Marathon Training, week 13

 

LUCKY NUMBER 13, BABY!!!  I am so freaking stoked about my marathon training and how it’s going.  Like, seriously.  I’m having a blast with it too!

• Tuesday: nothing because of overtime.

• Wednesday: I ran 7 miles within a 6 second spread between 9:40 and 9:45.  WOOT!  That’s essentially 7 miles at marathon goal pace!  I struggled a little in miles 2 and 3, but I don’t usually get warmed up until after mile 3 anyway, so that wasn’t much of a surprise.  Mile 2 was my fastest mile and mile 3 was my slowest.  My splits were – 9:43, 9:40, 9:45, 9:42, 9:43, 9:42, 9:43.  Marathon goal pace for me (for SPI next month, that is) is 9:43 (or faster).  I had bought and downloaded some military cadences, so I listened to those while I ran this morning and I think they made a huge difference.  They distracted me more than just regular music does and my run just flew by! 

 

• Thursday: nothing because of overtime.

• Friday: 9 mile tempo run…NAILED IT!  2 mile warm up at slow long run pace, 5 miles between 9:28-9:32, then 2 miles cool down at slow long run pace.  I love how much easier these faster paces are for me.  I guarantee that 2 months ago, even if it hadn’t been super hot because it was the middle of summer in Texas (so if it had been fall/winter temps), that there is no way I could sustain and hold a 9:30-ish pace for 1 mile, let alone 5 with it being just comfortably hard.  I want to say that listening to the military cadence while I’m running helps to motivate me.  So I’m going to download some more so I have even more variety of cadences to keep me motivated!

• Saturday: I didn't do any workout.  i meant to but was far too busy.

• Sunday: long run day!  And no race to help break it up, so I had to make my own game to break up the run and keep it fun and interesting for me.  My initial plan going into this long run was to do a 3 mile slow long run pace (about 10:40-ish), then kick it into MGP gear (9:43-ish) for 13-14 miles, then cool down at the slow long run pace for 3-4 miles.  Total of 20.  However, I ran fairly hard last week and I have a relay coming up Friday-Saturday this week that I’d like to run kinda hard so our team can get a good finish time, so I decided to take it easy for all my other runs this week.  So, instead of that wonderful tempo idea for this run, I just did a negative split between the first and second halves of the run.  The first half was complete in 1:51:16 and the second half was done in 1:46:34.  OH YEA!  Not a huge difference, but a negative split nonetheless, and that's what matters!

• Monday: nothing.  I slept in and let my body rest.  Although not doing a shakeout run like I’d originally planned on doing means that I’m more sore than I would have been otherwise.

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I’m really, really enjoying making games out of my pacing during my runs.  It really helps make them be even MORE fun than they already are for me.  Always, I never thought I could hold a steady pace during a run on purpose because my mile paces during a run are so erratic.  I had no idea how people could “hit paces” and make their mile times be all the same or within a few seconds of each other.  Now I understand and I love doing it!  I love a good challenge and when I challenge myself to hit a certain pace or keep all my miles within a small window of seconds, it’s a challenge and therefore more fun than “just” running! 

I had a scare last week.  I got bored one morning and went on the SPI website and was perusing around and saw that you could search the registrations.  So I searched for my name and came up empty handed.  WHAT?!??!  So I went to my email and pulled up my receipt from imAthlete for my registration.  I then went to their website and it said my confirmation # was invalid and that there was nothing matching my email address.  Needless to say I FREAKED out!  I emailed the marathon and imAthlete.  imAthlete got back to me within 24-ish hours and emailed me a copy of my invoice.  Whew.  I still have no idea why it was saying my confirmation # was invalid.  Their website was messing up and timing out a lot, so maybe it was just a glitch on their end.  I finally heard back from the marathon people and they let me know that I am for sure registered and that she doubled checked.  YAY!

During my long run this week, I did dates for the first time as a during run fuel.  I didn’t take them until about mile 13 (first fuel of my 20 mile run) because my stomach was upset, but when I took them, they were really easy to eat on the go!  I just cheeked on and chewed on it, then spit out the pit (Costco doesn’t have them with the pits removed unfortunately).  I was a little out of breath when I would get done eating one as I breathe through my mouth, but other than that, no issues!  So they’ll work for me!  YAY!