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Monday, April 10, 2017

Cellcom Green Bay Marathon Training: Week 12 Recap

It was the tale of two stages this week.

At the beginning of the week, I was a zombie.  If the definition of "cumulative fatigue" means you are walking around ready to nap at the drop of a hat, I thought I had entered that phase.  I was so hungry and pretty tired.  By the weekend thought, I felt like I had recovered a bit and wasn't feeling as tired.  My Sense sleep system has indicated that I have not had a great week of sleep either so that could be the culprit!

I still had a good week of training.  My hip and foot were not very cranky, but I did have two GI flare ups, which, while common in long distance runners, is unusual for me.

Monday Apr 3
It was not ideal to have this workout come the day after the 16 mile long run, however, you do what you have to do.  I thought it better to stay on track than to start a chain of delayed workouts.

Plan Says:  4 x 1.5 mile at 7:05/mile pace with 1 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down and 800 recovery between splits.

What I did:  4:45 alarm clock win!  It was supposed to be raining out, my iPhone weather app said it was raining...but it wasn't!  Thank goodness!  I headed outside.

1 mile warm up:  8:33

I was SO tired and felt a little out of it...which would explain why the first two repeats were only 1.4 miles in length!  After the second set, I realized that I forgot to switch my watch over from the "pace" display to the "distance" display so I thought I was looking at distance ran when I really was looking at calories burned (i.e., 150 was the display - referring to the fact that I burned 150 calories - and my brain read it as 1.5 miles).  I completely missed this on the first set and luckily noticed it on my second one so I ran a longer 3rd repeat to make up for it.  Total DUH moment, but it is DARK in the mornings :)

1.38 miles, 9:33 (6:55 avg pace) / 0.28 miles, 2:37 (9:12 avg pace)* This cool down was shorter because I had to stop to remove my jacket and pick up my water bottle so I did a shorter cool down to make up for the stop.

1.39 miles, 9:25 (6:47 avg pace) / 0.50 at 4:23 (8:46 avg pace)

It started drizzling but was so light that I didn't really notice it.

1.62 miles,  11:06 (6:52 avg pace) / 0.50 at 4:18 (8:35 avg pace)

1.51 miles, 10:34 (7:01 avg pace)

1.54 miles cool down, 13:18 (8:38 avg pace)

Total: 9.73 miles

I was tired at the end of this.  Real tired.  But hot shower post rainy run? LOVED IT!

Tuesday Apr 4
Plan Says: Off

What I did: I considered whether it would be in my best interest to do the 5 miles that I skipped over the weekend.  I was tired so decided that it was in my best interest to take the rest day and treat the missed 5 mile workout as water under the bridge.

Wednesday Apr 5
Plan Says: 9 mile tempo run at 7:15 pace, with 1 mile warm up and cool down.

What I did:  Another 4:30 AM alarm.  Sigh.  I tried skipping and going back to sleep, but knew that we were supposed to get a rain/ice mix later in the day so I could either get out of bed and do this outside, or have to do it on the treadmill later in the day.  That was enough to get me out of bed.

And....I RAN A WARM UP MILE BEFORE A TEMPO RUN FOR ONCE!

1 mile warm up, 8:36

It was then time to step it up.  The whole point of running these tempo runs at marathon pace is to practice running marathon pace.  I have been running these faster than that and wasn't really doing myself any favors, so my goal was truly to try to stick to running this at 7:15.  I did okay with this goal; I was still a bit fast when all was said and done.  I ran the first several miles as loops in my neighborhood, and ran the next several miles as loops in the adjacent neighborhood.  My legs felt tired, but as I reminded myself frequently, that is the point.

We had made this yummy shrimp and broccoli stir fry for dinner the night before.  I bring this up because I was having a lot of GI discomfort throughout this run and felt like I needed to go to the bathroom.  I have felt like this before on runs and every other time it really is nerves more than anything (see the recap of my week 9 tempo run).  Once I get settled into the run, the feeling goes away and we are all good.  Although I didn't feel nervous for this tempo, I kept running without making a pit stop figuring it would go away.

I ran the last mile of this tempo outside of the neighborhoods, which meant that I was going to have to run 1 mile to get back to my house.  "Perfect cool down" was what I thought.

