HWGA: Highest Mileage Week

Here We Go Again

 

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The seven week time period between marathons 'allowed' for a 20 miler. Gotta be honest...I wasn't exactly thrilled about it! What is it about the 20 miler that makes you cringe?! I decided to stick with my post partum plan of not running more than 50 miles in a week. I might even stick to that plan next season as well. My body is feeling normal again so I added a track workout this week.

 

It's been a weird week for me, so my heart hasn't been into running 100%. I almost feel like this week has been about surviving (not so much physically, but mentally)!

• 3/27: 8.03 miles, 8:37/mile. Met up with the one who convinces me to do crazy things (Amanda, in case you are confused). We knocked out one of my 8 milers. No specific pace needed...just ran. All I remember is feeling like a zombie. I think I would have been able to run and sleep at the same time.
• 3/28: 6.05 miles, 9:03/mile; Bis/Tris/Leg Rehab. Met some folks for a shorter easy run. My friend, Tracey, needed some faster miles so we knocked a couple of those for her after a little warm up. Proud of her hard work! That afternoon, I hit up The Y for an arm workout in addition to my leg exercises (the ones to attempt to decrease race cramping).
  

  
• 3/29:  REST. I rested knowing I had my speed workout the next day. I was completely jealous of all of the people posting about their amazing runs!
• 3/30: 8 miles, 8:19/mile. I couldn't find a track partner for early morning, and I was too chicken to go alone that early. I ended up going to the gym to do it on the treadmill. Ugh. Not ideal, but it was my situation for that day. Workout: 2 mile warm up, 1600m, 1200m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m all with 400m recoveries, 1.25 mile cool down. The goal was to start at 5k pace for the mile repeat and progressively increase by a couple of seconds each interval. Because it's the treadmill, you have to go the paces already set. I ended up doing the first three at 7:13/mi, the next two at 7:08/mile, and the last interval at 6:58/mi.
• 3/31: 2.5 cycling warm up miles, 10:09; Chest/Back/Glut Med workout. Just a good old fashioned lift session to kill some time.
  

  
• 4/1: 20 miles, 8:45/mile. My only 20 miler between marathons! It wasn't as awful as I anticipated. The only negative was the 4:30 a.m. wake up call. BOOOO! The cool thing about this run is that I never really felt like I was running 20 miles (until the last two miles). I started getting tight about that time but didn't want to take any salt tabs because the wind picked up and I was too cold (and maybe lazy) to get them. My pace was faster than intended, but that tends to happen with company.
  

  

  Shared all 20 with these lovely ladies and other mileage with other lovely ladies. [Karen, ME, Megan J]

• 4/2: 8 miles, 8:55/mile. I met up with a friend for 4.4 miles and decided I would stop at 6 miles. As we parted ways and I headed out for the rest, I felt better than I thought and did the full 8 miles. Yay for motivation on a Sunday. I felt insanely good for someone who ran all the miles yesterday. I'm sad to say I couldn't do my normal yoga class this week as the hubs wanted to play sand volleyball. This also meant that I would miss one of my 3 strength workouts for the week.
  

  

  Brought home breakfast.

 

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I ended this week feeling really good about how I'm progressing. I had some really good runs  and felt great after all of them. I'm looking forward to these next three weeks and running my next marathon!

Fun with my smallest love.

 

I found out that I did NOT get into the Marine Corps Marathon. I actually wasn't that disappointed when I received the email. I had some reservations about it (financially), but I was going to make it happen if I was chosen. I'll likely be running the Columbus marathon (which is exciting since I completely blew my last attempt).