Week 9 & 8 - Boston Marathon Training

The last 2 weeks have flown by. I'm at the point in training where I'm pretty exhausted and the only thing that matters more than getting my daily dose of peanut butter is sleeping. A lot. We've still got 7 weeks until Boston, so I need to get my shiz together and stay focused.

Ricky and I went to Yosemite a week ago, and it was beautiful. I was hoping to get tons of blogging done while Ricky was out with his photography buddies shooting, but I ended up tagging along with them for most of it. Initially when this weekend was planned, I was going to do a 20 mile run in the valley. The weather was 100% snow, and rather than risk injury because I have no idea how to run in snow, my coach gave me Saturday as a rest day and I used the week as a cutback/recovery week. Side note, it didn't snow and I was kind of bummed I didn't get to run while I was there.

Yosemite at tunnel view. so gorgeous!

The trip felt a bit like a setback in some ways. I slept a lot which is easy because you're exhausted from trying to keep warm, and I ate terribly. Most places are closed for the winter in Yosemite, so our options were pizza and pizza. Yes! I ate pizza 2 nights in a row and it really showed on my run on Sunday when I got back that eating bad doesn't go well with training hard. Sometimes you have no choice so I just had to roll with it.

Week 9 Schedule:

Monday: 8 aerobic miles (8:12 average)
Tuesday: 3 miles - morning (8:13 average)
                10 miles - evening (7:37 average) -  5 m aerobic (7:56 avg) + 4 m @ MP (7:06 avg) + 1 m c/d
Wednesday: 7 recovery miles (8:44 average)
                      20 min recovery yoga
Thursday: 6 miles + 8 x 100 meter strides with 100 meter recovery btw (8:01 average)
Friday: 5 recovery miles (9:02 average)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 9 progressive miles (8:00 average)
              Hip Strengthening (planks, side planks, donkey kicks, bird dogs, bridges)

This last week felt tougher than usual even though my workouts weren't as difficult. I think coming back from vacation can take a few days to find your groove again, but I found that groove again this past weekend when I crushed my 10K PR with a long desired sub 40 minute finish (barely), and followed it up with a 20 miler at 7:48 average. This was a confidence boosting weekend for sure and I'm still recovering from it!

Week 8 Schedule:

Monday: 7 aerobic miles (8:03 average)
               10 minute kettle bell workout + foam rolling
Tuesday: 8 miles (7:52 average) - 4 miles @ 7:59 avg + 8 x 1 min @ 6:40 avg w/ 1 min rest btw + 2 mile c/d
               Hip Strengthening (planks, side planks, donkey kicks, bird dogs, bridges)
Wednesday: 6 aerobic miles (8:17 average)
Thursday: Cross Training - 25 minutes elliptical + 30 minutes of strength training
Friday: 3 mile shakeout + 8 x 100 meter strides with 100 meter recovery between (8:20 average)
Saturday: 9 miles - 1.5 mile warm up (1 mile warm up + 4 x 20 second strides w/recovery) + 10K race (6:31 avg) + 1.5 mile c/d
Sunday: 20 miles (7:48 average)

I worked hard at the beginning of the week to supplement my workouts with recovery and strength routines, but you can see I fell off towards the end. I'm so happy my 10K resulted in a PR and I can feel all my work paying off. I'll recap the race later this week, but for now, I'm focusing on recovering from the tough miles I put in this weekend with lots of TLC (and a good massage!).

Did you race this past weekend? How'd it go?

Have you ever been to Yosemite?

J