Marathon Training Week 6: Don't Stop Believin'

I may have been guilty of singing along while on the run...just sayin'....

So after my epic struggle to get my runs done last week, I took Monday to regroup. I was off work, and I spent some time catching up on the blogs. After reading a few, I soon learned that I wasn't alone in my struggles last week. There were a lot of defeated runners. And some with answers. As it turns out, this is all part of the process:

Ashley at Running With Skissors wrote a post titled "The Battle Between I CAN'T and I CAN". She said it, I didn't, so no burpees were involved. Just some wisdom and a "doh" knock to the forehead for me. Hello, marathon training!

Laura at This Runner's Recipes wrote about Cumulative Fatigue. I had never heard of this before, but apparently bodybuilders use this concept all the time. As do devotees of the Hanson Training Method. And, apparently, my coach. Mile 20? Bring it on....

So, with all that in mind, how did week 6 go down?

Monday was a scheduled rest day. I decided to take another yoga class. Best.Idea.Ever. Before class, the instructor, Megan, talked a lot about staying in the present moment. She told us that a person has between 50,000 and 80,000 random thoughts per day, and that 80% of those thoughts are negative. This was an aha moment for me! I have been working hard on staying positive even when I'm struggling with a run. For this yoga class, I set an intention to stay present. Staying focused is not an easy process for me, particularly in a balance pose. We did a few of them today. She also did some great calf, achilles, and foot stretches. My heel was so much happier at the end of this class.

King dancer. Natarajasana. Quad stretch. Balance. Day 1 of #7daystretch #liveinprana

Tuesday: I had a 6 miler on the plan. At marathon pace. When I headed out, the temperature was a runner's dream...60 degrees. And I took full advantage of it on light legs. I'm participating in a yoga challenge this week, Prana's #7daystretch, and I felt so good that I stopped at mile 4 to do upward bow. Yep. It was one of those runs that made start to believe...

Upward facing bow. Day 2 of #7daystretch. The cement was really hard, btw.

Wednesday: I do yoga on Wednesdays, but I had to go into work early for a meeting, and so I couldn't make it to the studio for a class. No worries, since I did 3 yoga classes in the past week. I pulled out one of my favorite videos, SeaWheeze2014, and worked out all the kinks.

Trikonasana. Day 3 #7day yoga challenge. Inspired by that triangular shaped tree behind me. Cheesy, right?

Thursday: I had speedwork, 2 mile repeats x3, on the plan. I hadn't done these since last summer, and as always, I wasn't quite sure how to pace my first outing with this distance. I decided to shoot for an 8:10/mile pace and see what happened. I couldn't have been happier with the outcome. Again, the temperature was a favorable 60 degrees when I started, and my legs felt light. First 2 mile split was 16:01. It started to warm up, but I still felt great, and the other two splits were 16:08 and an astonishing 15:58 for the last. Clearly, I was thrilled. I so needed this to go well, and I couldn't have been happier. Oh and by the way...no heel pain. At all. That's a huge win! Oh, one more thing. I hit 800 miles for the year! That made me jump for joy! Really!

After that, I went to see Becky for CrossFit. She was all about the lunges today. Ouch. Two sets of 3 different lunges. First set was lunges carrying 20# kettlebells. Followed by GHD situps. Next set, I had my nemesis, that 50# so called "wreck bag" on my back. I never knew that the bag had a name until recently, but hey, if the shoe fits...anyways, Becky wanted me to "clean" the sack up to my shoulders, but I just couldn't do it. But I didn't tell her that I couldn't, for fear that she would make me do burpees! I was frustrated about my inability to clean the sack, but she told me that I could be creative, and I did get the sack up there, albeit awkwardly and very uncrossfit-like. I did lunges with the wreck bag on my shoulders. Followed by atomic situps. For my last 2 sets, I did lunges holding a plate overhead, followed by leg lifts. Holy hamstrings.

Me and the wreck bag. I was wrecked after this one.

At the end we did sidesteps and monster walks with the resistance band. Becky did them with me, which was kind of fun. She was thrilled about my speedwork, and once again reminded me:

Trust the Plan!

Friday: Rest day. I have to share that I was incredibly sore from Thursday's CrossFit session. As a matter of fact, the soreness progressed as that day went on. I'm lucky I have a job that keeps me on my feet because if I had to sit for any length of time, I would have gotten stuck in the chair. When I got home from work, I did foam rolling, which was nearly brought me to tears. It hurt like a mother... But I knew I had a 7 mile run on Saturday, and that wasn't going to happen if I didn't loosen up my muscles.

Saturday: I woke up to the sound of pouring rain, but I was committed to running my 7 mile virtual run. Becky had 5 miles on the plan, but I figured that 2 extra miles wasn't a big deal. I'll recap this run on Tuesday in a separate blog post, but I will share that I'm really glad I did that foam rolling the night before. I was still pretty sore, but managed to run it at marathon pace. My legs felt pretty good. But it never stopped raining, and I was soaked when I got home.

I was the only person at the pond today.

Sunday: Still sore, I was really happy to have a bike ride on the plan this week. Although it is done raining, the weather is still gloomy. The temp was about 68 degrees with 80% humidity. I rode out to the forest preserve for a 30 mile loop. Besides being sore, I also struggled a little bit with the humidity and decided not to push my pace. This was my "long run" and I would have done the same thing had I been running. There were a lot of runners on the bike paths this morning and I was a little annoyed by 2 groups that would not move over to let me pass until I repeated "on your left" quite forcefully (and somewhat rudely) multiple times. What the hell, people? I'm one of you... I wasn't feeling very zen-like, having to do that. But once I got past them and was able to open it up a bit, my mood lifted. I stopped to take my final #7daystretch pose, which was all about being zen.

I don't normally stop for yoga mudra in the middle of a ride, but there was plenty of inspiration along the path. 

So, as corny as it seems, I picked Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" as my theme song for the week. Because I really felt like maybe things are starting to fall into place. It was a great week of training. I hit all my paces and my legs felt good. I'm excited again!

How was your week? Are things starting to make sense? Sticking to the plan? Ever had muscle soreness that gets worse as the day goes on? Has your foam roller ever made you cry?

I'm linking this post with HoHoRuns and MissSippiPiddlin for their weekly wrap!