Boston Marathon #127 Training (Week 12 of 16)

Starting the week in Arizona, ending the week in Germany. Wheeeeeeeee travel!

Monday

Planned: off/XT

Did: 4.86 mi @ 9:53/mi avg + 1.9 mi hike

Ran from the condo to meet the family at a trailhead for a hike. Used a pedestrian/horse trail that started leading me off into the mountains at one point, but was able to navigate back to the roads. 

Tuesday

Planned: #10kTuesday

Did: 6.22 mi @ 9:07/mi avg

Ran once the sun came up on a cloudy morning in the desert. Looped up through town and then back through a hilly residential area.

Wednesday

Planned: 6 mi EZ

Did: 1.45 mi @ 9:15/mi

Quick little run before leaving for the airport. 

Thursday

Planned: hills

Did: 5.3 mi @ 8:19/mi avg

Back in town, ran an out and back in the morning while adjusting back to east coast time. Didn't do the hills but tried to push the pace a bit.

Friday

Planned: off/XT

Did: 2.5 mi EZ + 3.26 mi hike

Easy neighborhood out and back plus a beautiful hike with D for the final day of vacation.

Saturday

Planned: 12 mi 

Did: 20.02 mi @ 9:13/mi 

After pondering my remaining training weeks, I realized I needed to do 20 miles this weekend instead of next weekend. The Monday race date had me thrown off a bit, and I usually like to do my final 20 miler 3 weeks before race day.

Had wanted to start early, but the forecast & radar showed strong storms coming through at 7am. Turned out to not be strong at all, and once I got started later in the morning it turned out to be sunny and hot! Struggled a bit towards the end but overall felt good with this run.

Sunday

Planned: 6 mi goal pace

Did: 3.12 mi @ 8:58/mi 

Trans-atlantic flight and a long drive, ran once I got to the hotel in Germany. 

Boston Marathon #127 Training (Week 11 of 16)

This week will start out normal but will end with traveling to Arizona for D's spring break. I'll hopefully be running a 20-miler somewhere in the Phoenix area this weekend!

Monday

Planned: off/XT

Did: 2 mi run, 2 mi walk

Lovely chilly afternoon on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Plentiful sunshine. 

Tuesday

Planned: intervals

Did: 7.35 mi @ 7:56/mi w/ 3x1mi

Track Tuesday, felt great in the near-freezing temps! Got in 3x 1 mi repeats each below 7:00/mi (6:58, 6:58, 6:52). 

Wednesday

Planned: 10 mi easy

Did: 10.02 mi @ 10:25/mi avg

Easy peasy run in TR after dropping off D at school. Chilly but sunny!

Thursday

Planned: hills

Did: 5.1 mi @ 8:15/mi avg

Ran the hills of USC Upstate at a pretty good clip - crazy warm weather today, but a strong run.

Friday

Planned: off/XT

Did: 1.54 mi @ 10:01/mi avg

Quick easy loop around the neighborhood before heading out to the airport for spring break trip!

Saturday

Planned: 20 mi

Did: 20.03 mi @ 9:25/mi avg

In Arizona for spring break vacation, so I mapped out a run from our hotel near Tempe to a park where Scott & D met me. It was quite warm and dry and windy, but my route took me through some beautiful parks and was overall an enjoyable journey! I even saw a few wild pigs (javelina) in a drainage ditch, which was quite odd!

Sunday

Planned: 10 mi marathon goal pace

Did: 2.9 mi hike + 3.54 mi 8:43/mi avg

Hiking with the family to see a waterfall, then ran back to the condo on the way back from the trailhead. 

Boston Marathon #127 Training (Week 10 of 16)

Busy week this week with Scott out of town, so the standard early morning runs aren't happening. At least it's a drop-back week for the long weekend miles. 

Monday

Planned: off/XT

Did: 2.48 mi trail run

Ran the trails at work during lunchtime. The trees are all in bloom and campus is beautiful!

Tuesday

Planned: speedwork

Did: 6.4 mi @ 8:26/mi

Ran through USC Upstate at lunch to get some hills... no real opportunity for speedwork today. Unseasonably warm today, mid to upper 70s! Whew!

