1 week 5 days

For some reason, until TODAY I’ve been able to put the marathon in a box and tell myself it was pretty far away.  Now that the countdown is at ONE WEEK and some change, I have to face that it’s coming up right soon here.  I’m actually feeling *better* about it than I was last week, and I’m not entirely sure more time to waffle around about it would be a good thing, but still.  Marathon imminent.  Freakouts ensue.

Training:

#tfw you just finished a long run and your brain isn’t quite right.

Last week, I hit all the sessions, but I had to make a sub on Thursday and skip the speedwork due to crankyhip syndrome.  It ended up being the right call for many reasons.

• Monday: core (day off cardio)
• Tuesday: 5 miles of speedwork: 6x800s around 9 min/miles, 400m recoveries
• Wednesday: 45 mins trainer ride, core
• Thursday: 4-5 miles of tempo work (between 9:30-10 min miles) easy 1.7 miles, 30 mins easy spin
• Friday: 30 min lunch swim, 20 min trainer ride, core
• Saturday: 16 mile run (ready to flake on this if my hip starts feeling bad), no slower than 11:30 min/miles (also ready to compromise pace if needed).
• Sunday: 32 min combo outdoor, trainer ride

I’m pretty content with how it turned out.

The good:

I was able to complete my last long run for 16 miles.  I whined and complained my way through the end of it, but to be fair, I was dealing with some mad blood blisters, not my favorite weather (70 and DRIPPINGLY humid), and my music died 4.5 miles from home.  It was slower than I would have liked – the first four miles averaged 12:20s, and the rest were between 11:30-12.  However, I came away with a solid, slow long run and I’m not feeling my body or soul crushed by it.  Which is pretty much how I wanted to go into taper.

I was able to knock out a good speedwork sesh on Tuesday even though I really had no want after a long staycation weekend of food and drink.

I NAILED rehab and prehab this week.  I stretched and rolled almost every day, and I hit the 3 core sessions with at least 20 mins of solid core-only work.

I hit my 3 other days of cross training.  Other weeks I’ve been flaking on one of them.

The bad:

My hip wasn’t able to handle 2 fast sessions so close to each other (Tuesday night and Thursday morning) *or* my hip is just not handling mornings well (as evidenced by my super slow first 4 miles on Saturday).

I did flake on the pool this week and rode my bike instead, due to laziness about getting to the gym.  I want to get there at least once this week!

Overall, even though the middle of last week, I’d tell you the world was ending, I feel like it was a pretty positive one on the bookends.  My hip is not 100% but I feel like some of the changes I made last week with how I’m sitting both at work and at home, how I sleep, being deliberate about both my run and walking strides, all the rehab and stretching… it’s helping.  I’m not out of the woods yet, but I’m seeing the light through the branches.  That 16 miler in which I was no worse for wear after really helped things.

I’m kind of in a state of taper already, but, hey, it’s time to OFFICIALLY call it that.

• Monday: hour easy group ride with BSS (weather permitting), core
• Tuesday: 1 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo, .5-1 mile cooldown after work
• Wednesday: swim at lunch, core PM
• Thursday: 3×1600 (9-9:30 min/mile) with 400m recovery, 1 mile warmup and cooldown (at lunch?)
• Friday: off, core
• Saturday: 10 mile run, last 5 at race pace.
• Sunday: riding bikes, either inside or outside for at least 30 mins

Every day goals:

• Stretch, roll, ice.  There is no reason I can’t do this at night while watching TV.
• Call any sessions that feel bad (either tone down the intensity or just take my ball and go home).  The hay is in the barn.  All I can do at this point to fuck things up further is a) get into bed and not leave it until next Saturday morning or b) try to cram in last minute training that I shouldn’t.  I am so much more likely to do b), especially when I feel like I missed the mark some weeks, so I need to watch it.

This is kind of the week that can make or break me. I need to make smart decisions.  The end.

Food:

Gotta love how my picture is of the snacks and the wine.  I promise the whole front half is produce!

While I don’t feel like it was a complete fail, my goals definitely didn’t work for me here.

• Track 100% of my food and try to stay in range.
• Weigh at least once
• Use up leftovers this week
• Booze cannot interfere with bedtimes, calorie counts, or workouts.

I keep tracking until Friday and then missing the weekends.  I don’t really even have an excuse this time, I spent plenty of time with my phone and laptop over the weekend.  I think it’s partly knowing that a month from now this is going to be the main focus, and I’m giving myself a little break.  It’s also partly frustration at zero progress even though I should be making some with the math.  I can’t bring myself to get on the scale because the number isn’t going anywhere.

It’s affected my mood over the last 6 months.  I feel fluffy and frumpy.  I don’t really like putting on clothes.  While I’m not a complete angel, I also eat relatively healthy and per fitbit, most days come in about 500 calories over what it says I burn.  Per the nutritionist, I shouldn’t have put this much weight on this fast eating the way I did.  It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I also don’t feel like there’s much I can do until I kick this thing into high gear next month, so I’ll keep doing the best I can without driving myself insane.

Let’s keep it super simple and gentle:

• Track as much as I can.  100% is great.
• Booze cannot interfere with bedtimes, calorie counts, or workouts.  I think this should just be the motto for the year.
• Try not to eat like an asshole.  Balance in all things.

Life:

You know you’ve made it when you have a specially lit gallery wall of one of your most favorite (still alive, not 100000$ per piece) artists!

I’m starting to already think about the spring and the offseason, and while I’m a little apprehensive about the food portion (calorie deficits are not bad once you get used to them, but a BITCH to initiate), I’m super excited for the life part.

It’s actually going to take some intentional thought to adapt to being a normal person during the spring.  Over the summer is easy – any hours I can are spent at a lake or waterpark.  Can’t really do that *too* much before Memorial Day… I need to take some time and really decide what sort of normie I want to be, otherwise I’ll go to my default of couch + netflix even though I have energy to do other stuff.

I may already have tons of plans and a post brewing on that one, but it’s not time yet.  Blinders back on.  Race in 12 days.  Focus focus focus.

• Gaming Thursday
• Lunch and hanging art lights on Saturday with Zliten’s parents (our Christmas present).
• 8 hours sleep (most) every night.

Done and done and done.  I think I had 7 hours Thursday night but close enough. I love our new wall and it is so handy to have an electrician in the family.  It makes me think about the (lack of) skills I would have in the zombie apocolypse.  Then again, I’m pretty good at solving problems and telling people what to do and getting them not to kill each other.  I guess that’s pretty important.  There will always be uses for management.

This week (and next week) are all about the mellow.  I want to make sure I give myself the best chance for success at this race and that means rest and recovery.  I don’t even really have much to put here, but let’s do it:

• 8 hours sleep every night
• Keep it mellow – do the relaxing thing instead of the crazy thing if faced with a decision.

And, that’s about all she wrote for the weekly recap.