Miles and Marathons

Miles: Last week I ran a mileage PR: 58 miles. What pleases me more than reaching a new PR is the fact that my body feels great! No aches. No pains. No tender knees. No sore arches. In the past, the higher the miles the more my body hurts. Don't get me wrong there were times this week when I felt TIRED, when I didn't want to get out of bed at 5:15am and run, but my body doesn't hurt! Even this morning, though I felt tired at the start of my run my body wasn't screaming at me to stop. Nothing hurts. Amazing! There are a few factors which I think contributed to this, but first the mileage breakdown:

Monday: (Tempo) 6.29mi with 4mi at Temp0 (7:37; 7:38; 7:38; 7:22) on the road. I always run the same route for every tempo run so that I know improvement is due to changes in my body and not a change in the course. The course I run is relatively flat with a few slight inclines.

Tuesday: (Easy Pace) 6 mi in the morning on the road, 2mi in the evening on the treadmill (9:13 pace)

Wednesday:(Track) 2.5mi in the morning on the treadmill, 5.9mi in the evening (1.1mi warm up on the trail, 2.5 on track, 2.3 cool down on trail and road)

1600 6:50 1200 4:49 800 2:57 400 1:24

Thursday: 9.17mi progression run on the road (8:38 pace)

9:01 8:47 9:07 8:40 8:20 8:30 8:24 8:14 8:47 ( I live on a hill and most of my runs end with me going up the hill to my house. Makes fast finishes tough, but isn't that the point?:) .17 at 733

Friday: Easy Pace 4mi on treadmill (9:05 pace)

Saturday: Long Run 22.1 mi (9:00 pace) I was most pleased with the last five miles. I was able to pick up the pace vs. slowly limping towards home.

1 10:23 2 9:27 3 9:18 4 9:04 5 8:47 6 9:05 7 8:56 8 9:07 9 8:54 10 8:37 11 8:47 12 9:05 13 9:20 14 9:12 15 9:06 16 8:47 17 8:32 18 8:34 19 8:57 20 8:42 21 8:35 22 8:48 0.10 8:06

At the end of the week my husband asked my why I couldn't manage two more miles to make it 60? He is incredibly supportive (when I race I can always here is voice loud above everyones cheering me on) and always challenges me, which is why I love him! Believe me I wanted to do 60, but I was committed to taking Sunday off, so when I realized that I was only two miles away from 60 after my 22 miler on Saturday I decided to leave it there. Plus it was hard enough getting in those 58, especially on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday we were up at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth all day for Jack's follow-up (which went well!) and for shooting a promo video for CHaD (more on that later this week!) so I ran early and then late. Then on Wednesday my husband left early and wanted to get 3-4 in on the treadmill in the morning, but Sophia woke up early and came plodding down the basement stairs asking for breakfast. So off the treadmill I hopped to make breakfast. Getting in the miles was not easy, Jack is still unsettled in his sleeping patterns after spending nearly a week in the hospital. Many nights last week I was up 2-3 times with him, making for early morning wake-ups tough.

I think part of the reason why my body is feeling as good as it is after such a high (for me) mileage week is that I split several of the days into two runs, some of those two-a-days were planned (Wednesday) some were not (Tuesday). Even though the split was small (two and three mile runs added to 6 mile runs) I think it meant a little less ware and tare on my body. I also took an ice bath for 15 minutes after my 22 miler and then wore compression tights all day. I woke up Sunday with very little stiffness and no soreness. It was the first time I've ever taken and ice bath and I'm a believer now. It wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it might be, in fact it was welcome relief after a very humid and hot run. I also did a step-back week last week and only ran 32 miles (versus 45, which is where my mileage has been for the past month or so). I'm following the advice of my run clubs track coach and using the knowledge I acquired at the USA track and field coaching certification class to formulate my raining plans.

Monday is normally my "tempo day" and last night I thought I felt good enough to run tempo today, but when I got out there, even though I wasn't hurting, my body just couldn't go to that next gear so I decided to make it a recovery run. I'll do tempo later this week when my body has had a chance to recover a bit more.

Marathons:

This week is my last hard week before I begin winding down and start tapering for my seventh marathon on July 26th, Around the Lake in Wakefield, MA. The marathon will mark the end of the training cycle I am in now and hopefully launch me into the next training cycle with a solid mileage base; my next training cycle will culminate in my goal race, the CHaD Hero Half Marathon on October 20th. The Around the Lake marathon is a rather obscure, small race in MA that runs 8 laps around a small little lake. I have no expectations for this marathon. I'll be running with my sister and our goal is to just have fun, I'm excited to see where that mindset takes us!

Around the Lake and the CHaD Hero Half are the only races I have on my calendar now, but there are plenty of options for small local races in August and September. I'll probably look for a 5 miler or 10K in September to really test out my race legs and see how prepared I am to run my goal of 1:35 in October. And of course I can't leave out Hood to Coast at the end of August! I'll be running with Nuun on Team Watermelon, though I don't really think of this as a race, in my mind it's more like a retreat/sleepover-in-a-van with a bit of running thrown in:) I can't wait!

What is the highest mileage you've ever run? How do you recover and avoid that "beat down" feeling after high mileage or long runs? What races are you looking forward to?

--Sarah

I still need help reaching my goal of raising $5000 for the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth! Please consider donating.

You can read about the cause HERE. And donate on my fundraising page HERE.

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