Happy Tuesday and Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In my glory days I would have picked out all of my favorite green articles of clothing and jewelry to wear and head downtown to the St. Patty’s Day parade. Those days are over. I’ve got a marathon to train for!
Marathon training was a bit convoluted last week. It was week 9, which was thankfully a step back week. I was battling a cold and due to traveling over the weekend, I had to bump my long run to Friday morning. I also had some mysterious toe bruising.
Here’s my week 9 in a nutshell:
Tuesday — 4 miles + strength conditioning
This was a decent run. My big toes were sufficiently bruised from the 15 miler, so I was a bit worried about them throughout my entire run. Strength work was okay. I’m thinking this week I’m going to switch things up and hopefully work some different muscles. Since my knees were kind of bothering me during week 8, I’m going to focus on strengthening my quads a bit.
Wednesday — 7 miles
Again, I was paranoid about my big toes. They were sore to start but felt fine as I loosened up. I actually planned on doing this run with the incline and speed intervals but was so wiped out from my cold and the long run that I did this one slow and easy.
Thursday — 4 miles
Thursday was kind of a bummer, but not until the end of the run when I realized what happened. Normally I warm up at a slower pace for 5 minutes, and then (when I’m on the treadmill) I turn up the speed just a touch. I was three quarters of the way through my run when I realized I never turned up my speed so I was running at my warm up pace. Honestly though, I was so tired and run down that I didn’t really care. I cranked it up for the last mile just to get some turnover with my legs but I didn’t fret too much. These miles need to be long, slow and controlled. No need to get fancy!
Friday — 7 miles
Friday was a hot mess! Doomed from the start, my friend and I planned to run 13 miles on Friday the 13th. I’m not sure what we were thinking but in the back of my mind I knew this was a bad idea. I was planning on driving 6 hours the same day, so I knew being utterly exhausted wasn’t the best situation.
 |
| Donning my new awesome Mileage Challenge shirt. Whoop! |
We were planning on heading out at 6:15. She was a bit late, so we didn’t leave until about 6:30. Right then I knew I wouldn’t be able to fit in our entire planned route. Because we got a later start and it was still dark, it made for somewhat questionable road conditions. Rush hour was just beginning, and despite seeing a ton (and I mean a ton) of other runners out there, it was starting to get a bit dicey on the road. Unfortunately about 3 miles in we had to detour to a local bakery anyway. After our unplanned stop, we decided to head back to my house and call it a day.
When we stopped, my watch logged just under 7 miles. This could not have been more ridiculous if we tried:
 |
| 6.66?! On Friday the 13th?! ACK! |
So while this crazy run definitely wasn’t our plan, it worked out because I wasn’t nearly as exhausted as I would have been if we had completed all 13 planned miles. I had a long day ahead of me, and I was already pooped. Plus being Friday the 13th and all…
This is how I spent the rest of my day on Friday:
Unfortunately I didn’t get any yoga in all weekend, but I did fully recover from my cold/cough while I was traveling. Hopefully I’m in a good position to tackle my training this week! I’m looking forward to some solid miles, and I honestly missed my girls so much that I’m really looking forward to long run day on Saturday.
Tell me… Do you get spooked about Friday the 13th? What are you doing to celebrate St. Patty’s Day?
Have a fabulous day and enjoy your green beer and Lucky Charms! (Mmm…)
xo
