Week 12: Sleep and Slopes
Week 12: September 16 - September 22, 2019
When you’re this far into a marathon training cycle, 6 miles is considered a short run and you either panic about the longer days or step up to the challenge. The weekly volume prescribed is still pretty high at 55.5 miles, but it’ll be another week before we reach the peak. Speaking of peaks, I needed to step up on my slope game to get speedy on the inevitable hills. Here’s what I was supposed to run:
Monday: 6 miles easy
Tuesday: 1.5 mile warmup, 3 x 2 mile @ MP-10 seconds pace w/ 0.5 mile jog, 1.5 mile cooldown
Wednesday: Rest/Crosstrain
Thursday: 12 miles medium-long
Friday: 6 miles easy
Saturday: 8 miles easy
Sunday: 1.5 miles warmup, 10 miles @ goal MP, 1.5 miles cooldown (Rock the River Half Marathon Day)
Monday became a running rest day, but I was on my feet the entire day with a full client schedule so I didn’t really feel rested. I actually felt run-down (no pun intended), and couldn’t wait to take the next day off and get a much-needed massage.
On Wednesday I had two early clients, then headed back home to run so I could have easy access to food once I finished. I went pretty slow for 8 miles and was still pretty tired from all the crazy scheduling.
Thursday called for a 12 mile run. I planned on running at dawn, but I really needed the extra sleep. I ate some delicious Trader Joe’s Protein Pancakes and coffee about two hours before the long run for some energy when I woke up. The rest days, massage, and physical therapy on my neck and back for the week helped my body feel fresh. I just had to get over my mind, since the 18-miler was still playing tricks on me days after the event. The takeaways from that race were that I needed to focus on more hill running form, which felt pretty smooth here. I had to wear my Fuel Belt for this distance and the annoying velcro kept popping off, but if I didn’t have it with me I would have struggled to hydrate. I tested out one of the free Honey Stinger gel packets handed out at the race on this run to see if it would give me energy. The gooey vanilla flavor felt like I was ingesting syrup, but it seemed to do the trick and I hoped it would feel ok on my stomach later. I climbed as many hills as possible from Hoboken to West New York and back and although my perceived effort was low, I managed to run a half marathon distance in the same time as in the past at a harder effort. Sleep was a miracle cure!
On Friday I stuck to the prescribed 6 miles and ran along the East River from work. I did the work, knowing I had to rest the following day.
The Rock the River Half Marathon in the Palisades was on Sunday, and I mentally prepared myself to tackle this tough course. I had run it 3 years prior and wanted to beat my time. Luckily the program called for 13 miles as well, so I was right on target in my training. You can read about this race in more detail in my next Race Recap post.
Although this week concluded summer, training was really heating up. I was so exhausted that I took more rest days than intended, but I was still proud of what I had accomplished for the week. Every uphill has a downhill and vice versa.
Pictured: the high vantage point on JFK Boulevard overlooking NYC. Not pictured: the rough climb to get up here. These half marathon length training runs had great views that were worth it! 😊