Marathon Monday: The Last LONG Run

Er... Marathon Tuesday?? Last week was a good one. I was set to hit 50 miles, but could feel a cold coming by the end of the week so I backed off a bit. No sense in getting sick now if I can avoid it.                                  

Monday - 7 miles with run group

Tuesday - Rest day, 1 hr "graceful YogaGlo flow"

Wednesday - 5 miles a.m., challenging Lifeforce Fitness class, 3 miles easy afterward

Thursday - 30 min continuous YogaGlo flow, 7 miles along the river post work

Friday - 15 min spinning on the bike trainer, 10 min strength work

Saturday - 45 spinning, 75 min power yoga class {to some amazing music from Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack}. This was one of those classes where I had no concept of how long we'd been flowing. Kira had a really varied flow for us with long holds, easier stretches, forearm handstand work that just kept you on your toes. Plus the music was so epic that I'm going to download the soundtrack. 

Sunday - 21 miles of long run fun; Miles 5 to 17 I focused on staying near MGP {marathon goal pace}, which was definitely a bit of a push, but I did it. The next few miles I eased back a bit and then miles 20 and 21 were 8:10 and 8:16. I sort of surprised myself. And followed it up with 20 min of YogaGlo stretching.

Total miles: 43

Yoga time: 3 hours

Thank goodness I like yoga because without it, my hammies would be even worse for wear. My hamstrings are extremely tight so it's a good reminder that I need to keep the stretching thing in my routine. Ideally, I'd be stretching a few minutes after every run.

Mentally, these last few weeks are when I tend to focus in on pace a bit more. I probably should start before the taper, but it seems like this is always the point at which I think "oh yeah, pace. I want to run this thing fast."

Sunday's long run was interesting because I told myself to try for MGP thinking "It's probably too hard. I doubt I can hold that pace for long." Before I've started I'm already second guessing my abilities. Anywho, it's a lesson that I should switch my thinking to quite the opposite: "I'm so going to nail this pace."

Does anyone else walk the line of sickness when you're training hard? Any positive thinking tricks you instill during hard runs or races?

Comments

Unknown said…
Nice information you have shared here and it's great pleasure for me to read this.
Travesti
I got really sick last fall during the marathon training season as I came down with bronchitis. I had to miss over an entire week of training which freaked me out, but my coach kept assuring me that rest was best and my body would bounce back. And it did, luckily. I still think I would have done better if I hadn't take that week off (which meant missing one of my 20 milers) but I guess I'll never know!

It is tough to stay positive sometimes and we are all so hard on ourselves. But I believe in you and know you are going to run a strong race!!! I can't wait to cheer you on!
missris said…
It sounds like you're in amazing shape for this race and I'm really looking forward to reading your recap about how you blow your goal out of the water :) I've been trying to mentally tell myself "I can do this!" instead of "this is too hard" and it definitely makes a difference.
When I was training for marathons, I definitely felt more susceptible to colds and getting sick during high mileage weeks. Hang in there. Just checked the 15-day forecast and it's looking like highs in the mid-50s during the day and nighttime lows of the high 30s (perfect marathon weather, as far as I'm concerned)!
Lindsey said…
Nice work with all of the yoga last week! And the running too. I just downloaded the soundtrack from Kira's class. SO GOOD.

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