I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! We enjoyed the beautiful sunny day with a lovely Easter brunch, church service, egg hunt, and dinner with friends.
Training went well last week...until it didn't. At this moment I am very apprehensive and nervous. Due to some kind of injury sustained during my long run on Saturday, my calf is painful to the touch and my IT band is very sore. Not good at all. I’m doing a lot of stretching and foam rolling to try and keep the problem from getting worse, but I've got to give some serious consideration to the next few weeks of training and how this injury is going to affect my ability to compete on race day. Right now I'm thinking positive that I can take it easy over the next few weeks and still be ready for race day. So cross your fingers for me and send some positive healing vibes!
Monday – Cross train
Spin
30 min. strength/core
I was really tired Sunday and going to bed decided that I would sleep in to catch up on rest instead of getting up early for swim practice. I hated to miss swim practice, but there had been a significant amount of germs going around and I worried that perhaps I might be coming down with something rather than just being tired; and so decided to err on the side of caution. Instead of swimming I did a 30-min. spin after work and 30 minutes of strength/core.
Tuesday – Speed work
1 mi warmup
1000 in 4:15 (6:33/mile pace)
2000 in 8:35 (
1000 in 4:16 (6:34/mile pace)
1000 in 4:07 (6:28/mile pace)
.75 mi cool down
30 min. strength/core
I was very wary of the track this week after last week’s not-so-successful attempt, but it went pretty well. Once again, it was extremely windy—I know, I know, believe me when I say I KNOW.
I am way more tired of running in the wind than anyone else could possibly be of hearing about it all the time. But, it must be said. It was so windy that during my warm-up I was actually pushed back a few times. Not fun for maintaining speed! The workout called for the 1000s to be done in 4:09 (6:40/mile pace) and the 2000 to be done in 8:37 (6:56/mile pace). If you go by time, I didn’t make it; but if you go by pace, I did. That’s because the splits were a tad long. My watch is set to miles, not meters, and I forgot to change it; if the distance is the equivalent to full laps around the track it’s easy to see where to stop and start, but I’m not experienced enough on the track to ever be 100% sure where the 200 meter mark is, so I generally over-shoot it by a few hundredths of a mile, which definitely impacts time but pace not so much. So, the pace was there and I think if I had stopped at exactly 1000 meters the time would have been there. I was relieved to find that this workout did not feel as difficult as last week’s, though it was a fight for sure to maintain the pace with that wind.
Wednesday – Cross-train
Spin
Strength/core
This week was the college’s spring break, so I did not have to work at night like I usually do on Wednesdays. Thus, I was not able to go to the pool during the day, so I did a 35 minute spin instead. I watched an episode of Fixer Upper while I was on the bike, then did 30 minutes of strength/core.
Thursday – Tempo
1 mi easy, 5 mi tempo (7:51, 7:45, 7:44, 8:06, 7:39), 1 mi easy
Keith ran this one with me. We warmed up on the track, did the tempo through the park, and cooled down on the track. It was raining for the first few miles but then cleared out. The wind got us on the way out of the park (the 4th tempo mile, which was the slowest but at 8:06 was still 6 seconds faster than what the workout called for)—there’s about a quarter-mile incline on the roadway out of the park and it’s always a bit of a wind tunnel, but it was especially brutal that day and really all we could do was just put our heads down and make a good effort without worrying about the pace. This run felt pretty good. The overall pace (7:50) was ahead of the 8:12 plan but it didn’t feel hard or forced.
Friday – Rest
Normally I would have cross-trainined, but as this would be my second-to-last 20-miler I wanted to simulate pre-race day and race-day as closely as possible so I made this a rest day (the day before race day will also be a rest day, and I wanted to have fresh legs for the 20-miler just like I will for the marathon). I spent a little more time on my feet during the day than I would have liked—the kids were off from school and we went to the Community Arts Center, the Great American Dollhouse Museum, and shopping for Easter clothes, so I was on my feet pretty much all day, whereas the day before a marathon I generally try to stay seated as much as possible. I ate a big helping of pasta for dinner, got all my clothing and accessories ready for the morning, and went to bed early for an early wake-up.
Saturday – Long run
20 miles @ 8:17
Keith and I made a last-minute decision to run the Papa John’s Ten Miler on Louisville Saturday morning as training runs. I ran the course twice for 20 miles, and Keith ran it at a steady, easier-effort pace for a taper run (he’s doing the Yamacraw 50K in a few weeks, along with my husband and others in our running group). It was a 1.5 hour drive to get there, so we left at 6:00 a.m. That morning, I got up at 5:00 and ate some oatmeal around 5:30. I would sip on SWORD throughout the drive there, and eat a bagel with coconut oil when we got there, about 30 minutes before the start. However, for some reason once we got close to Louisville I started feeling really nervous and was unable to eat but one bite of my bagel. (Hopefully on race day I will be able to get the bagel down, because I will need the fuel! My stomach started growling just a few miles into the run!). The weather was at that in-between point where I find it difficult to decide what to wear. Temps were in the mid-30s when we started, but according to the weather forecast it would warm up to the low 50s by the time I would be finished running, and it was sunny. Initially I wore my knee-length leggings but right before leaving the house decided to wear my full-length tights and then see how it felt when we got there. I was wearing a tank top, arm warmers, gloves, and a hat, and it still felt pretty cold when we got there so I opted to leave on the full-length tights—which turned out to be fine. I never felt overheated and even kept my arm warmers up the whole time (though I did ditch my gloves).
