boston training: week 8

these weeks just keep ticking by... must be lack of rest days. i never have any idea what day it is really, which i guess helps as well (this seems to happen when you only work 3 days a week and your training plan week goes from wed to tues. its weird, but i just go with it because it works. what day is it?!). this week was by far the hardest of all the weeks so far... and the plan remains tough from here on out. but friday marked the halfway point in the training, so were basically on the home stretch, right?! lots of work left to do though. at least the weather has been decent (and we have no more snow!! crazy). hen and i spent over an hour at the playground/park yesterday... i likely should order stitch fix to arrive weekly (my wallet disagrees, as does oiselle).

stylish bud light glasses, a running related sweatsuit, sweet compression socks

speaking of friday... it was a rest day, and i was at work. let me just tell you... people i work with (for the most part... not you, angela) do not understand me (angela understand). they think im crazy (true) and that running (period) before work (especially 10 miles) is absurd (also true). but they also dont quite understand running in general. or marathons. particularly the boston marathon. and for some reason friday just happened to be the day that everyone asked me about running and boston. here were a few gems ive heard-

"oh wow, the boston marathon! thats in october, right?"

"are you running the half or the full?"

"have you run a marathon before?"

i cant make this up if i tried.

yum.

so anyway... the speed work aspect of the plan ended last week (yay! i was done with 5k pace. d. o. n. E!) and the strength work started. not that the strength runs are any easier, they just trick you into thinking they are because the pace is slightly more manageable. for double the distance. barf. i went to the chiropractor tuesday and woke up wednesday barely able to get out of bed, my back hurt so bad. not quite sure what happened... but im thinking of canceling my appointment i have scheduled in the weeks leading the marathon because it freaked me out. if my ass shuts off on me, so be it. i dont want to fuck around with an ouchy back. no fun.

sore back and all, i hobbled through 7 of the 8 recovery miles scheduled. side note: recovery miles should not exceed 6. seriously, can i re write this plan? hrumph. thursday my back was still sore but i upped the number on my sleep number bed to like a million (basically slept on a wooden bench) and did my run during hens nap instead of 4am, which seemed to help.

i hadnt finished the run before he woke up... so he got to join me for a bit

this run was great, actually. 6 x 1mile repeats at about 10 seconds faster than MP. for some reason i had thought it was 10k pace, so i was pleasantly surprised when i could just kinda cruise at 7:40s. i also started wearing my new pair of sneakers, which felt great. yay!

rest day friday, 11 miles with 8 @mp on saturday. beautiful day outside, felt like i pushed some sort of "pace button" and just locked in. paces were spot on, slightly fast... hills werent ideal though...

i kept thinking along this run that it would be nice to have people to run with... why doesnt anyone wanna run with me?! in reality, i asked two people if they wanted to come. one of which i knew had to work, the other lives 3 hours away. i guess i like to run alone (at least both of them urged me to stay away from the treadmill and run outside. thats what friends are for!). but i do have a run date next weekend... and shes way faster than me and im gonna likely die. send flowers. or chocolate.

speaking of chocolate, do NOT go to trader joes for their chocolate covered coconut almonds. i will not confirm how many packages of these we have gone through since i discovered them on valentines day. seriously, they are bad. leave them all there (omg.... i. cant. stop. eating....). and their artichoke and jalapeno dip... dont even get me started.

7 easy recovery miles on the tm before work sunday (again... more than 6... i actually dont think i have a 6 mile run left on this whole training plan. i hate this plan! jk. but seriously...) and 8 miles outside yesterday (followed by brownie loading, totally a thing).

and more hills

i dragged out the foam roller and stick (kicking and screaming) last night, and ate a more decent dinner than cheerios and half a bud light.

and then 16 mile long run today... my. legs. feel. like. LEAD. i know, i know. thats how this dumb plan works. cumulative fatigue.  its a huge bitch. (rest day, 11 miles with 8 @ pace, 7 miles, 8 miles, 16 miles... hahaha good luck legs). actually, my run today felt great until i had 4 miles left. in essence, this plan makes your 16 milers feel like 20, so those last 4 miles were like the last 4 of a 20, which always sucked for me (my endurance isnt my best quality). im glad i dont have the uber app on my phone or else one would have been pulling up to me within minutes. i enjoy complaining, as if you havent figured that out yet, but really todays run could have gone better, and could have gone much, much worse. my pace was basically spot on. actually faster than i expected. so thats a good thing i guess.

once again it was 28 degrees (beautiful)... 

im gonna cry when it hits 40 and im dying of overheating

week 8

6x1mi strength- (goal pace 7:38-7:44)- 7:40, 7:38, 7:41, 7:38, 7:38, 7:38. clearly right on target. but the pace felt comfortable and overall felt like it was a solid run.

8 @MP- (goal pace 7:48-8:01)- 7:58, 7:48, 7:52, 7:47, 7:53, 7:51, 7:45, 7:48. really happy to have done this run outside (the key runs of the week im really trying to do outside... that being said, i did one of the key runs on the tm this week... but from here on out!) theres something about knowing youre actually making the pace instead of just going with it from the treadmill settings. and looking at how far ive come from my previous marathons and even the marathon pace runs in the past 8 weeks... very encouraging.

long run- (goal pace 8:20-8:42)- average pace 8:32. slower long run pace than last week, but i also only had to run 10 miles last week. and never had to contemplate calling an uber to bring me home mid run. 

new tunes, both on repeat, as usual:

of course i had lots of things that crossed my mind during my long run today which i wish i could now remember so i could write them down. one day ill bring some sort of recorder with me. a lot of the thoughts had to do with chicago though. i remember like it was yesterday that feeling of crossing the bridge at mile 26, knowing i was about to cross the biggest finish line of my running career, if you so choose to call it. i recently started re-reading some of my blog posts from those races... mdi, chicago, maine coast... it has been almost 3 years of really hard work to get to where i am right now. i dont remember a lot of the training for maine coast, chicago or mdi, but it all paid off on race day. i dont think ill forget my training for boston, although whatever happens on race day... that might replace the thoughts on training for it. this is such a different feeling than training for anything else, hard to explain but im sure thats easy to understand.

last week when i was watching the 2012 olympic trials marathon, one of the announcers said something that stuck with me... "in the age of the internet athletes have had to make a decision. do i let everybody know everything about all of my training, or do i remain a little secretive?" coming back from a year off of writing, ive felt like not only do i want to have all of this training written down for me to read later, but i do enjoy the encouragement from people following along. its a journey for sure. i know that i can put numbers in spreadsheets and do the work and wake up at 3am and pound pavement like a machine... but april 18th. thats the finish line.

be. real.

i did end up ordering the meter shorts from oiselle to see how the different cut (and black fabric) felt vs. the portman shorts. definitely love them (obviously), and way better on the whole butt sweat thing.

still... so... short...

week 8, done!

weve only got this one life... 

live it.