in a shocking turn of events, I SURVIVED PEAK WEEK! and quite actually kicked the shit out of it. thank you, thank you. i have some pictures to prove that i ran but i dont really remember much about the runs...
ive got a blank space baby...
i think i actually focused on all the business of running and not the selfies and filters and all the instagrams (by the way, follow my posts! or something. kidding. wtf is this world coming to?!)
tuesdays 7.2 (supposed to have been 8, screw those long recovery runs!) was outside but hell if i remember where i went or what i did. seriously, when did this run occur? i think i worked that day? hen would have been at day care but i think i went into work at 1pm and got it done before leaving? sing with me... its allll coming back to me nowwwww. anyway, boring recovery run.
i worked normal hospital hours on thursday, so #alarmsthatstartwith3 was the only option. i hit snooze for the first time this entire training cycle (yes, im serious) and battled with myself on how i could change this run to another day so i didnt have to get up. i couldnt justify moving it, i definitely couldnt justify skipping it. so 10 miles with 3x2mile strength workout it was. i wore my "heartbreak" bra. got shit done. right on pace target... because if youre gonna get up at stupid o'clock you better make it worth it.
my favorite addition to the shoes #bostonstrong
rest day friday. like a boss, obviously. and saturday had 10 miles at mp (with warm up and cool down, so 13. but why run 13 when you can run 13.1. runners are a silly kind of stupid for sure). of course i was in the most ridiculously hilly part of the world (other than mdi, which i swear is the hilliest)... so i didnt really want to kill myself in the form of mp hill death. so i drove to colby college thinking maybe it wouldnt be as hilly. or i could just run on the track, right? no. despite having run 40 miles on a track last august, that was not what i wanted to do at all. so i sadly paid my life savings for a day pass at planet fitness to run for less than 2 hours.
thats a jar of tanning goggles. yes i paid to run 13 miles on a treadmill... but losers rule?
and why are tanning booths even legal still?!
oh hey! i love running!
pretty sure $20 is the cheapest half marathon ive ever paid for, and ironically tys cousin and his girlfriend showed up about 5 miles into my run and i could have run for free with their black card membership or something. thanks for the heads up guys!
but i had a great run. huge huge confidence booster for sure. and listening to hansons running podcast helped pass the time.
why? why does a gym need this?
i do not miss the gym at all.
i was super happy with the run but also excited to be done with it, and spent the rest of the day testing out maple syrup products at our friends sugar shack. then we decorated eggs and ate a ton more food. yay! i love food.
also my ncaa bracket was officially thrown in the trash saturday night, no surprise there. and although i lost a bet in regards to duke vs oregon, in a funny/weird turn of events, the pinterest fail project i made for the winner reward (oreo peanut butter cup something or other covered in chocolate) ended up winning me free cooking classes. thats a win in my book! now i have to find a cooking class to go to (and time to go....)
anyway... the easter bunny came for hen on sunday...
CANDY! ALL FOR ME!
(duke wasnt as excited)
...and for the first time in, oh i dunno, his entire life?... he fell asleep on the way home. we both thought something was wrong with him (he never falls asleep). kid had so much fun running around with family this weekend (and hasnt been napping).
and has a weird new chewing on his clothes obsession
sadly there is no selfie from sunday afternoons bff run. we adventured out into the unknown neighborhoods of westbrook, looking for bbqs and yard sales, per the norm. we discussed houses we should buy (next to each other) and how we would have weekend bbqs and yard sales every weekend (and why arent more people out doing these things on such a nice sunday afternoon?!). running with us is never boring (although i likely bored her with all of the facts about the boston marathon i have been reading about in a book my dad got me for my birthday... did you know that the years 2007 and 2012 there was a 65 degree difference? 25 degrees with 50mph head winds in 2007 and 90+ degrees in 2012. or that after the invention of the automobile they needed to make the marathon a ward of the state so that they could ban cars from the road on the day of the race because people were getting hit?! or that in mile 4 there are things called "three mile islands" that apparently trip people if youre not careful. monsters! the more you know...)
