Happy Sunday! I don’t know how the weekend continues to go by so fast, but I’m glad I’ve had a full weekend to really rest and re-set.
Running when it is light outside is much hotter, but enjoyable as well! I can actually run on different roads and look at the views around me!
I am constantly reminded just how tiring Hansons training plan can be. I just keep reminding myself that it got me where I wanted to be last time, so just trust the process!
I kept my tempo and workouts reversed again this week. I am considering going ahead and making it a continuous thing as my training continues. I really want to be able to hit those tempos, since I think they were the most beneficial to me last training cycle, but by Thursday I am often mentally and physically drained.
It still makes for some pretty difficult workouts on Thursday, that’s for sure!
Here is a look at week 5 of marathon training:
Monday – 6 miles
The week started with 6 easy miles. It was much more difficult for me to get up on Monday after the holiday weekend, but I got up and made it happen!
I find that once my Monday early morning is over it is somewhat more bearable the rest of the week, though it is never easy!
I’ve been slowing my easy runs down quite a bit and I think it is helping!
Tuesday – 10 miles (Tempo Run)
My tempo run went up a mile this week. It was my first week at 7 miles, which I won’t lie made me a little bit nervous.
Wes volunteered to run with me for the second week in a row which made me happy! I know I probably stressed him out beyond belief, so he may not do it again! Ha! Just kidding.
I had to dig deep at points but I got it done. 7 miles at a 7:24 average is right where I need to be. I’m learning to focus on a lot of the things I mentioned in Friday’s post.
Wednesday – 6 miles
I truly feel that Wednesday’s “easy” run was harder than my 7 mile tempo on Tuesday. My legs felt dead from the very beginning and it took me until around mile 5 to even remotely feel decent.
I still averaged about the same pace as on Monday, but it felt much harder. I stopped a couple times to slow my heart rate down.
I’m also pretty sure it was 200% humidity. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but it felt awful out!
Thursday – 8 miles (Speed Workout)
Wednesday for most of the day I didn’t feel very good. I was a bit worried going into my work out on Thursday morning, so I opted to run on the treadmill.
The week before I gave myself the outlet of the treadmill just in case but didn’t end up needing this. This Thursday was a different story.
My workout was as follows:
2 mile warm up
4 x 1200 meters with 400 recovery
2 mile cool down
The workout seemed simple but my legs were having to move fast for me for a longer period of time. Whew! I ended up running a 6:27 pace for the first 3 and a 6:31 for the last one. I was beat!
Friday – Off
Friday was a much needed rest and recovery day!
Saturday – 10 miles
I left the house around 7:15 for Saturday’s run. It was already pretty warm, but not quite as it had been throughout the week so I had high hopes.
The first couple miles my legs felt very tired. I was hoping they would work their way into it. That didn’t happen until about mile 8 and then they kicked it up a little bit.
In total 10 miles, in my “easy” pace range. I wouldn’t say it felt easy, but I’ve had much worse for sure.
One of the main reasons I got up early was to be able to help my husband on his tempo run. We had packed up the bike the night before so that I could be there to somewhat assist in pacing and provide water.
It was hot but beautiful on the local trail.
Sunday – 8 miles
The goal is 8 miles easy, the same pace range as Saturday.
It was a tough week, but just like the others I got through it! It feels like all the days begin to run together after a while.
Have a wonderful weekend!
How did your training go this week?
What was your toughest run?
I haven’t commented in a really long time, but I wanted to let you know how seriously impressed I am with your running!!! I think I started following your blog like two years ago and it is so impressive what you’ve done. You are sooo fast. Anyways, just thought I’d comment. I’m a runner too and you totally inspire me.
Thank you so much Em!! I hope you have been doing well 🙂 I saw on Instagram you had a precious baby boy!
Sara – I am curious, during a major ITBS issue that would NOT go away I went to PT and worked with a running coach. I was told not to run more that 4 days a week b/c as runners we need to give our bodies time to heal between every run. I would love to run 6 days a week but I find that I have issues. I strength train 3-4 days a week, foam roll and stretch 5-6 days a week. I don’t know how else to go about it.
So I thought perhaps you could give insight on how you and Wes stay injury free running 6 days a week.
Thanks!!! Jenny
Hey Jenny! It’s probably not the answer you want to hear, but honestly it is very dependent on the person. My husband runs every single day and rarely takes a day off. I tried to do that and found myself injured pretty severely pretty quickly. I MUST take at least 1 day off per week, it’s just how I am and I know no matter how much I want to run every day it’s not good for me.
It sounds like you are doing may of the right things to stay healthy! Focus on getting good quality workouts in on those days and keeping up with your strength training the other. We’ve both dealt with our own injuries for our own mistakes, but we are slowly figuring out what works for each of us independently! I also usually keep my mileage a little lower than many of those I’m around do for marathon training. I WANT to be like them and want to run more miles, but I know it’s not safe and I’d rather stay healthy!
Focus on what you can do and making those days the best! You can still get in some great training and then really focus on your strength the other days! You will be a very powerful runner!