I am feeling stronger and fitter after each workout I do, which is boosting my confidence for my next marathon! I will be letting all of you know soon which one I’ll be running this fall!
Those first few weeks of getting back into shape after an injury are the most difficult for me. I always feel like my injury is going to rear its ugly head again, I feel especially out of breath trying to run not-very-fast paces, and a 5 mile run feels like 10. But now that I’m a few weeks into this training cycle, I am having a lot more fun, my confidence is growing, and I am hitting tempo and marathon paces much more easily.
Here’s a look at my workouts this past week–August 20 – 26 that included a lot of easy miles as I was coming off a race last Sunday, a long run with some miles at goal marathon pace, and a total of 55 miles for the week.
Monday
5 miles | easy run | 8:27 average pace
This was the day after the Skinny Raven Half Marathon. I set out to run in the morning, but my hamstring was not happy. I could have pushed through, but I also knew that that would not be the best thing for it, and it could lead to taking more time off later on. After 3 blocks, I turned around, went home, and took an epsom salt bath instead. I continued to rest and recover the rest of the day and then tried running in the evening again. Luckily my hamstring felt much better this time around, so I was able to run pain-free. Moral of the story: even waiting 12 hours may be enough rest to get your run in.
Tuesday
8 miles | easy run | 7:59 average pace
I ran in the evening again since I had run in the evening the day before. I ended up running from my house to our church to help clean up after we held the Greek Festival at our church. It was a rainy run, but I will take rain over snow any day! Many times I can run faster in the evening with the same amount of effort as I give in the morning–probably because my legs are awake, so my average pace was a little quicker than usual.
Wednesday
Off – I rested this day because I had run 5 days in a row. I am slowly building back the number of days I run in a row.
In related news, I did find out on this day that I got into a major marathon, and I’ll be letting you know which one it is soon!
Thursday
AM run – 9 miles | easy run | 8:02 average pace
An easy run on a hilly route because–while I don’t hate hills, I know I could afford to build some more strength and power on them.
PM run – 4 miles | easy run | 8:27 average pace
Four more miles on the treadmill at the gym because Cullen didn’t want to do a stroller run. After the run I lifted weights for about 45 minutes and did my PT exercises for my hamstring.
Friday
Saturday
7 miles | easy run | 8:08 average pace
A nice easy run before my long run the next day. I love seeing my easy pace naturally come down on easy runs.
Sunday
17 miles | 3 x 3 miles @ goal marathon pace | 7:14 average pace
For this training cycle, I am going to try and do more marathon-paced miles within a long run. I think they are so helpful and beneficial when you are training for a marathon. When I wrote this workout, I knew I would need some help, so I immediately recruited a couple friends to help me stay accountable to the pace. My friends Sam (who is also one of my athletes) and John were kind enough to meet me at 6:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning to knock this out! While my splits weren’t perfect, I was really happy with the effort and the fact that I am getting stronger each time I do a workout like this.
Goal marathon pace = 6:51
Set 1 – 6:51, 6:49, 6:53
Set 2 – 6:58, 6:57, 6:53
Set 3 – 6:46, 6:53, 6:48
We hit some rolling hills during the second set, which is why those miles were slower, but considering it was raining pretty good during the entire run, it was dark and cool when we started, and I wasn’t sure I could hang on during the third set, I count this as a big win!
Stay tuned for another post coming later this week with details on which marathon I’ll be running, and what I am looking forward to this next month. We’re kicking it off with a trip to Minnesota on Wednesday to go and see family and see my niece who is 6 weeks old!
