The Tatted Runner: Marathon Training

Week 2 is in the books and for the most part it went pretty darn well. Legs were feeling it pretty much all week, but despite a little discomfort I was able to put in a solid week of training. Next week I break new ground in my running career by running farther than my previous longest distance of 14 miles.

Sunday:

Boy was I glad today's pace was an easy one. I didn't have to work today so I slept in till around 9:30 and when I crawled out of bed my legs were stiff as boards. The weather was overcast with a threat of rain. It wasn't really hot with the sun obstructed from the clouds but it was damn humid. I got dressed and did a few stretches to loosen up my legs but it didn't seem to help. I headed out and despite what my pace shows it sure as hell didn't feel like I was moving that good. I swear I had bricks strapped to my feet. By mile 3 the legs were starting to loosen up and feel pretty good. Mile 3 was also my slowest mile do to a pretty good head wind for almost the entire mile. The last two miles went pretty well, unfortunately the sun started coming out and made it really hot.

Monday:

A well deserved rest from running but did some work on one of the bedrooms. I had to do some repairs to the ceiling, the dry wall is fine it was the textured coating that need some repair. Working above my head has my arms and shoulders a tired today.

Tuesday:

Nothing like a little scare to really get the blood pumping on this run. I had 4 miles at an easy pace this morning and due to my work schedule I got up around 4:40 this morning to make sure I had enough time to get it in. The sun doesn't really start lighting things up until 5:30ish here so I wear a headlamp and a red flashing butt lamp. I wanted to stay at the fast end of my pace allowance, which I did keeping each mile right around my 9:45/mile pace goal. I was about a mile and a half in when I saw two eyes glowing from my headlamp back at me. It was still pretty dark so I couldn't quite make out what it was but it was low enough to the ground I was sure it was probably a dog. I had no idea what breed it was and didn't want to take any chances. I clapped my hands a couple of times and yelled, that caused the dog to stop and flip a 180 and took off into a sprint. At that point I had no doubt that it was a dog but I still couldn't tell the breed. I kept my eye out for him, but I never saw the animal again. I tell you, a strange animal coming up on you when its dark really gets the blood pumping. I hit my turn around and headed home incident free. All in all the run went very well and I was extremely happy with my ability to maintain a pretty steady pace from one mile to the next.

Wednesday:

I had to be at my sister's by 11:30 so I got up around 7am to head out on my 13 mile long. I ate a Clif brand crunchy granola bar for breakfast, loaded up my Camelpak and headed out. We have had a cold spell come through this week so it was really nice out, mid 50's with minimal clouds and a light breeze, perfect running weather. When I started I really didn't want to be out there at that point, I wanted to still be in bed sleeping, but I had to make my available time work for me. Once I got a couple miles in I felt much better and was feeling pretty good. My pace felt really good and I kept it pretty consistent throughout. At miles 6 and 7 I switched from my music to a podcast and you can tell that it affected my pace, as I dropped into the low 10s. When my podcast was over I threw the music back on and my pace came right back. I finished strong and felt great.

Thursday:
Rest day is always welcome :)

Friday:

I know I must sound like a broken record but man I hate mornings. I would much rather sleep in than get up to go run, but I have no better time to fit it in plus I do feel much better afterwords. It took a while to get going but once I hit the door and felt the unseasonably cool morning air I woke right up. I couldn't seem to get my pace to settled down. My pace kept bouncing up and down from where I wanted it even though it stayed pretty much within the range I was shooting for.

Saturday:

Sometimes I seem to sabotage myself when I try new things and today was no exception. I have been hearing about dynamic stretching vs. static stretching before a run. At my running club meeting I received a handout on some dynamic stretches to try and this morning I gave them a try. Most of the stretches were more like lunges and I must have over did it, because man did my legs pay for it. It quit raining just as I started but quickly returned about a quarter mile in. The rain stayed light and actually felt pretty good. My pace felt consistent but when I checked my times mile two was quite a bit slower. My only thought is with the cloud cover and I was under major tree cover so maybe my Garmin was just having a little problem keeping track of me.