Week 1

Week one is done! The plan was 55 total miles and I did manage to run everything planned without too much trouble. The first few days were hard. I’m not used to double digit runs at the beginning of the week and by Tuesday afternoon, I was feeling exhausted. I did the 11 mile run on Monday at 8:07 pace which was a little too fast probably but it seemed comfortable at the time. On Tuesday, I tried to take it easier but there is something about those strides thrown in that seem to bring the overall pace down. I ended up at 8:00 pace overall. On Wednesday, I made sure to go out easy and I did a hilly route to ensure that I would go slower. I need the hills for Boston anyway. I ended up at 8:24 pace for that 11 miles. The real hard part was getting up on Thursday morning at 5 am and running a 5 mile recovery run. I really need to get my Thursday run done early so I can get to yoga by 6:30 pm and I don’t want to leave work early 4 days a week. It is tougher for me to leave early from the North Little Rock hospital (where I am on Thursday and Friday) than it is in Conway (where I am Monday through Wednesday). Anyway, I ran 8:43 pace and was a bit shocked. Especially since it was so hard. My husband assured me that a recovery run isn’t supposed to be fast and I agree but the 8:43 does kinda hurt my ego. The best part about getting it done early though was having nearly 48 hours to recover for my long run since Friday is my day off. On Saturday, I got up early to do my 15 miler. I did a lot of 15 milers to prepare for this training so I was ready for the distance. I decided on a route that took me up and down a big hill in the 12th mile. This will be good for Boston since the big climbs are in the last half and then there is a punishing downhill section for the the last 10k. I cramped up and fell apart with a mile to go when I ran Boston in 2008 and I’m scared it will happen again. I managed 8:08 pace for the run. I honestly didn’t feel that great for the run. I didn’t feel terrible but I can feel the added mileage. The good thing was that the hills didn’t slow me down much. I did the mile with the big climb in 8:11 which wasn’t anywhere near the slowest mile of the run. I recovered quickly too and was able to run the downhill at 7:42 and the last mile of the run, which was flat, came in at 8:02. It was a good effort. On Sunday I did a 5 mile recovery run at 8:04 pace which felt good.

Here is next week’s schedule:

M-Med Long Run 11mi

T-Lactate Threshold 9mi w/4@ 15k to half marathon race pace

W-Med Long Run 12mi

R-Recovery 5mi

F-Rest

S-Long Run 17mi

S-Recovery 5mi

Total-59 miles

Not too different from last week. The tempo run will be tough but I’m not too scared of it since I’ve been doing some with 6 miles on pace. This will be my first long run since training for Go!STL so that will be a milestone. Brian is running the 15k that morning so there will be some kid juggling but it should work out well.

After the first week, I feel pretty good. The hardest part is the middle of the week just due to sheer exhaustion but that is expected. Aches and pains wise I feel ok. I had kind of a weird catch in my left knee on Thursday morning but it was gone by Saturday. My left hamstring tendon continues to be sore but I think it is getting better. I haven’t done the therapy I promised myself I would do so I’ll try to get some of that in next week. In yoga, the instructor has us do Warrior III to exhaustion on each leg which is similar to the single leg deadlifts I’m supposed to be doing to strengthen that side. I think it is really helping but I’m sure I could speed things up if I did the PT exercises I’m supposed to be doing as well. Weight and nutrition wise I’m doing good. I probably need to lose about 5 lbs before the race to be in top form. I’ve dropped a couple of lbs in the last few weeks and I feel healthy so I don’t think it will be a problem. I need to be as light as possible when I am trying to carry myself up those Newton Hills on the Boston course.

One random thing that I’ve decided to include on here is books read. I am almost always listening to a book while running. I loved to read in high school but all the text book reading in college and grad school turned me off of reading for years. Once I wanted to start again I was busy with work, running and family. My husband turned me on to audiobooks which I can get free from the library so I’m able to get lots of reading in every week. This week I read Big Stone Gap and Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigiani. They are part of a series and are pretty entertaining. They deal with a mining town in the mountains of Virginia and have some funny characters. They are quick and easy reads.