Hitting 80 miles the week before was exhausting and truth be told I did not want to go that high in miles again. However, I realized with a certain half marathon (I’m going to taper for) and a weekend away visiting family and the Spartan race on the calender, it was time to step up my game and suffer just a little bit more.
Monday – REST! Seriously I don’t think I loved my rest days as much during marathon training as I do now.
Tuesday – 11.5 Miles
For the first time in what seemed like forever but was only a month, I woke up earlier to run. Did some mile repeats for about 5 miles at average pace of 7:28. Felt good to sweat that early again. However, the wake up is still a struggle. I ran about 6.5 miles during lunch. I thought I would struggle after the Cox Marathon but finished in under 52 minutes on incline 3 on the evil work treadmill. It’s funny how the days you expect bad runs, the good ones pop up.
Wednesday – 16 Miles
My big day of double runs! 8 miles outside on the Charles at what I thought was a fast pace but since I had no Garmin and Runkeeper stopped working on my phone, I’m not too sure. My evening run almost stopped after 1 mile when it started to downpour on me. Luckily, I have my basement treadmill and I finished the last 7 in about 8 minute pace. It felt great!
Thursday – 7 Miles
Ran on the Charles for about an hour for about 7 miles in a relaxed pace. Figured I should use some recovery miles after two days of double runs. People watched and enjoyed the sunshine!
Friday – 4.5 Miles
Planned for 6, was making great speed on incline 3 during lunch when my hamstring suddenly felt tight. It hurt to continue running and so I immediately stopped and foam rolled like crazy. I ain’t risking an injury over an extra mile or two! Felt pretty cranky rest of the evening and kept stretching.
Saturday – 23.7 miles!
My favorite run! Ran with one of my favorite trail running buddies. We ran about 13 miles together on different trails in the fells. After we parted, I got the brilliant idea to run the reservoir trail on my own and took a nice little stumble on mile 20 pretty much bruising up my whole right side. Between the fall last week and the fall this week, I probably will not be wearing dresses or skirts to work for a while. Yea, if you want to lose the will to run, fall on the end of your run, that did it. Overall I finished over 20 miles on the trail (the rest were roads) and was on my feet for 5 hours. I think that was successful enough even with the fall. Plus whatever issue I’m having with the tight hamstring doesn’t seem to be an issue when I run trails. Now if only I could learn to lift my legs more so I can stumble less.
I did come across a few heat issues and more bruises than just from falling. My arm fat chaffed a little (okay a lot) where my triceps should be, and my camelbak which never had an issue before cut into my neck. I might start wearing bandaid or something to have an extra layer between skin and my camelbak. Anyone have better suggestions? Basically aside from my feet where I was well prepared, my skin was feeling pretty raw =(.
Sunday – 18 Miles
I wanted to do about 20 miles because I figured whats better than a back to back 20 miler. However, I lasted 3 and half hours running and figured between the trails and the rain, it was good enough. Final round out about 13 miles on trails, 3 on the road and 2 on the treadmill after I had enough for the rain and my Camelbak trying to cut my neck off. I ran about 2 miles with Tony before he left me and about 11 with some TARC friends. While I love running on the roads alone, I really enjoy company on the trails. I didn’t track pace too much outside the treadmill run which was about 8:10 pace for the last 2 miles. Trails varied between 11 to 13 depending on the trails and if I had to go downhill.
Total Miles – 81
Total Feelings – Legs & body feel great, but starting to feel like I always lack time to live!