Weeks 15-14-13 Before Grandma’s Marathon

I’m really happy with how my Grandma’s Marathon training has been going!

Week 15 (to go):

Mileage: 90 on 7 days, 5 doubles.

Workout – just one big workout as I’m getting used to higher mileage:

• 16 miles with 25 mins, 20 mins, 15 mins, 10 mins at “hard” (Jerry’s suggested pace. HA, thanks, Jerry!!). Knowing there was 70 MINUTES of work inside this run, I thought a goal of marathon pace would be appropriate. Sedge, a Gustavus runner/grad who recently came out of a long running retirement, accompanied me. As did the Jack FM radio station via my iPhone.

I’m still in awe of this workout! We hit 6:32 for the 25 minute segment, 6:32 for the 20 minute segment, 6:54 for the 15 minutes (uphill, into wind), and 6:27 for the 10 minute segment. We covered a total of 10.6 mile in 70 minutes. In case you’re doing the math, that would be a 2:52.9 marathon.

• 2 dedicated strength sessions with some quality time at the end following along to this stretching video. DO IT! It has helped loosen up my hips a lot!

Easiest day: One day of “just” 9 miles. No strength either, to make sure it was as much of a recovery day as I could make it.

Other: My Half Marathon with a Double Stroller Record was made official by the Guinness Book of World Records!

Week 14 (to go):

Mileage: 70 on 6 days, 4 doubles.

Workouts:

• 5x1k with 400m recovery. Goal: 3:20s. Actual: 3:27, 3:31, 3:33, 3:34, 3:35. Legs just didn’t have it today!
• O’Gara’s 8k. 31:12. 19th woman. This is always a stacked race as it’s the first USATF team circuit race and one of the first road races in MN where you can (somewhat) count on good footing. It was a good effort for me, but I faded significantly in the second half. I need to work on my ability to hurt in a shorter distance race! I know I can hurt a whole lot more than that but I think I have taught myself to hold reserves for “the next segment” (too many of those crazy long MP/tempo workouts…).

“Easiest” day: The glorious REST day! Love these 🙂

Week 13 (to go):

Mileage: 92 on 7 days, 4 doubles

Workouts:

• 16 miles with 2×5 miles at 6:30 pace with 2 miles easy in between. My thoughts beforehand were somewhat negative, but in a cheery sort of way. Sort of the: “Seriously? Oh man, this is going to be epic…” and “There’s no way! That’s 65 minutes total faster than I did 2 weeks ago, with less frequent rest periods. Jerry is crazy. Just plain crazy.”

But you know what? I NAILED the workout. As in, crushed it! I averaged 6:31.2 for the entire 10 miles. I threw up my hands at the end of the workout and ran to give Sedge a big hug. He was pacing via bike as his shin is giving him trouble. I was so elated!

I love that about workouts. I know I think about them too much before hand and dread how much they might hurt, how long they will be, etc, etc. I know I shouldn’t but I just can’t stop thinking about it on and off – do you? Or am I alone in that? I’ll have it in the back of my mind for 2-3 days beforehand. But, once the workout is there – and once it’s done – they feel OH SO MARVELOUS.

• An 18 miler turned 21 miler due to a wrong turn. I was running to my dental appointment in Faribault and turned down the wrong road for a while. After a mile+ I wondered why the paved road hadn’t turned to gravel yet. Then a little while later I saw a street sign… that most definitely did not say what I thought it was going to say. Oh, boy. No other way to get to where I needed to be than to turn back and keep putting one foot in front of the other! The last mile was a little painful, not going to lie.

Mesa accompanied me for all 21 of it. That is unbelievable. She’s 13! That’s 91 in human-dog years, right? She looked like she was having the time of her life the entire run. And was crazy excited to see Dr. Nate aka Dad at the very end. Oh, Mesa. Only you!

Easiest day: Having my mileage in before 11am on Friday (my long run day)! Man, that felt good to get out of the way!

 

I’m really happy to be getting stronger, smoother, and faster by the week. A special shout out to Dr. Jeremy at Cram Chiropractic in Northfield and Daisy at Northfield PT for helping to keep me healthy and able to be logging weeks and workouts like these!! #teamnichole2.0

Your turn – 

1. Do you have a good story from a wrong turn on a run? Share!

2. Do you fret about long/hard workouts a few days out? Or not at all? Let’s get some conversation going on how to mentally prepare for these key workouts!