Ottawa Marathon Week 8!!!

Time is just ticking away and I can honestly say that this week was amazing! I had emailed back and forth with Coach Phaedra at the beginning of the week, saying that I'd have to move my long run to Sunday as my son was still playing in the OMHA finals on the weekend. The Milton Winterhawks were up 2-0 and if they won on Saturday in Alliston, they'd win the entire championship! Then, the team organized a bus to take the team and family members to the game. And Saturday was my birthday (38! Last chance to get to Boston in the under 40 club is this year)! Then, my husband and I decided to invite the entire team back to our place on Saturday night win, lose or draw!

So... I took Friday to work from home and Phaedra moved my week around so that I could run long on Friday.

Which turned out to be a great decision considering this:

The team won in overtime, due to a shot MY SON took while dumping the puck and heading to the bench. I seriously wish I had worn a heart rate monitor during this game because I totally had my heart rate over 200 BMP at times. It was super exciting!

Anyway! On to the week of training.

Monday: I did NOT want to get on my spin bike for the my 45 minutes of cross training, but I did. I felt much better for it after!

Tuesday: This was a recovery week! So I "only" had to run 10k at a moderate pace. The goal was 5:25-5:30 and I was amazed when I hit it even after the first 3k were slow.


Wednesday: Hills! Back to Thomas Street for the first time in a year and I went up and down 7 times. It was awesome! I can't believe how fast I was! My average pace was 5:39/km for the 12.15k

Thursday: Rest day! Don't mind if I do!

Friday: Long run! It was going to be an early one and also a challenging one as it was my first time running such a distance alone (27k), and I was determined to hit the paces Phaedra had prescribed: 5:30-5:35/km

BOOM! 5:33/km on average and I felt good throughout. Confidence grows!

Saturday: Rest day. Birthday. Championship day.

Sunday: My fitbit tells me I slept 6.5hrs. I sure as heck drank a lot on Saturday, but I must have also followed up with a lot of food and water because I woke up absolutely fine. I spent the morning tidying up the house (which was actually pretty darn clean, just FULL of empty bottles, LOL). Then, my champion Alasdair and I went and took care of one of the things he wanted to do the second the hockey season was over:

Finally it was time to run. Man, I was tired and did not want to. But the day was glorious and sunny if a bit windy and cold. Off I went. I played wind roulette and won! And I ended up with a progression 5:46-5:43-5:35-5:32-5:22-5:13. I'm still not quite sure how the heck that happened, but man it feels good!

In total, I ran 55.18km in 5:06:35 with a 45min spin and a 46:30 minute heart rate busting final game. What a truly fantastic week!

This week brings Around The Bay! I can't wait. I love this race. Considering the long runs I've put together in the past three weeks, I'm looking to go in and own the plan Coach Phaedra gave me for this one.