National Marathon training week 19

this was supposed to be the first week of my taper. And it started off that way, but my coach emails me that I should do a big double on the weekend and add a 10 mile run on sunday instead of my swim. After some bargaining, we agree to add 2 miles to thursday, and 1 mile to saturday, then 6 on Sunday. This way I don't have to drive some where to run on Sunday, I can just run from the house and save a bunch o time and keep the wife and girl happy since i will be done before they get out of bed.

Monday: 4.5 miles
On tap for today, 4 miles easy, then 5 x 100 strides. Well it's cold and icy out so I hit the treadmill for 44 minutes easy, then do my strides of fast for 30 seconds, easy 15 seconds to end up with 48 minutes and close to 4.5 miles.

Tuesday: 7 miles
Track day, today is 4 x 1 mile at 9:45, Well the track was closed, so my 1.5 mile warmup, ended up being 2 miles and we ran around the soccer field which is 3 laps per mile instead of 4. The first two were a little fast at 9:35 and 9:39, then the 3rd one I was starting to feel good and my hr was coming down so I just decided to skip the recovery and do a 2 mile rep. in 19:05 for a 9:32 pace. Then when I finished, I decided to just cut across the field to meet the other people who were already done and waiting on the other side, when I stepped on the ice and slipped and fell. Luckily I hit the grass and not the trail, but still it hurt. I did get up and do my 1/2 mile cool down to get my 7 for the day.

Wednesday:
Did a little weight training and mulching today instead of back to the core.

Thursday: 7.1 miles
This was supposed to be 5 easy, but as noted above it got changed to 7. Felt good for the first 5. Did the umstead loop with Frank, Kendel and Melissa at about 10:10 pace then they cut off and I did the last 2 miles solo and at mile 6 really started to feel it. My legs just started hurting and getting tired. finished off my 7 and hit the showers.

Friday: day off
Woke up and was really sore, especially the whole right side of my body.

Saturday: 14 miles
Still sore, but not as bad as yesterday. I was "supposed" to do a 3 mile warmup, then 10 miles at marathon pace, then 1 mile cool down. I knew when I got up, this wasn't going to happen. The first 3 miles were painful, knees, legs, hips, arms, shoulders, back, everything hurt. I was running solo today and was ready to just give up and pack it in, but somehow managed to keep myself going. Was running at shelley lake and started out towards the mall. When I hit the turn around I was just thinking, when I get back, cut off the last mile and just do 13, but once again, I managed to convince myself to finish off the run. Splits below
lap / time / ave hr
1 10:49 139
2 11:06 141
3 10:31 144
4 10:36 143
5 10:14 143
6 10:13 146
7 11:58 139 long walk to get a gel in
8 10:17 143
9 9:48 152 Best lap of the run
10 10:38 149
11 10:13 152
12 10:59 151 starting to fall apart now...
13 11:45 149 long walk
14 11:20 151 two walks
Once again, my recovery week after a long run sucked, and I'm not going to run tomorrow like I'm supposed to. It just hurt too much for the speed I was doing. I need to rest my body to get ready for the race, more than I need to get those 6 miles in. My confidence is a bit shaken again this week, but I still have hope with 2 weeks of rest, just hope the hips and legs will recover in time.

Sunday:
Woke up stiff and sore er then yesterday, no surprise there, so I took the day off, I did get in the pool, but just to watch the girl swim and make sure she didn't drown.

weekly miles: 33