Extra rest day = REDEMPTION!

Marathon Training Week Five Recap

I am a quarter way through my training plan. Five weeks seems like a long time, until I realize that I have 15 weeks left to go. After last week, I briefly contemplated having zero weeks left to go and just scrapping this marathon idea all together. I am guessing I'll have at least one or two more weeks like that, but as long as they are followed by a week like this, I think I'll be okay.

Monday I had an easy three miles on the plan. I also had a really busy morning. I was helping to host a site visit for the potential of bringing a pretty major event to Minneapolis in 2020. The event would be held in the yet-to-be-completed Vikings Stadium, so the meeting was in the "preview center" at the Vikings headquarters. As a life-long (and long-suffering) Vikings fan, I was totally geeked to get to have a behind the scenes look at this state of the art venue. And I wasn't disappointed. This place is amazing. We toured through virtual suites, got to see what views from all areas of the stadium will look like, and if that wasn't cool enough, I found out that one of my fellow Graduate Assistants at Ball State is the new General Manager of the stadium! It really is a small world. If you ask me, we knocked the presentation out of the park! Now we just wait and see as they won't award the event until next summer. Anyway, I brought my gear to work figuring I'd hop on a treadmill after the meeting. But by the time I got back to the office, I knew I didn't have the energy for it. I also thought back to how horrible I felt about my training last week and figured maybe one more rest day would do me and my attitude some good. So, even though I felt pretty guilty about it, I skipped the run and went home. The guilt kept eating at me and I almost went to the Y after the kids went to bed, but I convinced myself this was what I needed. I really need to work on giving myself a break more often.

Tuesday was another frigid day. I had already planned to do my run inside, but I packed outside clothes just in case. As soon as I stepped out the door I was smacked in the face with the white, fluffy stuff, so to the treadmill I went. I had five miles on the plan. The last two weeks my five milers have been less than stellar, and I admit my attitude wasn't great heading into the Rec Center. I was supposed to do 1 mile warm up, 3 miles tempo, 1 mile cool down. I decided rather than push my pace for three miles, that I would do 1 mile intervals instead. This was a good call. I did my warm up mile at 6.0 mph, then I did a mile at 6.5 mph, the middle mile was 6.2 mph, and the third mile was back up at 6.5 mph. I was pretty proud of myself when I finished that fourth mile...it had been a long time since I felt strong going that speed. I finished off with a mile cool down at 5.5 mph. I actually struggled to put the speed down that far...I have been able to hold my treadmill runs above a 10-minute mile pace for so long now that I never even consider going below 6 mph. But I was totally wiped after that fourth mile, and I really wanted to run the whole thing, so down to 5.5 I went. Again, I need to practice giving myself a break on this stuff!

Cross training day was next. I was able to make it back to TRX on Wednesday and much to my excitement, my BRF was able to make it too. We haven't been able to connect for a run, or anything, for several weeks because of crazy work schedules, so I was so happy to see her! It was a good workout, but I admittedly didn't push as hard as I usually do because I was busy getting caught up on what had been going on in Brandi's world. The trainer even called us out for laughing during a core set. I argued that laughing helped work our abs harder. Of course there were burpees, and mountain climbers (we didn't laugh during those). After class I actually considered going down to the free weight area and doing a few more things since I didn't feel like I got my best sweat on, but I decided it was okay. Maybe this was my subconscious giving myself that break I've been talking about :)

Thursday was cold. Not necessarily "run inside" cold, but cold nonetheless. I brought gear for both the TM and trail, but was pretty sure I was going to head to the treadmill. We started a big event at work, and it was going to be a busy afternoon, so I figured I'd just run over to the Rec at noon and get it over with. That didn't happen. The day got busier than I planned and before I knew it, it was 3:30 (this was going to be the only day of the event I'd be able to make it home for dinner, so I was hoping to get this done over the lunch hour). Now, at 3:30 I was thinking I was going to bag it. I called home for advice, even though this is futile. My husband is such a strong supporter of me doing this marathon, that even when I call him hoping he'll give me an excuse to skip my workout, he always says "just go do it, dinner can wait". I hemmed and hawed a little longer. I had 6 miles planned, and even though I had a successful TM run on Tuesday, I just couldn't handle the thought of slogging it out on the treadmill for the next hour. Then I remembered that the Y had gotten new treadmills, equipped with media players and WiFi and all kinds of cool features. I thought if I could find a show to watch that I just might be able to manage. I got to the Y by 4:30 and luckily found a new machine open (the only one...lucky!) I got to the queue of "On Demand" programming and chose the finale of the latest season of the Amazing Race. I used to watch that show religiously, but lost track of it a couple years ago. I always dreamed of competing on it one day and figured it would make for good motivation during the run. I was to do the 6 miles negative split, 2, 2, 2. I started easy with the first 2 at 6.0 mph, then ramped up to 6.2 for the next two, and finished off the last 2 at 6.4 mph. I had brought along some fruit punch flavored Jelly Belly Sport Beans to try for fuel today. I ate a couple after each set of 2 miles. They were really yummy, but I don't know that I noticed any sort of energy surge with them. I will say though, I felt super strong the whole time, so who knows, maybe they did help a little. In the middle of my run an older woman got on the treadmill beside me. I had worn my new 2015 Mileage Challenge shirt today (a Facebook running group I belong to), and as I was leaving she said "Wow, you were really running! With that bright shirt, you looked like a flash of lightening!" I had to smile...I'm pretty sure I looked like a sweaty mess (see below) but it was a nice way to end a great run.

