Week 15 training in review

I will start this post by giving kudos to my friend Keith who ran a hard race at the Christie Clinic marathon yesterday. The weather was less than ideal with wind and rain. He ran the marathon in 3:12:02 and while this was 2 minutes short of his ultimate goal of qualifying for Boston, it was still a PR and one step closer. Had the conditions been right and had he not gotten an injury just a couple weeks ago, I know he would have done it. He will reach his goal this year. Next attempt is in Cleveland in 3 weeks.....

As for me this was my last hard week before the Cleveland marathon. The rest is a taper. Here is what I did:
Monday: Rest day. Work. Call.

Tuesday: I ran 5 miles on the Tmill. Finally I was able to run all 5 miles without stopping. Lately my treadmill workouts have been horrible. My compartment syndrome usually forcing me to stop after every mile. I was was very happy to have beaten that darn Tmill.

Wednesday: I went to the gym and rode the bike for an hour while finishing Fifty Shades of Grey. I then moved on to Fifty Shades of Darker.

Thursday: This was my 20 miler with Jaime. Already wrote all about it. Proud that I survived this run but I gotta admit that I was not expecting it to feel so hard. Instead of giving me any confidence for my marathon it sort of put me in my place a little. I am gonna die after mile 18! Nate has been trying to warn me of this all along. I really question my ability to make 26 miles, but I am sure going to try. I do enjoy my long run days b/c of the sense of accomplishment I get after it is all said and done. The extra calories I get to eat that day are nice too:)

Friday: Normally I go to the gym but I worked an extra day to help out. This became a rest day.

Saturday: It was raining much of the day so I did 5 miles on the treadmill. This was a hard recovery run. I ran very slow with a pace of 9min/mile b/c my legs were still so sore and my toes, with blisters on nearly every one of them, still hurt. Still I managed to once again do my 5 without stopping. Happy enough with that.

Sunday: Went to the gym and rode the bike for 30 minutes while reading my book. Then since I was already at the gym, I went ahead and did my scheduled 5 mile run on the T-mill. It has been a VERY long time since I have been on the gym Tmill. It went okay. I started telling myself that I was just going to do 3 miles and call it a day but once I got close to 3 I knew I would be mad at myself if I did not just do the scheduled 5. I started out slow at just under a 9min/mile and then increased the speed by one every mile. The last mile I increased the speed every .2 miles. I mostly just do that to pass the time faster. I almost never go to the gym on Sundays. I realized today that it is very male dominated on Sunday.

This coming weekend is the Indianapolis mini marathon. Normally I would be super excited b/c I love love love races. I am not feeling it this time. I think I am mostly nervous b/c I just really don't want to push myself during this race and screw my chances to cross the finish line of my marathon in 3 weeks.... running. That has been my number one goal all year. Clark is running the mini with me this year. We planned this long ago and he even arranged his trip to California around it. He doesn't care about the mini at all and is only running it b/c of me (then promptly hoping on a plane and leaving me alone with 5 kids for a week:(  Sounds like a good plan but after our last run together, I am not so sure we make great running partners. No matter how many times I try and stress to him that I do not want to run this fast b/c I don't want to risk further leg injuries (my legs are already hurting) he just doesn't get it. He makes comments of, "oh once you start you will run just under an 8 min mile." If I did that would be a PR and that is NOT my goal. Honestly I wish I were running with Jaime. I have done every long run with her. She IS trying for a PR and really wants to come in at 1:49. That would be a good pace for me I think, and I would love to experience that with her. Still I will run with Clark and hope that instead of trying to kill me, we can just enjoy the run (not worrying about time) and have fun. I did warn him that I will be weaving in and out of people with no regards to him and he will just have to find me. I hate the start of the mini for this reason. I am probably more excited about the mini b/c several of my good friends are trying for a PR. Cathy would like to be under 2 hrs. Jaime as stated above wants under 1:50. Shane I think wants under 1:50. Finally Keith wants under 1:30. I really really hope they all reach their goals next Saturday.

 Nothing too exciting to report for the family this week. The kids have been putting Lego's together today. Nick started the $400 Death Star. The triplets had some Cars Lego's that Clark put together but they are playing with. Alexis put together a couple of the Friends Lego collection. Clark started a new project in the dining room (well the should be dining room but since we have no dining room furniture is just a playmobil room). Finally the triplets had their KG assessments this week. I can't believe I will have 5 kids at the same elementary next year. Unlike all the other moms who stand at the bus stop with tears streaming down their face when their kids go off to KG, I will stand there with a huge smile on my face thinking..... I SURVIVED and we are moving on to the next phase of life with 5 kids. While many things are easier now that they are older, life is about to only get insanely complicated with school and sports. I think this phase is going to make the baby phase seem like a piece of cake!!

Happy training everyone........