WDW Marathon Training - Week 4/15
This week was exhausting. My body started doing this neat thing where it wakes up at 3am and will not go back to sleep
. I am someone who requires my sleep to function. In fact, I don't think that I've ever actually stayed up ALL night because this was true even when I was younger and dumber.
It's Monday now and, other than Hattie barking at some ghosts at 1:30a, my sleep was much better so hopefully my body has figured it out. If not, this is going to be a grueling training cycle
Scheduled
Monday - Easy 4 mi
Tuesday - Speed 8x600m
Wednesday - off
Thursday - Easy 6 mi
Friday - Easy 4 mi
Saturday - 7.5K Race
Sunday - Easy 8/10 mi
Completed
Monday - Easy 4 mi - it was another chilly day. I had to find my winter coat for the morning dog walk but it warmed up to 40 for my run. Perfect running weather!
Tuesday - Speed 8x600m - I had to be at work at 8a and since the sun doesn't get up until 7:30, I waited to do this run until after work. I always feel tired after work so it was a bit of a struggle to get motivated but the run went really well. My goal was 2:51 and my times were 2:52, 2:49, 2:46, 2:48, 2:47, 2:51, 2:48. So still a smidge fast but I was able to keep it together. My legs were a bit sore after this one so instead of my typical strength moves,I found a new core workout. It was just the right amount of challenging so I'm planning to try to incorporate it more often.
Wednesday -
off Easy 6 - I moved this run up a day because I was wfh and would be going back into the office on Thursday. Run was good and legs felt fine.
Thursday -
Easy 6 mi Rest
Friday - Easy 4 mi - the only thing I remember about this run is that some guy mumbled about how slow I was as I passed him. Rude. But also, that's the point of the easy days so I guess it was a success.
Saturday - 7.5K Race - Surprise! Another race! This was hosted by my company and part of it was a celebration of our 75th anniversary, hence 7.5K. Registration was only like $25 and they promised a special commemorative item for the 75th so I couldn't pass it up. I did debate taking this at M tempo pace since 7.5K is pretty close to the 5 tempo miles in the plan, but I'm bad at not racing and decided that I had already modified the schedule to accommodate the race so I should race it.
There were maybe 50 of us so a very small field. I lined up in the front third with no goals other than to just see what happened. I'd never ran a 7.5K so it was going to be a PR regardless. Plus, the course was hilly. 180 ft of ascent compared to the 60 I had run the day before. In my head, a 7:50 pace seemed like a good place to start, 5 seconds slower than my recent 10K. Well, that might have worked on a flatter course but because the first mile was mostly uphill and the second down, my splits were all over the place 7:57 & 7:19
. Around this time I realized that I could only see 3 women in front of me. I wasn't sure if there were more further ahead or not but it seemed likely that I could place. I passed one of them pretty quickly and then she put on a surge and went past. We were only halfway into the race so I just kept at my pace thinking how it was way too early to be in top gear. I ended up catching her again and then I noticed that the front female turned off for the 5K. Totally forgot that was even an option so now I was in second place as far as I could tell. I wasn't totally convinced there wasn't someone else mush further ahead but I had no way to find out.
Third mile was 7:44 and I was feeling really good about where I was. I passed the other female I could see and was greeted with a nice downhill. Sadly it was an uneven path and covered in leaves so I couldn't take it as fast as I would have liked. It wasn't until the 4th mile was completed (8:00) that I realized there was no one particularly close behind me. I wish I hadn't looked because it zapped a lot motivation from me. I didn't have anyone in front to catch and there was no one behind me so I just settled in for the last half mile uphill. It was still difficult with the hills and all, but I didn't feel totally spent at the finish. I was incredibly thirsty and a bit annoyed that the water was not right at the finish so I had to walk around awhile to find it. Once I found the water, I walked back over to the finish to cheer on the other runners and check my time. I didn't take a photo so I don't have the official time but Garmin says 35:28 and I'm guessing it's pretty close. The most exciting part was that there weren't any super speedy females that I couldn't see, so I had in fact won!
There weren't any prizes other than a giant medal and my ego boost
but that's enough for me.
The race itself was kind of disorganized. It was difficult to find the packet pickup and it started a few minutes early which I'm guessing they didn't think was a big deal but I barely made it back from my warm up
. It's also a lot hillier than where I normally run and not particularly well marked. Regardless, it was still a fun way to spend my Saturday and I'm sure I'll sign up again in the future.
Sunday - Easy 8/10 mi - Officially the plan called for 10 miles at long run pace. However, with the modifications for the race, it was suggested to do an easy 8 instead. I thought I might still go for 10 if I felt up for it. When I woke up that morning, my body battery was only 25 so the lack of sleep was definitely catching up to me. The weather was going to get warmer and windier as the day progressed but I knew I couldn't make it 10 miles in my current state. I decided I would wait and go after my afternoon nap. It was in fact warmer (near 80) and windier (30mph with 40 mph gusts). I forgot to update my workout to easy paces so it kept yelling at me that I was going too slow but I had no interest in going faster. The first half of the run went well but something happened at mile 5 and I felt like all my energy was gone. I know is good to run on tired legs but this wasn't that at all. My legs were fine. I debated walking back several times but I knew that would take even longer so I stuck it out and managed the full 8. This wasn't the most glamorous of runs but it is the run I'm most proud of for the week. It really took a lot of self motivation to get out there and to keep going.
Happy running y'all!
. Not exactly the strong start that I was planning. The worst bit is that I was fairly certain that I wouldn't be able to run on Tuesday so I thought about moving that run to Monday but ultimately decided to try to stick to the plan. Ughhh. I guess the lesson here is that if I'm 85% sure that I need to reschedule a run, I should go ahead and do that instead of hoping for the best.
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♀
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