This week was a recovery week and boy did I need it. I think I wore myself out during vacation by staying up later than usual and getting up earlier than usual. By the time I got back to work on Monday I was feeling pretty worn out.

Monday- First track workout since beginning marathon training, totaling 4 miles. 1 mile warm-up, 4 x 800m, 1 mile cool down. The intervals were a bit slower, since they were in the form of Yasso 800s. That means I took my marathon goal time of 4:30 and converted it to minutes and seconds for the 800m repeats. The plan is to add on one 800m repeat per week until I get to 10.

I was happy that I was able to hit my goal time for the 800’s since this was day 4 in a row of running. In the past when I have done track workouts, they have always been after 1-2 days off. Granted they were a little more intense than this workout, but still. I wasn’t sure how the workout was going to go, but it went well.

Tuesday- Unplanned rest day. Tuesdays are usually cross training days, but I was feeling really tired so I opted for a rest day instead.

Wednesday- Four miles with two at marathon pace (10:17/mile) before work with Sven. I thought hitting marathon pace for the two middle miles would be in the bag, since I was running on a treadmill at a fixed speed. I used a treadmill pace conversion chart to determine what speed I should set my treadmill at with 1% incline. It indicated that 5.8mph at 1% incline would be 10:12/mile pace. I had it set on that at 2 miles, but my splits came in at 10:19 and 10:17. But that’s pretty much right on pace so I’ll take it.

Thursday- Rest day. Sometimes if I take a rest day Tuesday, I will do some cross training on Thursday. And I definitely could have in the morning before work. But I knew it was going to be a long workday (nearly 13 hours when all was said and done), so I just went with another rest day.

Friday- Mid-afternoon 4 mile run on the Dora Trail in town. Why I waited until it was mid-afternoon when it was 80 degrees (when I finished working for the day around 9:00 AM) to run I have no idea. I felt alright during the first mile, but things just went downhill from there. My pace got progressively slower, my legs felt like lead, and my stomach felt completely empty. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and that definitely didn’t help anything. I also didn’t bring water because I didn’t realize how hot it was. I think I was also just worn out from coming off of a 13 hour workday the day prior. But I survived and promptly put this run behind me.

Saturday- I met up with Kim for a 6 mile long run on the Dora and New River Trails. My legs felt a million times better than Friday and I had an enjoyable run. It was in the mid-50’s, which felt wonderful. We encountered a pickup truck crossing the trestle bridge, which was a first in over a year of running on this trail.

Same bridge, picture from last winter.

I have started to notice a trend in my long runs, thanks to these weekly marathon training recaps. It seems like I always have one good long run followed by one bad/tough long run. I have no idea why I would be “on” one weekend and “off” the next. But I looked back through my weekly recaps since week 4 and my long runs have literally flip flopped every week. On even weeks I have good runs and on odd weeks I have bad runs. The good news is the marathon takes place on week 20 of training, so at least there’s that. But seriously, I wonder if this is just a coincidence or what.

Sunday- Slept in and then went for an easy 3 mile run on the roads around our house, which means hills. My legs felt tired and it felt ridiculously hot outside, even though it was only 68 degrees and 85% humidity. Those were really the only notable things about that run.

Total miles: 21

This week’s schedule:
Monday: 5 miles
Tuesday: XT
Wednesday: 5 miles w/ 3 @ MP
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 5 miles
Saturday: 10 miles
Sunday: 3 miles