Richmond Marathon Training - Week 2

Monday August 13
Run 6.1 mi
I was definitely still feeling the mile I ran the day before in my legs and kept this run commute nice and slow.

Tuesday August 14
Run 10.0 mi
3x1600 (7:21, 7:23, 7:34) and 2x800 (3:36, 3:36)
I felt okay on my run over to the track, but once the workout got started I could tell that it was not going to be a great day. The times aren't horrible, but I just felt so sluggish and was consistently finishing well behind my normal group. It was definitely frustrating, but I tried to keep reminding myself that just finishing the intervals was the important thing, not the time. I blame the hard effort I put out in the mile for the off day (or at least the total fatigue from the week before that was capped off by the mile race).

Wednesday August 15
Run 5.15 mi
One of my plans for this training cycle is to make Wednesday a double run day. I was going to start this week, but I decided that the combination of a poor workout on Tuesday and feeling sore when I woke up meant that I should probably wait another week. So instead of a short run in the morning, I spend about 40 minutes stretching, foam rolling and doing some glute exercises. I still felt relatively sore and tired at the evening CAR fun run, further confirming that a morning off was the right call. There's no need to keep digging myself deeper into a pit of fatigue.
Thursday August 16
Rest

Friday August 17
Run 8.4 mi
4 mile tempo - 29:52
I felt much better when I woke up on Friday and was optimistic by the end of my warm up that the workout would go well. I had a nice small group to run with and even when we splintered at the end, everyone was still paired off. It was nice to have someone to run with the whole time and I think it really helped me run negative splits. This is only a few seconds off the fastest four mile tempo I have run, so I was very happy with it. I was also relieved that Tuesday's workout appeared to be just a minor blip and that I taken the right steps to get myself back on track.

Saturday August 18
Run 16 mi (avg page - 8:38)
Saturday morning was cooler than it has been recently and it was so nice to get out and run in such beautiful weather. This was the first time I've run this far since last fall, so I was very happy with how good I felt for most of the run. It was a bit rough at the end, but I got it done. I know I need to start concentrating more on the progression aspect of the run. I feel comfortable starting out, and dropping the pace for the middle third, but I am not finding it easy to drop it again for the final third. Our pack definitely broke apart in the last third when some people were really able to drop the pace. I think the main reason this is a struggle for me right now is that I am running my long runs significantly faster than I was last fall and my body (and legs) are still adjusting to that change. It's not something that concerns me, just something I'm aware of and want to work on over this training cycle.

Sunday August 19
Swim 4650 yds
This was supposed to be a 5k workout, but I bailed a bit early when my shoulders rebelled against all of the pulling Katie's coach requested. Since I'm not training for any swim races in the near future, I had no qualms about stopping before the end of the set. No need to totally kill my shoulders for no reason. It was good to get over the 3000 yd plateau where I've been stuck recently. I definitely would not have made it as far alone!

Week 2 - 45.65 mi
Week 2 got off to a rough start, but I'm really happy with how I made adjustments and was able to finish it off with two quality workouts. Week 3 will be far from normal as I head out to the west coast for Hood to Coast in the second half of the week!