Week 10: 35 miles

This week I dealt with the return of some MS symptoms (mild disorientation and dizziness) and a "cold" whose major features were a low grade headache and general fatigue. It's not great to run through that stuff, but I did, and I ran my highest mileage week to date. I'm glad this week is over and I'm feeling better and looking forward to Week 11.

I had an 8-mile pace run on Wednesday; my longest pace run yet. I was sick and couldn't manage more than 9:31 pace (target is 9:00). But then I did my longest run (of all time) yesterday: 17 miles. I couldn't stick to the 10:00 pace I aimed for, but I'm still proud of running 17 miles. I'm not sure if I'm being too easy on myself about not hitting these paces or if it's normal to go slower when you're sick.

The great thing about this week's long run was running the Boston Marathon course. I've probably mentioned this before, but I live one block from the 10-mile mark. We didn't intend to buy a place right near the course, but now it doesn't seem accidental. I remember when we moved here from Washington almost five years ago, I really didn't want to move to Boston at all. I still don't really love this town. But we've watched the Boston-bound run through our neighborhood for four years, and in less than two months I'll be running a marathon. Coincidence?

Doing a long run on the Boston course on a Saturday in March really makes you feel great about being a runner. There are hordes of other runners, tons of great shoes and gear flying by, frequent water tables, and yesterday there were even free gels in front of Marathon Sports. I was one of the only solo runners out there, which was sort of lonely but I doubt anyone else could have matched my blistering 10:23 pace.

In the last couple of weeks, I've started thinking about what I might do after the marathon. I absolutely want to keep running and get faster. I wrote before about my two potential running goals for 2012: run a marathon, or beat my 5k time from college cross country. I decided on the marathon, but this week I realized (duh) I can meet both goals this year! I don't know why that didn't occur to me before. As soon as I'm rested from running this marathon, I'm going to run a 5k every other weekend until I have a new PR.

Pace range for this week: 8:43 to 10:23
Temperature range: 29 - 38 degrees

Details for Week 10 (Mar 5 - Mar 11):

Monday: 2 miles

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: 8 miles (pace, sort of)

Thursday: 4 miles

Friday: off

Saturday: 17 miles

Sunday: off

Week 9: 30 miles

Just when I was saying marathon training was amazing... week 9 happened. I only ran 4 times this week. The first two of them were good, the last two were... well, they were better than not running, but that's about it.

It's important to point out that I have nothing serious to complain about: I'm not injured, I'm relapse-free and mostly symptom-free. I'm officially halfway done with my training. But for some reason my mood about things has tanked. I'm not really sure exactly what it is; probably a combination of hormones (or lack thereof) and a cold that I thought I kicked but has come back to visit. 

I don't usually examine every run in the weekly recap, but when things don't go well, I like to write about it in gory detail. And apparently in reverse order.

Saturday.
Today's long run was 15 miles, and thanks to a winning combination of rain, snow, slush and ice, I ran all 15 miles on the treadmill. Running has never felt so sad. During this whole training cycle, I think I've done one or two treadmill runs. It just ain't my thing. I tried to distract myself with an Ice Loves Coco marathon, but the tv stopped working around mile 4 and I finished the run with Pandora and my own reflection in the broken tv screen. It just didn't feel good. For the rest of the day I've been sitting in bed, watching tv with Maple. I feel like the lamest mother and wife. I haven't cooked or cleaned or done anything fun. I also have a bit of brain fog or disorientation - one of my hard-to-describe MS symptoms.

Thursday.
On Thursday we had a slush-storm and I ran 4 miles in my Yaktrax, in the grossest conditions I've ever run in. It was like running in mud or soft sand. Every time I thought I was putting my foot down on solid ground (well, with a layer of slush on top), it went down down down into a cold puddle that rose up over my shoe. I ran in the middle of the road to avoid the worst icy patches, dodging my way around cars and fearing for my safety. I was incredulous that I averaged 10:32 on this run, considering the conditions.

Wednesday.
This run was amazing. I did my "marathon pace" run on Wednesday - a 7-miler. I usually aim for 9:00 pace for these runs, which is really more like a tempo run for me but I like trying it. I hit 8:52 this week! That felt great. After the half marathon on Sunday and this run on Wednesday, I was on top of the world.

Tuesday
One of my two shorter runs this week was a nice recovery run with the girls from work. The Tuesday 4-miler has become a regular thing and it's so nice to run with those ladies. They are both significantly more athletic than I am, but we all stay together and I really enjoy their company.

It was a solid week of training.

Pace range for this week: 8:52 to 10:32
Temperature range: 30 - 41 degrees

Details for Week 9 (Feb 29 - Mar 4):

Monday: off

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: 7 miles (pace/tempo)

Thursday: 4 miles

Friday: off

Saturday: 15 miles

Sunday: off

Week 8: 30 miles

Something changed in Week 8. I felt great on every run. I ran a half marathon (my first) and it didn't kill me (or trigger an MS relapse). After that race, I stopped hoping I could run the marathon. I started to believe. Maybe it is possible. Maybe a lot of things are possible.

I used to yell at myself when I ran. Thinking I would motivate myself that way, I would tell myself I was slow, I was lazy, I was out of shape, I was pathetic. Last year when I started taking myself seriously as a runner, I quickly stopped berating myself when I ran. I started taking pride in my abilities (so what if I'm slow, I'm out here running!) and celebrating what I could do instead of fixating on what I can't. This week, I realized I'm becoming more positive about things even when I'm not running. This is pretty exciting because I've always been really negative. I can find the one bad thing in a sea of good stuff and really hone in on it, to the exclusion of all else. But things are changing. I'm stronger and leaner and faster than I was two months ago. And better than that, I'm different.

Training for the marathon is amazing.

Pace range for this week: 8:40 to 9:50
Temperature range: 19 - 43 degrees

Details for Week 8 (Feb 20 - Feb 28):

Monday: 2 miles

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: 7 miles 

Thursday: 4 miles

Friday: off

Saturday: 13.1 miles (race!)

Sunday: off