Another week, another 80 miles – I’m quickly approaching 300 miles for the month of Nov, which will be my first time over 300 miles in a month in…ever. Last week was probably the best week of training I’ve ever strung together, as I put all the pieces together throughout the week and kept the mileage up.
Monday: 7 miles
Monday morning, I drove Mark to school and then went out to Eno to jog some hilly trail miles. I ran Holden Mill and Buckquarter trails before taking a wrong turn and avoiding the section I actually came to run, bringing me back out to the road at only 4ish miles. I said to myself, like a crazy person, “I need about .6 miles to get to 5, so I will go run up and down Cox Mountain once.” This brought me to a nice 7 for the day. Thought about doubling, opted against it.
Tuesday: 13.1 miles total – 10 am // 3 pm
I did a workout! I didn’t have much time before a 9 am meeting, so I figured I’d have to either (a) run fast or (b) not run much. I opted for (a), with 8 miles at ~MP (ended up being ~7:40/mile on average) on the ATT, with one mile warm-up and one mile cool-down. The MP miles felt good and manageable, though it’s pretty clear to me that I haven’t been doing workouts/am taking a while to lock into the correct pace and have it feel manageable. I got there eventually. In the evening, I did 3 miles easy with Mark to shake out the legs – felt good post-workout.
Wednesday: 10.5 miles
This was a pretty uneventful jaunt around Durham – I ran to Buehler, did a counterclockwise loop + fitness loop, and headed home. Nice and easy (~10:00/mile).
Thursday: 9 miles + a massage
Blake day! To force myself to not take the day overly easy just because I had a massage on the calendar, I ran 3 mi there and 6 home. All easy, except I would’ve probably run even slower for the first 3 had I not been….horribly late.
Friday: 20 miles
I was very proud of this run because there wasn’t really a single moment during this 3 hr run that I actually wanted to (a) be running and (b) be running 20 miles. I knew Saturday was going to bring all-day rain, and I have been preferring getting a LR in during the week, so after about an hour of drinking coffee and lamenting, I made a bottle of Maurten and got myself out the door to see what I could get myself to do. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to get 20 in, but I made decisions mile-by-mile that led me to getting in the miles. The run went quite well despite my shitty mental state. I fueled with 1 bottle of Maurten 320 and ended up averaging 8:59/mile after a quicker last ~6 or so miles. Non-running related, we saw an amazing Sylvan Esso show at DPAC this evening!
Saturday: 3.1 miles + lifting
We really needed a relaxing day on the couch – no regrets. We eventually headed to the Chapel Hill YMCA, as it had been pouring for hours and pretty cold. I did 3.1 treadmill miles, with 760 ft of gain – I upped the grade to 15% gradually over a mile, recovered, and repeated once more. One form of ‘recovery’, I guess….
I also did squats for the first time in ages (and am paying for it now) – 10 x bodyweight / 5 x bar / 5 x 55 / 5 x 65 / 5 x 75 – as well as 3 x 3 pull-ups, 3 x 10 facepulls, and some planks + ankle stability exercises. I. Am. So. Sore. I really shouldn’t be putting off lifting so much, because getting back to it every time is absolutely horrible, and if I just did it regularly, this wouldn’t be an issue.
Sunday: 17 miles
A nice and easy 17 at Umstead with no fuel and minimal water on Sunday brought me to 80 for the week. I was so happy during this run – it was a beautiful day, and despite all my legs feeling trashed from the gym, I felt really good. ~10:00-minute miles felt actually easy and manageable, making this one of the first runs that’s boosted my confidence for April.
A workout, a long run (or, two long runs, if you’re not me + Mark), squats and 80 miles….I couldn’t be happier with this week. I’m now 3 weeks out from Nutcracker and feeling pretty good – if I can get one more solid week in, I can take a recovery week and then some easy days before the race itself, and I should be good to go for race day.
AB Writes 