Week 2 - Eugene Marathon Training

MMMk this week was tough. I've been super fatigued which I think is a combo of adjusting to the jump in mileage and life is just nuts right now. Ricky and I got engaged in October and we finally set a wedding date for December of this year. I spent the last week and a half finalizing our contract with our vendor so we could get our date and lock it in. We are planning a very small wedding, which I thought would make it easier, but that is just not the case. Ricky keeps telling me every time I express my stress level over planning that we should've just gone to Mexico and gotten married (my dad would never go for that, but sometimes I wish we'd just eloped!). Anyways, cry fest I know. I nailed down the venue, I have my dress, and the rest should be easy (I hope!).

While this week was deemed a recovery week from my 8 day challenge, it still had me logging 52 miles. My body SEEMS to be holding up, but I did feel some tweaking/pain in my left hip, similar to what I had experienced during Chicago and Boston training. It's a sign I need to hit up my ART doc asap. I'll be the first to admit that I do not hold the same level of recovery focus during my off season as I do in training and that seems to have bitten me in the butt because I shouldn't really need to go see my ART doc if I'm doing the right things. Lesson learned and appointment made. Here's how the week turned out for me:

• Monday: 8 miles @ 8:01 average + core work. This day was tough and my feet were really achy on this run, but it was the last day of the 8 day challenge and I did it!
• Tuesday: 4 recovery miles @ 8:46 average + body pump class. I love full body workouts, but don't do them much during marathon training because they cause excess fatigue. Glad I made it to this class, but the fatigue stuck on me until Friday.
• Wednesday: 6 miles @ 8:13 average + chiro and stretching session. I needed a good stretch and haven't made time for yoga in weeks, so this helped a ton!
• Thursday: 4 recovery miles @ 8:52 average. I felt ok on this run, but I was hoping to feel much better by today. Legs were still heavy.
• Friday: 6 miles including 8 x 20 second strides @ 7:54 average + core work. I felt great at the beginning of this workout and through the 6th stride. I think I overdid my speed on the strides and by the 7th one, I was toast. Strides should never cause fatigue, so this kind of had me worried.
• Saturday: 14 miles @ 7:39 average. The goal of this run was to do the first half at 7:50-8:00 and the second half at 7:40-7:50 to practice pacing, push the pace a bit and figure out if the pace was too easy. I felt good the first few miles (who doesn't?) and went a bit fast (7:36, 7:42, 7:45). I was worried this would wear me out and finally found the 7:50's at mile 4. Then when it was time to get back to the 7:40s, I pushed even more (7:21, 7:31, 7:30 for mile 8-10) and that left me super fatigued and not to mention, my hip was killing me. I knew it was time to visit my ART doc before this run, but this run solidified that for me. I had to stop at mile 10 and mile 13 to stretch my left hip. I thought maybe the stretch session on Wednesday pulled something, but both my hips are sore and tender - a sign my glutes aren't activating and my quads are doing to much work. I've been doing my glute activation work, but it's clear my slacking from the off season is catching up to me.
• Sunday: 6 AM miles @ 9:02 average and 4 PM miles @ 8:45 average. I always get the option to increase pace on the second run of the day if my legs feel recovered, but they just didn't feel ready to go any faster on my evening run.

I had more time for strength work this week and that was awesome, but a few things I need to start doing again:

• Icing my feet after tough speed workouts and long runs. The bones and muscles and my feet get achy during training. Does this happen to you? Icing my feet after has always been helpful for me.
• Epsom salt baths. I missed out on these this week, so I'm promising myself to do at least 1 Epsom salt bath/week.
• Glute work - I gotta keep up with these and dedicate at least a few minutes a couple times/week (maybe my recovery run days) to getting these muscles strong.

I've also been working on planning our trip to Eugene for the marathon. We fly into Portland, drive to Eugene for the weekend, and then are heading over to Bend for a few days. I'm not quite sure what the best place is to stay in Eugene or where to eat before the race. If you're from there, or have any recommendations, hit me up!

J