Today marked the end of week 2 of my possible marathon training, with today's long run of being 3.5 miles. This run, for some reason, was a bit tougher mentally and physically. However, I thought I was running about an 11:30 pace, but at the end of my run, according to running app ("Map My Run"), I was running closer to a 10:50 pace. My plan was to run the last few miles of the marathon course, plus a bit of the route that starts the whole race. Well, I took a wrong turn, and ended up being a bit off from the course...oops. I found my way back, and was running towards the stadium where the finish line is at. I was picturing people cheering me on, as if I was actually running the marathon, and it sorta made me a bit emotional for a moment. I know it sounds dumb, but that's what happened. There's always something about training on the course, picturing yourself coming around that last corner, and running down the incline, and touching the door that leads right into the stadium. For me, this was a BIG morale booster, as during my run itself, I was wondering how on earth would I manage to run 26.2 miles, given how I was feeling on just the 3.5 miles I was doing today. Yet, I was thinking that if I was "only" as tired as I was feeling right then for those last few miles, I would definitely be able to push through to the end. Then, reality kicked in. Chances are that this will NOT be the case, as I will most likely be completely exhausted by that point if I do the full, but will have to trust my body and training to get me to the end, and completely push those thoughts out of my head.
One thing I did realize today is that I really do need to keep track of my mileage, as I want to stay as close to my training mileage as possible. This includes days in which I do speed work. I forgot to bring my flip belt, which I use to carry my phone and other small running related items to speedwork, so I couldn't really keep track on how many miles I did. We did six sets of running 3 minutes at a "hard" pace, followed by 1 minute of a slower pace. I estimated somewhere around 2.25 miles of harder running (approx 600 meters), and maybe about 600 meters of slower running. I think total, I got in somewhere around 3 miles of work, but I'm not sure.
Normally, I wouldn't be that concerned, but I was planning on running in a 5k today10 , and due to finances, that wasn't the case. I'm trying to not be too concerned about getting the exact three miles based upon the fact that I ran 4 miles total on Tuesday, and got in at least two miles for speed work. I just don't want to do too much guesswork throughout the training. I know that being slightly off here and there isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I want to be at least close to the mileage.
For cross training, I'm still working on skating and gymnastics. In my gymnastics class, I've been working on holding handstands (MUCH easier said than done), and working on my "vault" and on front tucks ("flips") into our foam pit. My "vault" consists of running and jumping off of a springboard with about 7 springs, reaching out to a huge squishy mat (called a "resi" mat), going into a handstand, andfalling flat on my back in as straight of a line as possible. For the front tucks, I'm working on height and speed of my rotation into the pit, which is actually quite fun...a bit scary at first, but quite fun. Towards the end of class, my coach is having me do some conditioning, which may vary from week to week. At this point we're mostly focusing on abs and some upper body. Last week, he had me do 10 slow V-sits (feet and arms up, as if in a V position), then 100 hollow rockers. Hollow is a basic gymnastics position, kinda like that of a banana. The 100 rockers are KILLER. I have to do divide those up into sets of 10 or so, with a few seconds rest between each set, as they majorly work everything....abs, legs, arms to an extent, and back. For this, we literally get into the position, and "rock" ourselves back and fourth. It's WAY harder than itp looks!
Skating wise, I'm working towards putting together a program for my rink's exhibition in November, and continuing to work on improving my speed, edges, jumps, and spins. I've been working on two new jumps, both of which are hard for me, and one jump in particular, the flip jump, is giving me lots of trouble. I'm working on improving the technique so that I can hopefully land it soon, but it's just not happening at this point.
Challenge for next week....adjusting my schedule so that I can do my long run before I leave to volunteer at Skate America, whic is a major skating competition (as in Olympians will be competing). I got accepted to volunteer there as a an ice monitor for the actual competitions. I'm totally looking forward to this, but I need to figure out how I'm going to get all of my runs in, including my long run. I may see if I can change things up a bit, and do my long run towards the middle of the week, then one or two of my shorter runs before I leave. That way, I won't be behind on my training schedule.
On the plus side, I have found one food that seems to work really well with me for runs in earlier in the day...oatmeal. I just have some of the quick cooking stuff, but mix it with some milk, a bit of sugar, cloves, and/or cinnamon, and heat in the microwave. It filled me up enough to do the run without it being too heavy, as lon g as I gave it about 30 minutes to digest and go through my system some. I will have to keep it in mind for the longer runs that I may have.
Food wise, I still haven't hit enough miles yet to really need fuel, but am hoping to start experimenting with those once I stat hitting about 6 miles. However, this week, I'm thinking of trying some minestrone and some tortilla soup, as I found some soup mix packages, sausage, and frozen chicken breasts. I figure I can try the sausage with the minestrone, and I know the chicken will go well with the tortilla soup. I can also add some of my own veggies and pasta to the minestrone soup, plus some avocado to the tortilla soup (and maybe some tortilla chips), so I'm hoping these will turn out really good. :)
Have a great running week!
No comments:
Post a Comment