Baltimore Marathon Training: Week 6

This week I strayed from my training plan which was a reminder what happens to me when I am left to my own devices: I run too much. I know, shame on me.

We were on vacation the front part of the week, and while most people use vacation to well, actually be on vacation and relax, I love nothing more than running on vacation.  I love running in new places, and to be able to leisurely head out the door at my convenience, rather than my normal early morning rushed runs. I ended up with 72 miles on the week, which was only 3 more than my schedule called for, but still I ran every day instead of taking my normal Monday rest day. Back on schedule this week, I promise. There is a reason I have a plan, and I need to stick with it.

In addition to running too much last week, I also ate too much and didn't make the best food choices. Can I blame that on vacation too?

Helmet Sundae at the O's Game: Not on my diet.

This weekend I am racing a duathlon (5k run/17.5 mile bike/5k run) and guess how many times I have been on my bike in the last month? ZERO. I had good intentions of actually training for this race, but it just didn't happen. So, it looks like I will be winging the bike portion. I feel confident enough in my running right now to still have a strong race overall, even with an average bike split.

Last week's workouts:
Monday: Ashburn, Virginia - Ran 12 miles @8:05 pace. I usually don't run on Mondays, but I couldn't resist heading out for a run in my hometown. Plus, the weather was nice!

Tuesday: Laurel, Maryland - Ran 10.26 miles @8:07 pace. Nice morning to run. Seriously, it was great to be able to head out the door for a run at 8:30 am and not die from heat stroke. Texas, please take notes. Lots of hills on this route.

Wednesday: Ran 9.7 miles @8:21 pace; Swam 2400 yards. Back home and back in the swamp. Tired from travel so slogged through this one.

Thursday: Run Group - Ran 12.2 miles; Swam 3,000 yards. We headed to the track for 16x300m repeats with 100m recovery. This was tougher than I expected - those short recoveries hit you about half way through! My 300's ranged from 1:12 (6:23 pace) as my slowest (which was ironically my first one) to 1:04 (5:38 pace) being my fastest (which was my second to last one). Most were 1:07-1:09 for around a 6:04 pace.

Friday: Ran 5 miles easy, sans watch. I had to work until after 11 pm on Thursday night so there was nothing "easy" about this run. Swam 1,900 yards at lunch.

Saturday: Ran 8 miles @8:17 pace; swam 2,400 yards. This was supposed to be a cycle/run brick workout, but I could not get my butt of of bed. Working late Thursday and little sleep that night screwed up my schedule, and I was wiped out Saturday morning. So I nixed the bike and didn't head out for my run until after 9 am. Needless to say, it was miserably hot.

Sunday: Ran 14.57 miles with Hill Country Running Group (13.57 miles @7:36 pace; 1 easy cool down at 8:18 pace). Dan and I decided to check out a new running group on Sunday morning that a friend recommended. Somehow I convinced him (willingly) to get up at 4:45 am on a Sunday and come with me to check out the group (hell must have frozen over). Anyway, I am so glad we did. I ran with two guys (one a friend I knew and another guy I had never met) and they made me WORK. After an easy opening mile, we dropped the pace to around 7:22 for the remainder of the run. I started to fall off a little on the last mile, but overall was really pleased with this run after a week of big mileage. It's a reminder that I need to get out of my comfort zone and run with this group more often - I never would have pushed myself this hard on my own.

This week my mileage drops as it's both a recovery week and race week so I'll take an extra day off of running.

Have a great week!