monday, 8 miles, treadmill. nothing special. had to do it in 2 sections... 5 miles, then 3 (hen woke up super early). everyone on every social media outlet was talking about long runs being done and yay boston taper! huh? whats that!? (to which i commented on hansons facebook page and got a few people describing to me what taper was. yes, im aware of what it is, just dont think hansons give us much of one. ill adjust accordingly im sure).
i wasnt sure what my legs were going to feel like for todays long run... they were a bit sore, this was a peak week (60+ miles), and the 16 miles seemed so daunting. i used the foam roller and the stick monday night and took a few ibuprofen. they actually felt ok when i woke up today which i was happy about. and instead of delaying the run and complaining and such (like i usually do... well ok i did text a few people waaaaaah i dont wannnnnaaaa... and they basically were like suck it up asshole. yeah. ok fine. i guess)... i woke up, ate (half a banana, 2 pieces of pb toast), had some coffee, dropped hen off at day care and ended up leaving the house a half hour before i had originally planned to go. get shit done!
i didnt really have much of a plan of where i was gonna run, but i had decided that i needed to do it a) outside and b) on a hilly route. im not necessarily worried that i havent done hill work, because i feel like i have, but i know that this run was going to be a huge confidence booster if i could get it done, and i might as well go big or go home. right? sarah had offered to leave me a key to her house so that i could do the last 12 miles of the boston course on her tm (she has decline on hers, i do not)... but i decided against that. and instead got 38 mph gusts of headwind uphill for the first 8 miles. right. there also may have been a bet involving donuts if i cried on this run, which was likely (spoiler... no crying! i think im too excited! youll surely find me sobbing likely starting at boylston. or hereford. or mile 25. athletes village. oh god i better hydrate well).
my new hokas arrived last night and i decided why not break them in, sounds like a good idea. the first few miles went by pretty quick... then i headed out into gorham. i knew this was going to be uphill all the way there, and downhill all the way back. i wasnt expecting the wind, which totally sucked. i seriously felt like i was dragging a huge parachute full of boulders behind me. and the sand hitting my legs and face hurt (glad i had my sunglasses). and i ate a ton of sand too, all part of a well balanced marathon diet, of course. i was still able to maintain pace close to within range of what i wanted to do for this run, but my legs worked hard for that pace (uphill. into the wind. incase you missed that the first million times i wrote it).
overall the first 8 miles, despite the wind... hills... felt pretty easy, and i was very happy with that. i reached 8 and turned around hoping for strong tailwind. instead i was met with side/headwind. wtf?! this soon subsided and did turn into quite a nice tailwind, which i took full advantage of and cruised into almost marathon pace for a bq and felt like i was floating.
mid run snapchats
i wanna be like my hero SB
the miles ticked off one by one. i had taken a weird way from my house and i had a shorter way to get back but knew if i went that way i wouldnt want to finish the run. so i just retraced all my steps, was met with a bit more headwind (rude), and finished up strong. im pretty sure i negative split the run. strong.
yup... 1:08:14, 1:06:37
(i think, math could always be wrong)
so there we have it.
week 12
3x2mi strength- (goal 15:20-15:40)- 15:30, 15:30, 15:26. kicked ass, took names.
10 @MP- (goal 7:48-8:01)- 7:56, 7:57, 7:54, 7:56, 7:51, 7:51, 7:52, 7:53, 7:47, 7:45. many of these miles felt so comfortable and almost easy. im not sure how this happened throughout this training cycle, but ill take it.
long run- (goal 8:20-8:42)- average pace 8:26. huge confidence booster. headwind. hills. bet you didnt know that.
speaking of mp... i pulled together a fancy spreadsheet of all of my mp runs. its a bit shocking when i put them all down on paper together.
and then i made sam put his computer skillz to good use and figure out a bunch of math stuff that i didnt have time to do (which took him like 3 seconds).
i know ive been training at these speeds and i know ive been training hard... but when its all spelled out there right in front of me... i just didnt know what to think. im so excited for this race!!!
especially if it looks like this!
(well, minus the wind and rain please)
or a runner in marathon training
but now its tailwind
may need to get these bad boys
and of course when you text bff a picture of buy one get one blizzards, she obviously meets you there. where you can also share your stitch fix box reveal!
I want to see the Stitch Fix reveal! Oh, and good job on surviving your toughest week!
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