Marathon Training Recap: Week 11

Last week I completed week 11 of marathon training. It wasn’t a stepback week but I was traveling for a family wedding, so unfortunately I cut my miles significantly. But the wedding was phenomenal and I had such a blast with my fam, so it was definitely worth it. Plus I got to meet another running friend in person! More on the wedding later this week.

Last week’s runs went something like this:

Tuesday — 5 miles

5 miles was tough. I just wanted them to be over. I usually pick up my pace just a touch for my shorter mileage days but 5 is the new 4 and I’m finding that I just can’t keep up with myself! It’s all good because long, slow distance is the way to train for a marathon. But it’s an adjustment that I’ll continue to work on through the rest of training.

Wednesday — 8 miles

I’m trying to recall exactly what happened during this run but I truthfully can’t remember. I finished watching The Hunger Games that I started the previous week. I then turned on Bruce Almighty to finish up my mileage. I would say all in all, my 8 miler was unremarkable which is a wonderful improvement! 

Thursday — 5 miles

Thursday was the day I discovered Serial. A couple friends had told me about it and I had briefly heard about it in passing before, but I have never been into the whole podcast thing. Now I’m hooked. And on our road trip over the weekend I got my husband hooked, too. I know season 1 is over, but don’t spoil it for me if you’ve already finished it. I’ve got six episodes left!

Photo Credit: BBC

Saturday — 7 miles

When I was packing for my trip, the forecast originally called for mid 60˚F weather and sunshine. Unfortunately as the week progressed, the temperature kept falling. I ended up swapping out my running clothes the night before our trip to include essentially all of my cold-weather running gear.

Saturday was supposed to go something like this: wake up, meet my friend for a 9-11 mile run through Washington, D.C., come home and take a shower, and head off to Georgetown for some lunch and shopping. She’s training for the KDF Half Marathon in a couple weeks, so it was going to work well with our training schedules.

Instead, what happened was this: I woke up at 6:30 am. My friend Suzanne, whom I had never met in person, was coming to pick me up at my hotel at 7:30 am. We were planning on running 9-11 miles together. I got dressed and double checked my weather app. 

“Feels like 22˚F.” Ugh.

My husband and I went down to the hotel lobby for some coffee while I waited for her arrival. I decided to go outside and check the weather because I saw a few people run by wearing a lot of winter-like clothing. I was dressed in tights, a long sleeve shirt, and a t-shirt. The doorman said, “Going for a run? It’s windy out there!” and boy was he right. As soon as I stepped out onto the sidewalk I caught a huge gust of cold wind! But it was sunny, which was a huge plus. I texted Suzanne to ask her if she thought I needed my fleece jacket, to which she responded yes.

Suzanne arrived and I hopped in her car, armed with my fleece jacket. The sun was shining and I was wearing what I run in in Cleveland at the same temps, so after a few minutes of hemming and hawing, I decided to forego my fleece and left it in her car.

Big mistake. To put it in Suzanne’s terms, major #runningfail. 

My Garmin never found satellites and I had to restart it more than a mile into our run. #Runningfail #2. Once I found satellites I felt some relief. If you don’t track it, it didn’t happen — am I right? 

Suzanne toured me around DC. It was fun — for the most part. The cold really put a damper on it, though. I was frozen. I’ve grown a thick skin having been running through blizzards and freezing rain, but the wind was brutal. I was kicking myself the entire time for not having worn my jacket. My arms were almost numb and my fingers most definitely were.

And finally, #runningfail #3. My hands were frozen, I was frozen, I also had to pee. I just wanted to be done with our run. And the desire to be finished outweighed the desire to seize photo opps. And so I took far fewer photos than I would have liked and had originally intended. It was a bummer but overall Suzanne and I had a good run together. Unfortunately I was so cold I made us quit early, and I was short on overall miles for last week, but it was supremely awesome to meet another person from my running group and I’m grateful for the time I spent with her!

After Suzanne dropped me off at my hotel, I took the world’s hottest shower for approximately 40 minutes. I just could not warm myself up.

So lesson learned, kids. Again. (Why do I keep learning this lesson?!) It’s better to overdress than underdress. It can make or break a run if you’re not comfortable temperature-wise. And you can always peel off layers but you can’t add them on if you don’t have them to add!

I can’t wait to tell you about the rest of my weekend. It was a great time! Special thanks to Suzanne for mapping our route, putting up with my complaining, and being an awesome running buddy. Can’t wait to do it again (when it’s warmer)!

This week is technically my stepback week even though I just had one last week… I haven’t decided if I’m going to stick with 13 or bump it up to 18 on Saturday. I’ll play it by ear. It will be another tough week, that’s for sure. Bring it!!

xo

Tell me… have YOU ever UNDERDRESSED for a run? How did it go? 

Or, have you OVERDRESSED for a run? And how did that one turn out?