I seriously can’t believe how quickly these weeks are flying by. Week 3 of marathon training has already come to an end. It is hard to believe!
When I first looked at the schedule for the week I noticed two things that were different:
- My tempo run increased by 1 mile. (Not as simple as it may sound!)
- I didn’t have an official “long” run.
My saturday run dictated 10 miles easy. I noticed that the total number of miles I would run between Saturday and Sunday were the same as last week but the long run went down and Sunday’s run went up.
By the time Saturday rolled around I was so thankful for this fact. Not only because we are at the beach for the weekend, but also because the tempo run on Thursday really took a lot out of my legs.
10 miles at just under goal easy pace for the day. I will take it! This run was tough mentally. Out at my in-laws beach house all the roads feel like they go on FOREVER. I decided to run out 5 and back 5 since I didn’t know the area well enough to just run without a course plan.
I also forgot to charge my iPod last night so it ended up being a music-less run which wasn’t that bad, but mentally the first couple miles were a bit tougher because of it.
Here is a run down of my workouts throughout the week:
Monday (8/1)
6 miles easy
Tuesday (8/2)
1.5 mile warm up
4 x 1,200 meter repeats (400 recovery)
1.5 mile cool down
Wednesday (8/3)
6 miles easy
Thursday (8/4)
7 mile tempo run
Friday (8/5)
Off
Saturday (8/6)
10 miles easy
Sunday (8/7)
8 miles easy
I wouldn’t say I learned anything that notable this week. Overall it was a pretty good week and I got the workouts done. I felt really worn out by Sunday which can be expected doing Hanson’s Marathon Method.
Best Run
Even though Saturday’s run was tough I would say it was my “best” run of the week. I felt like my legs really needed this after my tempo run on Thursday and it helped to work them out. This run also taught me how to push through being tired WITHOUT music which is something I do need more practice on before the marathon.
It was an enjoyable run and what I needed Saturday.
Toughest Run
This was an easy question for me this week – my tempo run. I really had to dig deep on this run and push through pretty much every negative thought my brain could come up with. At 4.5 miles in I really considered quitting. I just wanted to quit and choke it up to “not being my day.” However, instead I kept pushing through and felt extremely proud when it was over.
Sometimes the toughest runs teach us the most about ourselves, and help to give us the confidence we need.
I will leave you with a few fun pictures. This was how Zoe laid almost the entire way down to the beach on Friday.
I am pretty sure she may be one of the most spoiled dogs I know.
This was my attempt at taking a selfie with her in the car. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well.
How did your training go this week?
What did your learn from your tough runs?
Looks like you had a great week of training!
Another great week for you! I can see where this training plan gets mentally tough with both weekend days being long-ish. It’s always a struggle I think the first few miles without music but that always sets me up to get into a really good mental flow as the miles go on.
Nice work Sara! Zoe deserves to be spoiled – she is a lucky girl 🙂
I wanted to ask about your spreadsheet, based on the color coding, it looks like you have all Saturday runs at Long pace (8:42)? It sounds like, however, it should alternate color from blue and the redish color you have for Saturday. So one Saturday run will be at 9:01 and the next being at 8:42 – is that right? Or are you aiming to do all of your Saturday runs at Long pace (8:42)?
After a very tough, very hot tempo on Thursday night, I took Friday off and got a deep tissue massage. Both my Saturday (8 – Easy pace) and Sunday (12 – Long pace) runs felt great with the extra rest. Hoping the setback week will help me over the next couple weeks.
-Run with joy!
When I first made out the schedule I didn’t look closely enough and then went back and realized that some were harder long runs and then others were easy long runs. I do stick to what it says, I just never updated the sheet 🙂
Glad you took a day off and regrouped! Sometimes that is necessary! I have 14 and 8 this weekend and that scares me a little bit!
You’re gonna rock the marathon!
Way to rock that tempo run! You’re right, it was one mile, but that one mile added up to the run being about 17% longer than you were used to, which is a big jump! So awesome that you pushed through and keep going–you’ll be able to use that push on marathon day. I was trying to get my Sheltie Maggie to look at your Zoe photos but unfortunately she wasn’t interested in the computer. 🙁