Journey To A(nother) Marathon

So up till now, I've felt pretty good about my workouts and mileage with the small exception of some imbalance in my muscle development. I was thinking just last week how I couldn't believe I'd been training for 8 weeks already. And now, in the middle of this week, I just got bogged down and training has caught up with me. Or maybe it's just 2 40 mile weeks in a row.

Sunday - 16.1 miles @ 13:33

Workout #1

On the treadmill. On. The. Treadmill. Ugh. I chose this because it was about 30° outside and because it rained the day before, there was the possibility of ice on roads and trails. While I did drive out to see my horse, I decided I didn't want to go running outside. So I decided to do a 10 mile run on the treadmill.

I did do the 10 mile run on the treadmill. I used a custom iFit program for this. Run for 0.40 - 0.45 mile at 12:30/mi. Walk the balance of the 1/2 mile segment. As an added twist, I programmed the incline to adjust to -3% (that's as low as my treadmill will go) at the 0.25 mile mark of each mile and back up to 0% at the 0.75 mile mark. So there was either an incline or speed change at least every 1/4 mile. Just to keep things a little interesting for my brain, but also to adjust things for my body.

Workout #2

Round about mile 8.5 of the 10, I began to contemplate the idea of finishing out my entire scheduled 16 miler on the treadmill. So when the 10 mile program finished, I punched in a goal pace run, having the pace set to 12:30/mi. Every 3 minutes or so, I adjusted the speed down to a walk for 30-45 seconds before allowing the treadmill to resume a 12:30/mi pace. I kept an eye on the overall average pace (which is why I chose the goal pace option) to keep it at 13:29/mi, which is my long run pace. I left the incline at 0% for this segment. For some reason, the program gave me an extra 0.1 mile even though I programmed it for 6 miles.

I ate breakfast about an hour before running and took 6 shot bloks and 2 gels during the run, eating approximately every 35 minutes.

I wore my RaceReady capris, which was a mistake in 2 ways. 1) They were too warm. It was 59° in my treadmill room and I should have worn shorts. 2) They have diamond shaped seams in the crotch and I got rubs. 'Nough said about that, but I'm not wearing those on long runs again!

Monday

Tanna before surgery. He wasn't allowed to eat so the muzzle ensured that.

This was a 6 day run week. I was supposed to run 4 easy miles on Monday. But Tanna had surgery on his knee and I never had a good enough chunk of time that I felt I could get a run in and it was late by the time I finally went home. I wasn't too worried about it, though.

Tuesday - 6.1 miles @ 12:23

Another treadmill run. I didn't want to just set the treadmill to 12:30/mi and pound away the miles. So I used the Pace Goal program again. I set it to 12:30/mi and ran that for about 1/2 mile. Then I bumped it up to a faster pace anywhere between 10:55/mi - 12:00/mi and ran that for 0.3 miles and then slowed to around 13:03/mi for the balance of the mile. Worked pretty well to keep me interested. Again, the program went to 6.1, so I got a little extra and bumped my overall average pace down a few seconds.

Wednesday - 8 miles @ 13:53

On Tuesday evening, when I went to feed my other horses, I was messing with one of them and busted my left shoulder. It hurt a lot overnight. It got a little better with rest and ibuprofen, so decided to try running and see how far I got. So treadmill...again. That way I could quit if my shoulder wasn't up to it.

The first 1/2 mile was uncomfortable while I warmed up, but then I was able to run ok, just with a very slightly shortened arm swing on the left side. By 5.5 miles, I was able to swing my arm normally.

This was custom iFit program that I made. Run at 13:03/mi for 0.45 miles, walk the balance of the 1/2 mile. I had the incline adjust to 0.5% at the 0.25 mile mark of each mile and to -2% at 0.75. I like incorporating the incline changes.

I was only scheduled for a 5 mile run, but ran 8 to help make up the mileage I missed on Monday.

Thursday - 5.5 miles - Hill Run

During my cool down, Kelsey decided to hop on with me! But she decided she didn't like it and hopped off again.

I did not want to run. I didn't want to drive out for my hill run and there was increased traffic on my normal hill workout outside. I played with skipping this workout altogether or at the very least doing an easy run instead.

But what I ended up doing was creating a custom map-based workout on iFit to actually do my regular hill run, but on the treadmill. My treadmill goes up to 15% incline and down to -3%, so it can approximate some hills fairly well.

This workout was HARD! It was harder than doing my outside workout and not just mentally. Physically it was hard. I don't think it got the incline % right for some of it. It was just too steep in some places. I've run that route a lot and it's just not that hard or that steep. I did get an extra 300 feet of climb, so it was harder. I didn't run any of the uphill, just walked it all, but in some places it was steep enough that I had to walk slower than 20:00/mi. And the 3% downhill was nice and I ran that at 10:55/mi, but I get better downhills in real life. So overall this was harder on the treadmill than in person.

Friday - 6 miles @ 13:53

Finally, a run outside!!!! Whoo-hoo!! I stopped in to see Tanna and headed across the street to run the park loop for 6 easy miles. There's some mild elevation on each loop (9/10 of a mile long), so I made sure to walk those since I'm still babying my leg while I figure out my muscle imbalances. I ran the loop counter-clockwise 4 times and then paused at my truck to grab a drink since I'd left my handheld at home. Then I ran the loop clockwise to finish out my mileage.

I wore a couple of pieces of clothing I'd never worn running before. One was a pair of horseback riding tights I got for winter riding, Kerrits Powerstretch Fall Tight. They are nice and soft and have a zipper thigh pocket and belt loops. I think the thigh pocket is a bit too deep for me and I really wish it had 2 pockets instead. But since it has belt loops it'd be easy to add a spibelt or something to hold more fuel. Sizing-wise, I think I'd like a size smaller for running. The size medium is great for riding, but maybe a tad too loose for running. The knee patches are a weird look for a runner! Wish I could get them without knee patches.

It was about 44° ("feels like" 38°) with a breeze while I was running. Half the loop was in the shade, half in the sun, which came out half the time.

My legs were super hot within a mile! These would probably be great for colder weather though. At least 35 or lower. I'll have to see if I want to try them again. My lululemon Toasty Tech II tights sometimes can't hold up in sub 30° weather with a breeze.



The other thing I wore was an Under Armour Threadborne Run True half-zip. This was a great shirt. I was a little cool for a couple miles, but after warming up good, it was nice. The arms are tighter than my UA charged wool 1/2 zips, so I can't really push the sleeves up very far. This shirt is appropriate for weather cold enough that I won't need/want my forearms exposed for heat dissipation. I have worn it horseback riding and absolutely love it as a base layer for that. It also has a nice drop so helps cover my rear or just keep it warm, although, paired with the tights, that wasn't needed for this outing!

Weekly Stats

Training mileage: 41.7 miles
Training time: 9 hours 44 minutes

Total Mileage*: 44.25 miles
Total Time*: 10 hours 40 minutes
Elevation Gain:  1,704 ft

* includes warm-up and cool-down

What's Next?

I think I'm going to take a break and step back my miles a bit. Not do another 40 mile week this week. Even though I missed a day and ran 5 days instead of 6, I still got 2 more miles than scheduled for the week. So I'm going to go back to running 4 days this week and drop my long run back to a medium distance run.