Monday, March 24, 2014

Crossroads Training: Week Eleven

I celebrated my first week of upping my mileage by not actually run any more miles than previous weeks.
Funny Sports Ecard: I'd miss one of the 67 NCAA Tournament games for you.
And by you, I mean running.
Monday - NROLFW Stage 4 Workout 1B
I switched up the days of my workouts to take advantage of the spring weather. Monday was still pretty gross, so I stayed indoors. I enjoyed that this workout was shorter than the ones at the end of Stage 3 were. I noticed a big increase in strength on some of the exercises.

Tuesday - 5 mi easy
My quads were so cramped I almost face-planted on my first step in front of some small children. Excellent start to a run.

Wednesday - 6 mi easy
I tried my honest best to do a tempo run, but my quads were so cramped my "tempo" pace was edging towards 11 min/mile, I knew it wasn't going to happen. This turned into a run/walk (heavy emphasis on the walk). It was a lot more enjoyable, and I would've done the full seven if my hands hadn't started going numb.

Thursday - Yoga for Hips, Hamstrings, and Back
My quads still had me hobbled, even just walking around work. I tried some yoga instead of running to try to loosen everything up. The hamstring stretches helped by proxy, but I didn't feel that much better afterwards.

Friday - rest
After even more hobbling around, I tried taking the day completely off in preparation for my 20 miler.

Saturday - 20 mi long
I had amazing spring weather for this run! I needed my hat and light gloves but only had to wear my light jacket and capris. The cramping was still there but finally eased up after about seven miles. I got tired shortly after this, so I didn't really have any miles to just zone out during, but that's probably good mental preparation for the race. While I hope and pray this weird issue goes away in a month, I'm not terrified about what will happen if it's still around on race day.

I also noticed a big difference in how I handled the distance in this race. Breaking it into four mile chunks made it feel manageable. I was tired and ready to be done at 20, but thinking of a marathon as that plus one more four mile chunk and the final two feels good. I don't think my time is going to necessarily be much better than before, but I feel like I have a much better base.

Sunday - rest
I was out of town and away from my pool, so I took another rest day instead of my normal swim.

Run: 31 mi, 6:23
Lift: 45:43
Yoga: 26:59
Total Time: 7:35:42

Dealing with this bizarre cramping definitely put a damper on my training this week, but I'm pleased I still had a pretty great 20 miles despite that. It took away a lot of my nerves for the upcoming marathon. And it's definitely nice knowing I only have one 20 miler left outside of races for the next long while.
Funny Encouragement Ecard: There's no way I'd miss seeing you run the marathon unless I get distracted during the 4 seconds when you go by.
Here's to 33 days until Crossroads!

No comments:

Post a Comment