Monday, March 24, 2014

Week 14 - FIVE MORE RUNS

Another week of training in the books, and one week closer to the Paris Marathon!

This week's plan was: 
Monday: Off - check!
Tuesday: Run - check! 7 mile tempo
Wednesday: Strength - nope, off
Thursday: Run - nope, off
Friday: Strength - nope, ran (speed!)
Saturday: Run - nope, spin!
Sunday: Off (might switch Saturday and Sunday) - ran!

After running 21 miles last Sunday, I NEEDED rest!!! So I rested. And then attacked a tempo run on Tuesday night. I just could not get up in the morning this week to workout. I also slacked on strength workouts, but it was a busy week at work and I wanted to get a lot of sleep. I actually took RIP Ride in an effort to get a little strength work in! Hey, whatever works, right?

Tempo
This week's tempo was 1 mile warm up, 5 miles at 8:15 pace (7.3 mph), 1 mile cool down. My leg was bugging me again - felt really tight in the calf area, then loosened up after a mile or so. It ended up being a really good run! I ran the last tempo mile at 7.4 - gotta love when there's a little left in the tank!

Speed:
The speed run was 8 x 800m at 8.3 mph (3:36 for each 800) with a warm up, cool down, and 90 seconds rest intervals between 800s. For the last 800, I ran it at 8.4 mph! I felt so good during this run - no tight leg, felt strong, and the 800s FLEW by. That is the thing that I LOVE about speed workouts. I was tired and didn't feel like running after work, but after a little pep talk and a reminder that speed workouts go by quickly, I went for it and before I knew it, it was over!
My speed workout method involves Post-Its
It was a great run! So happy I got it done. The reminder that I had only eight runs between me and the marathon also helped!

Long run:
On Sunday I ran 13 miles in Central Park. It was windy and cold, which is why it took me a million hours to get out the door (plus I was watching Breaking Bad on Netflix). After I realized that this would be my LAST double digit run before the marathon, I got more psyched up. I ran without music, took it easy, and ran all over the place!
Before - terrified for the cold
After - happy!!!
I averaged 8:31 over 13.15 miles. I'm SO ready to tackle this marathon!

So yes, I was lacking some motivation on the running from this week. It was tough to get out of bed, hard to get moving sometimes, but weeks like these happen to the best of us. And this one reminded me that once I DO get moving, it's not so bad! The marathon is on the horizon. It's so close I can almost taste the butter croissants and cafe cremes. I've put 14 weeks into preparing for ONE race...and I'm not going to lose those 14 weeks of hard work! 

In addition to the running, I was also lucky enough to receive a StrideBox special for Paris Marathon, on behalf of Schneider Electric, the main sponsor of the Paris Marathon. 
Supersweet StrideBox!
I actually bought a couple of the items in this box last week at Jack Rabbit, so I'm excited to have more opportunities to try them out. The box came with:

  • Gu Brew in lemon lime - always good to have on hand
  • Gu energy gel in salted caramel - so delicious - seriously, amazing
  • Lenny & Larry's Fit Protein Brownie - looks yummy!
  • Hyland's Bioplasma Sport - the little packet dissolves on the tongue - so cool!
  • Skin Strong Slather Anti-Chafing Cream - I'm usually a Body Glide girl, but it's good to know this exists!
  • Fluid Recovery Drink Mix in chocolate wave - this was one of the things I bought last week, but haven't yet tried
  • Honey Stinger protein bar - love their waffles
  • LaceLocker (I like the idea of this - I HATE when laces click on my RoadID so this could be a good solution
And some cute little signs, perfect for selfies!
Next to my quote of this training cycle - if you want
something you've never had, you must be prepared to do
something you've never done!
Thanks Schneider Electric for the #Xperience! TWO WEEKS TILL PARIS!!!

This week's workout schedule (March 24-30):
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Run
Wednesday: Strength
Thursday: Run
Friday: Strength
Saturday: Off
Sunday: LAST LONG RUN!!!

FIVE runs to go...let's do this thing!

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