Marathon Training Recap: Week 8

Almost halfway through marathon training. 10 weeks to go.

It’s getting tough. I can’t sugarcoat it. I remember before I even registered for this race, a friend of mine warned me. He told me that marathon training has nothing on half marathon training. And it’s true. The amount of training that goes in is threefold that of training for a half. Forget about the time spent running — that’s obvious. But the time recovering, both actively and rest days, is tantamount to staying on track. It takes time, it takes energy, and it takes sleep. I have spent more time running, eating, and sleeping than doing anything else over the last eight weeks. And it all just hit me on my last long run on Saturday. Here’s how my week went:

Tuesday — 4 miles+strength conditioning

My husband was traveling for work last week, so unfortunately in order to fit my runs in, I had to wake up before 6 am. The first two days this was not a problem. By Thursday I was ready to not be running and waking up so early anymore.

I got my 4 miles in and since the kids were still sleeping, I figured I’d do my strength training as well. Who knows if Wednesday’s run would yield the same results, so I thought better safe than sorry. I felt great — it was a solid workout.

Wednesday — 4 miles

Lucky for me, I had the foresight to do my strength training on Tuesday because lo and behold, my alarm goes off at 5:45 am and there’s Boo, using the potty. He knew I had to run so I think he went back to sleep. In any event, I ran my 4 miles and almost as soon as I was done, I heard Button through the monitor.

Hubs arrived home Wednesday evening. Phew!

Thursday — 7 miles

My 7 miler was 180˚ different — better — than it had been previously. For whatever reason, I have been having a really hard time nailing down a decent midweek mid-distance run. It finally clicked for me. I had read someone’s post during their miles and miles and miles and miles of treadmill training about changing up speed and incline and how it helped to break up the monotony of their 10+ miles on the ‘mill. I thought I’d give it a shot. How I have not been doing this before completely escapes me. I had set off to make it a different run by fueling throughout, but with all the fluctuating of speed and incline, I noticed I didn’t have to focus so much on fuel. It was a welcome change and I felt amazing. Best mid-distance run yet during this training cycle.

Saturday — 15 miles

Unfortunately starting on Friday I started feeling a touch under the weather. The kids had a week ‘s-long cold, and then my husband caught it, so naturally I was next in line. I shrugged it off and went out for 15 miles anyway.

So much ridiculousness happened on our 15-miler this week. I ran with Sara, Noemi, and Julie and we had a pretty swell time. The path wasn’t ice-snow covered, which made it much more enjoyable than previous weeks. It was still chilly, though.

Around mile 4 I decided I needed to use the facilities. We stopped at one of the outhouses (pit toilets, of course). I walked in and walked right back out. It’s not the smell or the ick factor that bothers me about pit toilets. What bothers me is the “what if someone’s in the bottom of the pit toilet” factor that irks me. So I opted to pee behind the outhouse. Made total sense to me. No one was around anyway. And a deer or a dog could have left the yellow snow.

Onward!

Post potty break. Ta da!

The location we were running looked completely different than what it looked like during blinding snowstorms. It was beautiful, and I could actually make out the river, and differentiate between the path and the bank. At one point we noticed what appeared to be fresh blood on the side of the path but didn’t see anything else so didn’t think much of it.

At our 6-mile turnaround, which oddly seemed like nothing, we had snack time. I enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I had no intention of eating the entire thing, but it turns out I was pretty hungry. It was delicious.

Almost halfway there! Kinda!

The way back from our 6-mile turn was less fun than on the way out. I ran pretty slow almost the entire morning. I just didn’t have the energy that I normally do, and I knew we had 15 miles to cover so I wasn’t interested in pushing myself any more than absolutely necessary.

Around mile 8 we came across a half dismembered squirrel. Yum! And a little further on down the path we saw the blood again — a little on the snowbank from earlier. Then a little more here… a lot more there… and then we saw this:

Major deer carnage. Major.

It was hard to look away, truth be told. After discussing what could have possibly done this to such a giant animal — wolves? no. coyote? maybe. freak accident? it’s possible. car accident? not likely. — Sara finally said, “guys, can we keep running?” Yes, I suppose we should… onward again.

Around mile 10 (I think?) we came across the Spool Piece. We saw it on our way out and somehow incorporated it into our dialogue for almost our entire run. Not entirely sure what the Spool Piece is, but it kept us rolling for miles. We also intersected with the Southwest Interceptor, which made for some additional awesome jokes to keep us occupied.

Spool Piece. #soawesome #soepic

We finally hit mile 12 where we parked our cars, and kept running for a quick 1.5 miles out-and-back on a less groomed part of the trail. Unfortunately by “less groomed” I mean complete hot mess. And by “quick” I mean grueling. It was completely snow/ice packed. From the hikers, runners, and snowshoers, the snow had been compacted. Then, in true Cleveland fashion, it had melted and refroze. So the part where we were running was very hard, very defined feet prints. It made for some difficult running, which ended up in a lot of walking. At the turnaround, we opted to run along a very busy road instead. While I was fearing for my life every time a snowplow or truck passed us along the shoulder, at least I wasn’t in fear of twisting my ankle.

Finally. 15 miles. Done.

#winning!

Wahoo!!!!

Post-run meal happened. I happily hobbled up to the restaurant. And again, I ate all the food. It’s no wonder they warn you not to run a marathon to lose weight. I’m doing anything but!

This picture is deceiving. What started off as coffee, water, and salad ended up being an added banana and an added breakfast sandwich.

After breakfast-lunch (not really sure what meal it was but it was definitely not brunch), I stood up and O.M.G. my calves and my quads were tight as heck. I could barely move. That and my knees took a major beating on the ice pack. And my big toes! Oh my big toes! They are just now recovering. I don’t even know what happened to them but they were bruised just under the nail (no, I haven’t lost any nails… yet…) and boy did it hurt.

Normally I do yoga the day after a long run, but I was so mentally and physically wiped out that I sacrificed yoga for two full on rest days. Very much needed, and quite earned, too.

This week I’m looking forward to another round of 4-7-4 plus a “half marathon.” I’ll be traveling over the weekend so my friend Noemi and I will be hitting a 13-miler early Friday am. We’ll see who else we can convince to join us. It should be fun! And if the weather cooperates, I will be donning shorts for the first time since I don’t even remember when…

That’s my Week 8 in a nutshell. #tired.

Happy running!

Tell me… what did you do over the weekend? Any fitness classes or long runs?