My training mileage this week hasn’t been all that great to be honest.
I got in an ok treadmill 5 miler on Tuesday and then a very good 8.85 miles outside yesterday and then this morning’s run was a bit of a struggle.
I put up twitter posts of the first two of those runs but as a recap – Tuesday was 5 miles in 38:14 and then Saturday’s was 8.85 in 1:18:46 and I felt very strong on Saturday’s run.
I had planned to get up early (expecting the puppies to get me up around 5:30) so that I get in a 20 miler this morning before it got too hot. But I didn’t plan on not falling to sleep until well after midnight (closer to 1 am) then being woken by a thunderstorm around 3 and then by our son having gotten sick around 4. Luckily he is feeling much better but it took a solid 30-40 minutes to clean up his room. The dogs were of course up with all the commotion so they were off schedule. By 5 am, everything that needed to be done was sorted and I could have gone running then but I was looking at less than 3 hours sleep so I figured I would lay on the couch and set an alarm for 6 and then go after that…I know I heard the alarm but it was closer to 8 before I was conscious again. So by the time I got myself moving it was closer to 9 and already very hot and humid – not sure what the temperatures were but they felt pretty oppressive.
So I changed up my plan and decided that I would just do 5 miles and look at getting in the long run tomorrow morning instead. With that in mind I didn’t bring a drink with me as it was going to just be a short run. Then I changed my mind and decided to try a new route through a new subdivision…which ended up being longer than I expected. Instead of 5 miles I hit 8.72 miles in the end. The pace was pretty steady even with the heat but interestingly my speed dropped off a bit around the 6 mile mark right around the time the rain started. The rain helped cool things down a bit and I would have figured my pace would have picked up a bit but instead I slowed down. I was probably just a bit burnt by that point and the damage had already been done so the cooler temps just weren’t able to have the desired effect. Plus the lack of liquids probably hit around then too.
I hadn’t brought liquids with me for the run yesterday either and didn’t see the same speed drop off but it was cooler yesterday so I was sweating quite so bad either. Another reminder to drink when it is hot outside…
This morning also marks the 2 week point leading up to the Manitoba Marathon. Frankly, I am not ready. My last run greater than 13.1 was 18.2 miles on March 22nd. And on March 29th I did a double run day to hit 20.12 that day (13.1 afternoon + 7.02 night). Both of these days were prior to me getting sick in early April and the lack of running that resulted from that. So basically I haven’t done a really long run in months and haven’t done one since I got sick so I’m not sure if I am even capable of a marathon at this point.
And that is why I want to try to do a 20 miler tomorrow – to get that confidence and to understand where I am. It probably won’t be fun but I think it needs to be done – but like always, life has a way of changing your plans.
At this point I know I am capable of still doing a sub 2 hour half marathon but I am not sure what I am capable of after I get past 13.1. So my current guess (which may change tomorrow) is that I will try to go easy on the first half and be in the 2:00-2:10 range and then do what it takes to finish. I suspect I am going to be closer to 5 hours – which is frustrating but at this point I have to take a step back and treat the Manitoba Marathon as part of my training for the 12 hour Lemming Loop in early October.
The Lemming Loop is my goal race for this year now that the Dopey Challenge is done and I won’t be training for any of the Walt Disney World Marathon races in January 2016. My goal for the Lemming Loop is to at a minimum break over the 50 mile mark (hit 49.278 last year) but would love to make it over 60 miles. I am going to say my actual goal there is to complete 2 marathons (52.4 miles) and every step after that will be a bonus.
Beyond running I have been trying to get other exercising in as well – I am still doing my daily chin ups, triceps dips and push ups and 1-3 sets of swimming pool resistance training exercises every time I get in the pool.
Look for more posts and updates on the site soon as I build out my plan for the Lemming Loop and training for the summer.
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