Ten!

Steamy tempo run on July 4th

I can't believe it's been 10 weeks since I started training for the Chicago Marathon and I can't believe I had the audacity to ask my coach 3 weeks ago if I was going to be getting more miles and more mid-week longer runs. Thank you, Coach Becki! I'm feeling strong and fit and I now know that this is when the grind begins. I may have said the same thing last week. 

Week 10 (July 3-9)

Monday: Plan said OFF, but I skipped Sunday's run because of travel ( & maybe wine the night before). 4 miles easy (4.0 miles, 9:27/mi). I also had an appointment with my physical therapist--just for a mid-cycle tune up. Oh boy, he worked me. My glutes were sore for days. I also had a one hour massage and did a Jasyoga video (Low-Back Love). A vacation day from work made this all possible.

Tuesday: Happy 4th of July! I also I had my longest mid-week run of this cycle. It also happened to be an alternating tempo. 11 miles with 2 miles warm-up, 8 miles alternating between goal marathon pace and a moderate-effort pace, 1 mile cool-down. Paul ran the first two miles with me. He walked back with water for me. Because it was a tempo and I didn't want to stop, he handed off the bottle to me. I felt like an elite! ;) Tempo miles: 8:24 (too fast), 8:59 (too fast), 8:39, 9:08, 8:39, 9:33, 8:34, 9:22. The last two miles were ROUGH. (11 miles, 9:02/mi). 

The other direction isn't easier.

Wednesday: 6 miles easy (6.1 miles, 9:51/mi). Nothing spectacular about this run, but it felt like a super Monday after 5 days of no work and a 5 am alarm. 

Thursday: 8 miles easy (8.2, 9:53/mi). Hilly run with my early morning running group. We ran the same route last week, but in reverse. We soon figured out both directions are hard with lots of climbing. 

Friday: 4 miles easy. I didn't run. 30 minute Tabata class (Burpees). 

Saturday: 16 miles long run. I joined the Runegades for their weekly group run for my middle miles. It was a brutal run with lots of heat and hills. When I started the run at 5 am it was 77F. When I finished almost 3 hours later it was in the low-90s. We start and finish these group runs at Panera. When I finished I walked straight into the restaurant and ordered a frozen lemonade. I've never done that before. It was good, but gone in 10 seconds. (16.0 miles, 9:54/mi).

Sunday: OFF. I was a lazy bum all day and enjoyed it!

Total Weekly Miles: 45.3 miles (7 hours, 17 minutes)
2017 Miles: 698.8 Miles

Next week my planned miles reach 50 for the first time in this training cycle! 

I've joined the training link up on Eat Pray Run DC. See the link up HERE. Courtney is training for the Berlin Marathon. :)