Week 6 - Marathon Trainin Recap

SOO proud of myself this week.  I managed to get all my training runs done while on vacation...woohoo!  I'm sure it had something to do with the fact I realized the Chicago Marathon is 2 months away.

I was in upstate New York visiting my mom's side of the family and the week FLEW by.  I felt like I was there for a day, not a week!

Monday - 5.0 mile run - DID IT
48:00 - 9:38 pace
Got up as soon as I woke up and hit the pavement in the humidity.  Ran on main roads from my uncles house to my aunts house.  It was super muggy, but pace felt good and I had breakfast casserole and french toast waiting for me at the end.

Tuesday - Yoga for Runners podcast or rest - REST!
Went to a state park with the family and then celebrated my 30th b-day with my whole family that night.  Super fun day with all my cousins, aunts and uncles.

Resting on the beach!

Wednesday - 6.0 mile run - DID IT
1:00:00 - 10:00 pace
All the bad food I had been eating during the week was starting to catch up with me so I took it slower.  I ended up running most of of these miles in this amazing park called The Crossings.  It has tons of trails, water ponds and borders a farm with baby cows that greeted me when I ran in.

picture from landscapeonline.com

The rest of the day was spent at the Saratoga race track where my brother's friend got us access to an owner's box and we even went up on the roof for one of the races.

Thursday - Rest day - DID IT
Me and all my first cousins went to a New York Yankee game in the city.  We took a tour bus down and I'm pretty sure we were on the bus longer than at the game, but it was a fun day with all my cousins!

I wouldn't call myself a Yankee fan but when in New York right?

Friday - 5.0 mile run - DID IT
This was the first time I did a run first thing in the morning with no food in my stomach and I did pretty well.  I think my limit is 5 miles though because I was pretty drained after.  I ran in The Crossings again and discovered a couple new paths.  The rest of my last day in NY was spend shopping with my cousins and BBQin with the whole fam.

Saturday - Rest - DID IT
Flew home early in the morning, picked up my VERY happy to see me pup and went to a friend's birthday party that night.  I was so nice to be back in my own bed and I slept forever!

Sunday - 8.0 mile long run - DID IT
1:17:00 - 9:40 pace
Nothing too exciting to say about this long run other than it's done!  I pushed myself a little harder than normal on long runs and it felt pretty good.  Weather was cloudy and cool and I did an out and back on the Burke Gilman trail.  I have a feeling after all this marathon training I'm going to boycott the BG trail for a few months. I love that it is flat and you don't have to stop for a million stop lights but it gets a little boring doing the same thing over and over again.

Post run treat at Greenlake after purchasing some new runnin shoes

Total Mileage: 24

Marathon Training Week 7 - Say It Do It - August 15-21
Monday - 5.0 miles easy / Yoga!
Tuesday - 6.0 miles with 5 3-minute pickups followed by 3 minutes of slow running
Wednesday - Personal training
Thursday - 5.0 miles easy to moderate pace
Friday - REST or yoga
Saturday/Sunday - 16.0 mile long run <---haven't decided which day to do this and will decide after weekend plans come together.

QUESTION: What thoughts/fears go through your head when you are really really close to running a marathon?  I think my biggest fear is being in too much pain to continue running.  I know my heart can handle running that long but my legs and hips give out before that.