Marathon Training Week 7 – Another Year Older, Another Year Faster

Good morning! I feel like I just posted, because I did. That was for the race that I ran on Saturday (which was my training long run, sort of), but now it’s time to recap the week in training for the Richmond Marathon.

This week included a holiday, a birthday and a half marathon PR, so I’d say it was a pretty good week!

Monday, Labor Day – Cross-training

Gyms on Labor Day. Not much laboring.

 

I was originally going to go for a bonus run with my work running group, but talked myself out of it. It was kind of warm outside and I can’t be running every bonus run that I want, so I did the right thing and cross-trained. I was especially proud of myself because the Y was closed early and I had forgotten, so I had to drive all the way to my work gym (and I HATE going to work on my days off). The gym was pretty quiet. I was able to beat myself into the ground with a 20 minute workout of push ups, squats, pull ups and jumping rope. I made it rain up in there. I finished it off with 10 minutes on the elliptical to try and get the feeling back in my body.

Track Tuesday (7×800, 2:50 or 5:40 mile pace)

Not many 2:50s, but you do what you can.

 

This was one of those mornings that I knew I was going to suffer. I didn’t feel great when I climbed out of bed to get to the track at 5:30 sharp. My gut felt busted. My legs felt heavy. If no one else had shown up, I might have gone home. Luckily, running buddy MC was there and looking to run some 800s too. MC is a great runner and can kick my butt most of the time. She helped pull me along as best she could, but I couldn’t run the 2:50s as planned. I did my best and sometimes that’s all you can do.

Wednesday – Cross-Training

I was originally going to let Lil Code kick my butt at the gym, but I was still feeling somewhat run down and was worried about my tempo run the next day. I ended up doing a slightly less intense workout that consisted of 10 minutes on some sort of stationary bike with moving handles, then 10 minutes of rowing. I finished up with 5 minutes on the VersaClimber. It was a pretty good workout, but probably not as good as what Lil Code would have made me do. I considered it a win.

Tempo Thursday – (6 miles at 7:04 pace, total of 8 miles)

They were prettier than this. Stupid GPS.

 

This was the first workout of my updated marathon training plan that considers my goal of 3:10. It’s really no different than what I’ve been doing, so I wasn’t sweating it at all. Running buddies Brooke and MC tagged along with me for this run, but those softies didn’t do all 6. They did however, kick my butt in the half marathon on Saturday. This run went really well, other than my GPS got stupid. I was a little fast most of the time, but I’d rather be a little fast than a little slow 🙂

Birthday Friday! – Rest

I spent my birthday hanging out at my kids’ school as a Watchdog. Watchdogs is a program where dads or dad types go to the school and go from class to class to get involved with the kids. It’s a lot of fun, but also EXHAUSTING. Every time I go, I’m reminded of what teachers must endure on a daily basis. I tip my hat to them. Luckily, it was pizza day at the cafeteria! I have a thing for crappy cafeteria pizza. It’s like it takes me back to the days of my youth or something. My lovely wife brought me a delicious chocolate peanut butter donut to go with the pizza, so I was doing alright. After school, she made us homemade bacon, egg and cheese biscuits for dinner. You cannot BEAT breakfast for dinner! I spent the evening just relaxing and went to bed early enough to get a good night’s sleep for the upcoming race.

Long Run Saturday – 13 miles at 7:29 pace

I blogged about this run yesterday and had TONS to say. I think you should read it if you haven’t. It’s a WAY better blog post than this one. It’s full of joy and excitement, whereas this one is just the facts. You can find it here.

Long run short, I absolutely blew away my training pace and went into all out race mode. I PRd in the process with a time of 1:30:07. I believe that when you have good days where everything feels right, you just have to go with it. I wasn’t going to let a training plan get in the way of that.

Mile 1 – No clue that I was about to PR.

 

We celebrated my birthday that evening and got together with quite a few friends out at a new brewery in Bedford. It was a great time and it made me appreciate so many of the people in my life. My wife made my favorite dessert, the Chocolate Éclair Torte.

And there was beer!

 

Sunday – Rest

Oh, I rested. And ate. And rested.

Any other PRs this week? Anybody else ignore their training plans? Let’s hear about it!