My week in sports #9
Marathon preparation is in full swing and I have started my training schedule for the 42.195k. That means running 4 times a week, and trying to squeeze in some strength training every now and then. Despite the continuous rain and wind, it was a good week! Here’s what I did the past week.
Monday – 24 February
I ran on Saturday and Sunday last week, so I am taking a rest day on Monday. I am feeling a little under the weather and work requires me to put in some more hours at night, so I decide to leave my option to do yoga for what it is today and head to bed.
Tuesday
Busy day at work and once again I need to finish some tasks after getting home. Usually, I have track training on Tuesdays, but I don’t see a way to run errands, work, eat and spend three hours on getting to and from training. I decide to make it easier for myself, put on my shoes and a backpack and run errands while running an easy 7K. It’s the first time in months that I can run in daylight during the week, and there’s no rain or significant wind so I am over the moon. What a lovely run!
Type: Easy running, no attention to pace
Duration: 39 minutes
Distance: 7K
Wednesday
No training today! I try to keep the Wednesday as a permanent rest day. Usually the track trainings are quite intense, and rest is as important as putting in the training hours. I did run up and down the stairs at work a couple times today. We worked in a room on the seventh floor and I took the stairs more than a few times :). A total of 46 flights were walked (up and down, that is).
Thursday
Track training! Have been looking forward to it all day, and even though it rains AGAIN during training, I feel fit and optimistic. We are lucky, only a few laps on the track today. After the warming-up and technical training, we do a 3k on the road, after which we do 6x300m. Because of the weather, my usual pace group consist of me and one fellow runner, but we feel good afterwards. And, cherry on top, my own pair of the ASICS GLIDERIDE has finally arrived! I have run quite some runs on them, but I didn’t have my own pair before. I couldn’t be happier!
Type: Combining extensive and intensive interval
Distance: a bit shorter than planned, only 9k
Duration: 55m excl. technical training
Friday
I decide to skip the Friday night drinks and hit the gym with a friend instead. We haven’t seen each other in a while, so it’s great to catch up. We end up doing 45 minutes on the elliptical and end the workout with an abs-session. Not exactly as vigorous as I planned, usually I try to keep the cardio in the gym to a minimum and work on my strength, but chatting with friends is also important. I do feel like my lack of gym time has had a negative impact on my muscles so I take another progress photo and vow to visit the gym more often…
Saturday
I jump out of bed at seven to get some breakfast and hang out on the couch until my friend informs me that he will, in fact, join me for my long run today, nice! As an added bonus, it’s windy but not raining. We head out for a boring (but quiet) route. It’s hard for me. Usually, I don’t have much trouble once I’m out the door but today I feel like quitting every 200m. I cannot figure out what would be the reason for this, so I remind myself that marathon preparation is YOU against YOU. My mind will want to quit more often in the future, so it’s good to work through it. Once I am done, I am proud that I didn’t give in to the temptation of cutting training short.
Type: Slow long run
Distance: 15k
Duration: 97 minutes
Sunday – 1 March
When my alarm goes off, I don’t feel like I’m ready so I snooze for another 30 minutes and I take a lot of time to plot my route. Okay yes I’m stalling. Time to go out! After 3k, I can see the rainclouds coming my way and I call my boyfriend to bring my jacket downstairs. That way it only takes me a few seconds and a couple extra 100m. A solid training, even though I have a lot of trouble keeping the right pace. Oh well, not every training will be perfect. The overall pace was aimed for 5’40, and that is nicely done!
Type: Running marathon pace
Duration: 89 minutes
Distance: 14k
I am getting used to running four times a week again and the increase in mileage seems to be alright for my body. Let’s hope I can keep this up and I can keep crossing off trainings from my training schedule. This was a good one!
Running Ella 