It’s hard to believe I’m just six weeks out from my seventh marathon. It’s time to get serious about my training, focus, and crack down. Of course, this “get serious” time coincides with the start of school (our first required day back is this Friday; kids come next Thursday), which might make it tough. I’ll make it work, though! Or at least give it my best shot.Good question, Philosoraptor. On that note, I’ll enjoy my last week of after-5:00 wake-ups.

Here’s how this week’s training looked:

Monday:
AM: 8.2 miles with 30 minutes of fartleks in the middle. Fartleks are my favorite because they’re fun to do and to say.

PM: About an hour of strength training at the gym. I went to work Monday, which meant I was back at the gym at normal-people time… I didn’t like it. I miss the empty gym already.

Tuesday:
AM: 9 miles easy.

PM: 30ish minutes of core work, stretching, and foam rolling

Wednesday:
AM: 9 miles with 5 at tempo. Tempo runs are definitely my weakness, and I have a bunch of them coming up in these final weeks. That’s good for me, though, because tempos teach mental toughness, which I feel I’ve been lacking lately.

It rained pretty much all night Tuesday and all day Wednesday, but stopped long enough for me to run. The rain made my usual park look pretty.

PM: Ditto to Tuesday

Thursday:
AM: 8 easy miles with a nice little sunrise.
PM: An hour of strength with the gym crowd again.

Friday:
AM: 7.2 easy miles

PM: 30ish minutes of core/stretching

Saturday:
16.5 miles. I did not like this run. I was supposed to run 10 miles easy, then gradually pick it up in the last six miles so the last couple of miles were very fast. I did the first ten out to my favorite hills, planning to use one of the long downhills to my advantage as I started to speed up.
I. could. not. run. fast. I should’ve  been hitting somewhere around 6:30 pace for the last couple of miles. I couldn’t even get below 7, and soon even 7:30s were killing me. I even stopped running a couple of times to drink some water, take a few deep breaths, and give myself a pep talk. No dice. I just didn’t have the speed.
These fast-finish long runs are a staple of McMillan plans, and Greg McMillan himself describes them as “grueling,” so they’re supposed to be hard. But I finished discouraged, because they should be hard, not impossible. I started seriously questioning my ability to PR in this race, blah blah blah.

A little later, though, I read this post of Tina’s, and it made me feel better. Maybe if this incredible elite athlete also has gutter days, I’m not completely abnormal. So thanks, Tina, for being willing to share your story!

Wow, sorry for the giant one-run pity party.

Sunday: 
Rest. No formal workout, just  a bunch of yard work. But that makes me happy, because doing yard work means we’ll have a yard soon!

Totals: 57.9 miles run, 3.5ish hours strength and stretch. I hate it when I end weeks with a “.9.” Makes me want to go run a tenth of a mile.

This coming week will probably be my toughest of this training cycle. It has a tempo run, a marathon-pace run, and a 22-miler (though just a regular long run, not a fast-finish). Tempos and pace runs are the hardest for me mentally, so hopefully I’ll do some brain strengthening this week, too. And then I’ll be SO STRONG.

Have a good week, friends!

How’s your training going?

How do you deal with a crummy run/workout?