Halfway to Nike Women's Marathon

I normally like to post my weekly updates no later than a few days after the weekend, however my life is being consumed by a Customer appreciation event I am hosting for a lot of important Oil and Gas people. The event is tomorrow and this is the first moment of quiet I have got in the past few weeks.

Last Monday was a fairly easy day with a yoga class. Instead of doing an actual yoga class I just spent an hour doing some stretching and Sun Salutations. I really needed to get in a good stretch. All the running I have been doing lately has been really hard on the body especially the legs. I know my body was thankful I just spent an hour going into a stretch and holding it. It felt really nice. Ever since I was a swimmer I have been a fan of sun salutations. If you haven’t ever tried them you should.

Tuesday brought me some Nike Training Club, which I was thankful for. I am getting so close to hitting the 10,000 Nike Training Club minute mark. I feel like I have been working forever to hit the 10,000 mark and I think I will finally hit it sometime in the month of September. I used to fear The Get Strong workouts in Nike Training Club mainly because there isn’t a whole lot of cardio and a lot of body strength. Having Marie put them in there for me to do have made a huge difference. I still really enjoy the Get Toned and Get Lean ones a lot more but I no longer shy away from doing Get Strong.

Wednesday was a hill run day. I live in Calgary. We are close to the mountains. Like I can see them from my balcony but far enough away that we are still pretty flat. I have been doing hill sprints on a smaller but steep hill. It’s a hill that is commonly used for running in Calgary. Don’t get me wrong it is by no means small; there is a set of stairs that is connected to the hill because some people prefer to run this instead, the stairs are 11 stories high. I had to run this hill 8 times. My times were as followed:

·         Lap 1 – 3:21

·         Lap 2 – 3:29

·         Lap 3 – 3:26

·         Lap 4 – 3:28

·         Lap 5 – 3:27

·         Lap 6 – 3:08

·         Lap 7 – 3:31

·         Lap 8 – 5:25

My last lap I am pretty sure I must have walked it looking at my time. I was tired, the hill murdered me. I think I am going to add in a few more hill workouts into my training. I looked at the Nike Women’s Marathon route and it is very hilly, a few more hills couldn’t hurt me.

Thursday was a 6 mile run day for me. I was actually extremely happy for a 6 mile run as I had a 22 miler coming up on Saturday. My 6 miler actually went really well. I ran it in 49:18 with a pace of 8’12”/mile. I really want this to be my race pace for the marathon that is what I will be working up to in the next few weeks.

Friday was a yoga rest day. To be honest I had good intentions of doing yoga when I got home from work but I had such a headache and I didn’t feel 100% I ended up just taking the night off and resting so that when Saturday morning came I was ready to go for 22 miles. Saturday marked the first day of September and my longest run for the Nike Women’s marathon. I was running 22 miles and I was scared to death. I had such a horrible 20 mile run I was really worried about my 22. Meho ran with me once again and from the beginning the run felt better. I felt stronger. By the time we got to downtown my legs were still feeling strong. I had pizza the night before for supper I think this helped a lot giving me carbs for energy. Meho kept slowing me down when I wanted to pick up the pace. He knew how far I had to run and he kept saying I need to save some of my legs for later. By the time I hit the 14 mile mark I was starting to feel the effects of running for an extended period of time. My body was getting that flu like feeling and my legs were starting to build lactic acid. Around the 15 mile mark I started more of a walk run. I would run for two songs and walk for about 30 seconds. It was a constant pattern until I reached the finish. I wish I would have ran the whole thing but I don’t think my body would have been too happy about it.

I feel my training is going great. I am really proud of how far I have come. 15 weeks ago running 22 miles was a scary thought and yes it is still scary I am so proud of myself for being able to do it. My goal for my marathon is not to stop running at all to keep going until I cross that finish line with a smile on my face.