The tough week begins

This week is peak week. Last week's long run was a 12 miler and the one before was 18 (had I been sticking to my Intermediate I plan it would have been 20 also, but it gave me time to recover).
Yesterday, I did what I said I would do, and had a nice easy 20 on a stationary bike and some weight training, plus some house cleaning (it helps if I make that part of working out :))
Today I had a 5 miler, which I forced my self to do in one go, i.e. no walking breaks. For crying out loud, I used to do 12 milers like that and at 10 miles an hour!
I still clocked over an 11 minute mile, but at least I kept the run under an hour.
I also had a promising job interview, we'll see what comes of that later.
Tomorrow is an 8 miler, which I intend to take a bit slow, but also try to do in one go. Breaks are fine, and necessary for strategy, but I need the endurance. I realize it is a bit late in the game, but I figure if I can ace this week, I"ll be good.
I'm toying with the idea of only tapering for two weeks as opposed to 3. I'll decide that next tuesday, see how I feel a couple of days after the 20.
This is a lot of work, but I still have fun!

Getting Back

I'm in the final month of marathon training and haven't kept a diary, and I keep hearing that it is useful, so here we go, starting with this ending weekend.
9/26 I did a 10K race just to see how I did and did terrible. I had a seriously slow time of 1:8:30. I felt horrid afterwards, but proceeded to run up hill for another mile 1/2 to fulfill my quota for the day. The weather was perfect, and I didn't feel in pain, just slow. I have been running rather slowly these days anyway, but I thought this would help. I did eat a very modest meal of artichokes, a little brown rice and a tomato salad, this might have been part of the problem. The other problem was there were few people cheering along, and that makes a difference.
9/27 12 mile long run. I did it mostly comfortably, did need to take quite a few walking breaks and it did take 2:45 minutes, which is again, way too long. I also noticed I started getting hungry around the last 4 miles. I have to remember always to eat something. My foot was sore and also my knee hurt (left leg).
9/28 Cross training day, but I still have the soreness. I'm planning to take it slow and also clean the house.
Good news, I'm finally losing weight! I've lost about 8 lbs since late August! Hope yesterday's pizza doesn't counteract too much.

It is time, again!

So, I decided to run a second marathon, which of course means, a second bout of training, which began this week. Monday was cross train day, so I went to the gym and used the stationary bike for a half hour or so, then lifted weights for about an hour.
Today was a 3 miler, and that's all I did, aside from walking up to the store twice (about .3 miles away) as I am trying to look after my visiting mother who clearly has food poisoning due to a 3 day old burrito, the poor thing. Good news is, she's been laying down and sleeping for the last couple of hours without bathroom trips. I take this to mean the nasty part is over.

Done!

I stopped writing this log/blog, but not training. I finished my first marathon in about 5 hours. Not great, but I finished. Now for the next one...

And now nothing...

Since that pseudo Herculean 18 miler, I've been sort of out of commission. First I was just too sore, then I got sick. So out of 3 five millers I only did two, and my cross training was nothing more serious than stretches. I've also been going light on weight training. I'm planing an 8 and 13 this weekend. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow morning though.
Next week is another push forward, as I will finish the week with a 20 miler. It is one of two in the training.

I ran a marathon over the weekend.

Well, sort of. In two days. I'm skipping taking about my midweek runs because I didn't do many, due to a sore ankle and an ugly cold. Yesterday it was raining rather hard, so I ended up running on my treadmill for 8 miles, quite at pace, and I have to say, it rather took it out of me, but although boring to stare out of the window instead of running outside, it was good to know for sure I was running at pace.
Today was an 18 miler, and I still need to finish them faster. Mostly I need stamina to finish if not very strong, at least still running. The run was really pretty and up until mile 15 or a little before, I was doing quite well, but then my ass and my hips started paining me quite a bit and I ended up walking for, I would say, about a mile and a half, perhaps two of the last bit, which put on the minutes. I finished in just under 4 hours, and I was really hoping to finish in 3:20 or so. But I'll get there, I hope. Oh, and I know gmaps pedometer says something like 11 miles, but that's because they are being weird with the there and back function, but trust me. I ran 9 miles each way.
Easy week next week, and I hope to find some time to be social too.

This is NOT easy

Last Thursday 28th I had a nice short run and Friday I rested. Saturday's 8 miler at pace was more than comfortable. I think I might have run closer to 9 miles (and I locked myself out of the house). I spent a good amount of time at the gym afterward, no problem. On Sunday I had a 17 miler to run, which I did, but it was really very hard. It took me almost 4 hours to complete because of all the walking breaks I took. I think I let myself be daunted by the distance and thought about it too much during the run. I plan to take a book with me (audio book, of course) for this week's long run (18 miles) which I will also do in a new place, Mt Vernon to Old Town.
On Monday Sept. 1st I did some walking and strength training. Yesterday I could not get out of bed. Today I had an 8 miler, but I decided to just run. As if I weren't training for anything. Just run. I ran a pretty fast, comfortable and enjoyable 10 miles. I plan to do something similar tomorrow and get some strength training in as well. I think I will take Friday off, but I'm not sure right now, I might do something easy. I need to build up for these long runs as well as rest.