Distance - 6.2
Pace - 9:53
So here's a weird thing. I totally botched the rest of my weekend after Tailgate, and Total for last week was a measly 24 miles. But .. unlike the past Tuesday that caused major stress and guilt .. I. feel. Nada. Woo. I think my subconscious knows how to tell me: "you did good and plenty," when it wants to. Racing made my quads sore like the 18 miler didn't, so .. done. :) If nothing else, I think I could add a second run to Tuesday this week. But I also feel like I could go on as planned without batting an eyelash, too. If that's what the "PRO" weeks are for, then I think I'm good.
This does make me a little nervous about 19 on Saturday. Everyone else will be running their PRO week (16 miles). It will take a good amount of coaxing myself to get me to finish out the mileage on return to Armour .. BUT .. loops are good for the mental game. 'Just a couple more loops. Any pace you want.' I'll also have on my mind that I want to switch PRO again for Finest, so I may not have a chance the following week to get in 19. Fingers crossed, all those thoughts will get me there this Saturday. Toes crossed, the course won't be TOO mean.
This morning's run was just gett'er done. No pace goals what so ever. In, out, and on to mommy mode in 1 hr and change. It was nice to have Michele back and out with us again. Triplets in action makes me *soo happy.* Unfortunately, we were a little uneven, what with her having tackled all the mileage Saturday, and I having logged all of one 5K. But still, very nice to always have friends out there. It was dark. At one point I had to scream at a deer. LOL. Hitting this pace felt comfortable, except at the end where I pushed to get back, and on hills where I now am doing a little "playing." Greenway hills are completely non-existent, but the baby "ups" on bridges, I am trying to really sprint. Its about a 10-20 second push to get to the middle of each bridge, but 1. Chicago has no hills, so I pretend that these are the last hill on that course, and that I *can* still push, and 2. pushing up hill makes faster running after hill feel great. Just another way to make the time pass, too, I guess.
Tuesday
Distance - 6.2+
Pace - 9:30 (???)
Woo. I stuck to my schedule for sleep, and made it to 5am #10ktuesday. And I didn't die! <3
I did, however, run my fastest non-race 10K. Crazy. I have Brad to thank for that; he really pushed me to finish strong.
That's two back to back 10ks solidly under 10 min avg pace. Very exciting. If I cover Saturday as truly LSD, these runs at a smidge more "tempo" will be why. I'm cool with that.
Its also really nice to knock out the running in the morning. This first week of school, I feel so "put together." Run early, home / shower, help with last minute breakfast suggestions, drop kids off at school, head to work, and then not really have to worry about much of anything except cheer carpool in the evening a couple of nights a week. Yesterday, I even read 20 pages of the new Harry Potter, and went for a tiny walk with the dog! Feeling so .. normal.
Of course .. then this morning .. I had this thought:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, its Tuesday, August 9th! TWO MORE MONTHS. COMMENCE FREAK OUT MODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lol.
Wednesday
Rest or XT
Since you don't really want to hear about how I slept and did nothing .. some other stuff:
- Step challenge
We started a step challenge at work. Humbling! I thought I'd have an unfair advantage. Not so much. I don't love walking. I love running. I get it done, and then I stay done. So I will have to work hard to add more stepping to the non-running hours. That said, if its a choice between a silly step challenge and marathon training integrity, I choose Chicago! :) We'll see how it all shakes out. Today I took a small walk at lunch, and a 20-30 minute walk with the dog at night. Just squeaked in 10,000.
- Push up challenge
Someone challenged me on Facebook to do 22 days of 22 push ups. The first few days were TOUGH. I skipped two days, and now I am thinking of starting back up again. Same issue as step challenge: its all fun and games until it messes with Chicago. I'm not going to get so uncomfortably sore that it hurts to move my arms to run. Period. On the other hand, upper and core strength is still a struggle, so I am going to use the excuse to keep trying. Tomorrow. ;)
- Chicago Wave 2 Start Corrals
Oh Chicago. Why don't you seed people based on race results!?! They seed based on expected finish time (self reported) for their "Wave 2." How stressful for a newbie! I don't want to commit to a number. But .. decision made. I will hold true to 10% goal, and to the way I like to use start corrals and official pacers. 110% better in my mind to be able to fall back, than to finish TOO "happy go lucky."
