This is it. The hard work is done, and I am officially in my taper (hashtag, taper madness). I’ll certainly do a reflection post on my training later on but right now? I’m exhausted.
MONDAY Rest Day
TUESDAY Had a grad school open house after work, so another Rest Day (and I am seriously on, like, four snooze alarms in the morning now. Sigh). I realize that I need to bring a set of workout clothes, my yoga mat, and a pair of running shoes back to my office. At some point, I took everything home and never brought my workout gear back; there have been so many times that I’m sitting at work, stressed, and totally want NEED to run it out.
WEDNESDAY Again, plans after work, so another Rest Day (I realize that this is too many in one week, especially in days off in a row after the Akron Relay. Feeling disappointed in myself, my training, and super antsy about not making this more of a priority). So my Thursday run was rough…
THURSDAY 3.96 miles with some speed bursts — It was fun to play Dodge the Drunk as Steelers fans encroached upon the North Shore though. There are always those idiots who have no idea how to move over when you call your path to the left (or worse, those who step right in front of you). I’m not ashamed to say that I put my shoulder in a guy when he stepped in my way, and I refused to break stride.
But my body did not feel good. At all. My shins were bothering me, and I was super stiff with heavy legs and my foot felt like it was attached crooked (??). I guess I needed a better warm-up, since Miles 3 and 4 felt much better. Mentally though, I had to talk myself into that last mile. I did a lot of stretching when I was done.
Splits: 10:26 (1)/ 10:04 (2)/ 9:52 (3)/ 10:04 (4)
FRIDAY Sick day from work, so I needed to rest and work this out of my system. I guess I’m not surprised at this point that my body’s immunity is being tested.
SATURDAY I’m always nervous about running the day before a long run, so after my massage, I did a half hour of strength-based yoga for runners at home (since I missed my weekly yoga night on Wednesday) and did SO much stretching.
ETA: I nearly forgot! I went for a 60-minute sports massage in the morning. She helped me stretch, which felt amazing. I’ve been having a lot of tightness in my piriformis, and she spent a good bulk of the massage time on my legs and glutes. Next month, I’m doing a 90-minute FOR SURE.
SUNDAY Long run — 20 MILES (and the Penguins/Lemiuex 6.6k race). I was freaking out about this run, especially since I missed a 18-mile run in my training. I was allowing myself to get *as close as possible* to that 20. But once I was close to 18, I needed to keep running. And then needed to get past 19. Because my GPS wouldn’t connect at the start of the training run, I knew that I had to add about .75 to my total mileage.
If you want to know what kind of person I am: I needed to see 20 miles on my watch, so I kept running beyond my actual 20 just to get the pleasure of seeing that number. Those last three miles were slow and felt terrible BUT I RAN TWENTY FREAKING MILES. Actually, 20.76 (Total time: 3:37:39).
Splits: 10:02 (1)/ 10:14 (2)/ 10:14 (3)/ 10:01 (4)/ 11:01 (5)/ 13:30 (6)/ 9:09 (7)/ 9:35 (8)/ 9:42 (9)/ 14:20 (10)/ 10:38 (11)/ 10:28 (12)/ 10:10 (13)/ 10:36 (14)/ 10:21 (15)/ 10:52 (16)/ 11:04 (17)/ 11:35 (18)/ 11:58 (19)/ 11:45 (20)
Some of those splits are outliers because I forgot to pause my watch walking up to the start line of the 6.6k race (and, again, afterward when I finished and walked back to where I was meeting the group), and I obviously ran the race WAY TOO FAST. But… eh. I slowed WAY down on those last three miles by myself (and I was really starting to hurt everywhere). I need to trust that I can run the bulk of my race at an average 10:15 pace though, slowing to an 11:00 for that last portion. I think I can, I think I can… finish less than 5 hours?
And, yes — LOTS of stretching and moving around after this run! (And I ate, like, 8 meals.)
Total runs: 2
Total miles: 24.72 miles
Total training miles: 233.89 miles
SEPTEMBER NUMBERS
Total runs: 10
Total miles: 66.55 miles
Increase: 5.89 miles over August