[S]he Conquers Who Endures

7 mile recovery run with 6x100 m strides. Because of the hurricane I had to dreadmill this run up! Maintained a slow 9:15 min/mi pace at 1% incline. 0.1 mile repeats at 10 MPH (6:00 min/mi), the fastest the treadmill would go. My legs were sooooo incredibly tight in the beginning and I was worried I pushed way too hard last week. My legs loosened after 3 miles and felt really good. Followed my run with a ton of stretching which made my legs feel even better. Time to hunker down for the storm! And what's with this constant feeling like my hammies are on the verge of cramping? I took a salt tab last night. Is that an electrolyte thing or fatigued muscle thing?

Holy downpour! So glad I have my Nike shields to keep my feet dry...well, until the torrential downpour at the end of my run! I wanted to slow my paces this week. I'm worried I am pushing too hard and won't be able to maintain these paces for the next 10 weeks of marathon training. Last week I did 11 miles at 7:46 pace. I was planning on dropping it to 8:05 pace. My GPS was all wacky at the beginning then the path was all messy from the leaves and puddles (and it was dark) that I didn't want to keep checking my watch so I more or less went on "feel" which felt like I was sandbagging a little. Ended up being a 7:53 pace for 12 miles! Stretched up nice n good after my run and didn't feel too spent. :) I'm happy about the slightly slower pace and how I felt, but I think I'll try to drop it back to 8:05ish next week for my midweek 14 miler. If I get past this week, I'll make it past the point I got injured this summer! :) And the good news is my knee was 100% pain-free! Ya-yay!

Bikram and deep tissue massage later.

I'm happy with how my legs felt after the 12 miler last night. They were worked but not too spent. Bikram felt AMAZING stretching out all that tension. Combined with a good session of deep tissue and I think these legs will be in business! 

Nice early morning run. 2 warmup miles, 6 threshold miles, 2 cool down miles. I wanted to slow down my paces slightly this week and I did just that. 6 threshold miles were at 7:34 average pace. Perfect! Overall pace for the entire run was somewhere around 8:02 I think. Time to recover and get ready for 21 miles Saturday!! :)

Easy recovery run. 9:15 min/mi average pace. Working on maintaining McMillian paces for finishing a 3:29:59 marathon.

21 mile long run in Chicago. Ran the first 6 miles solo, then met up with my partner with 15 miles to go. Last week's 18 miler was a 8:12 pace and I wanted to pull back on the pace because I think I'm pushing too hard on my long run. I just want to BQ (8:12 pace)! My friend and I were talking most the way and kept trying to pull back on our pace. One of the problem's is that I don't really know what pace I'm actually running on this path until I'm done running because it's through a forest preserve and my watch is always off in comparison to the mile markers of the path. I felt like we were sandbagging, which ended up being an 8:16 average pace! I don't know what to think. My legs didn't feel torn up at the end, in fact, at mile 20 I felt like I could throw down the hammer if I needed to (don't worry, I didn't test that one out!). I'm getting sooooo obsessed now, I am gaining more confidence I can BQ at Disney. I watched the youtube of the course. It's slightly different than last time I ran it, which moves the overpass "hills" to miles 15, 16 instead of 22, 23 (30 ft climb max, whoop-dee-doo). I'm not complaining. The only thing I'm worried about is the curveous miles 19-20 where they now have you run through the Wide World of Sports Complex around the track and baseball field. I can't worry myself about this, I keep telling myself the curves will break up the monotony of the flat course. I'm excited for this upcoming week of more recovery runs, no tempo and speed and reaping the benefits of this awesome run! As long as I can make it into my recovery run Monday pain-free, I will make it past the point of injury with this schedule!! 55 miles this week. I'm reaching the peak mileage of my marathon training!! :)