- Weight loss
No weight gain so far, thankfully. Minus a lb each month is about what I have been consistently able to achieve. That sounds tiny, but consistently down is consistently down. I'd love to get dramatic about it for a few weeks. I used to be able to go gung ho: 5 lbs in 3 days, and all of that jazz. If I could do the marathon at 129 rather than 136, how awesome would that be? I am still "over weight." I am still in the 30% fat-ish range. So I should be able to quit the sugar, and see immediate return. In practice, not so much. Even things that REALLY excite me (like Finest in 9 days), just don't dramatically change my will power level to do this "hard core." Like with racing, really changing habits is uncomfortable .. and slow. I never seem to be able to put the healthy eating at the forefront of my attention for long enough, either, especially when the #1 goal is all of the new distance miles, that in and of themselves, run me ragged. So middle of the road is what I am finding will have to do until after October.
Thursday
Distance - 1 WU, 4 x mile / 400 m recovery, 1 CD
Splits - 8:20, 8:33, 8:28, 8:20
I did it! I woke up at 4 am TWICE this week. What a kick ass first week of school. Tackling it all like a boss! (well, until I left my phone in the windshield wiper well, and took it for a ride .. but I digress). Boss!
Hard goal for these would be based off of Jog Days PR (8:28). Even harder goal would have been to pace it off Finest hopeful time of 59:59 (8:23). Easy goals were to pace it off marathon finish times of 4:30 (9:30s) or under 5 hour (10:30s). I don't think the indicator chart buffers enough for longer distances! ;) Or at least, it certainly doesn't have a "newbie who's never done this" parameter in its formulas. I haven't run a 10:30 mile during speed work since 2014. But it was nice to have the out .. if a split was over 9, I could just think .. must be marathon training. haha.
Against ALL of this info (too much really; I should just go do my indicator run again, and stick to what it says for the season), I ran fairly well compared to the previous two weeks! Especially for the heat (which is a smidge better, but JUST a smidge better, in the morning). I don't think I ran these quite as hard as at Suwanee that last ITFP workout I did ..still miss pod sprinting with the K-man :/ for the finish win! lol. But these were more consistent, and reasonably run.
I'm doing it! *^_^*
Friday
Distance - 4
Pace - Need to check .. 9:45ish maybe ...
Serious progressions run: 10:15, 10, 9:30, 9:15. I *really* had in my mind that I needed to keep this one easy ... cuz new distance tomorrow! Ran in the back for the first mile or so. Riverside felt so perfect .. a little cooler than blistering because of the river. Super flat, with good bits of negative elevation on the way back. I got to run with Courtney on my way back. (Brad? Courtney? I don't fool myself into thinking I am actually "running with them" but .. even this wasn't even possible a year ago. high fives all around :) ). That did push my pace a bit, but I tried to stay fairly conversational until almost the end, even though the temptation was definitely there to try harder to keep her at her pace. But I knew that I didn't want to really push the day before 19, so I let myself be pulled a little, but not to tempo effort like early in the week. Just right. Good Judy.
Saturday
Distance - NINE *tear drop* TEEN! (point two five, because I couldn't roll around in middle of rd.)
Avg Pace - 10:17!
This marathon has me so bi-polar. One day, I am thinking: omg, this is the hardest thing ever. Why didn't anyone tell me how cumulatively draining this would be?? God, I am so far behind. I wish I had more time! Why do I slog so hard when everyone else is prancing along at super human speed? The next day: bring it. Bring it tomorrow. Lol. And also: wait, the other shoe is going to drop. There's going to be a cold. An injury. The wall is going to bite my ass and eat on it for an hour. Swag wagons for sure. Because so far, this is manageable. And that can't be right.
Which set of thoughts consume my brain just depends on the day.
About this run specifically: to sum it up, I made GOOD choices. I knew we'd have to fight some serious elevation. That meant no stupid moves pretending the first/coolest/flattest 7 were the only 7.
