11 - TWR 5 - Training Week Recap (4/17-23)

It’s RACE WEEK. But first, let’s recap the last training week.

Total Run Mileage: 29.32mi / 47.19km (of 45 miles planned)

Format: (Planned / Actual); “” denotes that the workout what completed as planned

• Monday: Full Recovery Day / kinda, travel day driving
• Tuesday: 6 mi Easy Run + Strength Maintenance / “”, no Strength Maintenance
• Wednesday: 10 mi Interval Workout / “” + Strength Maintenance + 10 min yoga
• Thursday: 12 mi Midweek Long Run / impromptu off day
• Friday: Easy 4 mi + Strength Maintenance / impromptu off day
• Saturday: Recovery Day / travel day
• Sunday: 13 mi Interval Workout / “”, San Diego Beach & Bay Half Marathon!

What a weird week! It was bookended by a pair of weekend trips—one home to Vegas and another to run the San Diego Beach & Bay Half Marathon. I’ll cover the race in a separate Race Report post, but as a primer, I signed up for this half marathon as a last tune-up race before the Eugene Marathon. It happened to coincide with a planned 13 miler, and it’s a great opportunity to feel out the race environment before the actual goal race.

Overall this combination of back-to-back weekend trips led to a training week that felt..desperate? To stay to plan and to appreciate the realities of: 1) having a “race” at the end of the week, and 2 ) how I was feeling mentally and physically day-to-day. I found myself bargaining with my training plan each day, and that itself was stressful. I ended up running 3 of 5 planned runs, totaling 29 miles—a good bit below last week’s 46 miles. I can say confidently, though, that I’m happy with the choices I made through the week, and I got all my highest quality runs in.

So, I said that I found myself bargaining. What did that look like? Let me walk you through the situations and some of the thoughts I had each day by expanding on the Planned / Actual list from above.

• Monday: Full Recovery Day. kinda, travel day driving. Recovery day. EASY! I’m working remotely at home in Vegas and am making the drive back to LA tonight after work. (fast forward to) OOPS it’s now midnight and I just arrived at LA. Mmmm not the best setup for tomorrow.
• Tuesday: 6 mi Easy Run + Strength Maintenance / “”, no Strength Maintenance. Last night’s drive was fatiguing, so I want to sleep in and give myself more rest. I’ll run after work and get back on the morning run wagon tomorrow! And also I’ll push today’s strength session to tomorrow.
• Wednesday: 10 mi Interval Workout / “” + Strength Maintenance + 10 min yoga. I..missed the wagon, but actually this run is better to get in after work. I’ll get off work a little earlier to get the run and workout in, and then I have to drive down to OC to pick up a friend and go back home. It’ll be a late night, but I’m working from home tomorrow so I’ll be able to get the run in after work!
• Thursday: 12 mi Midweek Long Run / impromptu of day. Dropped off friends midday at LAX, and it took a total of 2 hours!! I am frustrated and exhausted and just tired from sleeping late the night before.. no run today. Push to Friday? Looks like I’ve committed to afternoon runs for this week anyway.
• Friday: Easy 4 mi + Strength Maintenance / impromptu off day. Nope! Not today. I’m just..bummed. (I actually don’t remember clearly how I felt this day, but I remember not feeling like running.. I did get a blog post out though!) I think I’ll just write off this 4 miler and push the 12 miler to tomorrow morning. I think it could be beneficial to have another back-to-back long run sesh by having the half marathon the day after the 12. This would prepare me for the later stages of a marathon when I’m trying to hold race effort while fatigued.
• Saturday: Recovery Day / travel day. Nope! Again, I am tired this morning, and I’ve gotta make the drive to SD. Besides, it’s probably best that I treat tomorrow’s race fully as a tune-up race and go in fresh.
• Sunday: 13 mi Interval Workout / “”, San Diego Beach & Bay Half Marathon! Simulated race day. Going into it with fresh legs and a clear plans. Let’s execute!

A messy week, but again, I got the most important runs done and came out with a big confidence booster for Eugene. I think largely the starting domino was having that first late night coming back from Vegas, and that caused a cascading effect through the rest of the week. Welp, nothing to do at this point besides reflect and take lessons learned into the next week! Which is planned as follows:

4/23-30 Planned

• Monday: 6 mi Easy Run + Strength Maintenance
• Tuesday: Easy 6 mi + 6x20s Stride
• Wednesday: 8 mi Interval Workout
• Thursday: Easy 6 mi + Strength Maintenance
• Friday: Easy 5k
• Saturday: Easy 2 mi
• Sunday: Eugene Marathon