Louisville Derby Festival Marathon Training Week #10

That pretty much sums up this past week of training. With just six weeks to go until marathon day--two of those weeks being taper--the past two weeks and the next couple weeks were/will be pretty intense. I have been so sore and exhausted. After my long run on Saturday I took a two-hour nap! It's been literally years since I took a nap, so you know it's downright tiring if it's enough to get me to take a nap. The triple whammy of peak training, being way busy at work, and the insanity of non-stop running-around with the kids recently has had me feeling pretty run-down. The training plan is designed to be tough here through the middle so that by race day the pace and distance will be more than manageable--so my job right now is to stay focused, work hard, take care of myself, and listen to my body. I'm trying to get as much rest as possible, take it a little easier on cross-training days when I'm feeling tired, and make sure I stay well-hydrated.

Here's how the week went:

Monday – Cross-train

Elliptical (40 min.)
30 min. strength/core

Tuesday – Speed work

3 x (2 x 1200) w/ 2 min. RI between intervals and 4 min. RI between sets

1st set: 4:53, 4:55
2nd set: 4:59, 5:04
3rd set: 5:05, 5:09

This was a doozy. I didn’t make half the splits (the goal was 1600 in 5:02--as you can see the last three splits were short by 2, 3, and 7 seconds), and each interval was slower than the last. That was pretty depressing, but, honestly, the fact that I came anywhere close really says a lot about my determination because I have never wanted to quit a run so bad as I wanted to quit this one. After the very first interval my thought was “I’m never gonna make it five more intervals.” After my second set, another guy running on the track commented to me "You're making me feel awful" and my reply was "Oh, believe me, I feel awful. I don't know if I've got one more set in me." Every interval was more awful than the last and I was “this close” to doing just two sets and calling it quits. Even though I was giving it 110% the pace was just too hard. It hurt. I would rather have quit than see terrible paces. But I talked myself off that ledge, knowing realistically that finishing the workout with awful paces was better than not finishing it at all. I resorted to mentally going through the motivational pins from my I Heart Running board on Pinterest to keep me going:

These things may seem silly on the surface, but when you're in that dark place on a hard run you need something to hang onto, and sometimes these little sayings that sound a little dramatic outside the context of something like a track workout from hell are the things that get me through that workout. Even after I started the third set, one side of my brain entertained thoughts of just running one split and saying "screw it" to the last one--but the other side kept repeating these mantras and reminding me how disappointed in myself I would be if I quit. It wasn't pretty, and no I didn't hit my paces, but I did not quit. And sometimes that's more important than hitting the pace.

Wednesday - Cross-train

30 min. strength/core
40 min. swim (1200 yards)

My workout buddy. She supervised my strength workout from this vantage point.

Thursday - Tempo run

1 mi easy (9:05), 10 mi tempo (8:12, 8:03, 7:57, 7:46, 7:45, 7:53, 7:49, 7:46, 7:43, 7:37), 1 mi easy (8:54)
Total miles = 12 @ 8:03

I so did not want to do this run. On paper it didn't look that bad--it's not like I was being asked to run sub-8:00 miles or anything--but I knew from experience that it wouldn't be as easy as it sounded. I was still exhausted from Tuesday's track workout, and my legs were still sore. I considered pushing the tempo back a day to get more recovery time, but I wasn't sure when I'd be doing my long run over the weekend and I didn't want to risk a long run the day after a tempo run. So I sucked it up and went on with the regularly-scheduled programming. Keith kept me company for the first 5 miles, and after that I was on my own. Once I got going I was surprised to see that I was actually running sub-8:00 paces despite the fact that I didn't feel like I was running that hard. I was very pleased that despite the fact that I was so tired going into the run that I had been able to come in under pace like that. It was definitely a confidence booster!

Friday - Cross-train

30 min. strength/core
30 min. spin

Saturday - Long run

15 @ 8:25

I was so glad to see a relatively short run on the schedule this week! After a really tough speed day and a longer tempo, I was toast. It took a while to get going, and for the first 4-5 miles I had decided that I would be totally okay with not making the goal pace that day; but then I found my rhythm, my legs remembered what they were supposed to be doing, and it came together. The weather had called for cold temps and rain, so I was pleasantly surprised to make it through the entire run with sunshine and clear skies--even though it was definitely chilly. The splits for this run were 8:52, 8:42, 8:37, 8:47, 8:37, 8:18, 8:07, 8:01, 8:23, 8:30, 8:18, 8:26, 8:12, 8:18, 7:59.

Sunday - Rest