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in Core Work, Hills, Philadelphia Marathon, Speedwork, Training, Yoga · August 23, 2014

Philadelphia Marathon Training Week 1

I survived the first week! It’s a good feeling, but at the same time, the first week was one of the easier ones and there is still a long way to go. As I mentioned, I had to switch the days around a little because I had to do my long run on Friday. I was still able to take rest or easy days before and after my hard/long runs, which was my goal.

Philadelphia Marathon Training Week 1 (8/18/14-8/24/14)

Monday 8/18: 6.43 miles with 3 at marathon goal pace and 1 mile of hills, plus warm up and cool down. Garmin wasn’t working for most of the run. Also some core work.

hills

Tuesday 8/19: Easy 3 miles, total body strength workout, 60 mins of hot yoga in the afternoon

easy run

Wednesday 8/20: 6 miles with 5 x 800s (3:32, 3:31, 3:14, 3:22, 3:30) Goal was 3:30—not sure where that 3:14 came from or if there was an error in the distance. Plus core work

speedwork

Thursday 8/21: Rest

socks

Friday 8/22: 13.1 miles at 9:04 pace

long run

Saturday 8/23: 4 miles easy, core work

Sunday 8/24: Rest

The most exciting part of my week was getting  new foam roller! I decided to upgrade to the Grid X and I have noticed such a difference! It’s kind of sad that inflicting pain on myself makes me so excited.

Total: 32.53 miles

How were your workouts this week?
Which would you rather do: hills or speed work?

You may also like:
The End of Frederick Half-Marathon Training (Week 6)
What Helped Me Run A Faster Marathon
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michele @ paleorunningmomma says

    August 23, 2014 at 1:31 pm

    Great week! Even with switching the day it looks like it worked out fine. I’m going to look into that foam roller since I need to purchase one pretty much right now with the runs I have coming up! Don’t want to waste money and no nothing about them (as you know!) and I trust you!

    I think I’d rather do hills. I’m just used to running hills and have good memories so that’s probably why. Speed is painful but also boring for me!

    • [email protected] says

      August 23, 2014 at 1:43 pm

      Since I am newer to hills I am still a little afraid of them. Speed work is never easy, but I feel like I know what I am getting myself into each time!

      Have you ever used a foam roller at all before? If not, I wouldn’t go with such an intense one first. You could either start with an inexpensive foam one from amazon or walmart (they’re usually blue or black foam). Or the trigger point website has the basic one which is harder than the foam ones but you might be ok. I just know when you first start its pretty painful, and you probably don’t need a hard one to get the benefits. The grid X is REALLY intense!

  2. Kristina says

    August 23, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    I had a much needed down week this week. I’ve got a weird little ache in my right quad that I’m trying to roll out, somewhat unsuccessfully.

    I love your pictures from on the run 🙂

    • [email protected] says

      August 24, 2014 at 1:17 pm

      I hope it feels better! And hopefully the cut back week helped, also!

  3. Sam @ The Running Graduate says

    August 23, 2014 at 4:30 pm

    Awesome job this week, especially with adding in the yoga and core work! The pace for your long run is what I dream of.

    • [email protected] says

      August 24, 2014 at 1:19 pm

      Haha thank you! You will get there sooner than you think!

  4. Sue @ This Mama Runs for Cupcakes says

    August 23, 2014 at 8:12 pm

    Great job on your 800’s! I love to hate those things! You should check out the R8 Roller from Roll Recovery. Pricey, but totally worth every penny. I NEVER used my foam roller because it was so cumbersome. I ditched it and now use this all of the time. It’s amazing!

    • [email protected] says

      August 24, 2014 at 1:21 pm

      I have seriously considered that R8 roller. I am nervous to pay that much but it would be worth it if its that much better than a roller! Are you able to use it on your glutes/hips? That’s one of my biggest problem areas.

  5. Hailey says

    August 24, 2014 at 5:30 pm

    Great workouts for a great first week of marathon training! I think I’m more of a hill person than a speed person. I always get nervous before anything from mile repeats to 400s for some reason. That roller sounds amazing. I might need to upgrade from my other TP one!

