I think week 3 is right. Wow, am I already forgetting where I am in training? This is why it was worth the $9.99 to get the novice 1 app. That, and I have grown accustomed to having Hal shout at me when I was 500 meters left. So of any of you want to stand 500 meters from the finish at Rocket City and yell at me, I'm ok with it.
Please. I beg of someone, DO THIS.
Moving on. Last week was a step back week, which means I didn't really have a long run. My weekday runs were 3 miles, 4 miles, and 3 miles again with Saturday being 5 miles. The first 3 miler on Tuesday was boring on the treadmill, and I got the brilliant idea to lift weights afterwards. A little back story (that I may have already told), I got a wicked chest wall strain last May when I tried to rush some upper body stuff as a migraine was coming on. My form sucked and I paid for it. Then I continued to re injure it all summer. So I thought Tuesday I would very carefully lift some tiny 5 lb weights. Wednesday my chest was aching in one of the injury spots. Then I was SUPER SMART and decided to do my 4 miler on a hill route pushing Emmalyn in the jogger. However, runner logic, my pace was awesome! So what if I left body parts on the pavement somewhere around the 2nd mile?
Yeah. I felt like my pec was being ripped and my left boob was going to fall off. 600 mg of Motrin did nothing. So I walked around all day Thursday randomly "acking" and moaning and grabbing my chest. Friday morning when I got up it was stiff, but thankfully not hurting like it was. I ran 3 miles with K (my favorite weekly run!), and decided cross training can kiss my white and extremely toned runner butt. I am sure there is some sort of special exercise or PT for coming back from an injury like that, but I am just going to take the excuse to not work out my upper body and ignore it like any good runner would. Yoga and running and occasional trail walking. That's it. Frankly, I think flat ironing my hair and balancing lunch plates to the table for my gazillion (3) kids should count as upper body cross training.
Cross training and antioxidants.
Saturday's run was amazing. I was super tired heading out, but I pulled off negative splits again, and kept a great pace. It is hard to run at marathon pace for only 5 miles. Your instinct is to run much faster. The humidity helps slow me down for sure, but the effort was really easy on this run. An added bonus was smelling all of the awesome cookout prep going on. Southern runners know, once football season starts, your Saturday morning runs are just going to smell better. Often it is the motivation we need to run faster and get home to our own cookout and put those calories right back where they belong. Thunder thighs are not made by starving yourself, remember.
We can skip ahead to today, day 1 of week 4. I had to move my training around this week to accommodate soccer. I have to have the kids at the park for an 8 am game Sat, and the husband opens (which means he is gone by 4 AM). That left today or Friday for my long run. Since Friday is my friend run sanity time, I decided on today. Plus I had 2 days of rest and felt it would be better. 9 miles, 10:49 pace, great run. It was sticky humid, so I am glad I got out at sunrise. Again, this run felt mostly effortless. I went out the first mile too fast, but I pulled back and slowed it down to keep a good pace for the rest, and finished strong. I tried out a Gatorade chew for fuel at 5.5 miles on. Normally I do raisins on long runs, but I am needing more. I felt like I got a great jolt of energy. I didn't feel fatigued in the slightest, and I felt I could have gone another few miles easy, even finishing fast. My stomach was a little iffy with it, but it has also been a while since I have run more than 8 miles, so I am definitely trying them again on a longer run.
Another thing I noticed (other than that I forgot body glide again, and oh hey! There are those thunder thighs again!), my shoes need replacing badly. Mile 6 and my knees got that familiar ache. I need these to hold out until the end of the month despite the fact that I am over mileage in them. Fortunately I was able to walk for about a minute and then keep going. It's good, because I still need help remembering I will need to take walk breaks before I get tired in the marathon. Just a minute, long enough to recharge but not lose steam. I am getting better!
So that's today. I am basically worthless this afternoon. This felt like my first real long run of training. I'm pretty much just hydrating, eating everything in sight, and complaining to the husband that I am sooo sleepy every 5 minutes. He was great this morning and got the kids and up to school while I ran. I think it worked out better for my long run to be on his off day while the boys were at school.
Well, I am off to go eat more. Runchies wait for no one.
-Teacup Runner
"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." -Psalm 126:3 NIV
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