Week ten is in the books! This was the second week of longer tempos and another week of absolutely AWFUL weather. Ugh. I’m hoping it’ll get better soon. Each week during this training cycle, as I train for the Chicago Marathon, I will share how my training went and what the week looked like. I do this because: 1) I love reading about how other folks train and 2) it’s great for me to have a record of what I did each week. Also, honestly, it helps keep me accountable when I know I’ll be writing about it. I also post almost all of my runs on Instagram as well. Last week I started a link up for Chicago Marathon Training Recaps – I know there are more of us out there so please do link up! I love reading about folks training for the same race as I am.
Monday: 7 miles – the weather was a bit more tolerable so those miles weren’t awful but my legs were definitely tired. Pure Barre after work.
Tuesday: 4×1200 – all done at pace or faster and I felt very strong throughout the workout. The weather was also better than it had been, which made a huge difference.
Wednesday: I took a total rest day and it was glorious!
Thursday: Tempo Thursday. Eight tempo miles and a warm and up and a cool down mile for ten total. I’m trying to figure out my tempo runs. I should be running them at MGP, which is 9:44. I have been faster than that by about twenty seconds every week. I’m reluctant to adjust my goal pace, but I’m going to try and focus this week’s tempo around 9:30 pace and see how that goes. I think because I’m doing my tempos in the same place I did them while training for Shamrock, my body is so dialed in to the low 9 pace I was running those tempos in, that it’s really hard for me to run 30 seconds slower than that for these tempos.
Friday: Five miles with my Pure Barre bestie. A total sweatfest.
Saturday: The weather. Oh man. It was 81 degrees and near 100% humidity when we started at 6am. I was glad we only had ten miles on tap, but I knew they’d be tough. Definitely not an easy run but my legs actually felt great. I ran major negative splits and my last two miles were my fastest (part of that was I just desperately wanted to finish!). Incredibly challenging weather but a solid run.
Sunday: Four recovery miles before the women’s Olympic marathon. I was so inspired watching that race! Later, I went for a hot stone massage. Felt pretty good except when the masseuse literally pounded on my back. Now my back is sore. Yay?
Total mileage for the week: 42.24 miles
Total mileage for the year: 832.99 miles
Total mileage for this training cycle: 292.5 miles
Please do link up your blog post sharing your marathon training recap if you are also training for Chicago! I’d love to read it! And don’t forget, if you’d like to help me support Ronald McDonald House Charities, you can do so here.
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Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. 🙂 I cannot believe we have 2 months to go. Yikes!
Great job tackling those tempo miles!
You and me both! I’m excited about two months to go – you should be too – you are going to rock it!
I cannot wait for cooler temps! August has been SO brutal! Great job on getting all of your runs done!
As long as the race is cooler, I’m all good 🙂
I have trouble keeping my tempo where they’re suppose to be too. My body knows marathon pace and 5k pace. Half marathon pace feels so foreign. Do you think it’s good or bad to run them faster? I can never decide.
Dodie recently posted…Half Marathon Training Recap Week 3
I think running them a bit faster as long as other workouts aren’t suffering is okay and just an indication of improved fitness.
I am seriously impressed I don’t know how you are doing it with this heat. I am seriously dying lately!
Deborah @ Confessions of a mother runner recently posted…Blueberry Iced Tea Spritzer
It is still really hard in this weather but I think I’ve acclimated a bit since I run in it almost every single day.
Great week. You’re really killing it, I must say. I was SO inspired watching the women’s marathon on Sunday, too. I actually started getting a little emotional watching them finish. I’m excited to watch the 400 final tonightewerwe
Watching our amazing Olympians is so freaking inspiring!
You’re killing it! Way to conquer a tough week! You’ve been really rocking this training cycle. You should be so proud of yourself! If you’re this far along in training and you’re still running your tempos much faster, I don’t think it would hurt to increase your tempo pace. But do go back and re-read the tempo section of the book. One of the big goals of the runs is to learn control, so I’d say shoot for 9:30 at least the first half of the run and then if you’re still feeling good knock it out of the park for the last half. That’s pretty much what my coach has me doing most workouts.
Jennifer @ Dashing in style recently posted…Marathon Training Week 6: Speed
Are you in the Hansons training fb group? It’s awesome if you aren’t – I actually asked the tempo question and Luke Humphrey weighed in and basically said to keep doing what I’m doing and I should be fine for the race. Which helped calm some of my worries about that!
Oh good! You know, after I commented I thought about suggesting posting to the FB group. I love that Luke and the other coaches are so helpful and supportive! I deactived my FB account but have access to their other online forum for coaching subscribers.
Jennifer @ Dashing in Style recently posted…Marathon Training Week 6: Speed
Last week was brutal! At least if it’s warm on race day you will be ready?
That’s what I keep telling myself 🙂
If you could make it through the weather last week, you can definitely make it through anything. That was so unpleasant. Nice work getting it all done.
Thanks Hollie – the weather continues to be so gross here in DC. I’m getting through it the best I can!
I continue to be impressed by your training–especially in this tough, hot, sweatfest of a summer. When I trained for my last 2 Chicago marathons, I too had trouble running at my MGP–I trained faster than I should have. It’s hard to run slow! Definitely something I need to work on, especially if I ever train for another marathon.
Tomorrow I’m going to try really hard to dial in to 9:30ish pace for the first half of the tempo run and then see how I feel…
Yay for another awesome week! The weather is so miserable. I feel like I have to stop and catch my breath. I am dreaming of fall race temps so we can all run and breathe a little easier! Last week’s training was lack luster and weird, but this week is going off without a hitch. I can’t believe we are like 50 ish days away!!!
Alaina @ The Simple Peach recently posted…Chicago Marathon Training Update: Week 11
Glad to hear that this week is going well for you! Yes, I am also eagerly awaiting fall temps!
Great week!!! Just think about what your paces will be once the temps drop! It looks like we may get some relief from the heat soon, hang in there! Your training seems to be going really well. How are you feeling, besides tired? Any aches or pains?
You rock ! All I can say is RESPECT for training in those conditions.
Nice job with your training! I think it’s so much hotter this summer than it was last summer. So, I feel for you all training for Fall marathons. I am not doing another marathon until 2017, but even runs of 6-8 miles these days are rough!
So excited for you, race day is so so close! 🙂