Another stellar week of training definitely has me in high spirits. My legs feel pretty fresh. I have a bit of soreness in the left side of my lower back near the pelvic bone, but it didn’t affect my running today at all. I am figuring just residual soreness from the Youngstown Hills. But I am definitely keeping up the religious stretching and pilates type efforts to make sure everything stays happy and mixing in ice baths and Epsom salt baths as needed, oh and a much deserved massage is scheduled for Friday!
I’m officially half a pound away from my pre college weight. But man is my body composition quite different than it was 11 years ago! I’ve lost my boobs and my upper body definitely looks a lot leaner than I am used too (unless we go way back to pre puberty!). I’m a big believer that if you feel good about yourself you run better. I can’t lie I don’t find this really lean look attractive at all (and I don’t like the toll it is going to take on my pocket book, new jeans, new bras, resized rings, it adds up!), but it is what I need to do to move my running to the next level. And I can’t lie my energy levels have been awesome and I feel so light on all my runs. I have a feeling it is even helping with my poor posture.
I looked up some elite marathoner stats to make sure I wasn’t getting scary skinny and Deena Kastor who is obviously a fantastic marathoner is my height and weighs 6.5 pounds less than I do. Now that I am almost at target weight my goal is to stay there while reducing body fat a bit more and strengthening my core muscles and triceps. I don’t want to get bulky but I definitely think there is room for a bit more strength in this body!
I am not a proponent of being an unhealthy weight at all and it saddens me to see so many anorexic runners out there. So I want to make it clear that I am not going to go under a weight that falls in the BMI healthy range for my weight, even if science has shown most successful marathoners are 10 to 15% below the average healthy weight for their height. I am targeting 8-10% below the average healthy weight for my height which is pretty reasonable considering I have an extremely small frame (we’re talking tiny ass wrists folks) and am probably meant to be a bit under average weight normally.
So with that note, my training last week has me super stoked! I am definitely sitting right on that cusp of sub 3 fitness. Here’s hoping 3-4 more weeks of good training will have me ready for taper and marathon racing so I can meet the sub 3 goal!
I was supposed to target 65 miles but went a little high. Also supposed to be getting in 2 8:30 or slower days and 2 low to mid 7 days which I have not been good at doing. I am struggling with where to put the second low 7 day in my week (on top of Saturday) usually and the group I like to run with at lunch is more of a 8-8:20 group so not quite as slow as I should be going on my recovery days. Squeezing the extra 7 minute day around a Sunday long run, Tuesday interval, and Thursday tempo has been a struggle. But I am thinking that will change because to be honest 7:30s are starting to feel like a joke most days.
Monday March 1st through March 7th- 70 miles
Monday-8.09 miles 7:58 pace with 6*25 second hill strides
Tuesday-10.68 miles 7:18 pace with intervals
Wednesday- AM run 4.75 miles 7:18 pace
Lunch Run 7.75 miles 8:12 pace
Thursday-9.34 miles 6:59 pace with tempo
Friday-6 miles easy 8:40 pace
Saturday-6 miles easy 8:10 pace with 4*100 strides
Sunday- 2.5 mile warm up 8:19 pace, 13.1 mile race 6:44 pace, 2 mile cool down 9:30 pace
Tuesday Intervals- Aiming for 2 miles at 6:30 followed by 2*1 mile repeats at 6:10 or better with 3 minute rests, then 2 miles at 6:25 pace, followed by 6*200/200 jog
6:29.95, 6:32.32, 6:08.46, 6:07.71, 6:26.20, 6:24.17, 41.56, 42.09, 43.41, 44.01, 42.46, 42.79
Thursday Tempo- Aiming for 5 miles at 6:30 or better. Did this with NC after work and it was just a great workout.
6:23.75, 6:22.99, 6:23.59, 6:22.09, 6:21.55
Sunday Race- Goal sub 1:25 or close to best tempo pace, came up a bit short but given the hard weeks work and the effort given I was more than pleased. 1:28:17, 6:44 pace, 4th female. It’s just too bad the previous two weeks workouts probably won’t show up in my race fitness until this week :)
3 comments:
You've been doing so great! Will you be at the Fool's Race? Or too close to Boston?
I've been keeping tabs on your training and am excited to see what you will do in Boston. Not long now!
Kim I really wanted to do fools, but I talked with Lloyd and he thinks it is too close to Boston, I will likely come volunteer though!
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