Charlotte Marathon Training - Week 11 of 18

Wow.... closing in!

Week beginning thoughts: If all runs get completed as planned, this week will be the highest mileage of my training plan (50 miles!!). I'll hit this mileage 3 times, every other week over the next 5 weeks. Breathe in, breathe out. Ready, set, GO!

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength

Good lift, nothing special. Legs (quads) are a little sore from yesterday's long run so squats were fun.

Tuesday
Planned: #10kTuesday goes Imperial! (10 m)
Did: 10.13 mi in 2 parts

Part 1 = 7.05 mi @ 8:13/mi
The stars just so happened to align for this run, and I'm SO SO SO glad I did it! A friend added me to a local runners' group on Facebook a few days ago, and they run every day of the week from downtown. One person will post the start time & approximate distance and then people respond saying whether they'll be there. I saw a post yesterday that the plan for Tuesday (today) was 6-7 miles, avg. 7:30-8:30 pace, starting at 5:30am. I wasn't sure if I could keep up, but I figured it would be a good way to push myself. Plus, my parents are in town while Scott is traveling, so they could take over morning care of D. I wasn't sure I wanted to drag myself out of bed after a late chorus rehearsal Monday night, plus I was feeling mopey about not doing bedtime with D and missing seeing him off to "school" in the morning... but I chatted with a mama runner friend and she talked me into it (so thankful for reasonable friends). 💗
I woke up with my 4:30 a.m. alarm and actually felt pretty good. I was excited about a new routine, new place to run, new faces, new challenge. Got myself out the door on time and arrived plenty early to meet up with the group. A few people were cutting out at 5 miles, and I considered doing so also... but ended up sticking with the 7-milers through the dark streets of downtown Greenville. It's amazing how many runners are out that early! Love this community. I got caught up in conversation with the others in the group and didn't even realize when we stopped that we'd hit the 7 mile mark. So awesome! I chatted a bit as people finished up, and then hopped in the car to head to work and finish out the run.

Part 2 = 3.08 mi @ 8:37/mi
Was definitely tired and kind of hungry when I started this part, but I kept telling myself it was *only* 3 miles. Just did a quick out-and-back along the frontage road and finished up in time for a shower before heading off to my morning meetings.

Morning runs = totally worth it.

So happy to have knocked this out early. And looking forward to an EARLY BEDTIME!

Took this on the way home from work.

Further confirmation that I'm SO GLAD I ran in the morning!! 🎉

Wednesday
Planned: 5 m run
Did: 5.27 mi @ 9:05/mi
Goals for this run: easy 5. I think I did that, although looking at my mile splits, I may have done a bit of an unintentional progression run. Oh well. I get excited about finishing a run. 😂

It was already warm when I headed out around 9:30 a.m. and of course I chose the route with the least shade and the most hills. Still, felt pretty good although my legs were definitely feeling the effects of yesterday's 10-miler!

Thursday
Planned: 5 m run
Did: 5 m @ 7:51/mi avg - #SpeedworkThursday ladder
Treadmill today just for simplicity.

1M WU @ 9:30
1600 / 1200 / 800 / 400 @ 6:15/mi
400 rest between @ 9:30

1200 CD @ 9:30

I wasn't sure about a mile at 6:15, but I powered through it. WOOF. I started feeling the burn about 400m into each interval... wanted to knock it down to 6:30 or 6:45 but I convinced myself that it really wouldn't make that much difference, and if I stuck with it I'd be done that much sooner. It worked! Garmin says I only burned 250 calories with this workout... something tells me that's inaccurate, but oh well. >_> Pretty stoked about the speeds here, and now I'm wondering about trying for a 5k or 8k PR sometime soon... we shall see what comes about.

Friday
Planned: rest
Did: yoga
#YogaFriday ☮✌

Saturday
Planned: 20 m 
Did: 20.7 mi (?)
Yeah, question mark there. I had some user error while operating my Garmin this morning (apparently starting it and stopping it in the right places is hard?) so I actually missed tracking a big chunk of my run. Thankfully I ran an out-and-back route, so I just measured the "out" distance and assumed it was about the same coming back. This is OK to do after the fact, but in-run was little challenging. My mental calculations were a bit off and I think I ran too far, but I'm really not sure. Oh well. So yeah this run felt a little wacky just not knowing how far I had to go or where I'd been.

I ran from the house to meet Robin at Furman, then we joined up for a 14-mile out-and-back towards downtown on the Swamp Rabbit. It felt nice to start off with, but by the time we turned around it had warmed significantly and we were both feeling the effects of the heat. Only now (2 hours later) I finally feel cooled down and fully normal. Plus coming home and immediately dealing with CRANKY toddler who was very much in need of his nap was a little challenging. But he's down now, and I'm mentally processing the run.

So yeah... I ran well over 20 miles today yet somehow it doesn't seem like it because my watch didn't show me the big 2-0 on the screen. How weird is that? I mean, physically I'm pretty darn sure I ran 20 miles today... I dunno, it's strange.

Foggy morning to start out

Sunrise over Paris Mountain from Furman

Good morning, Mr. Heron 

Oh, and by the end of the day, I'd earned this:

Sunday
Planned: 10 m
Did: 10.02 mi @ 9:32/mi avg
Nothing terribly impressive or notable about this run except for the fact that I did it.

Arguing with myself. GO RUN!

It took a lot of convincing to get myself up off the couch (after I'd gotten up, dressed, and gone downstairs). I had almost rationalized not going to run at all today, but my stubborn nature finally won out and I went for it. I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be a great run! It felt pretty nice outside and it was just a calm, quiet morning.

Shadows in the morning sun

I ran the Green Valley route backwards so of course saved the nice big hills for the end. My legs cooperated much better than I thought they would given how I felt at the end of the day yesterday. Hooray, done!

Miles this week: 51.12

Week ending thoughts: First week of 50+ mileage and OH BOY does it feel like it! I'm still feeling good and strong, but definitely looking forward to a bit less mileage next week. Happy with how everything went this week, though I think I need to do a better job of refueling after long runs. I get busy doing other things (shower, take care of toddler... well, that's about it) and then realize I should have eaten 2 meals! Have to remind myself that I can't actually make up for all the calories I burned with Ben & Jerry's ice cream (although I'd sure like to try!). :) Busy, busy week ahead, biggest challenge will be getting proper rest. Ready for it!