Race report here, ICYMI.
In case you're dying to know what went on BEHIND THE SCENES of Sunday's gift of a race, I figured I might as well tie all this up with a nice neat bow. Without further ado, I present to you Week 18.
Grand Total: 37.75 miles
- * 9.3 easy
* 2.25 speed
* 26.2 RACE
Monday 11/28: Fly home from Spokane.
- My quads felt absolutely TRASHED after Sunday's 12 hilly miles, and with only six days to go I will totally admit to being a little bit freaked out about that.
Tuesday 11/29: 2 warm up, 1 @ 7:20, 1:30 jog, 2 x 800m @ 7:05 pace/2:00 jog, 1 @ 7:20, 2 cool down = 7.5 Fly to LA
- No time for the scheduled speed workout due to travel schedules & a late-night work session.
Wednesday 11/30: Work work work / fly home; 2 warm up, 1 fastish, 1:30 jog, 1 fastish, 2.1 cool down = 2.15 speed/6.26 total
- I'd been thinking that I'd try to get my skipped Tuesday speed session in on Wednesday evening when I got home. Alas, as usual, nothing was as on time as it was supposed to be. Considering how late it was when I finally got home (I think I walked in the door around 8), I'd almost given up on it completely. Driving to the track was out due to the time, it was dark, my legs were still throbbing from 1000' of up-and-down on Sunday, and I was beat from work. Not to mention the race was in four days and it's not like anything I did this week was actually going to make me fitter. Which is to say, I pretty much had my pick of fairly valid reasons to throw this run out the window.
In the end, though, I managed to convince myself that it was in the plan for a reason and I might as well try to follow the *spirit* of the workout even if there was no way I was running 7:05 pace on pedestrian-heavy sidewalks in the dark. So I kind of just compromised on doing the workout as written minus the 800ms.
BONUS: I could not run a 7:20 mile to save my life. I mean it was a bit uphill but still. 7:39 was all I could do. I hit the 7:20 coming back down, which was mildly reassuring, but still. 4 DAYS TIL RACE DAY. #notready
Thursday 12/1: 3 easy
- In addition to my quads still feeling slightly trashed, I'd started having a tight, pinching pain in my right hip over the last few days. (Note this is the right hip that is chonically effed and that completely betrayed me in my 2013 marathon and has not ever been completely right since.)
The truth is I had been kind of REALLY lazy about rolling and stretching that hip out (which I KNOW I have to do near-constantly), and suddenly I was having flashbacks to M2B '13 & panicking a bit about whether I'd already blown Sunday's race by not taking care of my hip.
Obviously I couldn't go back in time & diligently Lacrosse ball the shit out of it every night, so I did the next best thing & booked a massage with the pretty decent place near me where I can almost always get a last minute appointment. The therapist was a woman I had not seen before, so I explained my situation & basically told her, "My pain tolerance is exceptional, so just get in there & go for it."
After she'd ground the crap out of my hip, realigned it with the other one, & detached my quads from my IT bands, I went out for my penultimate run, just an easy 3 around the neighborhood. Oof. I felt like I was keeping up a pretty decent clip, but at 10:44 average pace, my watch begged to differ. :P #notready
Friday 12/2: Rest / pack / Steak Club
- The good part: Tasty steak with friends I hadn't seen in way too long. The not-so-good part: Getting carried away sharing tastes of some new acquisitions from our liquor cabinet. D: D: D: #oops
Saturday 12/3: 2 easy
- I woke up on Saturday with the worst hangover I've had since New Year's. SO STUPID!
I did the run around 11 feeling tired, shaky, & a bit nauseous, showered, threw everything in the car, & headed off to Sac.
Of course I am not hungover & feeling like ass, I am trying to run a PR/BQ marathon tomorrow, who would be that stupid????
Only a half glass of wine at dinner. LOOK I CAN LEARN THINGS!!
Sunday 12/4: .3 warm up / 26.2 race
- (I'll just leave this here again in case you missed it.)
Post-race, we had a lovely brunch on the Delta King riverboat with the crew. Love these ladies & gents.
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Friends, HERE ENDETH the saga of CIM 2016. Thanks for playing along at home. I have a quick post on race logistics/nuts & bolts that I'll get up soon, & after that it is time to put 26.2 behind us for a while & look to the future.
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CIM 2016 Week 1 of 18 - It's On
CIM 2016 Week 2 of 18 - Escape From NY (Barely)
CIM 2016 Week 3 of 18 - A Discount Code to Share (+ back on Strava!)
CIM 2016 Week 4 of 18 - 18/day, 47.5/week, 205.5/month.
CIM 2016 Week 5 of 18 - That cutback feeling
CIM 2016 Week 6 of 18 - french toast, trail shoes, & a little race fatigue
CIM 2016 Week 7 of 18 - Big week & feelin' fine!
CIM 2016 Week 8 of 18 - Knee Troubles :(
CIM 2016 Week 9 of 18 - Improvement on the knee front!
CIM 2016 Week 10 of 18 - Train kept a-rollin' (+ free shoes!)
CIM 2016 Week 11 of 18 - Texas Half Marathon #1 (+ my sister's wedding!)
CIM 2016 Week 12 of 18 - Race Week Cutback, blah dee blah dee blah...
CIM 2016 Week 13 of 18 - One More Block....
CIM 2016 Week 14 of 18 - Fun mileage facts & some HR wonkiness.
CIM 2016 Week 15 of 18 - Hang in there.
CIM 2016 Week 16 of 18 - Opioids, speed work, & a soggy weekend
Hi Angela, a huge congrats to you on BQ'ing at CIM. Having read through your journey since ~2013 in the last few days, I was so rooting for you! In a silent, lurky, hopefully non-creepy way of course. I really appreciate the thought you put into your posts, I've learned so much about nutrition and training from you. Thank you! I do have a Runcoach specific question for you about the coaches and their training philosophy. The relationship with Ashley and Tom obviously worked well for you. I'm able to access Runcoach through work and am considering working with them, so a personal testimonial would go a long way. I would love to hear from you at balabala at gmail dot com.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Bala