Marathon Training Week 7

Not sure how to relate this week to you. I had some real high's and low's. I'll just give the weekly rundown then get into what made the high's high and low's low.

Mon - 4 miles, made up a new route from work but had to do some bushwhacking through the forest to connect a couple of trails (sorry environment). Good run, nothing spectacular but solid

Tues - Yoga = good

Wed - Tempo run, 4 miles fast/ 1 mile warm and cool. It was sort of a crazy day and I was originally planning on doing this run in the morning. I didn't make the morning in time then thought I would run buffalo park at lunch. Then I had a noon meeting sprung on me at work so I just went to the gym and hit the treadmill. This was the "high" for the week I'll explain later.

Thurs - Another crazy day, wasn't able to get in any workouts

Fri - Got up early and ran 3 miles, this was the start of the low. Then at lunch I did some quick lifting and swam 400m. I felt tired, but overall ok afterwards. Just the usual dizzyness after swimming.

Sat - Supposed to be 12 miles, just under 2 hour run. Turned into an 11 mile 2 hour 5 min run. It was a beautiful morning on a new trail but my body was not in the mood to cooperate. I'll elaborate below:



(how I felt after Wed. run)

High Times: No not the magazine just the elaboration on my wed. tempo run. I'm not sure what the trick was, but I felt great for this run. It was literally an indestructable feeling. I felt like I was running fast the whole time, but like I could have gone even faster and could have kept it up forever. This was in sharp contrast to low times experienced this week.



(the wall I hit)
Low times: Like I said, it started Friday. Three miles felt labored, but was to be expected somewhat because I never feel that great when I run outside of my usual schedule. It's like I have to be mentally prepared for the workout and if it's somewhat chaotic I just don't do well. The reall downer was Saturday. I started out ok for the first mile or so, then things started getting ugly. The trail was uphill on the way out, but nothing to gnarly. About a 1000 ft climb over 6 miles. By 4 miles I was walking cursing at myself for being such a wimp. It was a continuous walk/run battle for about another mile and I decided to turn around early and maybe make up the extra couple miles at the end. Since the way back was all downhill I figured I was in the clear but was gravely mistaken. It was still a mile by mile battle. I was able to convince myself that I should take a detour back and at least get 11 miles. I beleive the technical term for what happened to me is "bonking" (look it up). It was a little scary. It was warm outside and I was sweating, but my body felt cold and clammy. I felt like I was screaming at my muscles to run, but they wouldn't. When I got home I basically just fell down in the bedroom and watched the ceiling spin and move up and down. After eating and taking it easy for a few minutes I recovered.

I'm not sure what happened exactly. I've done much harder runs and have gotten tired, but nothing like this. I fueled up the same way I do before every other run, but the night before I didn't eat much because of a slightly upset stomach. I think it was a combination of a bunch of factors: Not enough sleep, a little upset stomach, not enough fuel, too much training. The positives I can take away from the experience are: I know it can't get much worse so I don't have to be afraid of "hitting the wall" again. I know to fuel up well the night before as well as the morning of a long run. I am however a bit nervous for the half-marathon this Saturday. This wasn't much of a confidence booster, but I'm confident my body will bounce back with some light training this week.