Monday, March 7, 2016

Carmel Marathon Training: Week 8

8 down, 6 weeks to go. Yikes. That leaves only 4-5 more long runs until taper. Yikes. This week was plagued by feeling sick in the later part of the week and getting my severance package details at work- at least I have 4+ months before being laid off. Yay. The weather was shitty again and i'm just full of complaints about things that are not a big deal so i'll stop there.

Workouts:

Monday: 11 mile cycle

Tuesday: REST

Wednesday: 8 mile run, 10x 400's

Thursday: 10 mile cycle, 2 mile run

Friday: REST

Saturday: 6 mile run, 3.18 mile run (MRC)

Sunday: 4.82 mile run

TOTAL:

Running: 24 miles for 3:15

Cycling: 21 miles for 1:34

Snapshots:

We had our #14th Mikkeller Run Club run this past Saturday. It was fun as always. Post run, many of us tried to get Dark Lord Day tickets, as far as I know we had a 100% success rate within the club for those who tried to buy tickets. It will be so fun to go to this event again and be with a great group of people.

Join us for our next run: Details {HERE}
I'm in a pissy mood this week and just dont feel all that good about the marathon. I would love to PR- that's what I've been training for, but also realize that what I am doing might not be enough. I was looking at old training logs and the paces I was running were much faster than what I'm currently doing. BUT... I did look at the projected performance for me in Sporttracks and it has me peaking at the right time. (The huge dip is the actual marathon). And, the performance metric of "380" is substantially higher than all my other marathons (Fox Valley was 240 and Knoxville was 220). I wonder how Carmel will go if it has good weather. At the end of the day I just want to have fun and run a good race, with the time being a secondary factor. #nopressure
The weather was crappy again this week. Mid week snow and the weekend in the low 30's with wind were full of nope for me. I just cannot run outside when it's like that.
Spending the weekend with L and CB was nice. We had a lot of fun at MRC and also cooked together at home and went out a few times. My life is really good despite all the complaints about my marathon training (only a very small facet of life, and majority of what I post here). I want things to come together and go well so badly that I get a little too caught up in it at times.
Looking forward:


  • Continue to eat better, drink less alcohol and lose 5-8lbs.
  • Focus on the training and do the work.
  • Quit over analyzing the training.
  • Work on nutrition consumption during training- should be easier now that I'll have proper noms arriving today- Cliff food pouch things, and some GU.
  • Go to the pool.

-Xaarlin

10 comments:

  1. Do you think that app is hindering or helping you? You say you are overanalzying the training - is that part of it? Then at the same time, it shows you you will peak for Carmel, which is a positive. What do you think?

    I hope you feel better this week! Is that why you missed your LR this weekend? Are you feeling like you are getting off track? Because I know when it's shitty out, you usually bust out that LR on the treadmill. Over it (running inside)?

    What is Dark Lord Day?

    I will repeat (cause I love ya) - get out of your head and follow your training! You planned a lot of it out - follow it and tweak as you need to :-*

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  2. I've never heard of Sporttracks or the performance metric ratings! I will have to check that out.

    I am bummed that you were under the weather this week and weren't feeling 100%. We'll have to talk about the severance and work situation off the blogosphere, too. This week will be better for you!!! I am glad you got to spend some quality time with L and CB this past weekend. The picture of the two of them is too precious!

    Believe me, I understand about getting too caught up in training!!! For me, it's always more of a mental battle than a physical battle. But you are a ROCKSTAR, no matter what happens - and all of your training advice has been a godsend for me over the years!!! Big hugs!!!

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    1. Sporttracks is so cool! I think training peaks is a similar software too- it analyzes your workouts (I have 4+ years of all my workouts in there now) and it shows your fitness vs performance. It's a bit overwhelming at times with all the data!

      Thanks. :) We definitely should get together and catch up. I have a feeling this week will be better- especially with the weather cooperating. I'm just in that "middle of the marathon cycle" funk + stupid winter + forgot to mention above my calf is feeling funny for the past few days. Yeah. So life is good otherwise. I'm happy my advice helps you out too :) (makes me happy someone won't have to repeat the same mistakes I made!) lol

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  3. Stay Strong & Thanx For All The Dog Photos!!

    Cheers

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  4. 380?! You've definitely got this, just keep on with your plan. Anyway, I've been worried about my fitness as it relates to marathon pace at Carmel. I'm probably going to "race" at Shamrock to figure out my marathon race pace. That might be a strategy for you, although if you trust SportTracks' fitness guage then I'd go with that. There is also that Lakefront 10 Miler in 2 weeks, which might be tempting to use as a marathon predictor. Anyway, once we lock in our paces, we only need to hope the weather is optimal and then start running! :)

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    1. 380! I have no idea what that really means except it's more than my other "peak performance" metrics for previous training cycles. :) Racing shamrock could be a good indicator- although I'll probably run long like 12-14 the day before so it will be skewed a bit for me. The 10 miler would be a good option too- but I doubt I'll sign up for any more races for a bit. I'm still going to go with a 3:30 goal pending the weather... I did some 800's last night and they felt comfortably hard and were 3:30 into the wind, and 3:20 with the wind- which gave me a bit of a confidence boost. But I'd like to just be pressure free for Carmel and run a smooth race with good fueling and stuff :)

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    2. 380 sounds like a lot more than 220 or 240 so even though we both don't know what it means, it sounds good! Wasn't it pretty windy for your 800s? Nice job into the wind! That is a nice confidence boost for your 3:30 goal. I am thinking about the 10 miler so I can get a good gauge marathon pace. Although, even if I PR there I still have to trust those race conversion tables and they never really work for me for the marathon distance. Oh well, I tend to over analyze everything and I just need to remember our mantra: #NoPressure!

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  5. I think we all over analyze from time to time. Don't sweat it hon, I think you are doing amazing!!

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  6. Stay strong! You are being very consistent overall in your training and I think that counts for a lot!
    Plus work stress sucks and it sounds like you are dealing a lot with that so sometimes that makes training suffer a bit too! You are going to have a great race!

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  7. Marathon training is such a grind. You got this, gal!!

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