I ran 49 miles this week: 45 min easy spin, hip strength x 1, ART x 1. (Whoops, no core!)

Following the half marathon PR in NY, this was a bit of a different week. I didn’t really lock myself into two hard workouts this week before the weekend long run. I think I did a good job of letting my legs recover and putting in some solid work this week. I didn’t race the half all out and it only took me ~3 days to fully recover.

Monday: Full REST Day + travel back to Chicago

Tuesday: 6 recovery miles, 7:47 average pace.

Easy on the lakefront after work. Guess what? My legs still work! It felt good to move after a full day off yesterday. Some lingering soreness in my left calf but not too worried about it.

Wednesday: {6 x 1 min surges} 7.6 miles, 7:56 average. 

This was a ‘pseudo speed workout’ to slowly get back to workouts following the half. I had ART and Graston done on my left calf today and it was much looser than it was on Tuesday. It was still a bit tight but some more stretching after this run made it feel much better. The surges felt good too.

Thursday: {6 mile tempo} 10 miles, 6:53 average.

It’s finally nice enough for me to run to/from the lakefront instead of taking the bus (although I hear we have another freeze headed our way next week. Say it ain’t so!) Saving 30+ minutes by swapping the bus for my own legs does wonders for my mood, and running past traffic is always a good feeling.

2 mi up, 6 mile tempo, 2 down. I don’t know what happened last week, but all of a sudden my form feels super strong and paces that seemed incredibly hard are now manageable/”easy”. I love this part of marathon training when things start to click. Tempo splits were 6:35-6:42 (except last mile in 6:28). Psyched that my legs felt fresh enough to put in some solid work today.

Friday: 45 min spin + Full Hip Strength Routine

Corey is a good influence. I was planning on sitting on my butt today but she asked me if I wanted to spin and I figured some more active recovery would be a good idea before the long run on Saturday. We chatted for 45 minutes in the spin room and did the full hip strength routine.

Saturday: 20 miles, 7:29 average pace on the lakefront

Sore buns! I rarely do a strength workout the day before a long run — yesterday was an exception. Hips, glutes, and quads pretty sore but my form felt really strong (activated the right muscles at least). The headwind running north was pretty annoying but not terrible. I felt like I ‘explored’ more today. My legs were loving the soft surface trails up by Montrose (closer to the beach than the main path) and I ran through that park by the water treatment plant at Navy Pier (don’t know why I’ve never done that!).

Seen on my run:
– Corey and Walter! He was cheesin’ so hard! (Note: Walter is a dog.)
– The HiGuy.
– A fit dad running with his two daughters, looked like twins (thought of my sister)
– Massive side-5 fail with Ken W.
– Side-5 with Vicky M. (heyooo!)
– “Pseudo-side-5” with Kevin G. from the other side of the path (it’s the effort that counts)
– Lots of Boston jackets out there today- path was busiest I’ve seen it in awhile

Followed by 3 hours at the Chicago Beer Festival.

Sunday: 5 miles, 8:10 pace recovery run 

I napped so hard this afternoon. After an hour and a half of puppy cuddles, I finally scraped myself off the couch and went to the gym to get a recovery run in. Legs are fatigued but not sore at all from yesterday’s 20. Good things! (15 min total walking as warm-up and cooldown)

Thoughts:

This week was solid. I think I was smart with recovery — I wasn’t really sure if that 6 mile tempo was in the cards on Thursday but I went to the lakefront hopeful (I’m not afraid to shut the workout down if it’s just not there). I really feel like my fitness has turned a corner in the past couple weeks. I looked back at my training log the other day and couldn’t believe how much my training paces have changed since the beginning of this cycle. (One of my first tempos was 7:08-7:03 and now I tempo at 6:40). I wasn’t 100% when I started this cycle because I still had a little hitch in my stride from the left quad injury. Now that’s not a concern and I have been going to PT less and less throughout this cycle.

I can’t believe we’re less than 30 days away from Boston. I have 2 weeks left for hard workouts before the mileage begins to taper — ahhhh!