The weeks are definitely flying by as the training progresses. Running last week’s 12 miler as a race was a major effort-it’s back to tempo runs, training runs, speed work but no more racing until virtual race day.

Monday- September 7

Well, it was a BUSY week and weekend full of back to school and birthday celebrations. In addition to being all around tired on Monday morning I was dealing with a migraine. Fortunately, it was Labor Day so I had a little bit of flexibility with timing my run. So while I’m normally an up and done with my run kind of gal that wasn’t the case for the speed work scheduled for today. Instead I ran midday which is highly unusual. My right hip and calf were tight so I wasn’t quite sure my body was going to be up to speed work. However, after my one mile warm up I was ready to rock and roll. 800×6 at 8 minutes a mile with an easy quarter mile in between each to recover, followed by a one mile cool down was apparently just what I needed. With nearly 7 miles under my belt I felt better and was ready to continue to tackle the week.

Tuesday- September 8

Back to rising before the sun to get my workouts done before school. Continuing with my routine of strength training on Tuesday and Thursday mornings after a 2 mile warm up. I followed my easy two with 30 minutes of arms with Tracey Steen, Move Daily Fitness. I used my Terra-Core in conjunction with weights to also work my core. My box also got used. I love that as soon as it became clear that we were going to be home indefinitely in March that I slowly but surely stocked up on the things I would need to continue strength training at home!!

Wednesday-September 9

Most of the runs this week are easy miles as I’m doing a virtual half, which is really going to be 14 miles on Sunday. So today was an easy three. I was feeling some tightness in my pesky right hip when I finished so I added twenty minutes of yoga for runners when I was done running.

Thursday- September 10

Another early morning treadmill run. As I’m consciously trying to have at least two days of easy two mile runs with strength training I began my 5:30 with my run. Followed it up by twenty minutes of arms and core. Arms and core are my go to for strength training since I’m using my legs for so many miles!

Friday-September 11

Moment of truth…both boys are back physically in school today. So the question is do I still get up at 5:00 AM and run or wait until after I drop them off?? I have a whole bunch of errands that I want to run so I still get up early. If I didn’t have a fourteen mile run planned for September 12 I would have run 9.11 miles in honor of September 11th. Instead, I ran 9.11km which equates to 5.66 miles. My schedule had originally planned for three miles but it was important to me to somehow physically honor those who had lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

Saturday- September 12

Fourteen mile run today!! This was also a virtual Half Marathon with my Alzheimer’s Association teammates who were all slated to run the NYC marathon this year. While we are all over the country it was fun to come together to channel our why and run “together.”

The goal of the run…1) practice nutrition, 2) practice hydration, 3) work on putting together a longer route to build up to 26.2 miles and most important trying to set a pace at 9:00 – 9:10 minutes per mile. While the first year or so of my return to running saw me working diligently on bringing down my per mile pace it seems so counterintuitive to me to work on slowing down. Nevertheless, I know that I cannot maintain my normal pace for a full 26.2 miles and need to slow it down so I can go the distance.

Temperatures were ten or so degrees warmer than last week for the 12 mile run and with more than 90% humidity. While it was only in the mid sixties the air felt heavy! But I was good to go- my Spibelt was loaded with water an my Huma Gels and water. I’m not going to lie, working on trying to keep my pace slower was hard. Not only that but I dropped one of my gels along the way so I only had one for the entire run. Granted, I ate a good breakfast before I left but I certainly could have used that extra gel around mile 9. This was my longest consecutive run to date. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again- so much of running is mental. Mentally, when I run long distances I count down how many miles I have left vs. how many miles I’ve completed. I always find the miles above ten to be harder for some reason. So I worked my way from 14 to 10. Awesome, because normally when I get to four miles I feel like I can run for forever. My pacing was till faster than I would have liked but it was manageable. Mile 5 I decided to take some nutrition. That’s when I also discovered that I was missing one. Live and learn to plan better for storage! Mentally the next big marker for the run was mile 7 because it was the half way point. Then getting to mile 9 with only five miles to go and finally getting to 12.5 because that’s the home stretch.

In the end I had a good run, but it wasn’t nearly as great as the week before. That said I learned a good deal about needing more nutrition, putting electrolytes in one of my water bottles and slowing the heck down a bit! PS this fourteen mile run was actually the key run for the week beginning with September 14. However, with following the concept of least effective dose to training I opted not to run 13.1 over the weekend and then do a 14 mile run during the week. So technically, this was a double dip run.

Sunday- September 13

It’s my “off” day. Translation- I ran two miles at an easy pace to continue my run streak that is now up to 114 days. I’m not sure when it will stop. Actually I’m pretty sure it will be on October 18, the day AFTER I become a marathoner!

So that is week seven in a nutshell! Moving onto week eight with my key run already done! That means I’ll make up the thirty miles for the week with a variety of distances.

Save the date- October 17 is the day I’m planning to run my 26.2!!

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