Last Week’s Workouts and ANOTHER Half Marathon!

Hope everyone had a marvelous weekend. We had AWESOME weather here in New Jersey (although right now it’s rainy and dreary and gross), and I’m excited to finally be running in spring-like conditions!

Photo credit: njmarathon.org

Photo credit: njmarathon.org

Yesterday I took the plunge and registered for the Long Branch Half Marathon, which is part of the New Jersey Marathon. I said I wasn’t going to do it. I really didn’t think I was going to do it. I thought that taking on Runapalooza so late in April, followed by the Superhero Half Marathon in mid-May, would be too much…not to mention the fact that my spring races are already costing me a pretty penny, and I’m trying to save for Disneyland!

But then I took a good hard look at my Dopey Challenge-running self — I mean, really, I should probably get used to running A WHOLE LOT OF MILES in a short period of time — and I decided to just go for it. It’s a pretty big deal for us New Jerseyans (well, the full marathon that’s held on the same day is, anyway), so I’m excited to be part of it!

In other news, I am feeling pretty damn stupid right about now. I’ve been whining about pain running along the top of my left foot  for weeks now, and lost I don’t know how many hours of sleep worrying that it was a stress fracture or some other kind of serious injury and I could kiss running good-bye for weeks, if not months (hence my hesitation to put on my big girl panties and see a doctor). Well, after following the advice of countless runners and health care professionals on-line who have written about the all-too-common foot tendonitis (in runners, often caused by too-tight sneakers), the pain is now disappearing…and all because I’m tying my shoelaces more loosely, doing some simple foot and calf stretches, and massaging the tendons in my calf and foot. If that’s really all it was, I am SO INCREDIBLY THANKFUL…but I’m still feeling kind of foolish right now!

DSCF3227

Pretty sure my Disney Princess Half Marathon gear helps me run faster! :)

And now, on to last week’s workouts. As you know, I ran my second half marathon last weekend, but I neglected to mention that I followed that up with a local 5K the following morning that was a fundraiser for a few of the elementary schools in my town…and despite running on legs that pretty much felt like lead, I actually PRed! My old 5K PR (from a Halloween race last October) was 27:59, and now it’s 27:18 — and, best of all, I took third place in my age group (gotta love small races)!

Sat., April 20: Runapalooza Half Marathon (recap HERE)

Sun., April 21: Bloomingdale/Orange Ave. School 5K (rescheduled from November thanks to Hurricane Sandy)

Mon., April 22: Rest

Tue., April 23: A second day of rest…I thought it would be prudent given all the running I did over the weekend!

Wed., April 24: An easy 3-mile run

Thur., April 25: Went out for a 4-miler, came home after 3…I wasn’t feeling sore, but my legs felt so heavy and I just wasn’t into it.

Fri., April 26: 6.5 mile run — felt pretty good!

Sat., April 27: Thai kickboxing class and 10-mile bike ride. It was such a beautiful day, so I forced asked my sister to accompany me for a few miles.

Sun., April 28: Thai kickboxing class

I was hoping to get in a long run this weekend, especially after deciding to run the New Jersey Half Marathon, but I’ve decided that it might be best to take this this week’s runs pretty easy to help me gear up for the half marathon. I’m still trying to figure out what works best for me in terms of those final training runs before a big race.

How do you train in the last week before a race?

Comments

  1. You posts lately are cracking me up – you went from a 5k runner who struggled (you admitted yourself you were struggling with running!) and now you’re all multiple race running on the weekends and it’s some serious miles girl!! Dang! So proud of you. You really got hit with the running bug HARD!

    As for how I train the last week before a race, I’m not sure I have a good answer. I do a whole lot of freaking out is what I do. LOL! The weekend before I try to run exactly the number of miles i need to run at the race in optimal conditions. Basically, it’s a practice race. I wear the same everything I want to wear race day and think about my hydration and fuel too. Then in the days leading up to the race, I dial my mileage back quite a bit. Still run but do short runs. Focus on rest and eating well and that’s about it. Then the day before it’s zero alcohol and lots of carbs. Morning of it’s coffee and peanut butter toast.

    I’m in slight freak-out mode as this is the race I’m doing this Sunday. The 10k.:

    http://www.russianrivermudrun.com/

    Take a look at the descriptions of the obstacles. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I did run it last year but it was the first year and I think they went a little easy. This year the descriptions seem scarier! I’m running with 5 girlfriends and we’ve been trail running for the past few months to get our miles up to 6.5 with hills. It will be great fun! Our team name is The Dirty MILFs. LOL!

    • Haha, oh, believe me…the irony is not lost on me! I was downright terrified to register for a 5K, no joke! I still can’t believe that this is my life…or that I managed to become SO addicted to running in such a short period of time. I am absolutely loving every minute of it, though! :-D

      Thanks for the tips! I’m considering my “Runapalooza” race a training run for this next one. I know it’s unlikely I’ll be able to shave a whole lot of time off my race in just two weeks (especially since I wasn’t even planning/training for the NJ Half!), so I’m just doing it for fun…and considering it another test run to see if what I’m doing is working (the last half taught me that I NEED to get serious about speedwork…I always seem to crash and burn in those last few miles, and couldn’t pick up my pace if I were being chased by a bear).

      Dang, girl! That race looks SICK! You are going to ROCK it…a trail/obstacle race is definitely on my list of “someday” goals! Good luck, and you have to tell me how it went! LOVE the team name…LOL…sounds like a blast!

  2. Oh! I was going to ask if you were going to this! I am going and NOT running for once but will be cheering on friends. I will definitely be looking to cheer you on. Wear a fancy skirt or something so I can recognize you :)

  3. Look at you with your multiple races in a weekend! You’re going to kick butt at Dopey!

  4. I just found your blog!
    My husband has had some foot pain and they told him the SAME THING! I’m glad the “diagnosis” helped you!
    I’m newer to the whole running thing (since November I have run my first and second ever Half Marathons and my first Marathon) so I just do what the running plans tell me to do. ;)

    • Hi Stephanie — thanks so much for reading, glad we connected! That’s good to hear re: the foot pain — not that your husband has it, of course, just to know that it IS manageable and not something super scary like a stress fracture!

      Congrats on your first two half marathons, and signing up for your first full! That’s awesome! I’m going to be training for the Dopey Challenge in Disney World (running pretty much all of the races that weekend, including the full marathon!), so it looks like we both have our work cut out for us. Looking forward to following your training! :)

Leave a Reply to Amy @ Writing While Running Cancel reply

*