Another great 100 mile week! I’ll be honest, it was a rough one but I was able to get in 3 great workouts and 11 runs. I only ran one workout with friends…the rest were alone. That is huge for me. Ever since moving to Virginia I’ve been lucky enough to run 3-6 times a week with friends. Mentally getting through the sufferfest of another 100 mile week alone is an accomplishment. Here is how my week played out:
Monday- AM- 8 miles @ 7:18 pace PM- 7 miles at 7:45 pace
Tuesday- AM- 5 Miles @ 7:30 pace PM- 1 Mile Warm Up, 10 Miles at 6:27 pace (goal marathon pace). I did this on the treadmill because my daughter was next door at a friends and could have come home any minute. She is not old enough to be home alone. Plus mentally marathon pace runs are easier for me on the treadmill. I have my gatorade within arms reach and I don’t have to be on the look out for cars or cyclists. This workout…WAS…..TOUGH. My legs were beaten down and while I do feel like the pace will be doable for 26.2 miles while I am rested and tapered, currently I am NOT rested and tapered. So I struggled but succeeded.
Wednesday- AM- 8 Miles @ 7:40 pace Noon- 7 Miles @ 7:22 pace. Normally I would not run doubles so close together during the day but the Mr. came home from work for lunch and so I jumped at the chance to avoid the treadmill later in the day. I was surprised my pace was so nice too. Legs were a bit sore from the day before.
Thursday- 13 Miles. I was feeling completely worn out and wondering how I would make this workout. I took a power nap before it which ended up making all the difference I needed. I ran this alone around my neighborhood. One mile to warm up then 12 miles with every last quarter mile at 5K pace. I ended up squeezing 12 400′s in there with only one water break. All my 400′s were quick and my overall pace never suffered. A rough start ended up being a very solid workout.
Friday- 11 miles, 7:20 pace.
Saturday- 19 Miles. Renee High, Leah, and I headed out for 18 miles. We are working on limiting our pitstops so we changed up our normal route. Usually we stop at every water fountain, which leads to us all taking turns sipping water, which leads to us chatting to runner friends, which leads to 2-3 minute breaks. There are no 2-3 minute pitstops every 4 miles during our Fall marathons so Renee came up with the idea to run out through the trails, onto the boardwalk, then back on the road only, which worked out perfectly. Once we hit the turn around point on the boardwalk we started intervals dropping Leah off at Mile 11. This was Renee’s planned workout, I was jumping in it with her so I wasn’t exactly sure of what intervals we would run and I asked her to keep me blissfully ignorant of the pain to come. It ended up being something like 1 minute ON, 5 minutes OFF, 3 minutes ON, 3 minutes off, 5 minutes ON, REPEAT, etc. Do you get that? I had no clue either. I was tired and it was Lost in Translation. Renee and I are no slackers and I LOVE it that way. We pushed every interval like it was the last 5 minutes of a marathon. Once we got to mile 18 (the planned stopping point) we were still not at our cars. So we ended up running PAST our cars to make it an even 19 miles, as opposed to finishing with 18.65. We both could barely stand up anymore but we are that stubborn.
Sunday- AM-5 miles PM- 6 Miles (Both relaxed pace, watchless)
This coming up week will be an easier week as I’ll be racing the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon on Sunday. Last year I bombed this race so I’m looking to redeem myself. Unlike most races where I need a goal time to fixate on, I have no goal time. My goal is to run my tail off and cross that finish line unable to stand up…that’s the goal. Leave it all out there then get back to work for the Twin Cities marathon next month.
Another highlight of the week….new kicks!! I adore Running Etc. They take such great care of me!! I’m ready to light a fire under these babies come race day 
They are the new Nike Flyknit Racers. I’ve been running in the Flyknit trainers and LOVE them…so hopefully these will be another new love of mine.
I had a trim and lowlights put in my hair this week. I don’t know how I feel about them yet. What do you think? Lighter? Darker? Obviously this is running related.
Have a great week everyone! If you are running the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half this weekend, let me know!
