Knoxville Marathon Week 6

Time flies when you're having fun!  I'm now more than halfway through my 10 weeks of training for this race :)


Monday: REST

Tuesday: Easy 5 + Core stuffs

Wednesday: 3x2 miles, HARD. + Strength Stuffs
Averaged 7:10, 7:08, and 7:05 respectively for the 2 mile sets. I felt really good during this workout and was *almost* sad there was no 4th set... When I saw this workout in the email from Coach, I thought there was no way i'd hit the paces since they are so close to my 5K PR pace from October... Coach knows me better than I know myself.

Thursday: Easy 5
Some easy recovery miles. My legs were a bit sore from the 3x2 + strength and it was amazing how some easy miles flushes the crap out of your legs and makes them feel almost good as new.

Friday: REST

Saturday: 16 miles with 8 @ GMP of 8:00-7:53, 2:09.
Felt pretty good overall minus feeling a little overheated. Tried eating "real food" on this run by eating a bite of a banana every few miles after mile 5. No explosive stomach issues happened, so I'll continue to experiment with "real foodz*" during these runs.

*real foodz= things people usually hand out on a marathon course. Bananas, oranges, etc. I did have one gu at 4.5, but am looking to get away from stuff like that in the future.

Sunday: All the Hillz. 6 miles with 10x 20 second sprints. Incline 4.5, Pace 6:30 + 2 sets Squats/ Core Stuffs.
Felt surprisingly springy and good considering the long run yesterday. The incline sprints were "fun." The first few are always tough and then I find myself looking forward to the next one.


Thoughts:

I'm feeling really good this week compared to last week. My new Newton shoes were giving my arch some grief in the first 3 easy runs I used them for, but Sunday's hill run went without incident. Depending on how the easy runs go this week, I might take the Newtons out for their first log run- an 18 miler.

Now that my shoes are almost "chosen" for race day, I need to start thinking about what to wear. My new lulu skirt has 3 pockets which should be enough to carry all my gu/salt/etx instead of a janky fanny pack. I flippin hate my spibelt, so anything to avoid wearing that mess will make me happy.
I started comparing my mileage from this year to last and was very happy to see I'm way ahead of last year! It feels so good to not have to start out the year injured as in years past.

I'm sick of the snow and extreme cold we continue to be dealt this winter. I keep visualizing Knoxville to be in the mid 40's-50's and be partly cloudy. My god that sounds so beautiful right now.I hope it warms up, but stays "perfect" for race day.
CB is not amused with the weather at all.
More thought stuff

• This week I'll continue to experiment with food intake during long runs, and force myself to eat breakfast before my long run this time around too. I like to roll out of bed and just run on an empty stomach usually.

• Need to remember to use body glide on my "arm/back fat" and "under arm skin roll" areas because I'm sick of getting mild chaffage/hot spots in there. I keep thinking it was a "one off" but it's been happening during each of my long runs regardless of which tank or sports bra I use. But that's the definition of "insanity"- doing the same effing thing and expecting different results. I've FINALLY stopped wearing the stupid shorts that ALWAYS cause chaffing. It's the small victories.

• With 4 freaking weeks to go, I need to start thinking about what i'm going to wear. So that means the Lulu skirt might make an appearance at the gym this week for a test run.

• "Milk Free Week" was a big success. And now I'm terrified to have any dairy because this was the first week in a long time I didn't get the painful belly bloat. So maybe I cannot place all the blame on avocados? I'll experiment with that later this week. I just thank god it wasnt gluten causing my issues. I've known all along cow milk upset my stomach a little so I switched to rice milk in my cereal, but I continued to put half n half in my coffee and eat cheese. Time for a change. Sigh.

I'm so excited to get the hell out of Chicago for a weekend to see my Mom. Knoxville can't come soon enough!

4 weeks to go. COWABUNGA!


-xaar