my 6 mile easy run for the week.