Boston training: week 18 (ONE WEEK!!!)

Greetings from taper town! This was a bit of a ho-hum week of training, but I’m going with the adage that a mediocre taper can lead to a great race. Things overall just feel a bit heavy and tired, but I think cutting back even more next week will give me the pep and zing I need on race day.

Workouts: Both my HMGP miles and my MGP miles this week felt harder than usual. I did them without music and hit my paces, but it took effort to get there. I ran the MGP workout way too fast and my stomach was not cooperative, so my goal for this week is to run my marathon pace miles at true marathon pace and to let them feel easy breezy.

Skiing: Since spring doesn’t seem to be arriving any time soon in Boston, we made our way up to Vermont for a day of xc skiing on Saturday. It was such a pleasure! The conditions were near-perfect (I kept having to remind myself it was really April 7th), and it felt good to take a breath and be out in the woods.

Long run: Since Jeremy is ramping up for the Old Port Half Marathon in June, he agreed to join me for my for 10 miler. It was so nice being able to share my last long run with him! He is totally embracing this crazy running thing… my bad 😉 It was his longest run since the fall and he rocked it!

Be Race Ready workshop: On Sunday, I did a restorative yoga/mental race prep workshop with one of my favorite marathoners/yoga teachers, the lovely Cara Gilman. It was a great opportunity to breathe, relax, and practice some meditative strategies for race week and race day.

That’s all for now, folks! I’ll be back later in the week with a gratitude-filled post about the people who have influenced me most in my running. If you need me, I’ll be resting up and chowing down on my favorite marathon lasagna from Run Fast Eat Slow. One week to go!

Week 18: 34.3 miles

  • Monday: 2×2 at HMGP for 6 total
  • Tuesday: 4 recovery
  • Wednesday: 10 at MGP
  • Thursday: Rest day
  • Friday: 4 easy
  • Saturday: XC skiing!
  • Sunday: AM: 10 easy with J, PM: yoga and meditation workshop

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Taking the Long Way Home).

Week 3 training recap + ski weekend!

img_1542Greetings from the end of the first “real” week of marathon training. This was a tough week to start–the weather was a mix of cold temps, slush, snow, and rain, which made the sidewalks pretty treacherous. I don’t know if it’s just me but solo treadmill miles are my least favorite thing. The paces feel SO much harder inside than outside, and I just don’t enjoy it anywhere near as much. I was incredibly happy to finally get back outside on Friday and Saturday. This coming week is going to be crazy warm (64 on Thursday???) so I might even get to break out the shorts!

This felt like the first week I’m really digging into marathon training–my long run was the most I’ve run at once since Chicago, and I did my first real tempo workout in addition to track. I’m also starting to test out some fueling strategies and work on my recovery and cross-training to stay healthy and injury-free. I just got a set of resistance bands, so I’m excited to add those to the routine.

img_2263Saturday I met up with Alexa for 14 miles, which we kept at a pretty easy pace and chatted the whole way. After a quick shower I hopped in the car and headed up to Jackson, NH for a ski weekend with my J, my parents, and my brother. I grew up cross-country skiing and Jackson is one of my favorite places to do it–the trails are varied, fun, and really well maintained, and the scenery can’t be beat. The added bonus was that all of the gross weather down in Boston was snow up north, so the base depths are within 2-3 feet. Plus, the weather was in the 40s-50s so we didn’t even have to worry about bundling up! Saturday we only skied for a couple of hours but it was the perfect easy shakeout for my stiff legs. After a fabulous dinner at Saalt we turned in pretty early.

Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast and then headed out for a 16k jaunt. The warm temps made for some really slow snow, but we took our time and enjoyed the scenery, including a requisite stop at the Cocoa Cabin (yup, the BEST). There were a few raindrops along the way but it cleared right up and turned out to be a beautiful and fun day.

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Week 3: 34.1 miles total

  • Monday: 5.5 “easy” treadmill miles
  • Tuesday: Track–Strava got all confused but the details are here (in the description). 5.6 total miles
  • Wednesday: 60 minute yoga, strength training routine (clamshells, squats, etc.)
  • Thursday: 5 miles of tempo intervals (2x 10 minutes at 7:10-7:20 pace) on the dreadmill
  • Friday: 4 easy (outside!!)
  • Saturday: 14 miles + skiing
  • Sunday: Skiing!

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Miss Sippipiddlin) and with Eat Pray Run DC for her training recap linkup. Also, joining the Jess’s (Jess Runs ATL and The Right Fits) for their weekly recap linkup!