Somehow, The Marathon Returned - comments welcome!

[LSUlakes]

I have another week and a half of vacation and should be able to hit the rest of my runs; then it’s back to Hell - I mean Florida, where I’ll have to heat acclimate again.

While I am not in Florida, but weather wise similar in Baton Rouge, LA. It's really warmed up in the morning over the last week. Up until now, we have had morning lows of 73-75, which is not cool by any measure, but nice for the time of year. Well, its been 78-80 this week and I hate it!!!! To make things worse, this type of weather tends to stay around until at least October. I cant wait for the first cool front that drops the RH% any maybe morning lows in the upper 60's. Next year we plan on a week vacation somewhere in the blue ridge mt area near north Georgia. In early June I think morning lows are still in the 60's... Or so I hope. I should schedule summer trips in higher elevations with 50's for a nice week of running lol.

 

[nancipants]

Well, I'm back in Florida.

July 21 - 27: Did all my runs on this week as well. Was supposed to do hill repeats on Thursday, but I was running in an unfamiliar area that was pretty much ALL hills so I switched to just tempo miles at the end. We went to Bowman Bay on the Washington coast for the morning/afternoon and it was really beautiful there. It was foggy at first, but then the clouds burned around noon. I did my run in the morning while it was still overcast, and later on I did a walk around the shore.

Sunday I had my magic mile. I drove to a nearby trail along the Snohomish River, since it was mostly flat. Because the temps were cooler, I decided to do a full magic mile instead of a half. My time came out to 10:34, slower than my last magic half mile equivalent, but not too bad. I need to play around with what intervals to use for the MM, because 60/30 makes me too exhausted, but 30/30 isn't "fast" enough, so IDK.

July 28 - August 3: I woke up on Tuesday feeling sniffly, but still went out for my race rehearsal run. It went well, and I lamented my imminent return to warmer temperatures. And then that afternoon I started feeling SO sick. My head was pounding and I felt nauseous, so I took my usual migraine meds and laid in bed while waiting for them to kick in. I was so bummed because it was our last full day in Washington and we were supposed to go out to dinner for my MIL's birthday. Thankfully, the meds kicked in mid-afternoon and I felt okay to go to dinner with everyone.

Wednesday we flew home, and Thursday I was still getting over jet lag and my sniffles had turned into a full-blown cold, so I skipped that day's run.

Yesterday I had a 12 mile long run. Since I was still getting over a cold, and it's way too hot even when waking up super early (which I was NOT going to do), I decided to do this on the treadmill. It went fine, mostly, except my lower legs started to really hurt later on in the run. I'm not sure if it was the shoes I was using or if this is just something that happens to me on the treadmill. I wanted to just walk the later miles since I wasn't feeling well, but even walking at 3.0 speed made me feel like I had to really pick up my stride. Today, my shins are sore, but not too bad, and it feels better when I walk. Fueling went well, at least. I tried Dauwaltermelon tailwind I picked up at REI and it was DELICIOUS. That will definitely become my default flavor. I finished the first Corkcicle after 2-ish hours, so I grabbed another one with one scoop of Naked tailwind. I also had two applesauce pouches, a fun-sized bag of M&Ms, and 1.5 corkcicles worth of plain water. I spent the remainder of the day in the pool and playing Mario World 3D with my son.

Speaking of said son, this week he starts kindergarten. Where has the time gone??? Hopefully, my running schedule won't need to change very much since his new school starts around the same time he left for daycare. He might need to leave slightly earlier if he takes the bus, which is fine with me because it means I can run earlier!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Sunday I had my magic mile. I drove to a nearby trail along the Snohomish River, since it was mostly flat. Because the temps were cooler, I decided to do a full magic mile instead of a half. My time came out to 10:34, slower than my last magic half mile equivalent, but not too bad. I need to play around with what intervals to use for the MM, because 60/30 makes me too exhausted, but 30/30 isn't "fast" enough, so IDK.

I've found 40/20 to be a "sneaky" way to still get the 2:1 ratio when 60/30 makes me feel like garbage. At first it's like "hey, that walk break was too short!" But when you realize you only have to run for 10 more seconds, and not twice as many seconds it's a lot more tolerable.

Speaking of said son, this week he starts kindergarten. Where has the time gone??? Hopefully, my running schedule won't need to change very much since his new school starts around the same time he left for daycare. He might need to leave slightly earlier if he takes the bus, which is fine with me because it means I can run earlier!

we still have a month before school starts (after Labor Day up here!) but yeah. It's going to be weird with the baby being in school.

 

[nancipants]

I've found 40/20 to be a "sneaky" way to still get the 2:1 ratio when 60/30 makes me feel like garbage. At first it's like "hey, that walk break was too short!" But when you realize you only have to run for 10 more seconds, and not twice as many seconds it's a lot more tolerable.

Good idea! I tried that on my last "race rehearsal" run and I liked it a lot more than 60/30.

 

[nancipants]

Forgot to mention: I signed up for the Springtime Surprise 10 miler. I will probably regret this when it's April and super hot. But my goal for 2025-2026 is to run a race each month, and I like the 10 miler distance.