Marathon Training, Week 2

18 weeks until race day.

It's been a somewhat lackluster training week.  It started out strong on Sunday with our hamstrings and shoulders workout, which meant I finally got to put Kourt through the lovely drop sets that Andrew put me through the night I trained by myself.  Muahahaha!  Then an hour on the elliptical machines.

We took our rest day, and then on Tuesday I went to the gym alone to run.  I had to make myself go, as I wasn't feeling into it.  Constipation's a bitch.  But I knew I should go, so I made myself get dressed and get in the car.  I got on the treadmill and started running, and kept going until the 2.5 mile mark, at which point I felt things starting to, well, move.  And at that point I decided the run was over and I did a quick cooldown and headed for the locker room.  I never thought I'd see the day when I was disappointed in myself for "only" doing 2.5 miles instead of 3.  So next week it'll be the half mile intervals again so I can make it to the end.

Wednesday we lifted again, triceps and back, but only did a half hour of cardio because we got a late start.  We decided that maybe it would work a lot better for us on work nights if we just go to the gym as soon as Kourt's shift is over and get it over with.  If we come home and cook dinner first, we feel compelled not to run right to the gym without letting dinner settle, and then we get sidetracked with things and it's sometimes 1am before we get our fat asses out the door.

So Thursday we did just that.  I came home and changed and met Kourt for our workout directly after she got done with work.  I think that will have to be our plan from here on out, as we were finished with our workout before the time we'd usually be heading out the door.  Plus, I get off work an hour before she does, so as my training workouts get longer I can get a head start and not force her to hang out at the gym waiting for me to do my last couple of miles.  The workout that night, though, wasn't a resounding success.  I'd concocted a series of incline interval workouts to do, and had been trying to do quarter mile intervals increasing the incline by 2% each time, dropping back down to a level incline at the beginning of each mile.  And I intended to maintain 4mph for the whole workout, since 4mph is a reasonably easy speed with no incline.  Apparently, though, 4mph at 7% is a little TOO challenging, because the only way I could keep going was to hold on to the handrail, which is a big, big no-no.  I wasn't able to do it last week, and I thought it was because I'd already spent all the muscle endurance in my legs that night, but my ability wasn't much better on fresh legs.  So it looks like I need to back off on the speed a little if I'm going to conquer that kind of incline.  Of course, I could also just stop trying to do such a steep incline, especially considering that the Chicago marathon course is pretty darn flat from what I've heard, but it's like a personal challenge at this point.  I feel like I should be able to do it.

Friday we skipped.  I'd proposed that we go to a local amusement park that day, which would involve a hell of a lot of walking up and down hills and is always a good workout, but upon further consideration I decided that there were simply too many errands and chores to get done.  Plus, our service appointment to get our cable fixed (IT'S BACK!!  IT'S FINALLY BACK!!!  I LOVE MY BROADBAND!!!) was yesterday afternoon and I knew they'd want somebody to be here for that.  So we slept an hour or so late, ran errands all morning and into the afternoon, and then rushed home to be here for the cable guy.  Once that was done we dosed all our cats with their flea meds, did some more errand-running, had dinner, and it was pretty late at that point so I was more than willing to just call it a day.  Sometimes things just need to be done, you know?

Today's long run was just 4 miles.  When I got up, Weather.com said it was 84 degrees out already.  The trail is asphalt, and by mid-to-late morning there's basically no shade to speak of.  It was miserable.  I have no idea how hot it had gotten by the time we started out on the trail, but it was into the 90s by the time we were done.  I took off running after walking the first mile, and wore myself out in pretty short order.  We walked the rest, and only did three miles because my sister tripped on a curb the other day and thinks one of her toes is broken.  We've decided that if the rest of the summer is going to be this hot and humid (it's only June, and this is August-type weather!), we'd be better off doing our runs in the evenings on Fridays.  It'll be cooler, none of us have to be anywhere important on Saturday mornings so time won't be a factor, and I won't have to drown myself in SPF 50.

So, the agenda for next week?  Tuesday I need to get through the whole three miles of running intervals so I can mark it off my list.  Thursday I'm going to tackle the inclines again at a lower speed and see if I can't keep my hands off the bar for the duration.  I should spend one of my cross-training days on the treadmill since I've not gotten in any good running other than Tuesdays for a few weeks.  And then our long run Friday night will be 8 miles.  Hopefully going out at sunset will allow me to actually get in some good running.