We got there right on time, had no trouble parking at the stadium, and were maybe a quarter-mile from the starting line when I realized I had totally forgotten to put my bib on! So we dashed back to the car, I hastily put on my bib, and we dashed back to the start. It was 8:04 and the race started at 8:00, so most everyone had gone through the starting chute by then. Since it was a chip-timed race, and we weren’t actually racing it anyway, it didn’t really matter that we were late, but there was a significant amount of weaving around the first few miles to get out of the walkers and slower-paced runners and establish a rhythm. The run felt really good and I had to keep reminding myself not to get caught up in the race and go too fast—I had 20 miles to get through, not just 10. The main reason I chose to pay for this race even though I was running it as a training run is because the 10 miles are on the marathon course and it goes through Iroquois Park, which is hilly. I wanted to get some experience on the hills and come up with a strategy for getting through them on race day. The PJ10 goes through the park in the opposite direction of the marathon course, though—so on my second circuit through the park I'd run in the opposite direction of the Papa John’s runners to go through it in the same direction as I’d be running it on race day.
The first pass through the hills was not too bad—we even had a sub-8:00 mile!—but, the first pass was just 2-3 miles into the run, so we had fresh legs. I also thought I remembered the hills being slightly more difficult from when I ran the Louisville Derby Festival Marathon in 2014, so I was curious to see how it would go my second time through. The Papa John’s course was an out-and back, so once we looped through the park we went back the same way we'd come in, finishing in the stadium. Once I ran through the finish chute, I grabbed my medal, passed my gloves to Keith, downed a Gatorade, hit up a portapotty, and got back out on the course. Splits for the first ten miles were 9:18, 8:17, 8:17, 8:33, 8:10, 8:00, 7:58, 8:10, 8:22, 8:13.
I still felt really good after the first ten miles and, once again, had to remind myself to stay steady and not go too fast, remembering that my overall goal was to complete the miles at a fairly easy pace (the plan called for an 8:40 overall pace). I hit the park for my second pass at the hills right around mile 14, which was great because on the marathon course the park comes a little after mile 12—so I’d be hitting the hills on this training run at about the same time as I’d be hitting them on race day—and, thus, feeling about the same way. The hills were definitely tougher the second time around, but nothing unmanageable. There are a little over three miles of hills. The climb in is probably the longest, so my pace fell almost immediately upon entering the park—but I just let it go, because I knew I couldn’t kill myself keeping pace on the hills if—during the marathon—I wanted to stay on pace for 13 more miles. I wanted to test my plan of maintaining effort, but not worrying about pace, throughout the park. The uphills I would lose some time but I could gain some back on the downhills, so I figured it would all probably come out pretty even once it was said and done. First mile in the park was 8:14 (which is 2 seconds slower than race goal pace)—but my best pace during that mile was 7:56, which no doubt occurred on the downhill. Second mile in the park was 8:17, with the fastest pace during that mile being 7:34. Third mile in the park was 8:14, with the fastest pace being 7:39. The fourth and final mile in the park was 8:29, with 7:40 being the fastest pace. That last mile in the park was a beast. I don’t know if it was longer than the climb in, but it felt like it went on forever; and it was switchback, so just when you thought it was over it was time to climb some more. My pace fell to the 9:30s and 9:40s during that one, but again, I just let it go. There was significant downhill on the way out, which was good for both my legs AND my pace.
I got a little turned around coming out of the park and had to stop for a minute to get directions. Once I got out of the park, I noticed my knee kind of bothering me a little bit. This has happened before off and on during long runs and usually it goes away, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. But this time it persisted, and actually began to feel quite painful. The pain was wrapped around the side of my knee, and also extended downward through my calf. I did a quick assessment of where I was and how far I had to go, and decided to run to 20 miles, slowing down if I needed to, and then walking the rest of way in (I would be about 1.5 miles from the finish line once I hit 20 miles). I slowed down to over a nine-minute pace at one point and it helped a little, but if I picked it back up too much it would hurt again. At times it wouldn’t hurt and I’d pick up the pace, but then it would hurt again and I’d back off. That’s how the last 2-3 miles went, until I hit 20 and decided to walk the rest of the way in. Last ten miles of the run were 8:05, 8:18, 8:18, 8:14, 8:17, 8:14, 8:29, 8:07, 8:13, 8:09.
Once I got back to the stadium I grabbed a slice of pizza and some Gatorade and went to the medical tent to get some bags of ice for my calf and my knee and Keith and I hit the road for the 1.5 hour drive back home. Once home, I took a shower, drank a protein shake, then settled in on the couch with bags of ice. I felt good about the run—I felt strong and the pace felt more than manageable, so I feel I will be able to step it up a bit on race day and still be fine—but I was very concerned about my knee pain. If that had been marathon day, I’d still have had over 6 miles to go with pain. I’m honestly not sure if I would have been able to run much longer with that pain, or have run at the needed pace even if I was able to complete the distance. Very unsettling this close to race day, when I still have two weeks of hard training before the taper and can’t really afford to lose any fitness.
Sunday – Rest
I had planned to cross-train on Sunday—either the bike or hitting the gym for the elliptical, plus strength training—but decided to take another rest day because of the problem with my knee/calf. It was still sore when I got up Sunday morning and was a little painful when bending the knee. I spent about an hour after church icing the various areas of my leg that had bothered me the previous day during the run, and areas that felt tight/sore. I wanted to be sure I gave my leg plenty of time to recover and heal before starting the week's workouts.
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