Back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now

Week of January 16-22, 2017

Mileage:  64.2, with a set of strides, a double, a 22.5 miler, some additional core/arm strength, and a cold/cough.  I will only have one week with higher mileage before my marathon!  This week also included a short work week, a return flight to Missouri from Arizona (back to reality!), and my local running club's yearly awards banquet.

Monday - 3 mile shake out (8:14) in Phoenix.  "Tired" is a good way to describe this run, as I was feeling Sunday's half marathon on my legs and I got up at 4:20 a.m. (after a night of little sleep) to run this before we left our hotel for an early flight home.  One more run in 55 degrees was much more appealing than doing it later in coldness, plus it was after 5:00 p.m. by the time I got home.  It definitely loosened up my legs and helped with my recovery.  My flight back to Wichita, Kansas followed by a 4.5 hour drive home to Ozark, Missouri - on top of post-race fatigue and not enough sleep - left me ready for bed quite early on Monday night!  At 7:55 p.m. I told Albani that if she wanted to be tucked in before I went to bed, we had better get moving on it!

Tuesday - 8.1 miles base pace (7:25) with Danielle.  I expected to be dragging on this run, and my first couple of miles were a little slower than usual (7:45ish), but I felt fine.  Surprise!  I also did 15 minutes of arm and core strength, since I'd missed bootcamp on Monday (no legs, as I figured that would do more damage than good).

Wednesday - 10.2 mile base pace (7:29) solo.  I was hit hard by a cold overnight, and didn't sleep much due to aches, chills, congestion, a sore throat, and a cough.  My dad got sick on Monday, and about half of the people on our flight on Monday also appeared to be ill, so it was almost inevitable that I'd catch it, being depleted from my Sunday race and lacking sleep.

I had a speed workout scheduled (6 x 1K repeats in 3:40), but there was no way I was going to be able to run anything at sub-6:00 pace with how I felt, and I decided that with my current training goals, getting in my weekly mileage should take precedence over a speed workout (e.g., it would be better to run the Wednesday miles easy and avoid taking any other days off than to try this workout, get sicker, and miss future mileage).  I thought I was being conservative with skipping the workout (2015 and before Sara would have tried to run it anyway), but honestly I probably shouldn't have run this at all, or at least not all 10 miles, because I felt worse after.  I ran at lunch since I felt too bad to do it in the morning, but then I felt too bad to go back to work afterwards, so I also felt guilty about that.

But, after 15 hours of sleep, I improved a great deal!  Being sick/weak/unable to run fast was kind of a bitter pill to swallow coming off a half PR high, but I was also quite thankful this was after the race instead of before, and also not right before my marathon!  Also, coincidentally, the one workout I missed during my last training cycle also came before my 22 miler, and for that one I concluded I did the right thing.

Thursday -  11.9 miles base pace; 8.4 miles a.m. (7:29) and 3.5 miles runch (7:43) - I clearly did not do the math on this day, but I had 8 and 3 scheduled, so you know.  I felt about 85% normal for these, and my morning run included 6 strides.  I ran solo again, as I'd had to cancel on Danielle on Wednesday morning (which I HATE to do!) and didn't want to have to do that again if I woke up feeling horrible.  I was going to skip the second run if I wasn't feeling it, but I ended up feeling better on it than I usually do, likely because I didn't run hard on Wednesday like usual.

Friday - 3.3 mile shake out (7:37) and 25 minutes of strength/core work.  I skipped bootcamp in the name of illness recovery, but did some key strength moves to maintain (single leg squats, single leg dead lifts, lunges, several plank variations, rows, overhead presses, etc.).

Saturday - 22.5 miles steady (7:26; final 1.5 miles were sub-7:00 but coach said not to fast finish so I did not push).  I ran the first 15 miles with Amy, with conversation making the miles fly by.  We started at 5:00 a.m. and she finished just as it was getting to be daylight.  The final 7.5 miles alone went by quickly as well!  One of my neighbors driving by flagged me down around 21.5 and I almost had to be rude to get him to stop talking (I think I said, "I'm at mile 21 of a 22 miler and I can't stop" three times), which I felt bad about - but I really didn't want to stop and hate stopping my watch on runs (I also jogged in place while talking to him).  Overall it was a good solid marathon training run, with the exception of two emergency bathroom stops (one is rare for me and I have never had two! - sorry Amy, sorry tree in church parking lot, sorry random field entrance!), and in related news I did not take gels as planned.  Lesson learned to eat less fiber the evening before long runs; I am good about this before races, but I was emphasizing immune-boosting fruits on Friday and that might have done it!  I had some calories before the run, and some water with a nuun active tab during, and I think since it was all relaxed pace I was fine without calories during.  I still had a bit of a cough, and I felt fine on this run but also worried about getting more sick after.

Saturday evening we had the Ozark Mourtain Ridge Runners yearly awards banquet!  Albani and I both came away with some bling, the best of which was first place in the Parent-Child category!  I was elected to serve on the club board in 2017 - a way to help out while obsessing about running, which seems pretty perfect to me!

She is so proud of these!  She is such a blessing!

This was after we got drenched leaving the banquet

Sunday - 5.2 miles recovery (7:55).  I don't look at my watch on recovery runs, but my splits on this one would have sure made a pretty progression run (8:22, 8:15, 8:01, 7:44, 7:24).  As usual on needed recovery runs, I felt sluggish initially and then good at the end.

My last news of the week is that a lot has changed in regards to the Springfield-area women's contingent at the Phoenix Marathon.  I can't remember where I mentioned it in a past post, but all four of us in the "competitive women's group" (or "slow old women's group", depending on the day) were planning to run the marathon.  Missy, Amy, and Ashley were planning on trying for their first sub-3:00s, which I know they all have in them!  Well, now four have become one; it's just me going.  I will miss the other ladies, but I know I will still have an enjoyable trip with Jon.  I will certainly miss us having the same distance for our long runs, but I am thankful to have company for most of the distance still!