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Boston Training Week 7.....20 miler and first speed session!

Well week 7 is looking MUCH better than week 6. Thank goodness!


It's hard to believe that this time last week I was just coming off my oxycodone High.....Oh, the difference one week can make, eh?
I missed both major workouts last week which was crummy but nothing you can do. I am over it.


Me and marathon training seem to be a fiasco...so far we are 2 for 2:) 
In the first 7 wks of training I have:
-been sick once, or was it twice? ( had to take time off for a bad chest cough)
-had my Mother in law die and found myself out of town and out of sorts for 2wks
-and ended up in the hospital with Kidney stones, AGAIN having to take time off. 


It was hard to hear my coach tonight make reference to these things and say "imagine where you'd be if you hadn't had all these set backs and missed a bunch of workouts".......he wasn't saying this in a negative way at all...
he was happy about how well my workout today went and so he was just meaning it in a way that he was glad I am doing this well, DESPITE all the setbacks. But we are not looking back, just looking forward. I still feel really positive about everything. Like my previous post on perspective, I am going into Boston just EXCITED to be there, HEALTHY and INJURY-FREE, (hopefully):D John, did it make it clear tonight that I have to be careful to not get too crazy...we don't want any injuries again......




I  don't know if there  will ever be such a thing as marathon training without something crazy happening to me, so I'm just gonna go with it! HA!


SO...Anyway...here I am, in week 7:):)


Monday called for a 20 mile run. Easy pace, which John outlined as 8:00-8:30 pace. 
I started out, and normally my body's natural rhythm is always progressive, so I usually start in the 8:30's to 8:40's and work my way down and settle into 8:15ish pace for the majority of the run. However, I was feeling quite good and low 8's felt very comfortable this day and just easy. I felt when I tried to slow down,which I did throughout, it threw off my stride and i ended up back in this pace, so I went with it, even though my first mile seemed too fast and I worried I might burn out, my body actually stayed fairly consistent throughout. It was a great run. I felt strong the whole time so I picked it up Just a bit at the end...and finished the last half mile at 6:30 pace. ...
Plus it was nice to be alone and just think. Nothing like a few hours alone on the pavement.


My miles looked like this:


Mile 1: 8:01
Mile 2: 8:08
Mile 3: 7:59
Mile 4: 8:08
Mile 5: 8:11
Mile 6: 7:53
Mile 7: 7:59
Mile 8: 8:04
Mile 9: 8:04
Mile 10: 8:12
Mile 11: 8:18
Mile 12: 7:58
Mile 13: 8:05
Mile 14: 8:02
Mile 15: 8:08
Mile 16: 8:16
Mile 17: 7:59
Mile 18: 8:01
Mile 19: 7:50
Mile 20: 7:16




I recovered yesterday with a slow 8  miles (8:50pace)......quads felt a bit tired at mile 7, which wasn't surprising as I battled this all last week after being in the hospital and skipped my 5K race on Sunday b/c they were still so sore. 


Today called for 4 x 1 Mile repeats. I woke up this morning with the same starter pains I had last week before the kidney stone incident so I was worried. I really don't like mile repeats (well, after today, I think I do:) but going IN to this workout, I was not so excited about it). 
Initially John told me to do them all at 6:30pace. Then he told me to start at 6:50 for the first 2 and then cut down and crank it the last one:) 
well...I did something SORT of like that. 


I headed outside and did a 2 mile warm up, and then ran my first mile....pretty conservatively...
Mile 1 was 6:41
This actually didn't feel very good, so I was skeptical this was gonna be a good workout. 
half mile jog recovery and straight into mile 2. 
Mile 2 was 6:29 (had no lung searing pain like I thought I would have so I started to feel a bit more optimistic). 
Mile 3: 6:19 (STILL no lung pain or feeling like I was dying so I felt even MORE optimistic-don't get me wrong...it was definitely threshold pace...but no lung burning like I normally get at these paces)
Mile 4: 6:04!! *This is a new Mile PR for me. I've never raced a mile, even just for myself, but last year the fastest mile repeat I ever ran was 6:09. 


Now here's what got me really mad at myself though... I ran the first half of this mile at about 6:10 pace and the last half at 5:58 pace....I didn't do the math, but I should have, b/c when I looked at my watch at .95 of a mile, I realized how close I was to breaking 6minutes! I tried to sprint, but it was too late.....had I started sprinting at about .85 or even .9, I could have done it! dang it! oh well, next time:)


This workout felt so good to me for so many reasons, here are a few: 


1. I focused on keeping good form the whole time. I find when I find something else to focus on other than just the speed, I run faster. Like when I did those 10 x 2 min hill sprints,I focused on building strength, not speed and it was my fastest hill workout I had done. (john attributes my speed today to those hill workouts by the way:) finally...some pay off for doing the damn things!


2. Since this is my first week of integrating  track workouts, I feel really optimistic about the next 6wks


3. I came out of this workout with a sure knowledge that I can run a sub 6min mile. I don't think I was sure about that before today. Now I just need to find the opportunity


4. This workout was just what I needed to gain some confidence for the 10K I am racing this weekend. 




Friday was supposed to be 800's but b/c I am racing a 10K on Sunday,that will be my other workout for this week, so now I get to take it EASY the rest of the week til then and I'm EXCITED about it!!!


Do you like Mile repeats? 
 Have you done any lately? 


I have them again next week, but 5 instead of 4:)