Wednesday

Planned: 6mi 

Did: 6.02 mi @ 10:07/mi avg

My only WFH day of the week, took the opportunity to get in a run after dropping D off at school. Easy pace along the SRT, quite nice. Considered doing more than the scheduled 6 miles but felt tired and decided to stick to the plan.

Thursday

Planned: hills

Did: 5 mi treadmill speedwork (10x400m)

Got in to work and went straight to the gym for some speedwork on the treadmill since I'd missed it earlier in the week. Did 10x 400m at progressive pace starting from 7:30/mi and getting up to sub-6/mi. 

Friday

Planned: off/XT

Did: 12.2 mi long run (10.4 + 1.87)

Due to a busy weekend and some scheduling challenges, decided to do get the long run done early Friday. Started at 0515 and ran on the Swamp Rabbit around Furman until 0645. Got 10.4 mi @ 8:16/mi done in that window, hopped in the car and drove to work, and finished out with 1.87 mi on the cross-country trails. Very glad to have that done early!

Saturday

Planned: 12 mi

Did: 3.11 mi @ 7:10/mi Earth Run 5k

Had the Milliken Earth Run 5k on Saturday morning, and my first year as Race Director. It was perfect weather and we had great participation - really happy with how things went, and quite surprised to accomplish 2nd overall female in the race too!

Team!

Sunday

Planned: 6 mi race pace

Did: 9.4 mi @ 8:08/mi (with 6 mi race pace)

Time change, cold, and rainy meant I was not looking forward to running... but deciding to do a one-way run to meet the rest of the family downtown for lunch made it much more appealing! Decided to work in my goal pace miles within the middle of the run. Started out from the house, made it over to the Swamp Rabbit trail, and set off as soon as my watch ticked over to the 2-mi mark. Kept good consistent speed through the next 6, debated a pit-stop at SRCG but decided to keep going and felt awesome. 

Boston Marathon #127 Training (Week 9 of 16)

Oh dear, I forgot to blog last week... writing this all fresh from my brain on uhhhh Friday/Saturday of the following week. Whoops. I did switch my working schedule around a bit so now I'm WFH Mondays & Wednesdays, in office Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I've found Fridays are muuuuch nicer in the office (nobody's there!) vs. Mondays (which are always very Monday-ish and I never seem ready for them when they come around).

Monday

Planned:off/XT

Did: 1.84 mi @ 10:40/mi + 30 min strength

Workout coach

"Congrats you sat around A LOT today..."

Tuesday

Planned: 400m reps

Did: 6.28mi @ 8:20/mi avg w 7x400m

Track Tuesday at Furman! Struggled a little today, but got all 1:35-1:37 except the last one at 1:32!

Wednesday

Planned: 10 easy

Did: 10.14 mi @ 9:37/mi

Got this done after dropping D off at school and it was a lovely sunny morning!

Thursday

Planned: hills

Did: Altamont run

Back on the mountain for the first time in a while! Hard climb as always, of course, but man it felt good to climb and it seemed like the legs (not the lungs) were the limiting factor.

Friday

Planned: off/XT

Did: easy 1.65 mi

Just an easy loop around the neighborhood before heading into the office for the day. 

Saturday

Planned: 20 miles

Did: 20.02 mi @ 9:15/mi avg

Headed out to the Lake House for the weekend due to Scott's traveling and me needing to run for about 3 hours. This meant I had to run on much hillier terrain than the usual long runs on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, but it was a great challenge and good to change the scenery for a bit.

I headed out from the house once the sun was sufficiently up and made my way down Lake Road towards the dam. Ended up being about 7 miles to Dam Road, and 8 miles down to the hydroelectric station. I turned around there and continued the other direction down Dam Rd. Found my way around a few more miles before turning back and heading on the return down Lake Road. 

Overall felt great and sped up pretty significantly on the final few miles. 

Dam.

Creek

Pollen!

huge dead catfish

Sunday

Planned: 10 mi goal pace

Did: 4.5 mi easy + hot yoga

Just didn't have the time or energy for the 10 mile race pace run today. Took it easy with a few miles around the Swamp Rabbit before yoga.