You Are Going to Want to Give Up ... Don't

When I first started my marathon training I didn’t think it was going to be this hard. I mean I knew it was going to be hard but I thought the hard part was behind me. You know the increase in mileage seemed really hard but truth be known the taper is my hardest part.

I have reached my maximum mileage of 22 miles and now it seems hard to get out there for my long runs. I try to justify it by saying you’ve already ran 22 miles so this 18 isn’t worth running. When in reality the taper is just as important in the training process.

I have to keep reminding myself that I am going to want to give up, but not to. Though 13 miles seems easy and not worth doing every run on the taper is just as important and just as needed as the runs leading up to your longest mile.

Week 11 of training didn’t go as planned.

Monday I did a little bit of catch up on the last week and did some Nike Training Club, Get Strong Gladiator to be exact. The Gladiator always scares me because of the amount of shoulder strength needed to do this workout. It is lots of sumo squats and planks and medicine ball push-ups. Once I am done it I always feel accomplished so that is a plus.

Tuesday I conquered a 4 mile run on my lunch break. I was so impressed with my pace, I pulled out a 7’31”/mile pace. All in all I killed it and it felt good. I love that I am running fast and strong on these short runs, I just wish that would transition into my longer runs. Wednesday I did another 4 mile run and this time did it with a pace of 7’48”/mile. I am always happy with a run if I keep it under an 8’00”/mile pace. 

Thursday morning Jamie and I met for some hills. We did the 5 this morning. They were hard I kept feeling like I was going to get sick, but I beat a cyclist up the hill at one point and that made me proud. I always get happy when I can beat a person on bike lol. Thursday at lunch I also did some ab workouts. The Jeanette Jenkins and Joselynne Boschen, they are my two favorite ab workouts on the app.

The weekend was supposed to be a 16 mile run but due to my company participating in Calgary Corporate Challenge I was unable to run Saturday morning. I was signed up to participate in basketball. One thing you should know about me. I am not a team sport person. I played basketball on a team once and I accidently broke a girls arm. My parents put me in single sports after that. I show up to the basketball game in my Nike capri’s, it was cold that day and I didn’t want to feel chilly. We were down by 10 going into the last 2 minutes of the game and our team came back to win the game by 2 points, however due to having too many people playing we had to forfeit the game. So sadly we lost. Sunday morning I woke up and was feeling super sick and wasn’t able to run. I was so disappointed in myself for missing my run.

I hope your week of training is going well so far. Only 25 days left until the Nike Women’s Marathon.

Happy Training.