Marathon Training, Week 3

17 weeks until race day.

This week went much better than last week.  For starters, it occurred to me that maybe I wasn't consuming enough water for all the hard workouts and hot weather.  It's never been a problem before, but my digestive system has been increasingly stubborn lately, so I decided to see what would happen if I tried drinking more water.  Funny thing, as soon as I did, I dropped a pound a day for three days in a row.  And another one later in the week.  So apparently now that I'm an elite athlete (*snicker*) I need to hydrate like one.

Both Tuesday's run and Thursday's incline walks (with decreased speed on the highest incline) went exactly as planned, so that's two workouts off the checklists.  This Tuesday I'll be going for 3/4 mile running intervals with 1/4 mile walking rests.  And Thursday I'll go for a second successful attack at the inclines. 

Well, okay, exactly as planned except that on my cooldown after Tuesday's run, I tripped on the treadmill.  Kourt was trying to point say something to me, and I leaned too far over to try and hear her and stepped off the belt a bit.  Ended up hitting the emergency stop button on accident, and while I didn't actually fall down, the contortions I went through to stay on my feet were pretty jarring.  As we left the gym I felt just a little tightness in my muscles, but it seemed to go away by the next day.

My sister wasn't available to do our long run on Friday night, so I had to go it alone.  The trail we've been using is a straight out and back, and since it's not lit at night and I wasn't sure what time, exactly, the sun would set, I wasn't comfortable with the prospect of finding myself still two miles out with no light and all alone.  So I went to the park we used to walk at before I started training this time around.  It's lit at night, there's a lot of people around (especially if there are baseball games going on, which is almost every night in the summer), and therefore is a lot safer for somebody running alone.  The downside is that it's a 1 1/2 mile loop, so it can get monotonous.  It's also not flat like the new trail.  There's one hill with about a 23' vertical rise over about an eight of a mile.  Short, but kind of brutal.

The temperature was 86 degrees when I arrived at the park and the humidity was high, but it makes all the difference in the world when the sun isn't also beating down on me.  It made so much difference that I set the goal of running it with the same strategy I'd like to use for the race:  run 1/4 of each mile.  It's easy on this trail, because the distance is marked off in 1/4 mile increments, so I could leave my phone in my pouch and just run to the distance markers.  I managed the whole run, feeling good.  I felt like a runner.  I caught a glimpse of my shadow as I ran around a bend and was kind of impressed:  shoulders back, confident stride.  As the run progressed, though, the uncomfortable tightness in my muscles from the trip on the treadmill came back, and worsened with each mile.  It didn't hurt, per se, so I didn't stop (except to stretch briefly here and there), but it was noticeable.  I stretched thoroughly when I got home and took a rest day on Saturday, and haven't noticed a twinge since. 

But no more trying to talk to me on the treadmill!!!