Monday, February 23, 2015

Week 7 in the books!


This week brought alot to my plate.  The mileage is really starting to step up and I am going into unknown territory very soon! I had a lot of firsts this week, including shutting a treadmill down by running for over an HOUR on it and fueling with Honey Stingers before and during my long run.  I
also had a lot of stresses this week in addition to trying to fit in some run times and weather problems.  My daughter was diagnosed with asthma, my son had xrays to check on a possible enlarged heart and the baby is still not double her birth weight so we need to talk supplements.  But run I did and I nailed each and every scheduled mile, mostly because I NEEDED an outlet and a little because I am stubborn and skipping a run would, in my mind, be failing the training week.

Marathon Training Week 7:

The Miles:

Tuesday ~ 6.2
Wednesday ~ 3.14
Friday ~ 3.13
Sunday ~ 12.2

The Weather:

Cold yet then a HEATWAVE came through!!!! My Saturday morning long run was -20 degrees at
the start time so we postponed it.  Glad we did because 24 hours later it was FIFTY degrees warmer!!!!  Sunday was GORGEOUS and WARM.  Those 12 miles were a blessing to be out in nice weather!!!

Routes:

Two runs on the treadmill, which was BORING but DONE! And then the outside routes were where ever I could go that was safe and as snow free as possible.  Guess what?  The only roads like this or that were not high traffic roads were the HILL routes.  Yeah I just ate them up and chalked it up to perfect training for the Maine Coast course.

Gear:

Treadmill, new fuel choices and a FITBIT!!!!! The Hubs bought me a FitBit for Valentine's Day and
it has been interesting to see my steps on days I run vs days I don't and of course my sleep pattern.The treadmill I need to find balance with.  I have it in my mind I can't run over a 10 min mile on that thing and I am messing with my mental state.  I think I need to FORCE myself into running a 34 min 5k on it and let it BE OK!!!! Fuel, I added some Honey Stinger chews and gels in.  They were not that bad and I will be trying them again next week :)



Lessons Learned:


Oh wow, this was a learning week. I learned that I am capable of outrunning a treadmill.  I tested this out with my midweek 6 miler.  I finished my 6 miles before an hour but barely and because I had always heard after an hour the machine would shut off I had to test it of course! 6.2 miles later and I had the biggest treadmill high ever! Causing me to walk into the men's locker room to boot!!! EMBARRASSING! I learned that runners will do whatever they NEED to do while out on a run.  I was 5 miles into my 12 miler when I just really really REALLY had to pee.  Normally this Maine gal would think nothing about finding a tree.  Yet we have about 5 feet of snow on the ground and 8 foot
snow banks to climb to even get into the woods.  Yeah that wasn't happening.  Instead, I managed to remember that I was running on Sunday, I was near a church, the door would be open.... Yeah I totally slipped into the Church in all my running gear glory and found a bathroom to use.  To make matters worse as if I wasn't embarrassed enough, my RunKeeper app went off at full volume while I
was in there. So I learned to pause that thing if I ever need to do that again ;) What a memorable run that will be! Memorable not only for the Church pit stop, or the use of fuel for the first time ever through out a run but also because it ended with some very VERY VERRRRRRY unfortunate chaffing.  Ummmm yea apparently those pants have a seam that I wasn't really aware of.  Being frozen I didn't feel any problem until my shower... Oh and speaking of showers I think I have finally figured out water temperature after a long winter run!! It's an ease into the spray method, hands and feet first, increase warm water then legs and arms, final increase of hot water then rest of my body :)

Have you ever just done something while running that caused some red cheeks?

2 comments:

  1. Oh now! Sorry to hear about the kiddos!! I had asthma as a kid too, totally manageable though if you stay on top of it. Another great week of training for you!! Congrats!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Sue!! I think we will be able to manage hers very pretty easily but I am glad we know that we have to now! Thanks!

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