Louisville Derby Festival Marathon Training Week #9 and LOOK WHO SHOWED UP??!!??

Remember this?

Well, guess who decided to re-join the party?!?!? Yep, my beloved Garmin 220 resurfaced last week thanks to a relentless search by my husband--yay!!!!!! I am so super excited about having it back! The 220 and I started this path together almost two years ago and it's only fitting that we finish it together. I'm taking its return from the dead as a good sign : )

Here's how the training went last week:

Monday – Cross-train 

Swim practice (1 hour)

30 min. strength/core

Birthday swim! My birthday fell on Monday morning swim practice, so my friend, co-worker, and swim coach—the totally awesome Crystal—prepared a special workout for the occasion. It was really fun, but I also left feeling like I had gotten a really good workout. We did 37 25s with push-ups and pull-ups in between. There was freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, kicks, pulls, corkscrews, dolphin dives, and other crazy stuff. Thank you, Crystal!

That evening I did a strength and core workout—trying to get back on that train!

Tuesday – Speed workout

2 x 1600 (6:49, 6:49)

2 x 800 (3:15, 3:13)

60 sec rest intervals between each set

Total miles = 3 @ 6:42 (plus .5 warmup and .5 cool-down)

30 min. strength and core

So this was essentially racing a 5K in the middle of the day on my lunch break (my 5K PR is a 6:44 average pace). Once again the wind on one side of the track was relentless; but at least this time it wasn’t raining. Instead, with temps in the mid- to upper-60s and lots of sunshine, it was actually quite toasty. I only did a .5 mile warmup because I was already feeling hot and didn’t want to sabotage my workout by getting overheated (I hate running in heat—given the choice between cold and snow or heat and sun, I will choose cold and snow every single time). This was a tough one for me. Something about knowing I was going to have to maintain that pace for entire miles at a time, then get faster on tired legs, was really messing with me. I actually contemplated running these long intervals on the open road instead of on the track, thinking that it would be better mentally if I didn’t have to run the miles in circles; but in the end the convenience and flatness of the track won out. The 1600s were rough—I was breathing hard and my legs were not wanting to cooperate. After the 1600s were done, I was seriously doubting my ability to speed up for the 800s, but I managed to hold out. I kept telling myself “It’s only 2 laps, it’ll be over before you know it.” My entire body—especially my chest and arms—was really sore from the strength workout I had done the previous day and by the end of the workout I just did not want to be moving anymore. Since I did the run at lunch I had the afternoon to recover before doing my strength workout after I got home.

Wednesday – Cross-train

Swim (1800 yards)
30 min. strength/core

Crystal swam with me so the long swim was broken up into 300s and 600s and we chatted here and there in between. My arms felt like lead after two days of a new strength routine that has more upper-body work than I am used to, and every stroke was so sore!

Thursday – Tempo run

1 mi easy (8:38), 4 mi tempo (7:26, 7:24, 7:24, 7:06), 1 mi easy (8:41)

Total miles = 6 @

I was so tired all day Thursday, and the day crept by ever so slowly. I had worked the evening shift the night before and for some reason was wide awake when I got home around 10:20 p.m. It wasn’t until after 11 that I went to bed, but I still had a hard time getting to sleep. I’m not sure when I finally dozed off, but I was awakened by my daughter coughing at 2:00 a.m. I got up with her and helped her get back to sleep, but then the wind had picked up outside and since our windows were open things were getting blown off shelves and whatnot, so that kept me up a while longer. I slept through three different alarms Thursday morning! I was still very sore from my strength workouts, in addition to being tired. It was a struggle to stick with the schedule and go ahead with the tempo run. All I could think about was how nice it would be to go home and put on my PJs and cuddle up on the couch with a book. But I knew I would hate myself if I didn’t run, so off I went, and this was my frame of mind:

It worked. Each tempo mile was 12-32 seconds faster than the plan. Especially considering I had been very tempted to scrap this run altogether because of how fatigued I felt, I was happy. I did, however, skip my strength workout. I felt a little guilty about that, but I just didn’t have the energy.

 Kind of forcing a smile here--mostly just glad to be done!