    • [email protected] says

      August 24, 2014 at 10:38 pm

      I really feel this roller so much more! I think I outgrew the basic one.
      Certain speed workouts always scare me, but hills still make me nervous bc I’m still pretty new to them.

  6. Megan (The Lyons' Share) says

    August 25, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    Great week! I love the rest picture! I’d rather do speed work, but every time I have it on the schedule I procrastinate like CRAZY before actually getting out there … I think I’m scared 🙂

    • [email protected] says

      August 27, 2014 at 12:30 am

      I get so nervous before speed work, too! I am already dreading my 800s on Thursday:)

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Yesterday’s long run was not what I wanted it to Yesterday’s long run was not what I wanted it to be. The plan was to take the day off from work, head to the trail where I could run 10 uninterrupted miles at MP (16 total) and practice my race day fueling while wearing my race day shoes.

What actually happened? All week I was stressed about this run and the condition of the trail. We had lots of rain on Thursday, and Friday was forecasted to be very windy. I tried to get in the best mindset possible, reminding myself that I won’t be able to control the conditions on race day. Meanwhile, I haven’t been sleeping well thanks to my 2 year old waking up every night, and my watch has been basically telling me that I’m losing all my fitness and need a week of recovery.

While I started the run feeling pretty good, after 11 miles (7 at MP) my stomach turned and I almost got sick on the side of the trail. I just couldn’t recover from that. The best I could do was run the rest of the miles easy, and needed some walk breaks. On top of that, my shoe kept rubbing my foot on top and I stopped twice to retie it. This has never happened before and now I’m questioning what shoes I should wear for the race. The trail was also in rough condition with several trees blocking it, lots of wet leaves, and rocks/sticks that I had to look out for.

I just can’t believe how bad I felt for the last 5 miles of this run and I can’t pinpoint the cause. Am I overdoing it with the fueling and can’t handle it on harder effort runs? Was it something I ate recently? The hard part is there’s no time to really try something different before the race, as all I have left is a 10 mile easy run next weekend.

I’m trying to remember that one bad run does not take away from all the good runs this training cycle. I’m using today to reset and move on so I can make the most of my last 2 weeks of training. It’s not the way I wanted my last big long run to go, but I suppose it was good practice for pushing through even when I felt pretty awful.

Who else has had a terrible long run close to your race?

#running #marathontraining #longrun
Spent almost every step of this 21 mile run questi Spent almost every step of this 21 mile run questioning my life choices. Like waking up at 3am to run 12 miles on the treadmill and 9 outside. This was a crazy week with a kid that wasn’t sleeping great and fighting a cold and super busy days at work. My legs were just tired the whole time today. It was really hard to run outside after so many treadmill miles and my pace was much slower than inside.

I reminded myself that this is peak week. It’s supposed to feel hard. If it was easy everyone would do it. I ran 53 miles this week and am not injured. The weather is perfect. I’ve gotten in every planned run of this training cycle so far.  I get to do this. 

And I managed to finish strong with my last 3 miles the fastest of the (outside) run. I owe that to a solid fueling plan and taking all my gels even when I really didn’t want to.

3 weeks to go until race day!

#running #marathontraining #longrun
Yesterday’s long run was followed immediately by Yesterday’s long run was followed immediately by back to back kid activities, so there was no time to post about it. (I ate breakfast in the car and lunch at soccer practice- it was that kind of a day.) I was kind of nervous going in to this run, especially now that I’m getting down to last few key long runs. I had 16 miles with 4 x 2 miles on the plan, which sounded manageable but also challenging. The weather was perfect and I hit all my paces. At the end I got a little confused- thinking I was at 15 miles but I was actually at 14 🙃 Got home and realized I chafed really bad. Another long run down, and another week closer to race day.

Do you ever psych yourself out before long runs?

#running #marathontraining #longrun
1 month to go! Who else is just trying to survive 1 month to go! Who else is just trying to survive the peak weeks of marathon training? #running #marathontraining
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