10:41, 10:41, 10:31, 10:08, 10:10, 10:11, 10:14
From there, mentally, I gained A LOT from the reset: begin again at ATC parking lot, and go out for a 12 mile run. Just like I've done dozens of times before. Not even a 1/2 marathon from here. I started out with 10:15, but with breaks and whatnot, a 'real' 10:18 ended up being running with the top of 10s. It took getting back into the zone: 10:26, 10:28, 10:19, but then from there 10:03, 10:38 begin hillfest), 10:38, 10:18, 10:10, 10:18, 10:03, 9:32 (??), and 9:52. Hill fest =
Flippin ay man! Chicago will have none of this heat or hills, so I will be ahead of the game .. right???? That or Enrique is a masochist! All of that though, and I held my own with 'fresh' NYC marathon top of 10 pod? Boom. (that group, by the way, was awesome. I could tell that on the return, they all still had more in the tank, so pushing a little to stay with them was perfection). Now how can I just bag all these people I run with up and take them on my marathon?????
Having this run at the end of a near-perfect training week puts me on cloud 9. I did ALL the mileage, fought the hills, and still banged out a slow 9 for the new distance mile. How can I not be the happiest person alive right now!!?? *^_^*
My sole mates. <3
Upcoming
I am so excited for Finest, I can hardly keep it under wraps. I usually try not to get TOO caught up. Or at least.. not let on that I am caught up.. in my goals. But this time, I am just ready to say out loud that I am TRYING MY HARDEST to CRUSH IT. If something goes wrong, oh well. But I am going to be okay with caring. I give myself permission to care out loud this time. :) Damn the pressure that comes along with that. Damn it to hell, and be done with it. lol.
Goals besides 'CRUSH IT' are going to be tough to set. Here goes nothing:
90% - PR, preferably by at least 9s- this course is much more forgiving than Braves or Jog Days, so but for unexpected turbulence, I feel comfortable with calling this 90% certain. Last year, this race was my PR from August to February. Expecting same for 2016-17. (26:08 - 8:25 pace) This is still going to be seriously tough, but I am hoping Beast Judy shows. If she sleeps in, 90% goal is always just to have fun.
50% - 25:59. On this course, I am going to call this 50%, just because its looking likely that I will have friends around me, and that, plus the negative gain on elevation, should put an 18s PR firmly in my wheel house. As long as beast Judy shows up and I am ready to make it burn, of course. 50 50 likely, at least. (8:22 pace) Note that even though its the 50% goal, it IS the goal. This is what will make me dance like a loon at the finish line! :)
10% - This is the hardest one to set. With constantly changing abilities, what my MAX time goal could be is confusing. I want it to be hard. I want to try for it, with the total expectation of not hitting it (that's what 10% means), and be okay with wanting it for at least a few months before I actually hit it. When I look back to last year, subbing each of these summer 5Ks by -2, I can say that that's no longer the "beginner shave" spread I can pull. So first off, 24:17 is off the table. LOL.
So 10% for remainder of year is somewhere between 25:59 and 24:59. Maybe 25:30? (8:12 avg pace). 24:59 requires 8:02. YIKES! So maybe I just keep 8:02 for mile 1 of each 5K, and see how things go from there. On the watch could be Min Pace: 7 (cuz who cares how fast I go for a 5K) and Max Pace: 8:22. And we just see where that lands me. Under 25 sounds INSANE, really. (So does under 26, bee tee dubs). I know high school cross country kids with 24 and change PRs for 5Ks. On the other hand, just in Feb, I was running 28. And here I am 2 min faster in 6 months. So really, if this is for the remainder of the year, maybe it should be 24:59, and not 25:30. On the other other hand, I will not keep making the same gains at the same ratios over time as I improve. Soooo .. after all that .. not setting a specific 10% goal this go. Watch will be be min 7, max 8:22, taking the first mile out on pace for 8:02 if I am able, and lets let the chips fall where they fall after that.
I'm not sure if you all have figured this out yet, but 5Ks are my favorite. *^_^* And the "thought process" around racing is my favorite too. :) :) :) The fact that it will keep my mind off Chicago for a week, even better.
Total - 44! *^_^*
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