There’s no getting around it marathon training is adding up as is life. This past week of running was fine as was life but both together was lets just say less than fine. Alright that’s a bit dramatic but we are where we are. I guess dramatic is just the mood that I’m in. Nothing really dramatic happened this week but it’s the little things you know. I guess you could really say that those once or twice a year annoyances all came to visit this week, car repairs, less than ideal neighbors and minor work ickiness all happened at the same time. None of it was that unexpected or hard to deal with but it all irritated me, like pretty much everyday. So my during the week runs were all done a little fast on account of the free therapy aspect and this weekend’s long run was a doozy. I guess you could say that this week running was my way of getting out my frustration but that lead to running myself ragged if you will. So yeah, training was a lot and life was a lot too. Here’s how that went down.
Tuesday 6.5k: At this point in the week things were still ticking along well. It was pretty warm and I went for a run after work. Honestly, there wasn’t much to say about this run, regular training pace and a regular training day. I did my speedwork this one but the rest of the week proved that this was unnecessary. Though I would say my picture is a little extra cute, at least honey thought so!
Wednesday 6.5k: I spent the day working with honey for the first time in a long time and finished the week doing the same. There was one point in the day where I could run and by that time I was pretty wound up. If I’m irritated or full on PO’d a run is usually the perfect thing and it was today too. I ended up running an extra km or so because I needed to blow off some steam. It didn’t work totally but I did feel a little less stabby when I got home. As for the run it was a fast one, I wonder why…
Friday 8k: Didn’t run 8k I only ran 6… We ended up doing a 12 hour day on Friday with a couple of breaks for me one to run and one to pick up groceries. I have to say this week was made possible by how great my employee is. She’s learned so much and is totally dependable so even though I was busy with other things she was still getting $hit done! I was short on time but I still had to drop off my second car to my mom for the week so I just drove there and ran home. I kinda, sorta planned on going past the house but in the end chatting with her meant I didn’t have time. Not that 6k is a whole, whole lot but one thing I love about being an endurance athlete (even if rural areas) is that you can get stuff done without your car. It sometimes means you don’t have to ask someone for help with stuff like the mechanic, fill up your tank at the end of the day or get something when you’re car is laid up. Not that anyone begrudges helping me out but it can be simpler to just do it yourself when you feel like it. This run wasn’t great and even though it wasn’t all that fast I was super tensed and stressed so it felt like I had run fast after the fact.
Saturday 22.5k: This one had me all up in my head. I went in the morning since the whole thing was going to take almost 3 hours and I didn’t want to write off the whole day. For the first time ever I actually drove to my stepson’s house along the route to stash a frozen water bottle for me to pick up later. I was pretty anxious heading out but I quickly settled into a good groove. For years before I started thinking about running a full and as I started out this year that 10k race day gap has freaked me out. Not really a news alert but it still is freaking me out! I even thought about running and ‘extra’ 20 mile run for a while. So as I’m doing these long runs I’m just ruminating on this and honestly trying to change my thinking about it to help relax myself. Instead of thinking 32km is so, so far and a whole extra hour on race day I’m trying to remind myself that literally everyone that has run a marathon has done this successfully too.
So I’m reminding myself that this 14 mile run just has to set me up for the next 16 and that one sets me up for the 18 and so on. Also I had thought about sneaking in another 20 but really how different is 18 miles than 20? So trust the plan… Well onto the run then. It was fine and my water bottle still had some ice in it when I got there. But… I forgot that it was brand new and I hadn’t yanked on it enough to open the straw yet. I also picked some wildflowers to leave on his step as a little thank you. By the end I was getting sore but overall it went well but it was long. My next really long run in two weeks will be my longest one ever so I’m pretty excited about that.
This week was one where I felt like my cortisol levels were higher than usual and I was just going through the motions. That’s probably okay though at the end of the day after all in a 4 month plan some weeks just aren’t going to be perfect right? This week overall was just about ticking boxes to get to the next one and all the boxes were ticked so let’s call that a win! You can check out the plan I’m using here. If you want a sneak peak of my training follow me on instagram! Are you training for a marathon this year? How is your training going so far? Leave it in the comments below!
Sweat Sweetly 
Leave a Reply