Week 2! Mississauga Marathon Training

After a great first week, I was ready to head into week two with continued enthusiasm.

The first day went great!

Monday: Rest - DONE!

Tuesday: Tempo run at lunch time on the treadmill. This was a good run. I used my goal race time (4hr marathon) to pick a tempo (5:25/km or 8:42/mi) to start with and pushed myself through 20 minutes at Tpace while watching Food network. 6.44k, 37:40.

Wednesday: Mid-long tempo run with the group. Well, the group and I ran the same route. Well, we all started and ended up at the store. I met up with the group and got the 10k map. I asked if anyone was going to run tempo per the plan and two ladies who had never run tempo said, "Why not!" I was pleased that I'd have partners as Tempo runs can be very challenging at the end (if you're doing them correctly). After a 15 minute easy run with the group, the ladies and I started. Within a minute, one had dropped out. We got stopped for a light at 3 minutes in and the next one was also history. I guess the pace was too much for them (though the lady who lasted 3 minutes wants to BQ with Mississauga at a 3hr40min, so she should be able to hit this pace right now in my humble opinion). I didn't let the lack of company keep me from staying with the 20 minutes of tempo. I WAS surprised that the clinic leader didn't come with me for a bit, but oh well. I ended up missing a turn in the dark, but make it back to the store and got the 10k in as I know the neighbourhood well. I perfectly hit my pace at 5:23/km for the 20 minute tempo part even though the last four minutes almost killed me. 10.15k, 1:01:25.

Thursday: Group discussion about shoes that ran the gambit into barefoot running! Then we were off for 6k easy. I took it easy, staying with the same four people from my half marathon group. 6.15k, 40:08.

Friday: Rest! I had my final physio appointment in the morning and it felt great to get my quad and IT band worked on. My knees have made great progress with the increased and new stretches so I'm going to (hopefully) only use physio strategically now around/after races for massage therapy.

Saturday: This day could have ended up being a gong show of running, but it wasn't. I had planned to meet with Alison from the group in our town and get the LSD in. But she forgot about her son's gymnastics class that would have conflicted with our agreed upon time. I couldn't go when she was free as my oldest had late hockey practice. Then, there was the weather. It was the first real cold, windy day and I didn't really feel like running outside at all. I had decided to do the shorter run of the weekend and almost went to the gym, but managed to suck it up and get outside. I was rewarded by being perfectly dressed and being able to run in the glorious sun! 8k, 49:39.

Sunday: Dawned early as Fergus, 17 months, was up at 0530. Sunday's are my day to sleep in, so I stayed in bed until 0615 and then got up, got dressed, ate and got out for my LSD. As the temperature was the same as Saturday (-15c), but there was no wind, I wore the same thing as the day before. I also wore my brand new 4 bottle endurance belt that I picked up in the States at TJ Maxx for $3!!! I loved running with this belt! It made me run a lot straighter as I had the reminder at my waist. The run sped by as I thought of the million things and the nothings that you think about when you run alone. I only needed one GU and had more than enough water. I was super frosty by the end with snow on my hat, gloves and coat and my legs were cold as I only had on one pair of winter tights, but I was fine otherwise:

18k, 1:55:46.

So, that's week #2! 16 more to go!

Are you training for anything right now? How is your training going? Do you ever rethink your run distance or place based on weather?

Total KM: 48.74
Total time: 5:04:38
Ave pace per KM: 0:06:15