CIM Marathon Training Week 10 – Big Miles

I can’t believe we’re already at Week 10. This year has flown by and now it’s almost race time! 6 weeks to go as of last Sunday.

Last week was a confidence booster! I came out of this week KNOWING that I have what it takes to BQ at CIM. If only all the other conditions cooperate, it’s going to happen! I also came out of this week, my highest mileage week of this training cycle, and I believe EVER, feeling pretty good. No niggles, twinges (besides some gnarly blisters…), and my legs were surprisingly not too sore or heavy. These are the training weeks that make all the bad runs worth it!

Monday –

6 easy miles

Tuesday –

AM: Pilates

PM: 8 mile run with 6 miles at half marathon pace. I left work as early as I could to beat the setting sun and headed out to the 56 bike path which is near my work. I totally forgot how hilly this path is. After my 1 mile warm-up, I was basically running straight up hill for 3 miles. Despite the hill, I tried to keep the effort at what I’d consider half marathon pace. As soon as I turned around, I was greeted with a seriously strong headwind, but at least I was running downhill! My average pace for the 6 miles was 7:48, which is a little slower than half marathon pace but considering the conditions and that there was no rest between miles, I felt good about it.

Wednesday:

PM: 5 mile recovery run with Mike. I’m not digging this darkness! Nighttime runs are now bordering on scary. I’m glad Mike was there but some stretches of the bike path are completely black and my headlamp doesn’t’ seem to help.

Thursday:

AM: 7 miles – first 5 easy (3 with Allison), 2 moderate (mid-low 8s). I ran to Allison’s house and then we ran 3 very slow miles together. I was feeling good after, so I decided to pick it up a bit for the final 2 miles home.

Friday:

10 miles with 12 x 2 min @ 10k pace. This is when I really started thinking about how much better it is to break runs into smaller pieces. After a 1 mile warm-up, the workout was to do a 2 min interval at 10k pace every 5 minutes. It made the 10 miles (half in the dark) fly by. I averaged 7:30 on the 10k segments.

Friday afternoon we headed out of work early and drove to Temecula for my cousin Jessica’s wedding which was held at a winery which was also a ranch. The reception was in a beautiful barn and Jessica and her husband’s first dance – a country two step with lots of swinging and dipping – was absolutely amazing! That rounded out the wedding circuit of 2014. If you were counting, that was 5 weddings, and Mike was a groomsman/best man in 3 and I was bridesmaid/MOH in 3 as well.

Saturday:

Rest! 9 hours of sleep plus a 2 hour nap. I had hoped to do yoga but the nap won.

It was also my weekly running buddy Allison’s baby shower on Saturday!

Sunday:

18 mile long run with 14 miles @ 10-20 sec slower than marathon goal pace. As I wrote about in my last post, this was an absolutely spectacular run and I felt great for pretty much all of it. My average pace was 8:15 on the 14 mile segment and I almost felt like I had to hold myself back from running even faster for a lot of it!

Weekly Totals:

• Total Miles Run – 54
• Total Minutes Stretching/Strengthening – 50 (fail)
• Total Time: 9.1 hours