Wasabi’s Marathon Training Selfie of the Week! The post-long run Starbucks 5-person selfie!
Salutations, Salty readers! Week 2 of Boston Marathon training is in the books! It wasn’t quite the overly-enthusiastic, filled with wiggly puppy excitement week I described in my Week 1 training log, but it wasn’t half bad either. I ran a total of 46 miles over 6 workouts and 5 hours and 58 minutes, and you can read about every exciting detail right here in this little post! So get pumped! Here we go…
Monday, 1/6, Recovery Day: 4 miles. It was 60 degrees when I started my run this morning. I ran in short sleeves. The expected temp for tomorrow morning is 14 degrees. This makes me wonder if the forecast for Wednesday could be The Apocalypse. But I digress…
Anyway, I was feeling a little regretful for stating in my “RSVP for Monday Runday” email that we would be running outside “no matter what”, but I was relieved to find that it wasn’t raining when go time rolled around. The weather held until roughly mile 3 of our 4 mile run, but then the bottom fell out. Thus, reducing our distance to 3.71 miles rather than 4. Dang. We almost had it all. Alas, I guess that’s just Monday for you…
Tuesday, 1/7: Easy Hour on the Coldest Day of the Year! 7.01 miles. OMG, I RAN OUTSIDE IN THE POLAR VORTEX!!! Yes friends, this wimpy little North Carolinian ran out of doors on the coldest day of the year. Granted, I held out for the warmest part of the day, a balmy 20 degrees, but still, I fancied myself to be pretty tough for layering up and getting out there and making the magic happen. (Yeah, I know the polar vortex wasn’t as polar-y in North Carolina as it was in other places, but that didn’t stop us from claiming our fair share of whining about how cold it was.)
All weather ranting aside, it was a nice, consistent, uneventful run. I logged the first 3 miles around 8:15, then 4-6 were 7:45-ish, plus a little cool down for lucky #7 in 8:02. Somewhere in there, probably mile 6 I also threw in 4x 30 sec strides with 1 min recoveries just for kicks. And that is the story of how I went for a run in the middle of the Polar Vortex and lived to tell about it!
Wednesday, 1/8: Speedwork: 2x (800m, 600m, 600m) 5.54 miles. It’s hard to believe today’s workout was only 5.5 miles (actually we covered a little more ground than that, but the watch data does not include recoveries.) 2x (800, 600, 600) (which was supposed to be 3x 800, 600, 600, but SOMEONE was horrifically late. I won’t say who that someone was, but let’s just say it wasn’t Saffron.) felt quite challenging indeed and I was pretty grateful when it was done.
The intervals were supposed to be at 5K pace (let’s say 6:20), and here are the splits…
Set 1: 3:10/ 6:10 pace, 2:16/ 6:09 pace, 2:23/ 6:14 pace.
Set 2: 3:00/ 6:09 pace, 2:11/ 6:06 pace, 2:24/ 6:16 pace
I seemed to have 5K pace mostly figured out by the end of each set. I’m pretty annoyed with myself for having to ditch the last round on account of my tardiness, and even more annoyed that the appointment I allegedly had to run off to turned out to be cancelled, but honestly, I don’t know that it was my day to do 3 sets, so I guess I should just be happy with what I got and move on.
Also, I am recommitting myself to being more punctual in 2014, so wish me luck. I SERIOUSLY SUCK at punctuality, so I’m going to need it!
Thursday, 1/9: Rest day! 40 min. of aqua jogging with a friend just for kicks.
Friday, 1/10: Tempo, 2x 10 min. 8.01 miles. I started today’s run feeling tried both physically and mentally. The weather was gray and rainy, and I was feeling pooped from an action-packed week and not-so-pumped about running. I was even less pumped about the possibility of running fast. Thank goodness Saffron was there to make sure I got my arse in gear!
We left for a jaunt around the campus where I work with 2x 10 mins at LT pace (6:40ish) on the docket. Saffron cheerfully described the wet, dreary weather as “very Nike Oregon Project-ish” . This made me feel a little better and tougher.
I felt very sluggish indeed on the warm-up, and when it was time to go I decided that my best bet was to just sit on Saffron’s shoulder and let her pull me along while I hoped for the best. This strategy is kind of the opposite of my running goal for the new year, which is to become more self-reliant, self-motivated, and self-confident, and to do a better job of running my own run. But tagging along was honestly all I had the energy for today, so I just let it happen.
Just as I had hoped, Saffron pulled me right along to a 6:41 mile, followed by .51 miles at 6:44 pace to round out the first interval. (Let’s say that comes out to a 6:42 average for the complete 10 min?) And round 2 was a 6:36 mile followed .52 miles at 6:29 pace. I arbitrarily assign round 2 an average pace of 6:34.
I admittedly felt more alive and better about my life by the end of the workout and we cooled down with 2 miles at 7:31 and 7:45 respectively. It was wet and sloppy and not my peppiest run of all time, but we got shit done, and for that I am thankful!
Saturday, 1/11: Hour at Roughly MGP. 8.03 miles. An extra-exciting group of fabulous running friends showed up for our Saturday donut run today! So great to see some fresh new faces, plus the usual suspects. I was pretty pumped to fit 8 whole miles into just over an hour and they were close enough to marathon goal pace that I am marking this one down as an hour at MGP. Cheers to great friends and yummy donuts!
Sunday, 1/12: Long Run (better known in my inner circle as “Sunday Funday”) 14.01 miles. Another lovely Sunday Funday FTW! We returned to Umstead for this week’s long run, and did the same route as last week, but in reverse. I can’t decide which way is worse. I think the direction we went in today is a little easier. Although the climbing might be more sustained, it is generally not as steep and demoralizing.
At any rate, the weather was pretty great and I felt comfortable in just shorts, long sleeves, and compression socks. The way winter running should be. I enjoyed the company of Saffron, Allison, Caren, and Jen E., and was pretty pumped to keep the average pace (barely) sub-8 despite being temporarily separated from Saffron while she set out to do a few marathon-pace miles of her own. (Sometimes I struggle to believe that I am capable of running fast without her. #runningBFFcodenpendencyproblems.)
I managed to pull off another week of no splits slower than 8:30, even in the hilliest of places, and it felt good to finish strong with some strides.
And so I have officially survived 2 whole weeks of marathon training with out breaking anything or falling apart! Cheers to that, and here’s hoping that the training good fortune continues! Only 14 more weeks until Beantown!
How did your training go last week? What big, exciting races are you training for? Maybe I’ll see you in Boston?
Posted by Wasabi. Check out more at Salty Running.