NYC Marathon Training Week 9: Complete! (and a few “firsts”)

Aside from my midweek mental meltdown, I kept strong with my training and actually banged out a great week with solid workouts.  My long run for the week was 14 miles … the first distance that I’ve run over 13.1 and the longest distance I’ve run since April.  I didn’t get out of bed as early as I had hoped but was out pounding the pavement by 7:45 a.m.  (by that point I was hoping to be more than halfway done with my run but what can you do!)

Since I knew it was going to be hot and humid, I took my water bottle and froze 3/4 of it so that it would stay cool for most of my run, that proved to work out great since the water wasn’t warm by mile 3!  This training run also had me experiencing many “firsts” that I’d like to share:

1.) I employed a run/walk strategy since the training schedule recommended doing this long run at a slow pace.  I also figured this would work out well since it was REALLY getting warm out.  After each mile beeped on the Garmin, I slowed to a power walk, drank some water,  took some deep breaths and set off again. I found this strategy to work out GREAT and it not only kept me “entertained” but I was able to maintain an average 10:15 pace the entire time.

2.) I ran a new route.  No plan, just ran 🙂  I figured all roads would eventually lead me back home.

3.) I tried a gel for the first time.  Now that I’m starting to dive into the longer distances, I knew that I’d have to start bringing some fuel along.  In the past I’ve tried chomps and sport beans but they’ve left my tummy in knots.  So on the recommendation of FlyRunner I decided to try HammerGel as she noticed that it didn’t give her any tummy troubles.  I tried the chocolate gel halfway through my run and am happy to report that I didnt have any crampage at all.  I think this may be my new fueling strategy.

4.) I peed in the woods.  LOL!  Hey when you gotta go, you gotta go!

5.) I brought a couple bucks with me in my waist pack.  I don’t know what it was, but I’ve never done this before and right before I headed out, I took some money just in case I needed it.  Boy am I glad I did!  After mile 13 (and roughly 1.5 miles from my house) I ran out of water and I knew I would need more to finish my run, thank goodness there was a RiteAid about .25 miles away from me so I stopped in really quickly and bought an ice cold Gatorade.  Best blue gatorade I ever had 🙂

I finished up my run about a half mile from my house and used that last half mile as a cooldown hobble walk back home 🙂  Very happy with this run and the only “complaint” I have is that my right quad is a little jacked up and sore so my form must have come unglued at some point during the run.

Here’s what the training looked like this week:

• Sunday — OFF
• Monday — 3.75 miles AMT and .25 miles on TM
• Tuesday — 4.15 miles (mile repeats on TM)
• Wednesday — DOUBLE! 3 miles in the a.m. and 4 miles in the p.m. (both outside)
• Thursday — 60 min hill workout on AMT – 5.25 miles total
• Friday — 2 miles Elliptical and 20 min on arm cycle
• Saturday — 14 miles
• WEEKLY TOTAL: 36.4 miles