2016 New York City Marathon Training – Week 2

This wasn’t one of my strongest training weeks.  It started out alright with a 5K where the weather was cool and I ran better than expected.  But, it ended with a missed morning workout which led to an evening tempo run on the treadmill and a rough long run on Saturday.

Training Schedule
July 3rd – July 9th

Sunday: 5 miles recovery.
Monday: Firecracker 5K.
Tuesday:  5 miles recovery.
Wednesday: 6 miles recovery.
Thursday: Tempo.  3 x 2K @ half marathon pace and 1K @ marathon pace + 20 seconds.
Friday: 7 miles recovery.
Saturday: 14 miles easy.

Mileage Total: ~50 Miles

Adaptations.  I started the week with a race, which might have surprised my coach but she scheduled some rest days for me after it.  Otherwise, I followed the schedule except I overslept on Thursday and ran the tempo run on the treadmill in the evening.  So, I ran Friday’s recovery run on tired legs.

Workout Details

Firecracker 5K.  3.12 miles @ 5K pace. [Race Report].

I had a good result – 21:29 (6:54 pace).  I didn’t sleep well the night before and suffered through GI distress all morning.  If I hadn’t pre-registered, I’m pretty sure I would have had a DNS.  Thankfully, coffee and a 2 mile warmup settled everything down.  Still, my legs felt heavy.

Before the race, I mentally told myself it was time to go back to my earlier approach to 5Ks – Go out as hard as you can and then try to hold on!  I felt strong through the first half of the race and then faded a little.  I got a “second wind” of sorts another quarter to half mile down the road but then I hit a slight uphill and faded badly. Normally, I can count on a kick but I didn’t have one that day.

I also did a one mile cool-down.  My time was good for 26th woman, 3rd female master, and 1st in my new age group.  I won a $20 gift certificate to the running store that puts on the race.

Splits = 6:51, 6:45, 7:06, 0:47.

Tempo. 3 x 2K @ half marathon pace and 1K @ marathon pace + 20 seconds [Log Details].

I over-slept and didn’t wake up until 7am.  I looked at my bedside weather station and saw it was 78 degrees!  Oh well.  It would have been a miserable day to run anyway.  As the day went on, I got more and more anxious about getting this workout in with the heat.  When I got home from work, I contemplated running outside in 89 degree temperatures and a 94 degree heat index.  Or, running on the treadmill.  I opted for the treadmill.  I haven’t had much success using GPS watches on the treadmill.  I used the indoor setting on my Garmin 630 but ran by time instead of distance.

The warm-up went fine.  I took the first set a little conservative since I didn’t want to go out too hard and fade.  Ran the first “2K” segment (which I programmed my Garmin for 10 minutes) at the 7.4 setting on the treadmill and the “1K” segment (5 minutes) at 6.9.  For the second set, I increased the pace for the “2K” segment to 7.6 setting and by the third, I ran it at 7.9, which felt a little hard.

Paces=?.

Medium Run.  14 miles easy [Log Details].

The odds were against me from the start.  Friday happy hour turned into a late night out with some friends.  I woke up with an upset stomach and a slight headache. I guzzled 32 ounces of water before heading out to fend off dehydration.  I also carried a 20 ounce water bottle with Vitalyte.  It was already over 80 degrees when I started the run.  This is going to be great!

The first three miles were rough.  My breathing was labored and my legs felt heavy.  I had been listening to music but switched to a podcast to see if that would settle my pace.

The next few miles were uneventful.  I stopped at a water fountain 4.75 miles into the run to drink.  At about 7.65, I paused and ate a few Honey Stingers.  I picked up the pace a little a mile after that.  (My coach’s notes said I could pick up the pace the last 3 or 4 miles if I felt good.)  But after about a mile realized I couldn’t sustain that effort and dialed things back.  I stopped at another water fountain even thought I was less than 3 miles from home to refill my bottle.  By the end of the run, temperatures had climbed to the high 80s!  I was glad when this run was over.

Pace=9:21.

Health

Injury.  I bought new shoes this week.  I noticed a pain by my ankle on my left foot that might be related but I’m hoping it goes away after a few more days.

Sleep.  I’m still not getting great sleep but I realized on the days when I felt like I got a lot of sleep, I only got about 7 hours.  So, my insomnia struggles are probably fixable with some very small changes.

Weather

Heat.  The week started off good.  The temperature at the start of the Firecracker 5K was in the upper 60s – fantastic for summer in Washington, D.C.!  But, the heat had rolled in by the end of the week.  On Thursday, I missed my morning workout.  It was high-80s in the evening so I retreated to the treadmill.

Racing Schedule 

Next race: Parks Half Marathon on September 11th.  (My Complete Racing Schedule.)