Lightening? More like a drizzly rain shower at this point.

Someday you will read one of these recaps and I'll write "Wow, I had such an amazing swim workout!" But, today is not that day. We had prelims of the Boys State Swimming & Diving Championships all day and it was crazy. I managed to get away for about 20 minutes and basically jumped in the pool and jumped back out. I got in 1500 yards by doing three sets of 200 swim, 100 kick, 200 pull. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I didn't really care though, I seriously was glad to have gotten it done....just in time to go back to my other pool and sit at a swim meet for the rest of the night!

I can't believe I've made it this far into my post without mentioning that something amazing happened this week....SPRING ARRIVED! I am not even sure which day it officially got "warm", but I could not wait for Saturday to get here so I could go out on my long run in the sun with a SINGLE LAYER of clothes on! The meet was still going on Saturday, but I had a good plan worked out. I would get to the pool for the start of the Class A finals, and as long as the meet started without a hitch, I would leave to go for my run, getting back in time for the end of the first meet, and more importantly, lunch! I had 11 miles on the plan. I decided since I was supposed to do 12 last weekend and barely manged to eek out 10, that I would try to redeem myself with a 12 mile out and back today. This time I headed in the opposite direction than I had last week (that route backfired on me only giving me 4.5 mile of trail when I needed 6). I didn't know far the trail went this way, but I also knew that I could figure out a loop back on campus to get me to 12 if I needed it. I had on a short sleeve shirt and a light jacket along with my tights and a head band. After about a mile in I actually thought I might shed my jacket, but I decided just to unzip it a bit (the right call). The sun felt so good and once my legs stretched out a bit, I felt really strong. I took the first two miles out faster than I wanted to. I really need to work on my pacing early on in these runs. At the 2.5 mile mark, I passed under the bridge that would normally serve as the cross over of the 5-mile loop I do quite often, and I was in virgin territory. I crossed my fingers that the trail would continue on in a straight line, with no "Ts", "Ys", or any other letters to confuse me. So far so good. I made it to mile 4 and found myself in a nice little park right along the Mississippi river. Duh, I was on the River Parkway trail...as far as I knew, this trail would let me run to New Orleans if I wanted. So, I quit worrying about my route and decided to try my first fuel of the day. This week I went back to energy gel. After two not super-successful weeks with chews, it seemed like the best idea. I had two packs, so I planned to take one at 4 miles and one at 8 miles. The first one was Clif Shot Gel, strawberry, with caffeine:

Flavor-wise, this was good. Not too sweet, but not super delicious. It went down smoothly and I took a small sip of water after. Boost-wise, let me just say, this stuff was like rocket fuel! I immediately felt a jolt of strength and energy, and actually ran mile five faster than the previous four. I sustained the energy, if not the speed for the next few miles. This is definitely a winner, although I might try some other flavors on future runs. At mile six I found myself at another park, which made for a great turn around point. I stopped for a minute to take a few more sips of water and to bask in the sunshine before heading back. My feet were a little tired, but I felt pretty confident that I was going to finish strong.

At mile eight, I still felt energized, but decided to stick with my plan and fuel again. On tap this time was Honey Stinger Gel in fruit smoothie flavor.

I was a little wary of trying this after my gut-busting experience with the Honey Stinger chews last weekend, but I also figured this was all organic with no caffeine, so it might sit better this time. The flavor was pretty blah, but the gel was really smooth. I didn't feel like I needed water after taking it, but sipped a little anyway. I was hoping for another jolt like I had with the first gel, but it didn't happen. It actually never really happened. I didn't feel much of anything after taking this, and by mile 10 I was really starting to fade. My splits had creeped over the 10-minute mile mark at about mile 8. Since I was on this "giving myself a break" kick this week, I tried to convince myself that this was okay, I needed to just get the mileage done and not worry about my time at this point. But there was also this little voice in the back of my head telling me "you ran a half marathon at a 9:33 per mile pace, what is wrong with you?!?" By mile 10.5 I felt like I was crawling. I told myself, "you can do this, you have one hill and 1 and a half miles, then you can eat!" I tackled the hill pretty well, but that was literally all I had left. I stumbled through the last mile at an 11-minute per mile pace. I know, that really isn't bad, but I felt kind of defeated by it. I will say though, I was so thankful to get back to my office that the pity party didn't last long. I had made it back in time to see the end of the meet, and to load up a huge plate of pasta from the hospitality room. When I went and looked at my splits from the run I realized I had taken the first few miles out SUPER fast, which I'm sure had a lot to do with my major slag at the end. My lessons learned from this week, are not only to give myself a break every once and awhile, but also to stop starting my long runs like a bat out of hell! Now, bring on Rest Day!