Baltimore Marathon Training: Week 8

This was the first week in my training plan that I missed a significant training run – my 22 miler ended up being a slow 3 miler. It was bound to happen at some point – I wasn’t expecting a perfect training cycle. I don’t have an excuse for nixing this run – I’m not sick and I’m not hurt. I simply didn’t feel like running long this weekend. Maybe I'm just done with summer in Texas, maybe I'm beat down with big work events this past month or maybe it's just plain and simple: I needed a break.

99% of the time I am a highly self-motivated person when it comes to running and my training. I don’t need hand holding or encouragement to get me out of the door in the mornings – for the most part I really look forward to my training runs and getting up at dark thirty to get them done. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment when I can cross off the box on my training plan after completing a scheduled workout.

But, sometimes I get tired of planning my life, particularly my weekends, around training. Sometimes I get tired of being a lame duck on a Friday night, in bed by 9 am so I can get up early to do a long run. Sometimes a 4:45 am wake-up call on a Sunday morning doesn’t sound appealing to me at all (and if you’re from Texas, you know there is no sleeping in during the summer and then going on a long run). And sometimes I get so sick of the summer in Texas that I just protest by sitting in the AC all weekend. And, to be honest that’s how I felt this weekend. Originally, I had planned my 22 miler for Saturday morning with a start time of 5:30 am in Round Rock. Well, after only a few hours of sleep on Thursday night because of a work special event, I decided it wasn’t happening Saturday. So, I flop flopped runs, slept in Saturday, ran 7 miles and had big plans of getting up at 4:30 am on Sunday to head to Cedar Park and run my 22 miler partly with the Hill Country Running Group and then finish on my own. Obviously, it didn’t happen. Instead, I slept in, went to breakfast/brunch with Dan, took the dogs to the park, and finally headed out for a very leisurely 3 miles with Dan later in the day.

Was I beating myself up a little yesterday for missing my long run? Yes, a little. But, I also knew that mentally, and probably physically as well, I needed that break. I needed to take a step back and hit recharge. Could I have done my long run this weekend? Yes. Will it hurt me to miss that run? No. Not in the long run. So, I’m putting last week behind me and moving forward.

Last Week's Workouts:
Monday: (Lunch) 2700 yd swim; (PM) 50 minute core workout

Tuesday: (AM) Run Group - 11.5 miles. Today's workout was a gonzo hill workout - it's a very race specific workout since you usually hit hills in your races after you have already begun to feel the effects of running fatigue. Description - This training run starts with 3 miles on the road at tempo pace. Then you hit the hills for 3 more miles. No recovery between the tempo and the hills. We ran a .25 mile hill on Southwestern's campus.

-3.48 mile tempo/24:13/6:58 avg pace
 -3 miles of hills @7:41 pace 
(PM) 2900 yd swim

Wednesday: (AM) 15.1 miles @8:30 pace. (Lunch) 2300 yd swim

Thursday: (AM) Run Group - 12.13 miles. 'The Michigan' workout which I talk about here.
(Lunch) 2600 yd swim

Friday: (AM) 5 miles easy, no watch. (Lunch) 1700 yd swim

Saturday: 7 mile run @8:14 pace

Sunday: 3.24 mile run with Dan @9:00 min pace.

Total Miles: 54 miles