Chicago Marathon Training Week 3

I was very excited to start this week of training because it would be my first 50 mile week in a few weeks (it's been a while since I have felt good enough to run that much).  Last week I finally felt strong enough to train hard and was looking forward to the two quality workouts I had this week.

The first two workouts were done on the treadmill, mostly because Miami has been having a heat wave for the last few months and the last few weeks have suffered from heat indexes in the 100s all day long, so I knew running outside every day was dangerous.  Unfortunately, the treadmill gait made my knee swell a bit so I moved my rest day to Wednesday to rest for my first quality workout of the week, the Thursday MLR (Medium Long Run for the non-runners).  This was to be 10 miles with the middle 6 progressive (each mile faster than the last).  I ran before I start working (I work from home on Thursdays) and even then, the heat index was above 90F.  But fortunately, the sun was covered in some tiny clouds so it did not feel that bad.  I was surprised to hit great paces during the run, some that included Marathon Pace (MP) minus 20 seconds.

The rest of the week went by without much issue with the knee.  I could still feel it a bit swollen, and I felt the IT Band was a bit sore, but between the two Pilates sessions this week and the easy runs, the knee was great on Sunday, where I was to do 16 miles with the last 6 @ MP.  90% of the run successful, but I only did 5 @ MP for the following.  By Mile 10, the heat index was already at 93F, so I went to the TM to start my MP miles.  Unfortunately, the TM started making some weird sounds that caught the attention of my husband so he sent me outside to run until he fixed it.  I went out in that hellish, sunny, shadeless, humid, weather and hammered 5 miles at MP (by heart rate) and I hit great paces.  But, by the time I got back home for more water (man, it was hot), my husband said the TM was fixed and I hopped on it for the last mile.  Except my legs did not want to move fast anymore. So, I just cooled down and let it go.

Overall, last week was great.  This week I have a cutback week which includes running the Disneyland Half Marathon with my husband for fun.  It's a good way to recover from the tough week my coach gave me and to prepare for the one that is coming next.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cheers to the New Year 5K

Image
I wasn't going to write an RR for this race as I was just running it for fun, but I think I can take some good things from this race enough to write them down. As you know, I had a good late Summer/early Fall races, with times I wasn't even expecting. So it was frustrating to get injured after a fall and to still be dealing with this issue 3 months in. But such is life. A few weeks ago, I ran the Donut 5K Holiday Run and it was not an easy race. I ended up walking it with some friends for a good chunk of the race and couldn't breathe well enough to run it. I've also been having issues with my right leg (the good leg) where I start scuffing the inner toe during my runs. I think I have changed my stride/gait somewhat to accommodate the injured leg. And it has been happening more and more often and during the race it got annoying. For a heel to mid-striker like that, that is weird. My retired shoes normally look pristine on the sole but lately all my shoes are already scuf
Read more

10K at Fort Ben/Gobblers Jog 5K - Dealing with a Weird Injury and the London Marathon

Image
I did not write a race report for my 10K at Fort Ben in October, as it ended up being a bad (and painful) race for me. But since I have some more races done and/or planned, as some updates of this weird injury, I thought of putting those thoughts here. The Injury Two months before the 10K at Fort Ben race, I took Sasha to the vet. Sasha was a COVID adoption that was returned to the Humane Society two years later. She does not do well with other cats (at least she didn't until now) and freaks out whenever we put her on a carrier and take her anywhere. Understandable, as she might think she is being returned. Anyway, I took her for her one year checkup, vaccines, and to discuss medication options for Ms. Freakout. The vet thought Prozac would help her and we got a plan. But for this visit, Ms. Freakout freaked the fuck out. She pooped on the carrier on the way in, and worse, she peed the carrier and herself on the way back. When I opened the carrier, she ran like a bat out of hell ou
Read more

Damaris' NYCM (FE and Race Report)

Image
Summary: On Sunday, I finished my 4th Marathon, the NYCM, the first of my season.  It was a great experience and I had tons of fun, I met tons of forumites, and I experienced how my marathon season may go if I don't get my asthma in check.  Even with that, I finished in 4:59:22, not a PR, but with a lot of insight as to how my lungs work. Novel: Chapter 1: The Training This was not a marathon I was planning or wanting to run, but my friend wanted me to enter the lottery and run with her (pacing her on her first) so I entered never believing I would get in.  So, of course I got in.  I had already planned to choose a high mileage intense training for the West Palm Beach Marathon (December 4), so all I needed to do was to organize my training so that I was already trained by the time I would get to NYCM and with enough time to recover until WPB. Since I was already doing 50mpw easily, and already averaging 40mpw in 2011, in June I made the decision to use Pfitz 18/7
Read more