Last week was a breakthrough week. After a couple weeks of heavy legs and some serious doubts about my ability to achieve my goal, I had a really great training week that was the proof I needed to shift my mindset from “maybe I can do it” to “I will do it.” I’ve never felt more fit and strong and capable of running a solid marathon.
Monday: 8.5 miles with 2 x 18 minute tempo (10 minutes @ marathon pace, 5 minutes at half marathon pace, 3 minutes at 10k pace) at 6 a.m. I ran part of this with Kelly and was glad to have the company!
Beachbody Yoga Studio – Yoga for Runners and Yoga Abs. The runner yoga was just stretching, not much of a flow. Felt good to do the abs!
Tuesday: 9 miles easy with my friend Ashley. Legs felt a lot better this week than the prior.
Wednesday: 12.5 mile run & 5 min of abs. I NAILED this speed workout. I felt so strong throughout and could hardly believe I nearly ran a half marathon on a Wednesday night. The workout:
- 3 mile hilly warm-up & strides
- 4 x 2,000 with 1st 1,600 @ half marathon pace, last 400 at 5k pace with 400 recovery jog between (actual paces alternating the 1 mile and 400s: 7:48, 7:17, 7:48, 7:11, 7:43, 7:16, 7:34, 7:11)
- 4 x 1,000 @10k pace, 200 recovery jog (actual paces: 7:13, 7:22, 7:21, 7:21)
I actually felt better and better as the workout went along. The 1,000s are where I felt really strong. There wasn’t a lot of recovery and I still felt great.
Thursday: 40 minute trail run. As usual, I went on the hilly route near my house and I was feeling extra tired so I took more walk breaks than usual. In total, I only got 2.8 miles done in 40 minutes (14 minute/mile)! Recovery runs are all about time on your feet, right?

Friday: 5 mile trail run.

Saturday: 21 mile run with last 10 mile progression. I cursed my coach when I saw the map. As usual, we were running hills for the first half of the route and the second half included trails – while flat, they make for slower miles. “Why couldn’t he just give us an easy coastal run!?: I said to myself and the people I was running with. But, I ended up surprising myself and as soon as we turned up the pace around 10.5 miles in, I felt really good, and I just kept felling better. By mile 17 when I exited the trail portion of the route, I was running sub 8 minute miles easily and my legs didn’t feel heavy at all! Our coach purposely put a decent sized hill around mile 18 and I kept the energy up it but tried not to go too hard. I let all out for the final mile, clocking 7:40 pace. This was a good run! It really proved to me that my endurance is better than it ever has been.
Sunday: Mother’s Day! I had such an amazing day. We got coffee at Philz and then had breakfast with Mike’s family and then dropped Siena off with his dad while we went for a 5 mile hike in the Blue Sky Preserve. We got in a nap in the afternoon and then I headed to Yoga Six for a 75 minute Yin-Yang Yoga class (which heavy on the yin, which his deep stretching, holding proses for up to 5 min each) – every mom got a free class and a rose! It was a lovely day.
Weekly Totals:
- Miles Run/Hiked: 58.5 run, 63.8 including hike
- Yoga/Strength: 2 hours
I was skeptical at first of my coach for having me do such a long run with only 2 weeks until race day, but after having him explain it to me and doing some research on 2 week tapers, I felt better about it. And now that I’m in the taper, I have realized that it makes me much less crazy to have a short taper!
When do you usually do your longest long run? Any good stories from a 2 week taper?
Wow! Congratulations!! You are doing amazing. I’m so excited for you. Just keep believing in yourself. I had a good training cycle leading into the Phoenix Marathon in February, and it worked wonders on my confidence. So excited to see how you do!
Thanks Whitney!!! It has truly been an amazing training cycle! Funny how I was worried about a couple missed workouts early in the training due to illness – now it seems like so long ago.
What are you training for now?
You are so ready! What a confidence boosting week!
Thanks Laura! I think so too!!!