Week 4 Recap and Week 5 Plan

I'm not even going to do a real week 4 recap because (a) I don't have access to my Excel file with my plan (and won't for about 2 weeks - but I'll probably make a new make-shift one for now) and (b) there were extenuating circumstances throughout most of last week that caused me to not run at all Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I had a decent run on Monday which I wrote a bit about right after the run but never got around to posting it.  Maybe I will add to it after tomorrow's normal run and then post about both.  Thursday and Sunday I did races, which went as expected and Saturday I did the 10.5 mile long run.  So all the runs I did were good, but I also took 3 days off which was more than I would've liked and felt very exhausted all week.  I finished the week with 29 miles, so for 4 days I'd say that's decent.  If I would've gotten in the extra 1-2 days of running I definitely would've hit 35-40.  So it really was a true step back week and now I need to step it up.

Here's the plan I came up with for this week.  Once again, I don't even know what my original plan had, but I think it might even be better if I just make my plans week by week anyways.  I do already have my long run mileage figured out for each weekend leading up to the marathon, but the other days maybe I'll just go by how I feel each week as it comes.

If I do all these runs, that would put me at 45-50 miles which would be pretty high for what I have been doing the last couple weeks.  I put the long run on Thursday because as of now I am planning to visit Kristin and Tim in Cincinnati this weekend.  I am sure we would go out on Friday night and not be in long-run condition Saturday morning and I also don't want to do a long run there by myself (on hills) or risk not doing it at all.  I think I can convince Kristin to at least do a normal run with me ;)  So, goal is to do the long run Thursday evening.  I think I'll go to the Elk Grove Forest Preserve where there is an 8.3 mile loop and just go for it twice.  My plan for tomorrow actually is to go there and do 1 loop.  I just hope it isn't TOO hot in the evening.  I do imagine I'll ending making Friday a rest day so I can sleep in before driving to Cincy and being active all weekend, but maybe I'll have more energy this week and really want to get in another run.

Mac was talking about meeting up to do the Yasso 800s on a track this week and I said Tuesday would be the perfect night for me to do them.  Not sure yet if he'll be able to, otherwise I will plan to go and try to do them myself.  I've never done the Yasso 800s before and am a little nervous for them, but especially after today's 5K race I know that some speed training would really help me right now.  In case you were wondering what the Yasso 800s even are, I will post about them after I actually do the workout but in the meantime you can Google if you are super curious.

And now since this has been all boring running talk, I did at least do a few fun things besides run this weekend.  My favorite was after Saturday morning's long run, I met Steph and Catherine for brunch at Honey n' Jam in Lincoln Park.  I hadn't been there before but I would definitely recommend it.  I love all breakfast food though so I'd really recommend going for brunch anywhere, anytime.  Catherine and I had both done long runs that morning so after brunch we decided to go for a little walk to stretch out and talk.  Then I walked home...so much walking...but I stopped and treated myself to ice cream on the way.

So I leave you with a nice picture of my omelet (with bacon, cheese, and onion), potatoes, and toast.  What a great post-long run meal.

Do you like to plan out your days/weeks way ahead of time or just do what you feel?

A Step Back Week

I just finished this week's long run!  And it didn't even seem that long because it was a step back week!  I want to keep trying to get in more mileage and longer runs, but this week was perfect for a shorter long run.  How's that for an oxymoron?  I thought today was supposed to be 12 miles, but the longest Coach Brendan had anyone going today was 10 so I just went with that.

I did the entire run today with Mac and another guy, Dave.  Dave was quite a talker which was good for me today because then I didn't have to do as much talking but had someone to listen to so that my mind wasn't just wandering.  He seems to be a very knowledgeable runner and knew at least 10 people we passed by on the lakefront path.  I asked him how he knew SO many people out running today.  Dave said he worked for the Chicago Marathon up until this past May so he has met so many runners through the various charity and training groups...not to mention that he has been running in Chicago for years and years.  I would love to have a job with the Chicago Marathon or something running related.  He said he worked a lot of hours...but I think I could handle that after going through tax busy seasons and at least it'd be focusing on something I'd enjoy and not just preparing tax returns.

We talked a lot about marathon training paces and distances.  Coach Brendan had a conversion chart to see your goal marathon pace and how fast you should be running other race distances like a 5k, 10k or half marathon.  I think these type of charts could be generally helpful but I also don't want to get too hung up on it because the marathon is just one day.  You never know what the weather conditions will be like or how you'll be feeling that particular day.

You can definitely tell that everyone is kicking their marathon training into gear now. (This picture was taken way back in March or April when it was colder and nobody was really out on the path.)  There were no bikers on the path this morning, I'm sure they all know how crowded it is with runners on Saturday mornings now so they stay away.  There were tons of people out running either alone or with various training groups.  Some of the training groups had soooo many people and were running in lines, two by two.  That would not work well for me, but I can see how it'd be helpful for any new runners to have such a large group to stick with and socialize with.

The 3 of us were going at a nice conversational pace that was perfect for a longer run and stopped at a few of the Fleet Feet aid stations set up along the path for Gatorade and water.  We did 10.5 miles in 1:27.  Coach Brendan was telling us the importance of having these step back weeks in both mileage and pace and I think this was the perfect week for it.  Once again, I would not have been able to do this on my own.  It was hard to get myself up at 5:15am to meet the group but otherwise I would've slept in and either not ran at all or not ran as long, especially because it is starting to get HOT.

Now it's time for post-run brunch with Catherine and Steph!!  I hope this happens every Saturday.  Mac was heading right to Crossfit after the long run, but I think I like the idea of brunch better.