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March mileage, a hot-and-sweaty Texas run, and How to Spot a Traveling Runner
I looked back my training blogs from my first marathon at the same training week, and I am consistently in awe of how I was able to run that race. Though I do miss run-commuting from work! And check out that comment about gels. Maybe I need to buy those lemon shortbread cookies again?
I’m in that part of training where I’m reconsidering all my choices to do marathons. This week, my brain is going to unhappy places and I’m finding all the excuses to cancel the remainder of my race calendar for summer and go back to racing half marathons. Or something. I know this will pass, but it’s an awful negative loop.
Blame it on the Texas heat for my mood maybe.
But this reminds me that I need to find my mantra for this race. Because things are bound to get ugly.
MONDAY My usual rest day. I had a great call with my coach — who had just finished her own Ragnar relay. So I got to pick her brain A LOT in preparation of my first adventure. One piece of advice she gave was to GET OUT OF THE VAN and lay flat whenever possible. It ended up being the best advice.
TUESDAY An easy run day on the treadmill at home — starting with some foam rolling and ending with a set of Strides.
4 miles (plus an extra .4 for the Strides) / 49:22 / 11:06 average pace
WEDNESDAY Tempo Run! We’ve been having some really unpredictable weather in Iowa, so it was another treadmill day. I’m not made about it, but sometimes doing speed work can be difficult. Like, are you supposed to have negative splits in your middle fast miles?
5 miles / 53:02 / 10:36 average pace
Splits: 11:04, 10:25, 10:04, 9:48, 11:41
THURSDAY Traveling Day — off to Austin, Texas for Ragnar Luckenbach
FRIDAY First day of Ragnar! I don’t want to spoil the race recap too much, but my first leg was 7.6 miles. And it was hot.
SATURDAY Ragnar Day Two: I had two legs — 2.75 miles in the middle of the night (yay!) and another 6.85 miles in the afternoon (still hot!).
SUNDAY Since this was my first trip to Austin, we walked around and explored downtown, including some of the riverfront trail. I honestly felt really good, considering what I put my body through over the prior three days.
WEEKLY RUNS: 5 runs
WEEKLY MILES: 26.7 miles
TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 219.26 miles
I also had 104.1 total miles for March — my biggest mileage month ever. CRAZY!
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