Highs and Lows- Week 13

The closer I get to the end, the more I wish I was running the Columbus Marathon instead of Indy. I would be tapering right now! Ugh. I just feel like I'm ready. The longer I have to wait, the more nervous I get! I wasn't nervous at all for Pig. Maybe because I had no idea what I was capable of. I mean, my first two marathons were 4:35 and 5:02 so I knew I would probably PR. Why am I nervous about this one?! I hate being nervous!!! I'm sure it's because I'm trying to BQ. Even if I meet the time standard, I won't know for 10 1/2 more months if I'll get to run it! WHY ME?!! LOL.

 

Ok...enough drama.

 

My week started off rough, ended with a bang, then sucked again. Here are my highs and lows for this week:

 

LOWS:

• Hill Repeats. Y'all know I like hills but this workout was for the birds. It was 8 miles total with 7 hill repeats. I used the Emerald Parkway hill which is 0.25 miles. It's one of the steeper hills in Columbus (which I've established is not actually hilly). I've done this workout before and loved it, but this one sucked so bad. I know where I went wrong, though. It was a mid-afternoon run for me...and before the temps decreased! It was in the low 80s on Monday afternoon and the sun was BEAMING. On top of that, I had just eaten lunch about an hour and a half beforehand so I was still full. Completely my fault. I had side stitches my entire 4 mile warm up. When I got to the repeats, I couldn't get my legs to move! Ugh. Stupid, stupid run.
  

  

  That face explains exactly how I felt about that run.

• Tempo Revise Workout. I hit or beat my paces on 9 of 10 miles which sounds great....BUT I FELT LIKE POO THE WHOLE TIME! I really don't know what I was thinking when I set my paces for this workout ( 2@8:40-9, 2@8:20, 2@8:00, 2@7:40, 2@7:20). WTH?! 7:20 as my last two...shaking my head at this one! Even though I rested the day before, I was feeling fatigued going into this run. It took me 6 miles to feel warmed up and comfortable. By the time I felt ok, we were starting the fastest miles. My 7:40 miles were closer to 7:30 so that might have set me up for failure on the last two miles. I wanted to barf after 7 miles. I had to slow down on mile 9. There was no way I could have knocked out two 7:20 miles that day. I decided to slow down and recover for that one mile so that I could try for a fast finish via the Theresa challenge. I didn't want to give up! I ran an 8:19 mile for recovery and was able to knock out a 7:17 for the last one!! At least it ended well. (Props to Amanda and Karen for keeping me motivated)

 

HIGHS:

• Easy 6 miler. This was a really cool run because I got to run with some ladies who were doing their 6 mile version of my 10 mile tempo revise mentioned above. The goal was to keep them on pace to run 2@9:20-9:30 then decrease the range by 20 seconds every two miles. They were amazing! Going into it, many felt it might be impossible but they proved themselves wrong. The girls hit and even beat the planned paces then killed the last mile! It was a pretty sweet run.
  

  

  Now, THAT'S the face of a happy runner. Post 22 miler!

• Long Run. Hello, 22 miles! This is the first training season that I've intentionally put in runs longer than 20 miles. I wanted to see if it would make a difference. Initially, I planned one 22 miler but that changed when I registered for the 40k trail race last month. So, technically, I'll end up with two 20's, a 22, and an almost 25 miler. I felt so strong but, going into it, didn't think that would be the case. Because I didn't feel amazing most of the week, I was nervous about doing this solo. I had no planned race pace miles for this run so that took some pressure off. When I started, I told myself to go "painfully slow." Really that just meant that I wanted my body to feel like my pace was easier than easy. I only looked at my watch for mile splits so that I could make sure I wasn't getting out of control. My first 8 miles averaged 9:09 (I only know this because I accidentally pushed save instead of resume on my Garmin when I was at a stop light...Ugh).
  

  

  I was averaging about 8:45 for the next 8 miles. I wasn't intending to go that  fast this run because I didn't know if I'd be able to do 22 at that pace, but I was feeling SO GOOD! I told myself, "As long as it feels easy, go for it!" I was surprised at how great I felt the last 6 miles (8:28, 8:10, 8:29, 7:59, 7:42, 7:53).
  

  

  I was so, so happy with this run. I just hope I can display the same vigor in Indy!
• Drizzly, chilly Autumn run. This run was full of drama on my part, which tempted me to put it on my low list, but, when I thought about the run itself, I felt confident it was a high. I was actually enjoying the weather (minus the wind). This was my fourth day in a row to run, and I was working on 48 total miles for those four days. The day before this run was my 22 mile long run. I thought for sure I'd feel like crap. I'd be lying if I said I had fresh legs, but they did feel good. I had an overall average of 8:29 for 10.68 miles with two sub-8 miles (unintentional...blowing off some steam, I suppose) and two more in the low 8s (you know, the Marion method in which you just want to finish).
  

  

  That's not a picture of me, but it would be really cool if it was!

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I was very happy with my week considering it was my highest mileage week for this training cycle. Next week is my cutback week which means only one killer speed workout and a shorter long run! I'm really looking forward to running the Columbus half marathon in two weeks (except for the fact that I have to run 7 miles beforehand)!!!