Um, HOW IS WEEK 4 ALREADY OVER?! Seriously y’all, this is going way too fast. Just 14 weeks until the New York City Marathon! This week totally flew by. Maybe because I ran four consecutive days. Say what?!
So last Sunday, I recapped in last week’s update. Postponed my run to Monday to get some time in with friends in Chicago. It was totally the right choice and I had no regrets when I went to bed late Sunday night after flying back in to NYC late.
Monday I woke up and felt like I had been hit by a truck. I’m not sure whether it was the travel or what, but I felt horrible. I skipped my run and worked from home. All day I was pumping myself full of good food, vitamins, and trying to rest up. It worked pretty well because by that evening I was feeling so much better.
Tuesday morning I hopped into my first quality session of the week. It was a doozy: 1 mile warm-up, 2 x 2 miles at threshold with 2 min recovery, 4 x 200 with 200 recovery, 1 mile cool down. I could tell for the first mile or so that I had been off of running for two days, but once I hit my groove I felt really good. It was 80º out, but the heat didn’t bother me much. I think the long run in Chicago in feels like 93 heat caused some adaptation, if only mentally. I continue to run my 200s (about 5 seconds) too fast which concerns me a bit. Really got to try to get those right.
Wednesday morning I went out for the 4 miles easy that I had postponed from Sunday then had to skip on Monday. The weather was nice and cool — 70º and low humidity. I felt grateful for such a great run. I had intended to do a circuit this evening, but lost track of time so I postponed it to Thursday morning.
Thursday morning I had another 4 easy miles on deck and the weather again was lovely. I did a pretty tough 45 minute full body circuit after my run then 15 minutes of gentle yoga. By the time I got to the yoga, my muscles were a little twitchy. After 2 hours of workouts, I was feeling kind of spacey while making breakfast despite having ate a little before my run (about 100 calories) and a protein shake between my run and circuit. On the way into the office, every stair I had to climb during my commute was acknowledged. Haha. Luckily it was a busy day in the office so while I was a bit sleepy, the day went by quickly.
Friday was supposed to be my rest day, but since I planned to race on Sunday (and was trying to PR) I decided to get my 3 easy miles scheduled for Saturday in early. I went to bed super early on Thursday night and got a little over 10 hours of sleep so I was feeling really refreshed. My body was quite sore from my circuit the day before, but not enough to affect my gait so I went for it. Had an unpleasant run-in with some dudes in a van pulling the slow down from behind and say stuff to me creeper maneuver, but otherwise it was a lovely run to the East River and back. When I got home I realized that my butt is so sore from my circuit that it hurts a little to sit.
Saturday was a rest day in preparation for my 5k on Sunday morning. I was hoping to PR so I took extra care during the day to rest and recover. Throughout the day I had the normal rest day creaks and tiny aches. At one point I walked down to the store in some flip flops without any cushion and found that my left heel was bothering me quite a bit. Additionally, my hamstrings were still pretty sore from my full body circuit on Thursday morning. That evening I did some gentle yoga, foam rolled, massaged my feet, and put on compression socks before bed. Had a little trouble getting to sleep because I was so anxious about my race. It was supposed to be mid-70s and humid and the course is fully exposed so it didn’t seem like ideal conditions for a strong PR which is what I was hoping for. I won’t ruin the end of the story, by telling you how it went. You’ll have to wait for for my race report which I will be posting shortly–or you can just check my Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Total weekly mileage: 26.4 miles
Total training time: 6 hours and 44 minutes (Runs, post-run yoga, and strength training)
Long run mileage: Moved long run to Sunday, 8.12 completed in 3 segments (2 mi, 3.11 race, 3 mi)
Last week’s total weekly mileage: 21.9 miles
Last week’s total training time: 5 hours and 46 minutes (Runs, post-run yoga, and strength training)
Last week’s long run mileage: 7.9 miles
