Tuesday : 7 miles easy, GSM, abs
Wednesday : 4 easy miles, GSM, 8-minute abs
Thursday : 1 mile w/u, 1.5 @ half-marathon pace X 4, 2 miles cool down, GSM and 8-minute abs
Friday : Off
Saturday : 5 easy miles, 8-minute abs
Sunday : 13.1 miles @ 7:56 pace (total time : 1:43:57) :)
Weekly Total : 38 miles
Thursday's speed work went well - after a week+ of only easy-paced running. I was happy with how it went and wanted to keep my body happy as well. I iced my muscles when I got home, stretched carefully, and then later in the day took an epsom salt bath. I think these do a great job of really unknotting and relaxing my muscles. (I have to say, they're awfully relaxing even if you don't have a work out to recover from.) After the bath I put on my tightest, most compressing compression socks and put my feet up. (General strength and motility and some more stretching happened later in the evening.) I think that self-care like this has really been helping...as excited as I am to get back to school I have to wonder if my joints and muscles will take a toll when I'm more crunched on time!
I did not prepare for Sunday's long run like I should have. I guess you can't always do that, but up until now I've taken it pretty easy before long runs! I spend Saturday hydrating, make sure I make good food choices that will help me the next day, and generally keep my feet up. Yesterday, I stayed in my sweaty running clothes pretty much all day, and stayed on my feet for much of the day as well! First I was jam-making, and then we had our annual Block Party and I stood up talking to people for about 2 hours. After the Block Party, I stood in the kitchen while I talked to my mom and dad about school-related stuff for about an hour. Now, ordinarily, this shouldn't be much of an issue, but since I typically spend Saturday sitting down reading, or watching movies, or doing work at my desk, this was a bit of a change of pace. I guess it's time for me to get used to not tailoring my schedule completely around running - I definitely won't be able to do that in 4 weeks when schools starts!
As you can see, despite feeling fatigued, tired, and somewhat dehydrated, I had a very good run today. I can't believe I ran that fast for a half-marathon! I shaved FIFTEEN minutes off of my very first half-marathon and 8 minutes off of my half-marathon PR in October.
I used the first mile as a warm-up, then did strides, and then stopped for about 5-10 minutes to stretch everything out (this is my secret during hard workouts...STRETCH before the actual workout starts. I think that this has really helped me). Then I hit the road! The weather wasn't too hot, but it was VERY muggy and I was sweaty almost as soon as I walked out the door this morning. Even still, the run felt pretty manageable/not too hard until about mile 8. At mile 7 my dad met me with Gatorade and water - bless his heart. I hope he's willing to do this for the next 3-4 long runs before I head off to school :)
Miles 8 and 9 felt rough but I felt strong towards the end. My mantra throughout this run was "I am strong. I am fit. I can do hard things." Whenever I doubted myself, I thought about that phrase! Mental strength > physical strength.
I did not prepare for Sunday's long run like I should have. I guess you can't always do that, but up until now I've taken it pretty easy before long runs! I spend Saturday hydrating, make sure I make good food choices that will help me the next day, and generally keep my feet up. Yesterday, I stayed in my sweaty running clothes pretty much all day, and stayed on my feet for much of the day as well! First I was jam-making, and then we had our annual Block Party and I stood up talking to people for about 2 hours. After the Block Party, I stood in the kitchen while I talked to my mom and dad about school-related stuff for about an hour. Now, ordinarily, this shouldn't be much of an issue, but since I typically spend Saturday sitting down reading, or watching movies, or doing work at my desk, this was a bit of a change of pace. I guess it's time for me to get used to not tailoring my schedule completely around running - I definitely won't be able to do that in 4 weeks when schools starts!
As you can see, despite feeling fatigued, tired, and somewhat dehydrated, I had a very good run today. I can't believe I ran that fast for a half-marathon! I shaved FIFTEEN minutes off of my very first half-marathon and 8 minutes off of my half-marathon PR in October.
I used the first mile as a warm-up, then did strides, and then stopped for about 5-10 minutes to stretch everything out (this is my secret during hard workouts...STRETCH before the actual workout starts. I think that this has really helped me). Then I hit the road! The weather wasn't too hot, but it was VERY muggy and I was sweaty almost as soon as I walked out the door this morning. Even still, the run felt pretty manageable/not too hard until about mile 8. At mile 7 my dad met me with Gatorade and water - bless his heart. I hope he's willing to do this for the next 3-4 long runs before I head off to school :)
This run was definitely the confidence boost I needed at this stage of my training. I'm really pleased with how this went today :) When I got home I drank a ton of water and Gatorade, stretched, and took an ice bath. Lots of resting and an epsom salt bath scheduled for this afternoon :)
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