I am training for the Marine Corps Marathon, which will be held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My race day will be on October 18. I’m over halfway through training now. Here’s how week 7 went…

Monday – Ab circuit
I had the day off of work for Labor Day. I used the long weekend to get a bunch of stuff done around the house, including washing and waxing my car. By the time all of that was done, I was pretty worn out so I just did my ab circuit and called it good.

Tuesday – 7 miles easy

Wednesday – 7 mile workout
This was a fartlek workout with pickups of 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 minutes at 5K and 10K pace. This workout was rough for me. I’ve been feeling a bit tired this week and It’s the first one I’ve struggled on this training cycle.

On the plus side, it’s starting to look and smell like fall (fall smell = dead leaves, but in a good way).

Thursday – Rest
Despite being tired this week, I still planned to cross train. However, some things came up and I wasn’t able to get my workout in – so forced rest day, I guess.

Friday – 5 miles easy

Saturday – Rest
My friend Lauren and I spent the day crewing our friend Charlotte to her first 50 mile finish at the Dam Yeti 50!

Sunday – 20 mile long run
I was feeling really tired on Saturday night and wasn’t feeling very excited about doing my long run the next morning. Luckily, I’m pretty good about making long run plans and following through, and I woke up Sunday morning with a mindset of getting my run done.

I did this run on the Creeper Trail, which runs from Whitetop to Abingdon, Virginia, and is where the Dam Yeti race takes place. I started my run in Alvarado and ran to Abingdon and back.

The closer I got to Abingdon, the busier the trail got. I was glad when I hit my turnaround and headed back towards Alvarado. My legs felt good, but I was tired overall. But I definitely enjoyed getting to do my long run on a different trail than normal.

Total miles: 39 miles
Weeks to MCM: 5