This week of running felt pretty sluggish (due to it being that time of the month…#nofilteronthisblog). Good thing it happened to be a “recovery week” in the plan which meant lower mileage. I ran a LOT of easy miles and let my body take it easy after the past few solid weeks of training.
Something I noticed this week: I think I’m getting better at being comfortable with the uncomfortable (one of my favorite mantras in the runner’s world!). In the past, I would usually let myself skip or stop runs if I felt the tiniest bit sore or lazy, leaving me unprepared (especially mentally) when I got to the start line. But for this marathon cycle, my theme is no regrets, no excuses, and I’ve been pushing through each and every mile on the plan so far!! Despite some tough moments when negative thoughts would enter my head, I reminded myself of the theme, and after the past few weeks of this mental conditioning, feeling uncomfortable has turned comfortable…does that make sense?
In any case, I guess I’m just celebrating the fact that I haven’t missed a single run on the plan yet. Not to say that skipping runs are bad! I am 100% a proponent of listening to your body and taking extra rest days if you need it 🙂
Next weekend is the SF Bay Half Marathon!! Super pumped. Every marathon cycle, I run a half marathon to tune up and see where I’m at in my training. I’m NOT going to taper for this half and continue with training as usual this week, since the priority is still focusing on the full marathon. I’m beyond excited to use some of my racing energy that’s been bottling up and to run this beautiful course (which is remarkably similar to the SF half marathon course from July!). Those elevation gains though…definitely not counting on PR-ing on those hills 😛
Week 5 of marathon training
Monday: 4 miles (10:11 pace). PMS was kicking in big time and so felt I felt pretty tired and heavy, but I didn’t stop at all which I was happy about
Tuesday: REST
Wednesday: 4 miles with no music (9:47 pace)
Thursday: 7 miles (10:02 pace). I was in a strong mental spot and had some good music to motivate me 🙂
Friday: REST
Saturday: 10 miles on the Presidio trails (10:50 pace). My energy level felt good but legs felt heavy so I took quite a few walking breaks
Sunday: REST
Total = 25 miles!
I Run Like A Girl 