Sunday, September 11, 2011

Week 10 - Marathon Trainin Recap

With all the thoughts twirling around in my head realizing that the marathon is only ONE MONTH away, I didn't really have time to stress about actually running 20 miles until the morning of.  I was feeling tired all this week and decided to skip one of my runs in favor of resting my legs for the 3.5 hours of torture I was going to put them through.

Monday - 5.0 miles easy - DID IT
I didn't take the Garmin on this run so I would just run it for myself.  It was a hot evening and I decided a Mexican lunch included a margarita was a good idea...NOT.  My stomach was cramping for the first 3 miles but I just ran through it since I knew I wasn't near a bathroom.  I survived!

Tuesday - 6.0 miles marathon pace - DID IT
1:02:00 - 10:20 pace

Love these marathon pace runs.  Did 3 miles out and back on the Burke Gilman trail right after work and it provided some much needed shade in the 80+ degree temps Seattle has been witnessing lately.

Wednesday - Personal Training - DID IT
Sara was kind to me this week since she knew I had a big run in a couple days.  We focused on the core and did a lot of yoga flow moves and stretching of the IT band and hips.

Thursday - Run with Sonia - REST
My legs were telling me to rest today so I listened to them.  Instead I took Stacey on a walk and we had a photo shoot since I got my camera back...FINALLY!

really bad self portrait!
Friday - REST - DID IT
Didn't do a thing except cooking a healthy salmon dinner and got to bed early before my 5:30 wake up call to run.

Saturday - 20 mile long run - DID IT
3:27:00 - 10:21 pace
Stacey (the human friend) and I set out at 7:30 for our 20 miles.  Outfitted with our hydration belts packed full of sports beans we ran on the Burke Gilman Trail to Montlake Park, around Lake Union, into Ballard and back to my house.  It was SUPER sunny and we filled up our belts at Gasworks Park before conquering the last 6 miles.  My right hip started hurting around mile 14 which was not welcomed.  I had some shooting pain down my leg for about a mile and then I think I just mentally blacked the pain out.  We were thrilled to hear the Garmin beep 20 miles and we hobbled back to my place where we chugged Gatorade and drank some recovery chocolate milk.  After hearing all these amazing things about ice baths I figured I should try one and man I'm glad I did.  The minute I got out of the ice my legs were pain free and I felt surprisingly good the rest of the day!

Sunday - Yoga - REST
I'm bad at doing yoga, but I'm going to try and focus on it much more in this last month of training since I know it will help with my long run pain.  I spent the day with my best friend and we went to the Puyallup fair and looked at the animals, ate super greasy food, and brought home fair scones!
This beast weighed over a TON!
Super weird looking chicken!
Rach and I with our fair scones!
Total Mileage: 31
Total Strength: 1
Total Yoga: none...FAIL again

Marathon Training Week 11 - Say It Do It - September 12-18
It's TAPER TIME.  I've read a million blogs and articles about how people struggle with reducing their mileage and feeling guilty about it...umm...what is wrong with those people.  I can't wait to reduce my mileage and prepare my body to run 26.2 miles WELL RESTED!
Monday - 5.0 miles easy...really easy + YOGA
Tuesday - 6.0 miles with 4 repeats
Wednesday - Personal trainer
Thursday - Take two with run with Sonia, run is her call
Friday - REST or YOGA
Saturday - Long run (haven't decided the distance for this one...)
Sunday - REST

QUESTION: Have any of you marathon runners out there had troubles tapering? 

Check out all my marathon training recaps here!

2 comments:

ashley said...

CRAZY CHICKEN!!!! i f'ed up bad with the taper b/c i kinda just lost motivation to run lol....

good luck and yayyyy, taper means the big day is close!

Kate @ FittingintotheWindyCity said...

awesome job on 20 miles!! we have ours on Sunday and it's awesome to read positive stories (I swear something always starts to hurt around mile 14). I just did my first ice bath after 18 and I was amazed at how well it worked.