NYC Marathon Training Week 7

AKA

Marathon  Training: Vacation Edition

3/4 runs + 1 hike. Not too shabby for my honeymoon, right? I’m actually pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I didn’t follow my plan completely even on the 3 runs I completed (speed work, what speed work?), but I got my long run in, and that’s what I was the most concerned about. Let me tell you, it was NOT easy. First of all, I went from living with my running buddies, having a schedule, and being responsible to a group for getting up and running each day I said I would to running solo with just myself (and a weekly email to Coach Susan) to answer to. Also, running is way more fun with friends, in 65 degree temps, and in slightly hilly-flat terrain. You know what is less fun? Running alone in 70% humidity, feeling like every direction you go, you are climbing a mountain. What’s up with that, Maui? Huh??

Anyway, I definitely got discouraged my first 2 runs, but by the end, it got better. It always does. I know it will be the same thing coming back to Phoenix, and running in the 95 degree temperatures. It’s not going to be easy, and this week I might hate life a little, and feel discouraged, but it can only get better and easier from there. Here’s a look at how week 7 went down.

Tuesday–12 mile long run, 10:40 avg pace. I don’t remember the last time I wanted to give up on a run so badly. 3 miles in, I was sure I couldn’t finish. There seemed to be hills in every single direction. My body was literally dripping in sweat from every single pore; in fact, my running skirt looked like I had peed my pants because it was soaking wet. You’re welcome for that detail. I had to take a lot of “stretch” breaks. What? You don’t pause your garmin to “stretch” at the top of every hill you do? Oh. In all seriousness, that’s a bad habit I developed when I first started running, because I wanted to keep up to some imaginary “expected pace” of people who blogged about running. I was slow (well, still am), and I didn’t want to be, so I “stretched” a lot to catch my breath. I’ve been really good about breaking that habit ever since I started training for the Seattle half that never happened, but I was not good about it on this run. By the time I got back to our condo, I felt discouraged, frustrated, and totally lame. Then I plugged my garmin into my computer to see that I had climbed 1021 feet of elevation. Then I sat there and continued to drip sweat just sitting. I gave myself a little pep talk, and a mental break, and realized that, all things considered, I did pretty okay.

Friday–5 mile hike. I will write more about this when I get posts up about the trip itself, but I hiked in mud, rolled in mud, swam to a waterfall, and hiked through rainforest, and a bamboo forest to a 400 ft waterfall! It.Was.Awesome. My favorite part of the trip, hands down. I counted it as my 5 mile hilly run. Let’s just pretend it’s the same thing 😉

Saturday–3 mile run, 10:26 avg pace. There’s a reason there were 4 days between my first and second run. I may have given myself a mental break, but I was flat out discouraged by running in Napili Bay. This run, unfortunately, was no different. I felt ridiculously sluggish, tired, and just overall unhappy with it, but I did it because it needed to be done.

Sunday–3.1 mile run, 9:35 avg pace. So….there definitely was no track anywhere near me, and also no flat road for miles (is there ANY flat road on that island?!), so for “speed work”, I decided to run faster than the day before. Brilliant, right? And you know what? I DID! Not that the bar was set super high, but I ran significantly faster, and felt so much better! I don’t know if it’s that I ran the opposite (but equally hilly) direction, and maybe the inclines were less steep, or if it’s just that my body was finally getting used to it, but the run was awesome, and I almost kept going, but after 2 lame runs, I decided to just end it feeling good.

Now, I’m back to the 115 degree temps. This will be…interesting. I got back to Phoenix yesterday morning, and I haven’t run yet, but tomorrow is track day. I’m not gonna lie, I’m nervous to see how much the heat slows me down, and that I won’t be able to keep up with my teammates who’ve been running in these temps all summer, but I know all I can do is do my best to adjust, and wait for the summer to be over.