Eat Drink Run Woman

One thing I’m finding with this program: one day you’re feeling great, collecting 1st Place ribbons and thinking you’re all that and a bag of chips, and the next day you feel like Sloggy McPlodster. But just when you think your BQ hopes are dashed, your body says, “Psych! Just wanted to see if you’re paying attention. We’ll go fast now.”

Once again it appears I’m not following the 10% rule, but it worked out better to do two long runs this week. With last Saturday’s 10K race, I pushed back my 18-miler to Sunday. I decided to do this week’s long run on my regular day (Saturday) since next week I’ll be tapering for the Kirkland Half Marathon, plus I have another long BUAL™ (barf up a lung) workout on Monday and wanted a day of rest between that and my long run.

Not only was this a high mileage week, I also achieved two milestones: I finally hit the 200-mile mark for the month (I was five miles shy for March), plus I’ve made great gains, er, losses with my weight:

(I apologize for the blatant nudity. I try to keep this a PG13 blog).

It’s been at least 12 years since I’ve seen that number (and actually that was a bit of a fluke; I had just returned from a 13-mile run. Once my darling and I scarfed on fish tacos, beer and ice cream, a couple pounds came back). I’ve been much more diligent with my diet (and by that I mean the food I eat; I’m not on any formal “diet”) and have curtailed a lot of the drinking. With five weeks to go before my marathon, I’ll be even more diligent. I probably won’t get down to my goal of 150 (not sure I want to at this point), but I know my pace has increased thanks to the decrease in weight.

Here’s the recap:

Sunday: My darling joined me on the 18-mile run, at least for the start. Since he’s still considering going for a BQ as well, it doesn’t make sense for him to stay with me the entire run as he’s much faster. But we still make a point of passing one another on the trail, so it’s like we’re running together. Given my performance the day before I took things very slow, keeping my pace between 9:40-10 (although I managed to run mile 18 at a 9:27 pace). It was one of my tougher runs, and I was grateful the next day would be a rest day.

Monday: Woke up creaky, so I decided to bag off the gym. In a “it must be Monday” moment my car decided to overheat while heading to my client’s house; fortunately I had signed up for AAA a month ago and got a free tow to the dealer.

Tuesday: Great yoga workout in the morning; my muscles REALLY needed the stretching. Even though I was shooting for 200 miles for April, I decided to cut my BUAL™ workout short (7 miles rather than 9) since I’d be running 1000-meter sprints. Besides, despite there not being a drop of rain all day, the moment I go to head out the door the raindrops start coming.

(Okay, so it doesn’t look like it’s raining in the photo, but I SWEAR it was!) Another tough workout, but my pace for the sprints ranged from 7:25-7:35 min/mile.

Wednesday: Put in a little over an hour at the gym. I tried to do some wall sits, but my quads were having none of it. With that afternoon’s 2 1/2 mile run, I had hit my 200-mile mark.

Thursday: Once again bagged the gym. I didn’t have to cook for a client, so I decided to sleep in. Besides, I was going to do a 13-mile hilly run, so I wanted my legs to be fresh. It was another VERY tough run, but I still managed to average 10-minute miles.

Friday: I know I’m going to sound like a broken record, but I skipped the gym once again. It’s back on the program next week, I promise! That afternoon I had a 6-mile recovery run; although I started out very slow, I decided I’d go as fast as felt good. My first three miles were about 9:38, but I sped up considerably, running my 6th mile in 8:54. Overall pace: 9:22.

Saturday: This was another doozy — 17 miles with 14 at marathon race pace. My darling and I drove out to Tracy Owens park in Kenmore to run the Burke-Gilman/Sammamish River Trail. Once again he joined me for my 2-mile warmup, but then headed back to the car to drop off his coat. My lower right leg was feeling wonky (the area on the side between my shin and calf muscle), but I tried to stretch it as best I could. As long as I didn’t stop it felt fine.

I’ve been getting dizzy spells during my long runs lately, and I figured it was due to slight dehydration. So this time I carried three water bottles — two filled with Clif electrolyte drink and one with water — along with some ClifShots and ShotBlocks. I vowed to drink every four miles and take in the ShotBlocks and/or ClifShots at miles 6 and 12.

After my 2-mile warmup I picked up my pace, hoping to keep it between 9-9:08 min/miles. I’d check Garmin every half mile or so, adjusting my pace accordingly. The pace was challenging, but not so much I couldn’t sustain it. My fueling/hydration strategy worked very well, as I didn’t get dizzy at all. I met up with my darling a couple miles after my turn-around, and he ran with me for a couple of miles until he had to make a potty stop. At the half marathon mark I looked to see I ran it in 1:58:20 — just 18 seconds slower than my PR at the Mercer Island Half. And that even included the two warmup miles!

While I gave myself permission to slow it down at mile 16 (which would be the end of the marathon race pace portion), I still managed to run that last mile in 8:59. Overall pace for 17 miles was 9:01; overall pace for the 14 miles was 8:56. There’s obviously no guarantee I’ll be able to do that come race day, but it sure looks promising!