Sunday, April 10, 2011

Post-half training

I noticed that JoannaRuns got a few new followers this week--welcome, and thanks for joining my journey!!


I learned a lot this week. Primarily, that I left too much on the course last Saturday. But it took me a few days to figure this out. Going into this week I had 40 miles on the schedule, which is a first for me, ever. I kept telling myself, "Sure, it's 40 miles, but it's an easy 40." Um, right. Just because there was no speed or pace work doesn't make the distance any shorter.

  • Monday: 5 miles, easy. My legs felt like J-e-l-l-o for about 1.5, then it was fine. 
  • Tuesday: our yoga instructor didn't show up...again. So my yoga buddy and I went out to breakfast instead. Yeah, I'm hardcore like that.
  • Wednesday: 8 miles, easy. It was pretty unremarkable. Average pace 9:46. 
  • Thursday: missed the 6:40am text from my neighbor saying she needed more sleep. So I waited 10 minutes then headed out to hit our usual route. Soon thereafter I went to the airport to pick up The Beastie for our epic scrappy weekend, which included this:
  • Friday: due to a scheduling conflict I decided to switch my rest day from Sunday to Friday, then run Saturday and Sunday. So I rested. 
  • Saturday: Friday night I stayed up late eating cake and drinking wine, so an early morning run wasn't happening. That left me 6:30-7:45pm to run. Conveniently placed right after dinner, I wanted to puke every.single.step of the way. It was a really bad decision. I finished 6.3 of my 8 mile run before it got dark and I *really* wanted to hurl. Gross. My stomach hurt all night up to and including,
  • Sunday: at 4am, when I woke up to take The Beastie to the airport. I got home at 5:30am, crawled back into bed, and just fell asleep before The Kiddo awoke at 5:45 demanding chicken nuggets. WTF. Even though Sunday is my weekend day to get up with him, Mr. Joanna took the bullet and let me stay in bed. i love that man so much. 
I really never did recover enough today to be productive. It was hard enough to walk to the park and sit on a bench while the kiddo played for an hour. And grocery shopping was almost torture. It was only this morning that I accepted the truth: I PR'ed by a bigger margin than I expected last weekend. Then I didn't decrease mileage at all (just intensity). Then I ran 6.3 miles about 20 minutes after eating dinner. Then I got up at 4am and slept in snippets through the morning after that. The outcome:

the 16 miles just wasn't happening today.


I've accepted that life got in the way of my best laid plans. I also acknowledge that I have a tendency to over-schedule myself, but honestly, that's how I'm happiest. Even so, I've accepted all of the following about today's FAIL:

  1. I'm afraid. I have a marathon in 5 weeks. I only have 2 more really long runs, and I've only hit 16 miles once so far this training cycle. So I'm afraid. Am I really going to be able to PR by the margin I've imagined?
  2. I'm relieved that I allowed myself to rest. I needed it, and it was the right decision. 
  3. I have no idea what time I'm going to pull at Cleveland. 
  4. The recent heat wave (90? In April? Really?) has me scared about weather on race day.
  5. I now understand what it means to "leave too much on the course" 
Tomorrow begins a new week of marathon training. I'm going to nail this week. It's another 40 mile week, and it includes speed and pace work, and I'm determined. The next 2 weeks are absolutely critical. Stick with me. 

6 comments:

Run Jess Run said...

You ran your fanny off at the Martian Half and you're just a bit pooped from it. You are going to do a great job in Cleveland!

Jen B. said...

I admire how you are taking all of this week's experiences and lessons learned and using them to look forward!

Wishing you an amazing week!!

Jen Feeny said...

Live happens girl, you just got to let it go and move on. I always seem to miss either an entire week of training due to something or another during training cycles or at least one long run because of the same. It happens and no one expects you to land every. single. workout without fail. Besides, you had every reason to be tuckered out after that spectacular Half!!!!!!!!!!!!

Marlene said...

Sometimes you have to know when to call it! You could have easily done more harm than good forcing yourself to run 16. This won't hurt you. Good luck with the new week!!

Black Knight said...

Don't worry, you will run a good marathon.
Good luck with this training week.

Jessie said...

My legs always seem to feel like jello for the first mile. I think thats why I like the longer distances. I enjoy for of the run that way! Have a great week and dont nock yourself. Your doing awesome! BTW CONGRATS~ Thanks for the comment!