CIM Training – Week 2
It was a pretty good training week. My run on Monday was a little rough, but the others weren’t so bad. Overall, I was a little tired but that’s to be expected when you’re starting marathon training. My runs this week were a little faster than last week, which is a nice morale booster. The only downside was that the pain in my hamstring seems to have moved to my piriformis. But, that could be because I did a fair amount of deep tissue massage on Thursday and irritated it.
Here’s the tl;dr infographic. It needs more bling but it’s still pretty good, I think.
The Details
The second week continued the base building phase. Once again, I did four days of easy 8-10 mile runs, a hill sprint workout, a 15 mile long run, and an off day. By the end of the week, I was a little tired but I didn’t have any problem following the schedule.
Hill Sprints Workout. On Friday, my workout was an easy 8 miles with 6 x hill sprints. Last week, I did the hill sprints as repeats – running 0.20 miles w/2:15 recoveries. After the workout, I noticed the training plan didn’t factor in the mileage for that part of the workout and I concluded I probably overdid it.
This time, I cut the workout down to 0.12 miles w/2:00 rests. It went much better. The reps were more consistently paced and I was able to maintain good form, which I think is the whole point of the workout. Still, it added almost 2 miles to my mileage for the day.
Long Run. On Saturday, I did a 15 mile long run. I was really dreading it after last week’s disastrous long run. On top of not being mentally positive, I had stayed out late the night before and only got about 6 hours of sleep. I didn’t feel hung-over, though. I drank a lot of water before bed and as soon as I woke up.
I felt very sluggish for the first few miles. Surprisingly, my Garmin showed I was actually running pretty fast. I knew I needed to slow down and take this run easy. I needed to finish this run feeling confident. It didn’t matter at what pace. Sometimes, I use the trick of trying to fit all the miles in my head so I can dole out effort over the course of x number of miles. But, I took a different tactic and decided to make my manta, “Run the mile you’re in.” I wouldn’t think about how far I had to go; I would just focus on getting through each mile. The other thing I kept telling myself was, “Minimal effort.” I was trying to stop myself from running too fast early.
At about the 6 mile mark, I came upon a group of people – maybe a dozen – walking towards me with Confederate flags. “What? Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” To some extent, I still can’t believe it – I’m hoping to see something on social media that would lead me to believe it was something else. I was filled with anger and my initial instinct was to give them the finger. But, I calmed myself down and instead, stiffened my back and just ran past them. As I passed two runners behind them, they seemed to be giving me a look seemed to say, “I’m sorry you had to run past that,” and “Can you believe they’re taking up the whole lane?” at the same time. For the next half mile or so, my heart was racing. It didn’t show in my pace – I still kept things easy – but I was rattled.
I continued to just take each mile at a time and not worry about pace. I stopped to refill my handheld at the 11.3 mile mark. I had planned to take a little bit of a rest break but instead, filled up my water bottle and took off again. I didn’t want to be weak today.
At the 12 mile mark, or about 1:45:00 into the run, I started to feel hungry. I stopped and opened a Gu. I thought I would try to trick my body into feeling satiated with that 100 calories and lots of water. It made a huge difference! I’m sure it’s what helped get me through the last 3 miles of the run. On the uphill home, “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten – the official song of my training cycle – started to play and I forced myself to finish strong.
Of course, I treated myself to a dousing in the water park. One of the little kids even splashed me with water. Another one made a jet go up his shirt into his face. We laughed.
Other. I retired my last pair of New Balance 890 v4s. I’m getting used to the v5s, though. And, the issue with my high hamstring seems to have mostly gone away. But now, my piriformis is hurting. I did a lot of deep tissue massage on Thursday so maybe it’s a short-term thing.
The Week Ahead
I’m done with the base building phase and will be doing more race-specific workouts from here on out. The plan has me doing a tempo run on Wednesday consisting of 11 miles w/5 miles at goal marathon pace. Otherwise, my overall mileage will be increasing, too. I’ll be adding 4 more miles of easy running. My shortest run is 8 miles next week! I miss Pfitz a little.
Inspiration. “The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.” – Jesse Owens
