Week 3 - Eugene Marathon Training

This week started rough again, but ended GREAT! I've been working hard to change my mindset the last couple days about training and it helped me have a great weekend of running. Does anyone else struggle with how hard things feel at the beginning of a training cycle? I see paces that really should be comfortable for me, but I psych myself out about it and then crash during the workout. When your mental game has been out of play for the last 3 months of your off season, it's hard to bring back the toughness and easy to get trampled by a new training cycle that is asking you to work those out of commission mental muscles.

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself just yet. We all know that one or 2 good runs can get countered by several bad runs and that's just running for you. But it takes just 1 good run to bring back your focus and drive to succeed. Here's how this week went:

• Monday: Rest day! First rest day in 2.5 weeks due to my 8 day challenge and I loved it. Got in some yoga and nice epsom bath.
• Tuesday: 2 lunch miles @ 8:15 avg where I attempted my speed workout, but was deferred until later due to GI issues. 8 miles of speed work later that day @ 7:45 average. The speed work called for 5 x 2 mins at 6:40-6:45 with 2 mins at 8:00. I went out hard for the intervals primarily because I was nervous about hitting pace and my body was still pretty fatigued. I also got in a kettle bell workout after my run.
• Wednesday: 4 morning recovery miles @ 8:57 and 6 evening miles @ 8:37. The morning miles are supposed to be slow and help me run faster on my evening miles. When the evening miles have rolled around though, I still don't feel recovered yet. I did quite a bit of foam rolling in the hopes it would work out the fatigue.
• Thursday: 7 miles @ 7:57 w/ 2 miles of strides in the middle. Strides shouldn't leave you fatigued, but I felt a bit fatigued on the 2nd mile of strides. Also got in a core workout.
• Friday: 4 miles @ 8:32 average. I had another case of GI issues that would not subside. This run called for 6 miles, but I just couldn't hack it. I also still felt pretty fatigued and wanted to be ready for the long run workout on Saturday.
• Saturday: 15.31 miles @ 7:50 average. Run called for 30 min warm up; 30 mins @ 7:45, 30 mins @ 7:30, 30 min cool down. I finally felt comfortable and able to stay within the prescribed pace ranges. This was a huge confidence booster for me.
• Sunday: 6 morning miles @ 8:36 (a bit fast, but I felt good - or confident) + light weights; 4 evening miles @ 8:49. Another double day where the second run should be faster than the first, but man I'm so tired by how busy I am during the day. It's a good thing speed work happens early in the week for me.

A 56 mile week. I wasn't able to get in to see my ART doc this past week (I get to see him Wednesday!) and I'm hoping once I see him, some of the fatigue will subside and get worked out so I will continue having good runs. 

Outside of my running life, we tried out one of our prospective vendors for our wedding dinner on Thursday evening and they were amazing! It's a taco cart and totally not the fancy sit down wedding dinner you would think of, but the food is delicious. Who doesn't want delicious food at a wedding instead of the lame boring plated dinner that leaves you hoping the cake is super good? Is it bad that the only thing I really care about for my wedding is the food!?

How'd your training go this week? Have you been struggling with mental strength at all? If so, how'd you push through it?

J