There are 75 days until the New York City Marathon and while I wish I felt a little more confident in my fitness level, things are finally starting to come together. I ran 17 miles on Saturday and while my legs were tired, I could sort-of, imagine running 9.2 additional miles. I’m not saying I actually could have done it, but after months of shorter runs, I finally felt like I was marathon training again.
I didn’t end up taking that planned rest day on Sunday, so this past week was a little higher in mileage than I originally planned and man, my legs felt it. Nothing hurts, but the combination of a high mileage week, my first CPTC workout since March, and a long run left my legs feeling pretty fatigued. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – the whole point of marathon training is to slowly get your legs used to higher volume. And it’s a delicate balance between building endurance and avoiding injury/burn-out, but I think (hope!) I’m pretty well-attuned to my body and what it can handle. Sometimes it’s difficult to know if the tiredness is a normal side effect of training or if I need to scale back, you know? But I’m not training for this marathon just to finish, I’m training to PR, and so it’s not supposed to be easy.
And since I know that, I’m going to make a conscious effort to pull back on the complaining (“My legs are tired!” “I want to sleep in instead of going running!”) because I decided to train for this marathon and I was fully aware of the work load required. Yes, my legs are going to be tired. Yes, my long runs are going to be long. No, I won’t have as much free time as I would like. But no one is making me do this and in the end, it’s a decision I think I’ll be glad I made. I read somewhere recently that “Motivation is remembering what you want.” That resonated with me because while instant gratification (snooze button! a late night out!) can be fun, it’s important to keep your eye on the prize. And hopefully that prize will be a marathon performance that I’m proud of.
Anyway, mostly for my own accountability, here is last week’s recap:
Mon, 8/13 – 4 miles
Tues, 8/14 – 8 miles
Wed, 8/15 – 7 miles
Thurs, 8/16 – 12 miles (2.5 mi a.m. shakeout, 9.5 mi p.m. including 6.5 mi tempo)
Fri, 8/17 – 6 miles
Sat, 8/18 – 17 miles
Sun, 8/19 – 8.25 miles
Total: 62 miles
I mentioned it above, but Thursday marked my return to CPTC workouts. I had done a few tempos on my own and incorporated a few short races into my week, but tho was my first official team tempo run since March. I know I’m not in the kind of shape I was in back in the Spring, so I was nervous about how things were going to shake out, but all in all, it wasn’t so terrible. It was a tough run and I felt sort of wrecked afterward, but I was also reminded that 1) I get a lot of satisfaction from these long-grinding workouts and 2) that bone-tired post-workout feeling actually feels pretty rewarding. And that my friends, is what you’d probably call masochism. Anyway! The workout was supposed to be a 6.5 mile out-and-back route with the first half at marathon pace and the second half at half-marathon pace. My splits were pretty uneven (mostly because I started too fast…), but the second half of the tempo was 30+ seconds faster than the first, so at least it was a negative split. A few weeks from now, I’d like the first half to be around 7:20-7:25 pace and the second half to be as close to 7:00 as I can get.
*Note: I hit the lap button at 5.5 miles because I wanted to get a time for the last mile.
First 3.25 miles – 24:21
Second 3.25 miles – 23:44
Total: 6.5 miles in 48:05 (7:23 pace)
Are you still reading? That was a lot of running talk, huh? Good thing I have this blog, otherwise my friends and family would be forced to listen to workout recaps and race splits. And I don’t think I’d have very many friends if I kept that up…
I’ve been eating a lot of tasty things, but few of them have been made by me. I’m picked up CSA veggies this evening, so hopefully I’ll get creative and cook something soon. I actually did put together a very simple dish for a potluck that I attended last night. I made a variation of Smitten Kitchen’s Black Bean Confetti Salad and while it wasn’t too exciting, it was 1) portable and 2) vegetarian, so it fit the bill. However, some of the other potluck dishes were pretty amazing and I left full of vegetables, grains, legumes, and most importantly…wine! I <3 this group of girls. We were all bloggers at some point or another, but most of us have stopped for various reasons. I’m going to link to their Twitter profiles though…because they’re awesome. Also, I finally (!) was able to meet Holly in person. After years of online interaction, I can now call her a real-life friend. Yay, blogging.
Potluck Dinner Plate!
(Try not to be too jealous of my 3GS iPhone camera skillz. It was cutting edge technology back in 2009.)
(From bottom left: baguette with goat cheese, black bean confetti salad, baguette with brie and peach, sautéed romano beans and tomatoes, Israeli couscous, pita and hummus, Greek orzo salad, mushroom and leek stuffing). Plus many desserts later on…
Also, if you’re training for something big (Marathon, Century Ride, etc) – What do you give up? How do you fit it all in? I feel like I’m always scrambling.