Another good week of training in the books. I found myself really tired at the end of the week and I'm sure a lot of that has to do with the grind that it's been for the past 6 months. However, after a couple of days away from it, I feel like I'm as ready as I've ever been for a marathon.
Monday - After getting home late from Fayetteville, Monday was to be an easy day. Since the time change, I've been trying to run on Monday night with the Tin Roof 2 Running Crew. This is good because I see some familiar faces and get to run with some people that are as fast, if not faster, than me. This day would be no different. Alex and I got in 4 easy miles prior to starting with the Crew. I needed 9 total miles for the day with some strides on the end. After 3 more steady miles, Kyle McPhee and I take of on strides by ourselves. Kyle is a former collegiate runner that claims to have some extra weight on right now. He can run circles around me but at the same time push me to go just a bit harder on each of these strides. Great workout. 9.4 total miles @ 7:45.
Tuesday - Easy, breezy miles. Seems all my miles lately have been 'breezy'!!! 8.23 @ 7:59. With a baseball game scheduled for the evening, this one happened at lunch. Rushed again to get from meeting to run to meeting.
Wednesday - Coach has said a few times that he'd be glad to pace me over a few miles if I was interested. I've always said yes, but until this day, we hadn't been able to work it out. As I'm getting closer to my race, Coach decided we'd run a tempo pace over some hills. We did a short warm-up and then dropped the pace just below 7:00. Coach talked the entire time and gave me a play-by-play of the route as we went. Don't you just hate those guys that can run and talk??? haha! While I'm back behind him dying, he's carrying on a very one-sided conversation! We finished with 11.24 miles @ 7:02. This includes both warm-up and cool-down miles.
Thursday - Another day where I'm cramming miles in at lunch because I'm traveling for baseball in the evening. This time, I'm driving to Atlanta. Not so bad and I could run after work, but there's the expectation of some thunderstorms. 8.23 @ 8:01. Easy, breezy!
Friday - Friday's have turned into a very hectic day. By traveling on Thursday evening, I'm able to work most all day on Friday, but I have to be at the ballpark before the end of the work day, in most cases. Slipping in a run at lunch is tough, but I'm finding a way to make it happen. Did a couple of easy strides on the end of this one. 7.07 @ 7:49.
Saturday - Long run in another city. While this is challenging to coordinate and learn, this has been a lot of fun. Atlanta is no different. Just a mile from my hotel is the Noon Day Creek trail/greenway. It connects on the far end to the Kennesaw Mountain trail/greenway. On Friday, I figured out there was no water on the trail so I stashed a small bottle on my way out.
I've also been doing long runs on minimal nutrition in an effort to familiarize my body with the feeling of running in a carb depleted state. This time I took a gel prior to starting and then one at mile 6. A 20 mile run on low cals/carbs is freaking tough but it's a bit easier today than it was a month ago when I bailed out half-way into a run. 20.5 miles (5 Mi. Fast Finish) @ 7:40 (last 5 @ 6:55).
Sunday - In this blog I've mentioned several times that I need to learn to run slow! This is still a work in progress and I expect it to always be. Saturday's run, followed by 9 innings of plate work, left me sore and stiff. I managed to take this one very slow.....for me. 6.13 @ 8:31.
70.9 miles for the week. I like this as a final, high-mileage week for my training. I feel good about my fitness and excited about the possibilities of a good showing in Boston. Now it's time to start stalking the weather report!!!
