New York Marathon Training – Weeks 4 & 5

Why hello! Thank you everyone for your incredible support for my recent decision to leave my job and stay home with Siena! It has been an exciting and somewhat terrifying couple of months and particularly the last couple of weeks. I apologize for the crickets on the blog last week – I intended to have some down time on vacation to blog or read (I brought two books – what the heck was I thinking?) but there was none of that. Our vacation was a week long road trip up the California coast visiting friends along the way and every minute was spent catching up. Mike went to school in Northern California and I’ve had a few really close friends move up north so we had a lot of friends to visit! I haven’t had a week long vacation during marathon training before so it was an interesting new challenge to keep up with it while away.

Let’s start the recap with the week before last, which was week 4 of training.

New York Marathon Training Week 4

Monday- 4.5 miles with Kelly. This was a morning run and Kelly ran late so I ended up running fewer miles than planned so I could get to work on time.

Tuesday – Hill repeats (5 miles). There are two hills (both trails) near my house that I run and I decided to do some of each. I started with one repeat up the shorter, flatter hill (about 45 seconds) and then did four repeats up the longer, steeper hill (takes me about 4 minutes) and then one more up the shorter hill. The long steep hill is killer!

Wednesday – Easy 4.5 miles with Allison. Cat’s out of the bag now – Allison is pregnant! So every run with her is nice and slow. I’ve been purposely scheduling them the day after a hard run.

Thursday –  Rest day. I came home Wednesday really tired and fighting a mild cold that Siena picked up so I decided to sleep in. My going away happy hour was that night so there was no workout.

Friday – 2.5 mile run and 15 minutes of strength. I hoped to get in a 5 mile run on the treadmill but Fridays are my day to be up with Siena in the morning and she woke up early. I played with her while doing planks, push-ups and tricep dips for a bit after my run was cut short.

Saturday – 17 mile long run. I had 16 miles scheduled but I met up with Brooke and friends in Mission Bay and they were running 17 so I went with it. My legs were super tired by the end but it was really fun running with friends!

Sunday – 1 hour hike with friends. This was the first day of our vacation. We took a really nice hike near Camarillo with my friend Sam, her husband AJ and their four year old son George. Mike wore Siena in the carrier and she did great! It encouraged us to go take more hikes with her in the carrier going forward (and possibly buy a hiking carrier so she has some shade and is more comfortable).

Weekly Totals: 

• Miles Run: 33.5
• Cross Training: 1 hour 15 min
• Planks: I can’t even remember but I think I did them half the time :/

New York Marathon Training Week 5

This was our vacation week. I had hoped to get in four runs including a long run. I ran four times but my long run didn’t happen. This was a planned cutback week anyway, so the low mileage doesn’t bother me. What did hurt me was how much alcohol I drank and how much heavy food I ate! On top of that Siena slept very poorly while we were gone and we stayed up late with our friends every night so I was running on an average of about six hours of sleep a night. By the end of the week I was exhausted! Not exactly an ideal recovery week.

Monday- 4.5 miles and 15 minutes of strength in Cambria after a day of driving (we stopped in Santa Barbara for coffee and a walk and San Luis Obispo for a picnic lunch and some playground time for Siena). Mike, Siena and I went for a run down the coast in Cambria after we checked into our hotel. I love exploring new places with a run! Afterward Mike and I did some push-ups and core work in the hotel room.

Tuesday – Rest day. 

Wednesday – 6 miles. We were in San Jose and a had a free day to explore. Mike and I found the Los Gatos River Trail and ran 6 miles with the stroller. I did a few minutes of planks in the park afterward.

Thursday –  Pi-Yo. We were staying with our  friends Erin and Sean who love Beachbody as much as I do. They have Beachbody on Demand (as do I but theirs was already set up on their TV via Apple TV) and I wanted to get a workout in during Siena’s afternoon nap. I’ve been wanting to try a Pi-Yo workout (its pilates and yoga combined but with more of an emphasis on getting your heart rate up) so this was the perfect opportunity since it doesn’t require any weights. I really loved it! I ended up ordering it when I got home. I think it’ll be a good workout to do during peak marathon training and I’m looking forward to trying it out.

Friday – 5 mile run with Page. It was so fun getting to see Page that it was worth waking up at 5 a.m. to run before she headed to work. We realized we hadn’t seen each other since my wedding almost three years ago (after a few failed meet-up attempts in between). We ran around her house in San Jose and the miles flew by!  

Saturday – Rest day. This was my planned long run day but I really needed my sleep so I chose that instead (although Siena really didn’t cooperate).

Sunday – 6 mile run in San Francisco. I ran from our friends house in the Marina District to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Beautiful! Sadly I was hung over so this run really hurt. 

Weekly Totals: 

• Miles Run: 21.5
• Strength Training: ~1 hour
• Planks: Again, I can’t remember!

As of the end of week 5 there are only 11 weeks left until the New York Marathon. I really can’t believe it! I have to remind myself that I can really make some big improvements in that time. At this point, my main incentive for training hard and getting faster is so that I can keep up with my running buddies! My goal for the marathon remains to finish and have fun.

Have you ever driven the California coast? Do you train while on vacation?