Best of intentions to get the week in review up last Sunday – did not happen. Today will have to do.
A number of you have even requested a “day in the life” type post. I would be happy to oblige. At some point I will get that written. For now, just picture something like a three ring circus happening. every. single. day. I love my circus animals. We have fun together. It’s work, but it’s fun. I’m enjoying the summer with my little people. They’re hysterical, and busy, and whiney, and full of life. It’s sometimes hard to tell if they are enjoying the summer with me, because as their dear mother, I seem not to have the ability to ever truly please them…no matter how many donuts I buy them.
Before I get to the recap of last week, here are a few little things I have experienced in training in recent months:
1. Consistency Pays Off
Whether you are nailing your workouts, your paces, your miles, or not – stay consistent and all of those things will fall into place when it is time. Don’t give up or get down on yourself when you don’t see the time on the watch that you want to see. Put in the effort and more importantly the time, and you will make progress. Slowly, but surely. Training, running and goal setting are truly a testament to “slow and steady wins the race”. I mean this in the sense that you don’t need to push, push, push and expect to see results and speed and change happen overnight. Slow and steady. Consistent. Patience. Sometimes you back track a little. You reassess and keep going. That gets results. Then, you go out for a run and all of a sudden that slow and steady consistent running has brought you to a place of fitness that you’ve been waiting and working for. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
2. Hard Work, Works
I’ve said this before, but the hard work of running, the stress workouts, the long runs, they don’t really ever get easier, you just get stronger, and then you pick it up another notch. They are always work. They will be tough. That’s the point. You almost have to trick your mind into believing that even thought it’s hard, you can do it. That’s where the consistency also comes back into play. I’ve done this one particular workout a number of times. It always stresses me out. It always feels like it will be tougher than it is going into it. But, each time I do it, I do it. That gives positive mental feedback of prior successful workouts to fuel me through it for the next one, with the reassurance that I can do it, because I have done it before. It will be tough, but after 3 or 4 times of doing certain workouts, I just resign to the fact that it will be hard, but it will be done, and done well.
3. Stay in the Mile
I’ve had to rely on my “stay in the mile” mantra a bit more lately than I usually do. Maybe it’s the heat, or the stress of life that makes the hard workouts feel harder, but this is a good one. You get out of the mile, it can be a downward spiral. On mile 2 of an 8 mile tempo, you DO NOT want to be thinking, “OMG, I have 6 miles left of this”. I’ve had to break it down to stay in the 1/2 mile. Break it down people. Stay in the moment, stay in the mile.
I think that’s it for now
Let’s look at last week. There was a lot of “work” in last weeks running.
I also had to shuffle the schedule around a bit, because I wasn’t going to be able to run last Saturday. *GASP*!!!. According to my training log, the last day off I had was Boston Marathon recovery. That was about 3 months ago. I didn’t feel like I needed a day off (although, I have to say – the day off was pretty fantastic, so maybe I did need it). My husband was gone from 2am until about 9pm doing a hike up and around Mt. Washington. I have been known to take the kids to the track and let them run their crazy little heads off and play while I do laps, but I just wasn’t feeling it last weekend. I still wanted to make sure I got my miles in, so I did an extra two double days to make up for the missing Saturday miles. I really enjoy the double days. That second run is so short and easy.
84 miles
10 runs
2 workouts + 1 Tempo Long Run
Monday Workout – am: 10 miles @ 7:11, 12 x 600′s, 90 second recovery jog
pm: 4 miles @ 7:25
I think I despise speed work. I am not speedy in the true speedy sense of the word, relative to my training and running. I much prefer the longer endurance stuff. For that reason, this might be one of my least favorite workouts…tough. So, I don’t look at my watch at all when I run these. I go by effort. I’m given a range (1:59 – 2:01), I run. I look at my watch after. I am happy to find that all of them landed in that range, with the last three the fastest (1:58, 1:59, 1:56). 12 is an excessive amount of 600′s. Doing the work. And, if they don’t fall in that range, that’s a bummer. But, I’m learning what kind of effort corresponds to that workout.
Tuesday – am: 10 miles @ 7:05
pm: 4 miles @ 7:17
Crazy humidity on Tuesday and Wednesday. The breathing is tough.
Wednesday – 10 miles @ 7:17
Thursday Workout – am: 11 miles @ 6:36, with a 5 mile WAVE tempo in the middle
Goal – 1/2 mile @ 6:10 – 15, 1/2 mile @ 5:40 – 45, for 5 miles
Actual - 6:15/5:47, 6:10/5:43, 6:09/5:39, 6:14/5:44, 6:08/5:38
pm: 5 miles @ 7:03
Friday – am: 10 hilly miles @ 7:09
pm: 4 miles @ 7:30
Saturday – OFF
Sunday Tempo Long Run – 16 miles @ 6:42
Goal – 4 mile w/u, 8 mile tempo @ 6:09 – 6:12, 4 mile c/d
Actual – 3 mile w/u, 8 tempo @ 6:07, 5 mile c/d
Splits: 6:09, 6:07, 6:03, 6:15, 6:13, 6:03, 6:12, 5:53
Very happy with this workout to wrap up this week of training. I’ve done this one a few times, and this one felt fantastic. I felt like I was fairly comfortable in that zone. “Smooth and relaxed as possible” is the name of the game in these long tempos – I felt as smooth and comfortable as I could be at that pace. Smooth, controlled. calm breathing. Training to get comfortable at marathon pace. That’s a little frightening. I don’t want to talk about that marathon pace right now.
I think we are closing in on close to 11 weeks out from the marathon. The weeks are ticking by.
I ran a last minute 5k tonight, so I’ll get a post up about that.
Thanks for reading! Happy running!
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