Madison Marathon Training: Week 14 Training Recap - And a BIG OOPS!

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The biggest thing that happened last week is that I realized that I am a WEEK BEHIND IN TRAINING.  Seriously.  I am not sure how this happened.  Obviously, I miscounted weeks.  I should have started the week of July 8 instead of July 15.  So annoying.  All in all though not a big deal.  What this means is that I will be missing a strength workout and a tempo run.  Given that I have been consistent throughout this training block, I do not think this is that big of a deal.

Last week was a recovery week.  It went well, although I was feeling decent all week - none of that deep fatigue that I have had in previous weeks which led me to have much less variation in pace than I typically do.  My easy runs were at a faster pace than usual. 

Sunday Oct 14

Plan says:  6 easy miles

What I did:  6.15 miles, 49:33 (8:03 avg)

Monday Oct 15

Plan says: Off

What I did:  Off

Tuesday Oct 16

Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 2 x 3 miles with 1 mile recovery in between each set, 1.5 mile cool down

What I did: I didn't feel great for the first 3 miler, but felt AMAZING for the second.  As I posted on my Instagram after this, I have noticed that the time it takes for my body to warm up seems to be increasing.  Also, I need to have a bit more fuel in the tank before doing a workout like this. Again, my goal pace for strength workouts is 6:37.

1.5 mile warm up, 11:43 (7:49 avg pace)

1 - 3 miles, 19:40 (6:32 avg pace) / 1 mile 8:17
2 - 3 miles, 19:07 (6:21 avg pace) /

3 mile cool down, 23:28 (7:49 avg pace)

Wednesday Oct 17

Plan says:  easy 6 miles

What I did:  Afternoon run!  This felt great.

6.01 miles, 47:17 (7:52 avg pace)

Thursday Oct 18

Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 9 miles tempo, 1.5 miles cool down

What I did:  I had to do this in the dark morning, which I was NOT excited about.  My time for the tempo run was a full minute longer than last week.  I tried a Huma gel on this and it didn't exactly sit well with my stomach.  I think I will skip those for the marathon.

1.50 mile, 12:52 (8:35 avg pace)
9 miles, 1:01:38 (6:50 avg pace)
1.1 miles, 9:12 (8:21 avg pace)

Friday Oct 19

Plan says:  easy 10 miles

What I did:  I have been increasingly worried about the hilly course and mid-week, I found out that the woman I ran part of the Madison Mini half with was going to potentially run the Madison Marathon.  I am excited at the possibility of having someone to run with on race day!  I took advantage of my flexible Friday and actually drove to Madison in the morning to run part of the second half of the course and check out the hills first hand.  The good news is that I think the course is manageable, and that there are two hills in particular that stand out in my brain.  I anticipated that this would feel harder than it actually did given that I was doing it the day after my tempo run.

11.5 miles, 1:29:07 (7:45 avg pace)

Saturday Oct 20

Plan says:  easy 10 miles

What I did:  I had wanted to get 10 miles in but I didn't have a lot of time this day because I slept in and didn't do the early morning run so I did the amount of miles that I needed to do to hit the weekly mileage mark.

8.51 miles, 1:04:32 (7:35 avg pace)

Plan Total: 55 miles

What I did: 55.31 miles