Friday – Cross-train

30 min. strength/core

Elliptical (45 min./5 mi)

I was so stinking sore when I woke up Friday. This new strength routine has really put a hurting on me : \  I wanted to just lie in a heap in the bed and not move all day, but since that was not going to happen and I knew the only time I could get my strength workout in was before work, I lugged myself out of bed and got it done. I hopped on the elliptical at lunch and watched an episode of Fixer Upper and the time flew by.

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Long run

20 mi @ 8:32

My husband had a group trail run on Saturday morning (he and pretty much everyone else from our running group are training for the Yamacraw 50K coming up next month--he's doing a great job with his training and I am super proud of him!) so I planned to do my long run early Sunday morning. I had duties at the 11:00 a.m. church service and thus needed to be done with my run by 9:30 a.m. in order to shower, eat, get dressed, and get to church on time. I had my alarm set for 5:30 and was planning to be running by 6:30 a.m. The time would “spring forward” overnight so I made sure to get to bed earlier than usual. I went to bed grumpy because my favorite running shorts were MIA [insert grumpy face here—they are still missing! Who loses running shorts??]. When I got up Sunday morning it was raining—I had expected it because I’d seen the forecast—but I double-checked the weather report because I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be storming. That’s when I noticed that the sun wasn’t going to be coming up until almost 8 o’clock. Ugh! I had totally forgotten to account for the late sunrise due to the time change. I was totally dismayed. If I went ahead with my 6:30 start time, I would have to run in the dark for at least an hour—which meant I would be stuck running circles on the track for that time (I don’t run in the park or along deserted stretches of roadway by myself when it's dark, and my route would have been taking me through both the park and a rural roadway during that first hour). Not only was the thought of running in circles on the track for an hour not at all appealing, but I also felt I would be cheating myself out of a training run—running on a flat track for an hour is not a good way to simulate race conditions, as my planned route through hills would. So although I was already up, dressed, and had eaten my pre-run fuel, I decided to go back to bed and do the run right after church. So I got started around 1:00 p.m. It was cool (temps in the low 60s), cloudy, and raining when I left, and the forecast showed clouds and high chances of rain all afternoon, with possible storms coming in around 6:00 p.m. My route would be windy, so that combined with the rain and clouds had me wearing capris, tank top, arm sleeves, and hat. And wouldn’t you know, about 5-6 miles into the run the rain stopped and the clouds cleared and the sun came out, and it ended up being a sunny afternoon in the upper-60s to low-70s! I was burning up. I pushed my arm sleeves down and that helped, but I was really wishing I had on shorts instead of capris…and along comes my husband to save the day! He noticed the change in weather and knew I would be hot, so he packed the kids in the car and drove out to collect my arm sleeves, give me a pair of shorts to change into, and offer me an extra bottle of water (he's the best!!!). They caught up to me around mile 12 and I was super happy to see them! I have done many things on a run that are not considered acceptable in polite society—snot rockets, bathroom emergencies, and the like—but stripping down and changing clothes in the middle of the road was a first. Luckily that route is not heavily-trafficked, so only a few motorists (and one cyclist) had to witness the scene, and I had our Orange Mud changing towel to cover up with.

A few minutes later I was on my way again and I felt so much better without all that extra fabric! The run mostly went off without a hitch, except for the very end with about three-quarters of a mile left to go when I suddenly and inexplicably began experiencing pain at the bag of my leg near the back of my knee. I tried to ignore it but it was severe enough that, after running with it for about a quarter-mile and no signs of it relenting, I thought I might have to stop running and walk the rest of the way home. I slowed down to a 9:40-9:50 pace and after about another quarter-mile it went away and I was able to pick the pace back up with no other problems. It was a little unsettling, since I absolutely cannot afford injury at this point in the training; hopefully it will not be a recurring issue. I made sure to stretch carefully immediately following the run, and I also sat in an ice bath for 20 minutes. (The following day I was on the elliptical for 40 minutes with no issues, so hopefully it was nothing major.)

Because of all that unexpected sunshine, I ended up with sunburn and some pretty crazy tan lines on my back!