Marathon Monday: 5/14

Well, here it is.  My last Marathon Monday post while training for the Green Bay Cellcom Marathon.  How this is possible, I am still not sure.  But it is?!  I feel kind of a little bit in denial that the big day is almost here but at the same time I am ready.  I am ready to accomplish something that even a year ago I was not sure I would ever do.

I’ve had my fair share of aches and pains while training, hurt my back in January and have been plagued by recurring pains back there.  It’s gotten a LOT better over the past few weeks but I am still semi-fearful something will act up before Sunday.  But there is nothing I can do about that with worrying so I will just try to be careful and play it safe this week.

To recap, this past week I did the following runs for Taper Week 1:

Tuesday 5/8: 4 miles.  I planned for this to be a Tempo run to keep it more interesting but my legs were not having that after the 20 miler on Saturday so I listened and just ran.  It made the run a little more boring but I still managed to keep a pretty good pace.  Nothing speedtacular but that was not really my goal, even when I planned the Tempo idea ;)

Thursday 5/10: 3.5 miles.  I didn’t have a plan for this run but by the end it had turned into a Progression run (each mile faster than the preceding mile).  For whatever reason, I have this feeling that all my weekday runs need a theme… I need to get over this but whatever I guess!  My first mile was run in 9:41, the second in 9:23.  After these two, I figured I had to try to make mile 3 just a little faster, right?  So I ended up doing that one in 8:39.  I guess that’s faster ;)  But of all things, mile 3 seemed the easiest!  I really think I am only warmed up at 3+ miles of running… probably why 10ks and me do not get along very well…  Then I did a .5 mile cool down to home.  This morning was cool and I almost wished I had gloves but seriously, its May.  Time to suck it up! :)

Saturday 5/12: 8 miles.  I debated making this a little longer but in the end just went with 8 miles.  If I am not ready for the marathon now, additional miles this week are not really going to help…

Since I won’t really have a reason to post a Marathon Monday post next week but instead will be doing a recap post (knock on wood), my plans for the next week are are follows:

Tuesday 5/15: 3-5 miles probably walking.  Try to keep this slow and easy.  Easier said than done for me…hence why I might just stick with walking.

Wednesday 5/16: 4×400.  Once last little speed workout to get my legs to remember what running feel like…

So that is it!  That’s the end of Marathon Monday posts (this time around :) ).  Next time I would like to actually follow ONE plan and not keep switching from thing to thing and then finally ending up doing whatever I want when I wake up in the morning.  This worked (hopefully) for a first marathon where I really should not have high goals but I know next time I will want to say I tried a little bit to get to the finish line… Don’t get me wrong, I TRIED this time but I know I didn’t do anything remotely close to what I KNOW I can do with a slight bit more dedication.

Happy Monday!

Marathon Monday: 5/7

Can you believe I will only be able to post ONE more Marathon Monday post after this one before the big day?  Time is just flying for me and I also just realized that May is a full week over already.  How did that happen?  I still want to do a post on my goals for the year but I guess I will be posting that one way after the first of the month!  So anyways, here is what I did running-wise my last full week of training before taper set in…

Tuesday 1: 5 miles.  I ran intervals on this run, warm up, 1 mile fast, 800m recovery, 1 mile fast, recovery, 1 mile fast, cool down.  I really like this kind of run and will probably try to sneak one more in before training is over and I take a little break from running.

Thursday 5/3: 5.3 miles.  My plan was to run 6 miles this morning but for some reason I only made it to 5.3… I ran the Galloway Method and I must have put in the wrong number of intervals but I was not going to be too concerned about missing .7 miles considering how many miles I was planning to run on Saturday!

Saturday 5/5: 20 miles.  My second 20 miler of this training and also my last long run this cycle!  It ended up being the huge confidence booster I needed to hopefully make it to the finish line in 13 days!

So now it’s official… I am in TAPER MODE.  A few short runs with maybe a little speed mixed in, lots of foam rolling and stretching, maybe some yoga, lots of fluids, healthy foods and trying to calm the nerves for the next 13 days!  Yikes!

Taper Time.

I was trying to find a picture of an animal relaxing and this was clearly the most ridiculous picture... who knew Emus laid down?? But I plan to do not much else than this for the next day and a half ;)

I ran my last two miles tonight before the big half marathon on Sunday!  I don’t know why but when I know I am not supposed to run and walk around a lot, that is all I can think about… two miles really felt like a sneeze tonight though so hopefully that is a good sign for Sunday?!?  The weather is now saying a chance of rain (GET OUT OF THAT FORECAST, RAIN!) and apparently, they are also going to “assess the wildfire smoke situation” to make sure it’s safe for runners on Sunday… all I can say is if this half gets cancelled because of wildfire smoke, I am going to know that I am jinxed to partake in these running events (recall the wicked heat wave that randomly started up for my last half…)  But regardless of what the future holds, I am NOT going to worry about it or think about it or anything about it – cause my worrying is not going to change matters :D  I’ll just be saying a prayer that Sunday comes and bring a beautiful running day with it! (and a cessation of this stupid knee funkiness…)  Hopefully it’s just a lack of use pain from the reduced mileage??  I also need to figure out what the heck I can eat before to avoid any accidental gluten consumption because that would NOT be good either!!

Partly CloudyTonight Partly CloudyFriday SunnySat ShowersSUNday Partly CloudyMonday Partly CloudyTuesday Mostly CloudyWednesday Partly CloudyThursday SunnyFriday Mostly SunnySaturday
Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Sunny Showers Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Mostly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Sunny Mostly Sunny
–High 62° 66° 68° 71° 70° 64° 63° 67° 67°
36°Low 40° 51° 55° 48° 56° 53° 50° 51° 51°

See that??  Only day of the next ten with rain forecast?!?  Whattheheck??

Ba – that’s enough for tonight.  I am really tired and the 4:30am wake-up always comes way to early…  Tomorrow’s FRIDAY!!!