I have not updated my training status in a few days. This week begins week 5 of my marathon training. After last week of a recovery week this week proves to be a huge week for me both in training and some goals of mine to help me achieve my ultimate goal of completing a marathon.
Sunday I needed to get a 3 mile run in to cap off my week of training and get to my 24 miles of running for the week. After taking all of Friday off last week, I jumped on the bike on Saturday to help alleviate the soreness and give my heel a rest. Sunday I woke up and felt better. I went out for my 3 mile run and this time I decided to bring Aiden along on his bike. He helped me actually run slow and easy like I should as he is not quite able to ride his bike a long distance yet. He made in 1.75 miles before calling it quits. We had fun biking and running together. This is something I need to do more of when I have my easy runs. I finished up the last 1.25 miles and picked up the pace the final mile, but finished the 3.1 miles in 27:45. This pace was actually the best thing for my body. That should have been it to my training, but I felt like I needed a little bit more training. I knew that I was not going to eat very good the next couple days due to the 4th of July so I jumped on my bike and rode 3.23 miles to a nice hill for me to do knock out some sprints.
Sprint Hill 1: .12 in 39 seconds = 5:21 pace
Sprint Hill 2: .11 in 37 seconds = 5:35 pace
Sprint Hill 3: .11 in 39 seconds = 5:47 pace
Sprint Hill 4: .11 in 34 seconds = 5:02 pace
Legs felt a little jelly from bike ride at first. This was a good little workout. I then jumped on my bike and rode another 6.7 miles to call it a day. I finished Sunday with about 13 miles of work with 3 running and 10 biking and a little sprinting action. I felt great afterwards. The one nice thing about riding the bike is that you can get a good workout, but the body recovers much faster compared to running.
Monday, the 4th I realized that I needed to get my long run in on this day. Originally, I thought/planned for my long 16 mile run on Tuesday, but after thinking that my parents would be here early I knew this was not going to happen. I made plans to get up early around 4 am to run the 16 mile run before the sun came out and it became too hot. Well, after a long day of birthday parties the day before I did not wake up until a little after 7. I ate some breakfast and got myself ready to run at 8:30. I went down to the bike path on the river because I knew it was very flat there and I did not think hills would be in my favor during this long run.
I took a little after 8:30. It was hot. The sun was already out and heating up the bike path. I felt great the first couple miles, but soon realized that this was going to be a long run. I finally made my way to Credit Island and once there I decided that I better lap the island two times to make sure I had my 16 miles in before reaching the Isle of Capri. I knew that if I made it back to my car without the 16 miles done I would not turn back around to finish the course. So, I ran around the 2.5 mile island path and then took off back. I ran a 8:54 pace to finish the run in 2 hours and 22 minutes. I forced myself to run slow so I would not burn out early. My body felt great for most of the run. The only thing that could not sustain the run was my knees. They really started to ache about 10 mile in and the last six miles I felt some pain with each step. Everything else was great. I did go through over 60 ounces of water. I just could not get enough liquids in me. Had I found more water fountains along the way I would have probably drank more. I felt thirsty the entire run.
 |
| Thumbs up after finishing the 16 mile run. Thumbs up to you for trying to achieve your goals. |
I am so proud of myself for tackling this challenge. I remember the feeling of running 14 miles two weeks ago and to do this once again proves how amazing the body really is. I cannot celebrate too long as I have an 18 mile run next week and a 20 mile run the following week. Those just seem impossible in my mind, but I will mentally prepare myself because it was not long ago when I thought 16 seemed impossible.
Today I did not run. Too much to get done this morning. I did knock out my push-ups.
Set 1: 19
Set 2: 26
Set 3: 21
Set 4: 21
Set 5: 31+(I did 35)
I will post tomorrow my next Getting It Done series with updates on my post it notes I have been staring at for the last week as well as some other advice.
Thanks for following my journey. I continue to amaze and surprise myself with what I am accomplishing and I hope you are doing the same for yourself!
Leave a Reply