Marathon Monday

As I sit here writing this, it's raining outside. Now, as a lifelong Oregonian, this shouldn't be in any way shocking. However, I've told myself it would be summer around these parts for at least the next four weeks, meaning most of our long training runs for Chicago would be in the 60-70s with partial or full sun.

Today (Sunday) we had 20 miles on the docket. As I sit inside listening to the rain, 20 miles is not the number of miles I want to run, without an umbrella clad bike riding friend next to me.

Anywho, let's get on with last week's training recap, shall we?

Monday - Emily Sweats arrived in Eugene (she moved from D.C. to run and work in Tracktown, USA) and we met up after work for a little run run (in the sun sun). Before I knew it, 7.25 sweaty miles done. Running with someone faster pushes you to run harder (even when you should be running recovery pace).

Tuesday - Rest day! 30 min yoga flow before work

Wednesday - 6 speedy miles before work; I know I mentioned this last week, but this run was so perfect. The first half I was running toward the full moon and clocking 8:00 min pace miles (warm up mile was somehow 7:41) and when I turned around, I was greeted by a fiery sunrise. After work: Barre3 class, quads heavy

Thursday - Short little yoga stretch before work, 6+ miles SPEED work. The workout: 2 miles warm up, drills, 4.5 laps sprinting straights and jogging the curves, 800m at 5k pace, 4 x 400m at mile pace, 2 x 200m at FAST pace, cool down. It was muggy out. I felt tired during this workout, but a running buddy pushed me to keep up with him. Running alone I wouldn't have gone nearly as fast on the 400 and 200m's. 

Friday - 15 min easy running (with glowing shoes), 20 min Fitnessista strength circuit

It's strange to be running in the dark on these early mornings. 

Saturday - 8.5 miles along the river path, power yoga. I was supposed to get in a 10 miler, but didn't make enough time for it prior to yoga. 

The rest of our day was filled with an adventure of hanging out with high school friends to celebrate Annie's birthday and going to see Foreigner at a free concert in Albany.

The birthday girl gets her dance on!

Pete is a Foreigner fan and knew all of their songs. Granted, he's a pretty big music buff. While I didn't know Foreigner, I definitely recognized a lot of the songs. Some of the songs you might know are "Feels Like the First Time," "Cold as Ice," "Juke Box Hero," and "I Want to Know What Love Is."

Sunday - Long run day, 20 miles

I woke up a little tired after our long Saturday, but ate a bit bowl of cereal and waited for run time. Just as I was getting my fuel out, it started to rain and then pour for the next hour or two. Eventually, the rain let up a bit and we geared up to head out.

I was less than thrilled about the idea of 20 miles in drizzle and rain...

By a little luck, we managed to run during the few hours of dry weather. This week's long run was challenging, but overall I felt stronger than last weekend. 2 hours and 52 min after leaving the house, that first 20 miler of the training cycle was done!

Pete and I both did the same route, which actually motivated me to keep my pace up when my body was telling me otherwise. I would look up and see him a bit ahead and just keep plugging along. 

Before our long run and then later last night, we watched NBC Sports' coverage of the 2012 Ironman Kona. Honestly, it is so impressive to hear these athletes stories. Makes me kinda want to do an Ironman. But then I think about the amount of time it takes me to train for a marathon...