Racing season is here, as I just wrapped up three races in three weekends!
First was the Trent Waldron Half Marathon, followed by the Twilight 6K six days later. I didn’t have plans to run the Alaska Run for Women the following weekend, but the 6K didn’t beat me up too badly, so I decided last minute to run it!
This was my 4th race during this pregnancy!
It is a great race with several thousand women who come out for the event that raises money for breast cancer awareness, prevention, and research. This was my second time running this race–the first time being when Cullen was 7 months old. I actually did it as a workout that day since I was racing 4 races within 4 weekends that year.
I felt relatively decent during the race–not great but not terrible either. I like that the course goes through downtown a bit and then catches the Coastal Trail and onto the Chester Creek Trail at Westchester Lagoon. Considering the hill during mile one, my splits were fairly consistent.
Mile 1 – 7:13
Mile 2 – 6:53
Mile 3 – 6:58
Mile 4 – 7:01
Mile 5 – 6:54
My average pace was 6:54 per mile. On a good day I was hoping maybe I could average a 6:45 pace, but I’m not upset that I didn’t hit this pace. I’m sure my body was tired from the other two races, plus I did a track workout mid-week. I was just happy to get out there and race!
This last week of training was my 20th full week of pregnancy, and I was happy things went much better than the previous week.
Here’s a recap of my workouts from June 3 – 9, 2019:
Monday – off/rest
My calves were getting so tight on runs during the past couple of day, so I needed to give them a break. Plus I was feeling overall fatigued, so I took a rest day after running 6 days in a row.
Tuesday – 5 miles | easy run | 8:48 average pace
I had to stop a handful of times during this run to catch my breath–pregnancy running is humbling!
Wednesday – 7 miles | track workout: 4x400m, 4x200m
One of my goals during pregnancy is to continue doing some track/speed/interval/tempo workout each week, so I hit the track this morning for some shorter intervals, which are easier to handle than longer intervals.
1.5 mile warm-up
4 x 400 meters (splits – 1:33, 1:32, 1:31, 1:31)
4 x 200 meters (splits – :41, :42, :41, :42)
Cool-down to 7 miles
Thursday – 5 miles | easy | 8:22 average pace
An easy run along the Coastal Trail enjoying the views and sunshine!
Friday – off/rest
I wanted to rest a little bit before the race and hopefully have a successful long run as well.
Saturday – 5 miles | Alaska Run for Women race | 6:54 average pace
What a fun race! There are a lot of races this time of the year, but I’m hoping this sticks on my race calendar for next year.
Sunday – 16 miles | long run | 8:34 average pace
Success!! The longest run I have ever done while pregnant. (This pregnancy or Cullen’s pregnancy.) During the first few miles I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make it too far, but I hit mile 5/6-ish and really started to feel quite good! So happy this went well.
Total: 38 miles
I was hoping to hit 40+ miles for the week, but I’m not that bummed about it because I don’t need to put in a certain amount of volume right now. I am really happy that my long run went well, and the race was a positive experience as well.
I’ll keep up with the workouts as long as I can because I know it eventually will get harder!
