Week Run Down

Hey Hey! Ok, this isn’t Glenn’s Eagle Creek race report- not nearly as exciting I’m sure, but a quick post on my little 14 miles yesterday.

My mom agreed to watch Marshall on Saturday AM during Glenn’s race- so I really had not reason to not get my long run in. I didn’t really want to do it- my legs were TIRED.

Coming off Ironman Muncie- I took 2 weeks of recovery. Still working out 6 days a week (what kind of recovery is that crazy?!) BUT, very gentle working out. Seriously it was a recovery. For the mind and body for sure. Just easy, easy stuff.

This past week, I ramped up the running. The original plan was to race the Chicago half September 8th, but I recently realized I have an important celebration on Saturday night, the night before and I don’t think I can miss it. So, I think I’ll be racing the Indy Women’s half instead.

Throughout the 70.3 training, I was running only 3-4 days a week (usually 3) and peaking out around 25 miles. The swim and the bike were the disciplines I focused on more.

This week, I ran 46 miles. For marathon training, that is a low mileage week for me, but after coming off so few miles for so many weeks, months really, my legs are FEELING IT.

So, about those 14 miles. I warmed up 1.5 miles with Glenn before his race started. I saw him off- stood in line at portapotties forever, talked to my friend Lauren who was running the quarter marathon. Naturally, I chatted with her and her husband, along with some Back on My Feet runners and waited to get back into my run until their race started.

I got to 8 miles before I made my way back to watch Glenn get finished. I was out running on random country roads and I kept getting nervous that- 1. I was going to get myself lost. 2. I’d miss him finishing because I was selfishly concerned with my own training run. 3. I’d get raped and murdered by some random scary person hiding in the cornfields I was running by.

After watching Glenn coming in, I hung out and talked to a million people and waited for the award ceremony so I could watch him get his 2ND PLACE award. (Proud wife here).

Basically it had been at least an hour since I’d stopped running. I thought about calling it a day and doing my long run today, but I REALLY wanted this rest day. Like really bad. So I convinced Glenn to do a cool down with me for at least some of the 6 I had left. He ran a mile with me, but legs were feeling beat up from the race, so I took off to get those last darn 5 over with. Talk about dragging out a long run.

It was all good though. When I started the first half of the run after our warm up and once Glenn had started his race, I had no plan on actually doing all 14 yesterday. I can’t believe how tired my legs were. I was running 8:45 miles and heavy breathing. I felt heavy and blah. I was glad to be able to finish the last 5 at a quick pace though.

I generally do not think breaking up the long run is a good idea, but flexibility is key sometimes and honestly, stopping for an hour and starting again is actually harder to do sometimes. Good mental training?

Here’s my rundown of training this week: I have quickly been reminded how much more impact and taxing on your body running is over biking and swimming. No wonder runners get injured so much. While I will always find running to be therapeutic (physically and emotionally), I have to say swimming is more so physically than running might ever be for me. Quality workouts and oh so friendly to the body.

Monday- Run, 8 miles- progression, starting at 8:15, ending at 6:30. Average pace 7:33.

Tuesday – Run, 4 miles, easy 8:24 pace, Swim, 1000 yds, easy

Wednesday–  AM Run- 6 miles, K Repeats. W/U 1 miles, 6 X 1K w/ 2 min rest. Pace for this workout was supposed to hit 5:58-6:02 mile pace, which is 3:42-3:46 per K. The paces I actually hit- 3:42, 3:45, 3:41, 3:49, 3:44, 3:48. (This was tough)

PM Run- Run, 3 Miles Easy- 8:30 pace

Thursday- Run, 4 Miles Easy- 8:00 pace, 1500 Swim (1000 free, 500 w/ some variation of breast, back, kick board and pull buoy)

Friday- Run, 8 Miles Easy- 2 mi w/ Back on My Feet at 10:50 pace, 6 on my own at 8:15 pace

Saturday- Run, 14 miles at 8:04 pace. This run was funny and my splits are all over the place. Here they are… I’m not sure if the same person was really running this. haha.

Mile 1- 8:29 
Mile 2- 8:28 
Mile 3- 8:47 
Mile 4- 8:40 
Mile 5- 8:05 
Mile 6- 8:11 
Mile 7- 8:23 
Mile 8- 8:04 
Mile 9- 9:18 
Mile 10- 7:50 
Mile 11- 7:32 
Mile 12- 6:48 
Mile 13- 6:35 
Mile 14- 7:46

Sunday- REST

Anyway- the exciting post coming up will be Glenn’s race report- this is just my rambling of training. CONGRATULATIONS to him for an amazing 2nd place finish. (You think the guy who won wasn’t wearing big Dr. Dre headphones. BUT he was.)

I hope you all are having a great weekend. It is absolutely amazingly gorgeous out today. I’m excited to chill and just enjoy it.