Week 4 of my marathon training has ended.

I’m tired. Yep, I think after week 4 I finally got the point where my body and mind were in need of a break. I think the 14 miles on Saturday really took it out of me.

Wes and I made it a point to sleep in a little later on Saturday morning. After waking up at 5:00 am or earlier all week I was ready to not get up before the sun rose for one morning. We ended up waking a little after 8:00. It was so nice to not have my alarm this morning.

I didn’t take too long getting ready for my long run, I knew the longer I waited the more I would stress about it. I got dressed and got out the door.

14 miles at an 8:48 pace. I could tell my legs were tired this morning before I began, so I had a feeling my 8:42 pace was going to be hard to hit the entire time. The first 1-2 miles were a little too quick, which caught back up to me around miles 11 and 12. If I had paced better in the beginning I could probably have done better, but I’ll take it!

The first 7-8 miles felt pretty good. I settled in and was able to relax. However, once I went into the second half of the run it started to get more difficult. After a tough week of workouts and early mornings I’m happy with the outcome!

 

Here is the breakdown of the week:

Monday (8/11)

6 miles easy

 

Tuesday (8/12)

1.5 mile warm up
Ladder workout (400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 with 400 meter recovery)
1.5 mile cool down

8.5 miles total

 

Wednesday (8/13)

7 miles easy

Thursday (8/14)

1 mile warm up
7 mile tempo run
1 mile cool down

9 miles total

 

Friday (8/15)

Off

 

Saturday (8/16)

14 mile long run

 

Sunday (8/17)

8 miles easy

 

In total my miles went up this week to a total of 52 miles. It just happened to up on the week I started back to work, and even though I was nervous about time management it ended up going pretty well!

 

Best Run

I honestly had a hard time coming up with this one. It wasn’t that I didn’t have good runs, there just wasn’t one that stood out to me over others. I guess if I could pick one I would choose the easy 7 on Wednesday. My legs enjoyed it after a tough workout Tuesday and it was also the first morning I ventured out in the dark.

Even though I stayed on the same road the entire time the miles actually passed pretty quickly. It was relaxing a cool.

 

Toughest Run

Before Saturday I would have told you it was my tempo run on Thursday morning. The one my legs had a tough time getting into, however now I would have to change it to the long run Saturday. For me the long run was mentally challenging. In many ways I kept thinking how this was the furthest I had run since before my injury and I was worried about so many things because of that.

The run was good for me though and it gave me a challenge that I needed. Hopefully I will continue to improve on my long runs in the future!

 

There you have it! Another week of training down. I remember looking at this week before it began and being intimidated. A reminder that it is so important to take each week one day and one run at a time!

 

How did your training go this week?

What was your best run and your toughest run?