Greetings from the end of an incredible first weekend of fall–my absolute favorite season! I know it’s cliche, but I’ve always loved the cooler weather, yummy treats, and gorgeous New England foliage. I’m a shoulder season gal through and through, but I’ll take fall over spring any day. The weather this weekend could not have been more perfect for a couple of outdoor adventures: our first time doing “real” rock climbing (which we LOVED–longer post later!) and my annual apple picking outing with my high school gals. More over on the insta, as always.
Oh yeah, and the official Chicago Marathon countdown = 12 days!
This was actually one of my best weeks of training so far, despite the accumulated exhaustion that I am definitely feeling. I hit a total of 39.9 miles (HA) and ran my fastest long run to date, aside from races. Track on Tuesday was a challenging set of 12-16 x 400 at 5k pace with a couple of mile paces thrown in, and I knew I was pooped after 12. So I pushed myself to do one more and then headed home. I definitely am trying to be extra tuned into what my body is telling me to ward off any potential last minute tweaks or injuries. I also squeezed in a 90 minute hot yoga class on Friday, which my hips desperately needed.
I hit the road solo on Sunday morning after an much-needed 9 hours of sleep and had planned to run 2 warm up miles, 10 at my marathon goal pace or MGP of 8:00/mile, and then 2 slower miles to cool down. I actually ended up feeling really strong and running most of my miles in the 7:40-7:50 range–despite the fact that heartbreak hill falls smack in the middle of my running route! More than anything, I think at this point this run just showed my that I AM fit enough and trained enough to hit my 3:30 goal. Mental training is just as important as physical training, if not more so.
I also just want to throw it out there for anyone who is curious–I am following a specific training plan very closely, so even though this may seem like a lot of miles this close to the race, it’s all done completely intentionally. I think a lot of us fall into the trap of picking and choosing our favorite pieces from different training plans and piecing them together (more on this topic in this week’s Run to the Top podcast, which I adore). This cycle, I have been really strict about following my coach’s plan to the letter, with the only deviations being dependent on how my body is feeling. If you have a good coach who knows their stuff, listen to them!
Full recap of the week below 🙂
Week 16:
- Monday: 4.4 miles @ 8:11 average pace
- Tuesday: Track! 400 x 13, 6 total miles (speedwork at 6:33)
- Wednesday: 5 easy miles
- Thursday: 4 sweaty evening miles at 8:04 average
- Friday: 6 easy miles plus 6 x strides, 90 minute yoga
- Saturday: Rock climbing/OFF
- Sunday: 14 miles at MGP (plus a little bit), 7:51 average
Linking up with The Weekly Wrap, hosted by HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin!
Ladies and gents, THE LAST LONG RUN IS DONE. Which mean–IT’S TAPER TIME!!! Ok, sorry for shouting, but I am SO excited to be heading into the last stage of training with just 19 days to go until the race. I’m definitely feeling a zillion times more prepared than I did last year at this point, so it’s extra gratifying to be dialing things down a little bit.
I think it was a combination of physical and mental exhaustion, but either way, I ended up leaving work early and taking a nap before reviving myself for class.
Oops! Now all is well and I can’t wait to play around with all of the features, the most important of which is that I don’t have to wait around for my old school Garmin Forerunner 10 to spend 5 minutes searching for satellites every morning. Huzzah.
Whelp, another couple of weeks and another missed weekly recap–oh well! We had a couple of jam-packed weeks which included 2 weekends in Maine, my 29th birthday, the first week of fall classes, an absolutely nutty time at work, a half marathon, and a friend’s wedding. PHEW.
Other updates: I managed to squeeze a massage into my schedule and it was SO necessary! It really relieved some of the hip tightness I had felt creeping back in, and it felt amazing for my shoulders which had gotten crazy tight with the work and school stress. I also finally invested in a new pair of shoes. I decided to stick with my Asics and the news ones are feelin’ excellent so far.
Hello hello. Slightly belated greetings from the end of another 40 mile week–woot woot!! Despite a shorter long run this week, I was able to top out 40.5 miles total. I actually felt really strong on my 14 mile long run despite the longer mid-week miles, so I really hope to keep this up until I start cutting back for the taper in just a few short weeks. Also, hurrah for cooler morning weather! We definitely still had a few steamy mornings this past week, but things are looking grand on the running weather front 🙂
Week 12:
Guess who just ran her first 40+ mile week?? This gal!! I’m super pleased with how things went this week overall–I definitely met both my goals to run with friends and to increase my overall weekly mileage.
Week 11:
OH HAI! My recap is super duper not on schedule this week, but my head is still a little bit in the clouds with all of the wedding-y stuff so I’m going to keep blaming it on that for the time being. Either way, I’ve mostly been keeping up with my mileage despite the fact that Boston has been a freaking sauna for the last few weeks, so that’s a plus. I may shake up my schedule to post these weekly recaps on Sundays from here on out, mostly because it’s fun to revisit my long runs on my rest day. Also, Strava counts my weekly mileage totals from Monday-Sunday so that’s helpful.
This past weekend J and I were up at the cabin, where it was super duper humid but thankfully in the low 60s for my run on Saturday. As always, I struggled a bit with the lack of basically any flat terrain given the fact that I knew I had a fast finish long run on tap (aka each of the last 7 miles was supposed to be faster than the previous one). My splits weren’t quite as clean as I wanted them to be, mainly because I accidentally negatively split the entire run instead of just the end, but I’ll take it. J and I basically spent the rest of the weekend talking about wedding things and eating (#sorrynotsorry for all of the food pics, instafriends) and drinking mimosas. Not bad for a rainy-ish weekend!
Another week down, another weekend away! I spent last weekend down the Cape for a high school friend’s bachelorette. Despite the lack of sleep, I managed to sneak in a 14 miler along the course of 
The keys for me are keeping my Fridays easy, my Sundays empty, and lots of self care in between (aka yoga and massages!) I got my first massage of training this week at the new-to-me 
Has anyone else been singing 
As I discussed in my last couple of posts, this week started off with an extra rest day to 
My travel schedule has been pretty limiting here, but I’ve met some awesome ladies also training for Chicago at track (hi guys!) and am hoping to meet up with them for some upcoming runs. Also, my weekly mileage has worked out to be a little bit lower than I was planning. I’d like to incorporate a ‘longer’ mid-week run of 6+ miles, probably on Wednesdays or Thursdays. My hope would be to average around 40 miles/week–it’s all about learning to run on tired legs so that miles 20-26 of the marathon feel like a breeze 🙂 Lastly, I’d like to make sure I’m doing some tempo running once a week to incorporate speed beyond my track workouts.
Week 8:
Happy Monday, party people! I have a quick update on my hip pain situation I wrote about in my 
So… this update has to start off with a little bit of less than awesome news. During my run on Wednesday I felt something funny tweak in my hip, and since then I’ve been dealing with some soreness in what I think is my TFL (tensor fasciae latae). I was supposed to run a local 5k today but I’m going to take today and tomorrow off in order to hopefully get things back in order in time for my long run this weekend. Here’s hoping ice, foam rolling, ibuprofen, and stretching will do the trick!!
In order news, I had a lovely and relaxing long weekend in Maine with my mom. Even though she lives down the street it’s always nice to get to spend some really good quality time together, complete with reading, lake swimming, and some late season strawberry picking. She even set an early alarm on Saturday to take a bike ride while I did my long run! Be sure to 
Shorter and Faster 