Monumental Marathon Training Weeks 18 and 19

Today was catch up day. A gray rainy curl up in bed all day day. I welcomed the cooler weather and spent the day catching up on life in general. Actually, I was trapped in Anderson, IN for most of the morning. G had master classes with two renowned ballet dancers for 4 hours, then an awards ceremony to attend. I packed up my laptop, Kindle, the weekend papers, cell phone and a camp chair and spent the morning sitting in the parking lot catching up on life. I think I was the envy of every dad trapped there too as I was outdoors, all by myself in a quiet parking lot, enjoying the fall weather and my time alone. It didn't start raining until we started home.

I am working on revamping my blog page, moving things around and updating labels and such. I am planning to launch a Facebook page for it and being more active in general with the blog again. I am also excited to be selected for Lewis Howes' Book Launch Team for his upcoming book "The Mask of Masculinity" (available October 31st). He is a motivational speaker, entrepreneur, former pro athlete that I discovered down the internet rabbit hole one night. That's a post in itself so more on that later.

I refocused my running goals after Mill Race. I am hoping to go into the Monumental Marathon with the same level of training I was had at Mill Race. Surely I can run a qualifying time there. I plan to see if I can run 3:50. It took BQ -3:23 to get into Boston 2018 so I am aiming for at least 5 minutes under (that's 3:55 for me). I didn't run the mileage I wanted the two weeks after Mill Race but I'm starting to depend more on running by feel. Truth is, I've been pretty darn tired. So here's the training log...

Week 18
Sunday 9/24 – Zero miles. Post race recovery day.

Monday 9/25  – 6 miles. Easy shake out run on the Monon.

Tuesday 9/26 – 6 miles. Run Club workout. 2 mile warm up, then 800 meter hill runs with the first 800 fast and the next 800 as a recovery. Did 3 sets and that was enough. My legs were dead. It was still in the 80’s and we got popsicle sticks afterwards. 1 mile cool down back to the car.

Wednesday 9/27 – Zero miles. I needed a rest.

Thursday 9/28 – 6 miles. Easy run on the Monon.

Friday 9/29 – Zero miles. Ended up having too much other stuff to do so I didn’t get a run in. I’d committed to making some decorated cookies for a fund raising raffle at my High School Reunion on Saturday night but I didn’t get around to making then until this morning. Hubs then took me out to lunch and I lost track of time and got behind. Decided I’d finish the cookies in the morning as I wanted to go to my alma mater Chatard’s home comimg football game. I hadn’t been to a Chatard football game since graduating high school. I’m glad I went. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again and catching up.

Saturday 9/30 – Zero miles. Finished up decorating some cookies in the morning for my 30^th High School Reunion then had to help my mom pick up her brother from the airport. That sucked up most of my afternoon, then went to my Reunion in the evening. Reunion was supposed to run from 7pm to 11pm. At 1 am the brewery finally kicked us all out. It was a blast!

Chatard HS Class of 1987

cookies for the raffle bag

18 miles for Week 18.

Week 19

Sunday  10/1 – 5 miles. Easy run on the county road. Went to work in the evening.

Monday 10/2 - Zero miles. Got home at 4 am and had a quick turn around to get back to work by 2 pm cause I traded shifts so I could take my daughter to a dance competition on Saturday.

Tuesday 10/3 - Zero miles. Worked all day.

Wednesday 10/4 – 15 miles. Couldn’t decide what to run tonight. I initially was going to do some speed work since I missed Run Club on Tuesday and toyed with doing a warm up, then 3 miles at 9:00, 2 miles at 8:30 and 1 mile at 8:00 and repeat it a couple times. Got halfway to Carmel with my daughter and realized I didn’t have my Garmin so that plan changed to a 12 mile long run since I knew the 6 mile turn around point. Got to the Y and reached in my glove box for my lock and realized I’d stuffed my Garmin in there last week so decided to do the speed work again. Well… it was hot again. In the 80’s and it had rained earlier in the day so it was humid. Did the mile warm up, then 9:06, 8:48… first pace mile was good except I started out too fast then overshot the slow down. My left Achilles for some reason started pulling during the second mile and I had a tired wooden feeling in my legs. Noooo…. I didn’t want to risk an injury by pushing tired legs – and the whole time I’m trying to figure out why they were tired – so I backed off. Ran the rest of miles easy and gave myself plenty of time to stretch afterwards. Achilles pull went away soon after I slowed the pace so I have no idea what happened. Got home in the evening and realized I was really sore – like more sore than after Mill Race. What is up with my body?

Thursday 10/5 – 6 miles. Work up feeling like I’d been run over by a truck and remained tired all day. Got out on the Monon in the evening and hoped things would feel better. Luckily it did. It misted rain the whole time which helped. Overall a pleasant run.

Friday 10/6 – Zero miles. I had originally planned to get at least a 6 mile run in before going to work in the evening but simply felt too physically tired so I shelved it.

Saturday 10/7 – Zero miles. Got home from work at 4 am, then left at 8 am to take my daughter to a dance competition. Spent the whole day there and got back home at 10 pm.

26 miles for Week 19. I feel like I "broke" something Wednesday night. Hoping for more energy this week!