NYC Marathon Training Weeks 6 and 7

Has it really been 7 weeks already?? Wow!! Time flies seriously! So we’ve been training in the blazin’ AZ heat for 7 weeks now, and probably have another 4-5 to go before the mornings start to get bearable again. (Hopefully!!) I can’t wait to see how we all improve once the temperature comes down!

So here’s how it went down:

7/24

Today, I did 5 miles on a very hilly course. It was hard for sure! I did 5 miles in about 52 minutes. I did take a few walk breaks, but I really pushed myself over the hills, and sometimes to the point I felt like I had to take a walk break or I might overheat. Effort level was definitely high!

7/25

I did a while blog post on this workout, so check it out!

7/26-7/30

So during these 5 days, I had a little bit of an issue getting up. It started when I skipped my 10-mile time trial because I was going on 4.5 hours of sleep when I woke up at 4am, and I had to work that day. That was ok, in my opinion, because I planned definitively on doing the time trial the next day. Where the problem started was when I decided the next day that I was going to sleep in again, and the next day as well. At this point, I was really really down on myself, felt like a huge loser, felt behind, felt lazy, you name it! So I wrote a blog post on it, and it made me feel a little better to know that I wasn’t alone in hating to get up at the butt crack of dawn. Check it out if you haven’t already!

7/31

I mapped out a 10 mile route from the Foothills, out into Mountain Park Ranch and back for today to run my time trial. I was going to have my redemption! The problem? I woke up at 7:30am. I decided I was going to try to run it anyway, even if it was hot as #$%& out at 8am. That didn’t last long. I always have such good intentions, despite having learned the lesson over and over again that I cannot run in heat over a certain temp. So I ended up running 3.5 miles in the sweltering heat. Better than nothing! Whether or not I ran the time trial, I was back in the game!

8/1

Today, I had track with Team Chances. I talked to Coach Loken about my glum week, and she said to forget about the time trial and just move on. She said I wasn’t behind, and to just make sure not to miss a lot of days of running in a row. One or two days here and there won’t kill the training plan. I was still hung up on not having a 10 mile time to give her, so we agreed that I would time the first 10 miles of my next long run on a flat course and count that. Sweet!! Having a coach is SO nice for SO many reasons! One being a voice of reason. A voice of experience and of encouragement. Susan is amazing! I am so blessed to have met her and have her as a coach and friend!

This track workout consisted of 3X1200M at 5-10K pace with 400M recovery lap in between. I just wanted to try and push my pace to faster than I am used to maintaining, but not kill myself at the same time. Susan said my splits were the makings of a perfect workout! I got a little faster with each one, which I  was surprised at! Here are my splits:

I really enjoyed this track workout (after it was done!). I had a real sense of accomplishment looking at my splits with Susan and having her say I had the perfect workout! I ran another 0.3 or so miles back to the car afterwards. My legs were sore the next two to three days!

8/4

Eeeeeek! 12 miles on San Juan Rd!! A.K.A. hill central along the base of South Mountain. This wonderful running course goes uphill halfway out, then downhill, and finishes uphill, and does the opposite on the way back. So essentially, you get gloriously wonderful hills on your way out and on the way back. Hills are our friends, though, right!?? Uh huh. After I’m done with them! When it’s not 150 degrees outside with the sun shining right down on me!

Honestly, the first half of the run wasn’t that bad temperature-wise. We started before the sun came up, and ended up running over 1/3 of the way back from the turnaround point with the sun behind mountain. That was fantastic! I ended up stopping several times, and walking several several times, especially during miles 9-12 on this run.

I ran into a few friends from the team around mile 2-2.5, so I ran with them for a few miles. We ended up going at a much faster pace than I am used to (as you will see when I show my splits), so I was pretty tired by around mile 5. I stopped at mile 5.5 because I had a rock in my right shoe. Turns out, I also had blood on my sock! Uh-oh! It actually wasn’t that big of a deal, because it didn’t hurt; it was just ugly. That damn Worley toe is just so long!! It’s just like, out there! Lol  

I had what felt like another shoe issue like I had in San Francisco after I put my shoe back on. I couldn’t get it tied the same as my other shoe! That drives me insane, so I ended up re-tying my shoe about 8 times. I finally got it right without tying it too tight, lesson learned in SF. Tight shoes = burning feet for me.

I had several “F-this” moments during this run. I ran alone for most of the rest of the time after my shoe debacle, and after the turnaround, my legs wanting absolutely nothing to do with another hill. I would push myself up the hill, then have to take a walk break. It seems opposite of what you would think to do, but I wanted to try and get the benefit of running up the hills instead of walking, then took walk breaks after getting to the top. Somewhere between miles 8-9,  my legs hit the “lead limb” stage. I always say my legs feel like lead because they get tired and feel heavier.

I pretty much ran/walked the rest of the way back. I ran out of water about 2 miles before the water cooler, so a nice park ranger let me have two bottles of water to fill up my backpack. I also refilled at the water cooler. I don’t know what it is with me and water, but I must have tons. Tons and tons. As in, I went 2.5 miles, topped off, and was out of the 2 liters by the time the park ranger helped me out. It can’t be a bad thing to be well hydrated, but by the end of my run, my belly is very full of water! There has to be a happy medium….

The last two miles after the water cooler were pretty much me running as far as I could and then walking. By running, I mean practically shuffling when I was getting tired. I was just determined to finish in one piece! Susan drove by after getting the water cooler and told me that it doesn’t get any harder than this! It was way too hot by this point, and all this running was doing was making me a tougher runner. Thank God for that. Even if I took a few walk breaks during the last two miles, I still finished strong for the last quarter mile by getting up to an 8-something pace at the end. Being done felt SO good! I dumped two ice cold glasses of water over my head, had some chocolate milk and clementines, and sat and chatted with the team for a bit.

Here were my splits:

I also had a very busy, productive and fun rest of my Saturday! I went to two meetings, saw some friends I hadn’t seen in a week or so, which was great! I also got my hair highlighted and trimmed (finally!!!!). My roots were out of control! That evening, I went to the Sole Sports 5 year anniversary party, and sold my chocolates to benefit CFC. All in all, I had a great weekend!

What did you do this weekend for exercise?? Did you run anywhere fun? Do you drink a crap-ton of water when you run like I do?? What do you consider normal? Are you running the AFC half-marathon in two weeks? When is your next race that you are training for? Leave me some love

Happy Trails!

Stacey