I love sharing my weekly recaps of training here on the blog and a lot of you do the same on your blogs! I feel like it keeps me accountable and is a helpful journal of sorts to use when reflecting on a training season. I hope that the recaps are helpful to any readers who are also training for a race and find value in other athlete’s training plans, challenges, and (hopefully) successes!Here are a few general guidelines for linking up with us:
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Okay, time for me to recap my week of training for the Big Cottonwood Marathon on September 10th!
Monday: I slept in so I had to do my tempo workout after work. I headed to run club with Dustin (who paced me!), which was a nice change (they meet at 6 pm). My workout was a “broken tempo”- 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles at a 7:30 pace, 5 minute jog, 3 miles at a 7:30 pace, 1 mile cool down. 8.5 miles total. The first set of 3 felt pretty good, but the second set was really hard and my times crept closer to 7:45. It was a tough workout for me.
Tuesday: Easy 6 in the morning, another easy 4 in the evening (so hot for the second run) 10 miles on the day.
Wednesday: My friend Lindsey and I headed to a local high school track in the morning, but unfortunately it wasn’t open to the public. We tried to find a way in, but it was locked up tight! We both had different workouts, so we parted ways and did them on the lakes. I had 2 miles to warm-up, 5 x 1000m, 2 min recovery in between, 2 mile cool down. 8.5 miles total. I was supposed to hit close to a 7 min/mile pace for the 1000m repeats, but it was so, so hot and humid. I couldn’t do it. Then my Garmin totally died on me! It was a bust….I generally knew the total distance though, which was 8.5 miles.
In the evening, I ran the last of the Endless Summer Trail Run Series, the Hyland 7 mile trail run. I sound like a broken record, but it was so hot and humid. I had planned to take the run easy, but I took it even easier than planned! I walked a ton and averaged over a 10 minute mile. These fun races end with pizza and beer. But this time, the mosquitoes were just too much! I couldn’t hang out after the race as I was getting eaten alive. But it’s a good thing we didn’t stick around, as a nasty storm rolled shortly after we left.
About 16 miles on the day.
Thursday: Much needed REST from running! I went to [solidcore] at 5:30 am with my friend Monica. Great class as always.
Friday: Dustin and I were to drive to Wisconsin for my grandma’s funeral on Saturday, We took Friday off to make the drive to Milwaukee where we stayed with my sister.
(Tilda loves it there- this big bean bag chair is her favorite!)
Anyways, since we had the funeral on Saturday, we did our long run together early Friday morning before we started the drive. I had 3 miles to warm-up, 12 miles at goal marathon pace (8:10-8:15), 1 mile cool-down for 16 miles total. It was crazy hot and humid (again) and I really struggled to hit that marathon pace. Dustin did his best as a pacer; I was somewhat on pace for about 12 miles, but not quite.
No better way to recover from a tough long run than going straight to the car for 5 hours right? Wrong! I tried to drink a ton of water and stop to stretch as we could, but sitting in a car was not ideal.
Of course, it was all worth it to be there with my family. We made it to Milwaukee in time join my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces at the Milwaukee Brewers game. It was a blast!
Saturday: I was up early to get in my 8 mile recovery run before the funeral. I brought my phone (for safety), carrying it in my shorts pocket (it fit into a pocket of my Strider Pro Patagonia shorts.) When I started running, it was cloudy and humid, but not raining. But at 4 miles out, it started pouring….and then there goes my phone. Ugh! It actually was still working- i.e. it was still vibrating when I received text messages, but the screen was completely black. We tried the old rice trick, leaving the phone in a bag of rice for the rest of the day, but it didn’t start to work again all weekend (No phone all weekend- it was a struggle!)
I have an appointment tomorrow at the Apple Store. Hoping they can fix it! (I did pay for Apple care, so I think it’s covered.)
Saturday was spent at the funeral and then at a dinner with my extended family. We also drove around my hometown a bit to reminisce, checking out the house we grew up in, my high school, and other old stomping grounds. It was a nice walk down memory lane.
Sunday: 7 mile run with Dustin and Matilda. Hot and sunny!
After the run, we were back on the road again. It was a lot of driving for a short weekend, but you gotta do what you gotta do. We finally arrived back in Minneapolis around 5 pm, and I had another run on my schedule. 5 more easy miles for 12 miles on the day.
Total: 70 miles, 1 strength class (solidcore), a few other strength days (with the exercises my coach gave me). It was a big week in training; Cottonwood will be here soon!
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Oh no on your phone! Now I know you didn’t get any of my texts yesterday…I will email you!
Solid week, lots of miles! I feel you on the heat and humidity. That’s what I’ve been dealing with down here for 3 months now. I keep reminding myself that come winter, I won’t be complaining because our crazy summers mean mild winters! How many more weeks until your taper?
Nope 🙁 I was able to get iPhone texts on my computer but no regular text messages ever came through.
I have two more big weeks before tapering for Cottonwood!
Okay, I would be fighting Tilda for that bean bag- looks AWESOME.
Great week in training!
Seriously, it was so comfortable. If I had the space, I’d want one too! Matilda spent most of the weekend napping there.
So sorry for your loss of your Grandma Jessie!!!
Oh, thank you so much Tanya! I appreciate that. She was 99.5 years old and lived a good full life, but it was still sad saying goodbye.
I hope you are enjoying the new job!
I’m sorry to hear about your grandmother.
I’m just in awe at your strong week! So amazing to see that you’re logging in so many miles. I hope you have a strong run at the cottonwood marathon!
Great job with your training even with the road trip!
Thank you Eri. The road trip definitely made training a bit more challenging! I’m just not a fan of sitting in the car for hours on end…
Great job! Especially with the hot, humid days.
Sorry for your loss.
Thanks Andrea!
Congrats on another monster week of training! So impressive. My sympathies on your grandmother’s passing.
And bummer about the phone. Hope you luck out and get it fixed or at least covered repair.
Apple didn’t find any water damage on the diagnostic; they replaced the screen and it was all covered under Apple care- yay! I have a phone again 🙂
Thanks- my grandma was 99.5. She lived a full long life!
Wow! That sounds like a very good training week!! I just started reading your blog, but am already feeling I need to train more . Do you usually do that many days and miles?
Hi Tamara- do you have a blog? Your profile linked to “Run Zagreb and Croatia” (how cool!) Without knowing your background, I don’t want to recommend more mileage. Utah will be my 25th marathon so my body is used to running a lot. I definitely worked my way up to this high of mileage and its not for everyone! Most marathoners max around 50, maybe 60 miles a week. My coach likes the high mileage and thinks its working for me, but yes, it’s definitely a LOT of running! And its only like this at the peak of marathon training.
Hi Jessie, I’m glad you like it! My friends and I have a website Run Zagreb through which we offer running sightseeing tours of Zagreb and we’ll soon also have 7-day running holiday packages for Croatia and 3-4 day packages for various races in Croatia. We love running so we’re trying to combine beauties of Croatia and tourism with this kind of lifestyle. 🙂 As a part of it is also a blog in which we write race recaps and some announcements. Yes, during the last winter base my peak week was at 45 miles and this winter I’ll try… Read more »
Tamara, a running sightseeing tour of Croatia sounds absolutely amazing. I am going to convince my husband that needs to be our big trip next year…
Brilliant! I’ll have some great new programs announced in a few months so we’ll get your husband on board for sure
So sorry for your loss 🙁 I give you so much credit for still being able to continue with your training even though you had such a sad event in your personal life. You are awesome!
Thank you for your positive words Kimberly! Running can definitely help during a tough time.