Illinois Marathon-2

Week #16, March 12-18

M Rest
T 3.77
W 2.51
TH 5.83
F Rest
S Ran 3.78
S Ran 13.00

I spent all day Tuesday in a meeting.  It was a long day and the last thing I wanted to do after school was run.  We also got more snow.  Not a lot but seriously crazy weather.  Oh but at least it isn’t as bad as on the east coast.

Illinois Marathon-151

I currently have 4 pairs of shoes in rotation.  They’re all Brooks Launch 4, except the green shoes on the lower right, those are the Launch 5.

On Wednesday it was warm enough to wear shorts.  Spring is so close!

Thursday’s run was fun but also hard!  I had to do 15 minute warm up, 5×5 minute @10:02 pace with 400m recovery, and 10 minute cool down.  I was nervous but knew I could do it.  The first three 5 minute reps felt comfortable.  The last two felt hard because of the wind.  I tried to keep going but just couldn’t take it anymore.  When I saw my splits I realized that I was also running too fast.

I wanted to do these without stopping but with the last two I did stop for a few seconds to catch my breath.  I feel like I cheated.  🙂  Overall, I am very pleased with my negative splits!!

I thought Saturday’s run was 45 minutes but instead it was supposed to be 40 minutes.  Oh well.  It was in the high 30s and I felt great out there.  I didn’t realize how tired I was and ended up taking a nap from 3-4pm.  Lola was very tired too from running around all day.

Illinois Marathon-157

I have mixed feelings about today’s long run (13 miles-4 warm up, 6 @10:45 pace, 3 cool down).  I understand the benefits of tempo runs but I still dislike them.  I always have a hard time holding the pace.  Today’s run felt hard.

Hanging out with Lola before making myself go out for my run.  It was a beautiful and warm afternoon.  

Illinois Marathon-158

I took one Huma Gel (affiliate link) before my run.  They’re my new favorite gels.  The originals are tasty but I also love the plus which have a natural electrolyte.  I took 3 extra ones and ended up taking one at mile 4 and then another one at mile 8.

I was smiling at the end of my run because I was done with it.  But deep down I was sore and tired.  And full of doubt.  As you can see, I did hit my target pace but tempo runs are supposed to be run without stopping and I didn’t do that here.  There were a few times that the pace felt comfortable, which was surprising, but there were times in which I was barely hanging on and had to stop.  A few times I wanted to quit too.  The reason I didn’t is because it was a very nice day for a run.  I’ve been complaining about how cold it has been and today it was just perfect.  So of course I couldn’t stop!

Total mileage for the week: 28.89
Total mileage for this training cycle: 329.93
Total mileage for the year: 251.11

Here’s how training has gone so far:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15

How was YOUR week?  

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