9 miles,  1:04:10 (7:07 avg pace)
Mile splits: 7:12 / 7:13 / 7:10 / 7:08 / 7:01 / 7:09 / 7:02 / 7:04 / 7:10

Phew.  Tempo done!  It was time to cool down.  One more mile.  I really struggled on the last mile.  My legs were tired, and I increasingly felt like I needed a bathroom.  Urgently.  I pushed through mentally, recalling this post, and literally kept telling myself "You are not going to sh** your pants. You are not going to sh** your pants."  I started and stopped a few times.  I made it to my house and was only at 0.9 miles.  I thought, "You have made it this far, you can make it 0.1 to close out the mile", so I kept going until I LITERALLY DIDN'T MAKE IT.  Yes. You are reading between the lines correctly.

That is definitely the first time that has happened to me.

0.96 miles, 8:08 (8:28 avg pace).

I was really proud of myself for getting this done.  Definitely pulling this one into memory when things get tough in the marathon.  AND, I will not be eating shrimp and broccoli stir fry the night before a big run anymore!

Thursday Apr 6
Plan Says: easy 5 miles

What I did:  Woohoo! I didn't have to get up until 5:00 AM to do this!

5 miles, 39:59 (7:59 avg pace)

Friday Apr 7
Plan Says: easy 8 miles

What I did: Another early morning!  I was a little over 2 miles in to this run when I again felt like I needed to use the restroom.  What is going on?!  Luckily I was just doing neighborhood loops so I stopped, went back into my house, used the restroom and was good to go for the rest.

8 miles, 1:03:57 (7:59 avg pace)

Saturday Apr 8
Plan Says: 10 miles at long run pace - 7:54 for me

What I did:   I did not get up early to do this, rather, I ran it in the early afternoon to take advantage of the sun and warmth.  Unfortunately I did not think about the fact that while mid-60s is BEAUTIFUL, my body is definitely used to running in mid 30s.  I went out too fast, and paid for it.  I would like to say that I planned on running the first 5 fast, followed by a slower 5, but the truth is, I totally blew it. This is also a good illustration of why I should not run to music.  I ran to music the first 5 and listened to a podcast the second five.  I get way too caught up in the tempo of the music to do a good job with pacing.

10 miles, 1:12:54 (7:17 avg)
7:03 / 7:09 / 7:05 / 6:58 / 7:05 / 7:21 / 7:32 / 7:29 / 7:36 / 7:33

Sunday Apr 9
Plan says: Easy 7 miles

What I did:  
I am an idiot.  Usually, my Sunday is an "easy 5 miles".  I didn't even look at my plan and went out Sunday morning for an easy 5 miles.

Then, as I was updating my Believe journal for the week, I noticed that I was supposed to do an easy 7 miles.  DUH.  My daughter wanted to run so we ran a mile, with a lot of breaks.  I knew I had about 0.25 to run to get to an even 50 miles, so I went for 0.35 miles after she stopped.

6.35 miles total

5 miles, 39:33 (7:54 avg pace)
1 mile, 10:45
0.35 miles, 8:18 avg pace

Weekly Total
Plan says: 51 miles
What I did: 50.1 miles

Another week down.  I am still enjoying training, which is a good thing, right?  I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left! I had a lot of spacey moments last week.  I need to remember to go to bed before 9 PM during the week!  I mentioned that my sleep was not great last week.  What this means is: I averaged 7.1 hours of sleep during the week and 8 hours on the weekends and the quality of my sleep also was not great - 52% in "medium" sleep with 46% in "deep" sleep.  Usually, my "deep" sleep is in the mid-upper 50s and my medium sleep is in the upper 40s.

Podcasts
1.  I finished listening to the S-Town Podcast .  Loved it.  "I think trying to understand another person is a worthwhile thing to do."

2.  I finished another ROO with Nic Antoinette:  #202 and started another one #206.

1 comment:

  1. Wow- you certainly are getting up there with your mileage and quality too. I smell a PR in your near future! I wish my FitBit app would analyze my sleep but for some reason I never got that functionality, despite having the most up to date app!

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