Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Boston Marathon Training 2018 {Week 14}

Week 14!

Weekly Miles

Running: 56.16 miles, 7:50:40 hours
Cycling: 0 miles, 0 hours
Yoga/stairs: 00:26:00


Total Miles for this cycle
Running: 722.60 miles, 102:18 hours
Cycling: 186.63 miles, 14:42 hours
Yoga/stairs: 04:02:00 hours




Summary

Race week! Although it was more training as usual, race on Sunday, no legit taper. I felt off all week, including a headache on Saturday night. I cut out alcohol after my last beer Sunday evening and ate pretty good all week. My “taper” was to eliminate the tempo on Thursday and just do easy miles instead- no sense in killing my legs to kill my legs again.



The boys are good. We discussed self care this week. Mainly not sneaking off to chew a bone to escape from reality. They need to confront their realities and live in the present. Self care also means controlling their emotions- no attacking little brother and no revenge peeing. By keeping their emotions in check, everyone will be happier. Instead of thinking of the next time they can have me time, I want them to instead deal their problems head on and take care of them.

Lowlight

2x3 miles at 6:58 on Tuesday felt like crap. I felt overheated and like I was struggling- so I amended it to 3 miles at 6:58, 2 miles at 6:58, 1 Mile at 6:58.

Still, Tuesday uniform FTW.



The half marathon was irrationally disappointing.

Highlights

Taking hot baths! It’s more of an injury prevention thing for me than omg self care- I’m not trying to escape from real life- just want my muscles to feel the benefit of hot water and salt. It works! So much better than ice baths.

Getting a 3 minute course PR at the March Madness half on Sunday! It was struggle bus almost the entire time, but I kept pushing, never gave up and clocked my 2nd fastest half on a beast of a course.


Thoughts

I have been feeling bummed about the half- more than I should. I don’t really understand where that feeling is coming from. I think if I had to pinpoint something- is that I did everything right- consistency is everything with performing- and despite that, still felt like garbage. It’s been a while since I felt like that in a race- and it’s jarring. I need to move on and slay these last 4 weeks of training.


Looking Forward

This week I’m running Shamrock Shuffle for the 7th time. I’ve only missed one since I moved here. Not really sure what my goal will be since I’m running 16 miles Saturday, and 3-5 pre race. If I had to write a goal down- it would be 1. Run a good effort (like sub marathon goal pace) . 2. PR. My pr is super stale and my half marathon PR pace is literally Seconds off my 8k PR pace. I haven’t “raced” this race in a while (yay spring marathon training!) so I expect that it is out of sync with my other race times. Regardless it will be fun.



I’ll likely cut out beer until Boston now. Maybe one post shamrock? I also need to watch what I eat a little more so that I can get to a better weight before Boston- shouldn’t be a problem without the beer. I just want to get to Hopkinton feeling like I did everything possible to have a good race. We are spending a lot of money for me to do this, and I don’t want to feel like I half assed it. This will be my last Boston for a while- so I hope everything aligns for a magical unicorn race.



I haven’t cooked anything out of my books in a few weeks. But I did make sweet potato pear soup (my own recipe) and egg in a jar.



Sweet Potato- pear soup with spinach sautéed with shallots and sherry

I’m enjoying cooking new to me recipes and am currently at 23/52 for 2018. A continually updated list is {HERE}



Days to go: 27! 🦄


-Xaarlin

6 comments:

  1. It's never too soon to teach your boys to make a life they don't need to escape from. Heidi keeps trying to get me to schedule weekly lunchtime manis so she can pamper herself and that's just not necessary.

    It sounds like Sunday's race was just one of those inexplicable crap runs that happens from time to time, no matter how much you do everything right. That would definitely be frustrating. But seriously, running your second fastest HM on that course on a bad day is still a really awesome accomplishment!

    I'm thinking about going for a PR on Sunday but ehhh, depends on how my legs feel that morning. I'm mostly excited to run in Chicago again where there aren't ridiculous hills EVERYWHERE :) (and, you know, to see awesome people!)

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  2. I need tips on NOT using self care and indulging to avoid things I don't want to do, so if your boys have tips, please pass them my way.

    I think it's okay to mourn your race. But only for a bit then get your head out of your ass :-* You have training to do.

    I really love hot baths for recovery too. Just have to make sure they aren't so hot I crawl out and feel like I am going to pass out. Ha!!!!

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  3. Revenge peeing - hahahha! Holly and I need to talk to delayed gratification ie not trying to eat treats of the counter.
    Hot baths with epsom salts is a nice treat for the muscles!
    27 days! Eek so close!

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  4. How about drinking half a beer by the fountain and half a beer at Kaiser Tiger in order to spread out the fun? :) You'll need some carbs after all that running that day and your metabolism will be revved up and you will burn them super fast! After that you can go cold turkey (if you want) until Boston.

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  5. When I was running I was thinking about you and realized I forgot to add to comment - you’re going to slay at Shamrock. Duh.

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