Back to the high(er) mileage this week with a total of 65 miles. It’s definitely beginning to feel like marathon training season even though I have two more weeks before I officially start my schedule. I’m trying not to stress about the fact that this amount of mileage already feels like significant work and yet I’ve got the bulk of the tough training ahead of me. But one step at a time, right? This week I focused on getting in some solid runs and tackling a tempo again. I even made it back into the gym for some core work and Body Pump classes. Here’s how the week shook out: Monday: 10 miles easy (8 min pace)

Tuesday: 8 miles w/20 min tempo (a.m.) + 2 miles recovery (later in the a.m.)+ Body Pump

Wednesday: 7 miles easy (a.m.) + 4.5 miles recovery (p.m.) (9:15 pace) + core

Thursday: 8 miles easy (8:16 pace) + Body Pump

Friday: 6.68 miles recovery (8:30 pace) + core

Saturday: 14.5 miles trail run (7:55 pace)

Sunday: 5 miles recovery + Body Pump

Total miles: 65

Tuesday’s Tempo – tempo miles at 6:48, 6:31, 6:30

I was happy to have company for Tuesday’s tempo run. I’ve mentioned it before but tempos are the hardest workouts for me to deal with – both mentally and physically they challenge me in every way. So I’ve been making myself do more of them to try and overcome the anxiety that crops up when I see these on my schedule. In any case, K., a speedy friend from my Saturday group, came and joined me for this tempo. His marathon pace is my tempo pace (yikes) so this was easy-peasy for him but major work for me. I was a bit frustrated when I saw the first mile split was above the pace I wanted, but for such a hot and humid morning (75 degrees, 61 dewpoint) I decided it was more about the effort I was putting in than the actual splits. Even so I tried to focus a bit more and was happy to see the second and third miles were better. I was so happy to get home to my ice-cold water and smoothie – whew!

Wednesday’s runs were a hodge-podge of me trying to squeeze things in with my normal life as a mom. I started by running 7 miles outside at an easy pace in the early morning with a friend, then came home, showered and put on another set of workout clothes. Headed to the Y, dropped one daughter off at the pool for her 30 minute swim lesson and then jumped on the treadmill for a quick 2.5 miles before I had to be back downstairs at the pool to pick her up. I got her changed and then took my other daughter over to a day camp she was attending for that day, headed back to the Y, and caught the last 15 minutes of my core class. After the class ended I did some more core work (since I’d missed the first 15 minutes of class), and finished up with an additional 2 miles on the treadmill. Whew. It was a hectic morning just trying to get everyone to where they needed to be and still fit this in. But I felt great when I got through it! I also was pretty smelly for most of the morning until I could get home and get in another shower!

Saturday Trail Run: Kept things easy until Saturday when I ran with the group. The run this week was in our local state park and we ran on trails/fire roads for a 5-mile loop. We did the loop twice and with our mileage to and from the park it worked out to be 14.5 miles total. It had rained the day and night before the run so we had some puddles to dodge and slippery footing at times. I’m definitely not a big trail runner and while these trails were not very technical, it was challenging on my ankles as I had to constantly adjust my footing. Since I’m fairly short at 5’4”, I had a hard time seeing the trail when I wasn’t at the front of the pack! But it was very fun to run someplace new and our group (thankfully) kept the pace on the easy side. I'm not the most graceful person so I’m just super-happy that I ended the run without taking a fall (caught myself twice!) or twisting an ankle! Woo hoo!

Up Next: Stepping it up – 70 miles

Next week is another slight increase in miles to a total of 70. I’m going to try another tempo and keep up with my core work and some weight training. I may have to get creative with some runs towards the end of the week as life intervenes but that’s part of the fun, right?

That was my training week in review – how was your week?