Have I already trained for the Chicago Marathon for seven weeks now? It seems like just yesterday I was fretting over my first long training run.
Here’s how the week went …
Week 7:
Tuesday Wednesday / Track Easy Run
After running 18 miles, going to St. Pete Beach for my Sister’s bachelorette weekend, then coming back to Orlando to pull an all-nighter on a project, I was exhausted on Monday. While on my 3rd cup of black coffee at work, I decided I needed a good night’s worth of sleep Monday night. I texted my group and let them know I was going to skip the morning run and run that night instead.
Tuesday I woke up feeling a million times better. And I fully intended on running that night after work … except that later that afternoon I received some fantastic news that required some celebrating. In fact, my husband insisted we celebrate so I decided to run Wednesday instead.
By the time I finally started my run Wednesday night, my legs had several days of rest from the previous Saturday’s 18-miler. Apparently that wasn’t enough. My legs felt like lead. I had to keep looking down to make sure they were moving. Also, I ran by myself and was feeling lonely. So naturally I talked to myself.
- Distance: 3.29 mi
- Time: 39:40.24
- Avg Pace: 12:03/mi
Thursday / Tempo Run (5 mi)
I guess everyone was jealous of my sleeping in on Tuesday morning so they decided to all take the morning off on Thursday. Two days of running by myself? Ugh.
It was hot, muggy and my legs were still feeling like lead. I decided to run with intervals (5:1) and there was no tempo in my step.
- Distance: 5 mi
- Time: 01:03:55
- Avg Pace: 12:47/mi
Saturday / Long Run (12 mi)
Friday after work I came home to find a special package waiting for me: new shoes. While looking through some old receipts, I realized that I had gotten my last pair of Nike Frees last October which put me on nine months of running with the same shoes (though only two of those were marathon training months). I immediately started to scour the internet for another pair of my Nike Free 3.0 shoes and found some on sale at RunningWarehouse.com. I’m considering stocking up on another pair since this shoe has been so good to me!
So Saturday morning I woke up, ate a an egg-and-oatmeal pancake, got dressed and threw on my new running shoes:
Nike Free 3.0
I know… I shouldn’t wear a brand new pair of running shoes on a long run. But since this is my third pair of these shoes, I had 100% faith in them being a perfect fit. I was right. They fit like a glove and I had zero issues with them. But don’t try this at home kids.
I was so busy trying on the new shoes before I left the house that I forgot to grab my borrowed Garmin. And the only other runner that has a Garmin and ran the full 12 miles had her battery die halfway through our run. It was weird running long without any concept of time. But before I knew it, the run was over!
- Distance: 12-ish mi
- Time: it took us a while
- Avg Pace: snail pace
Cross-Training
Nothing. Nada. Insert shame here.
My schedule is going to be crazy these next couple of weeks, which will call for some shifting of my training runs. I just hope that when it’s all said and done, my husband doesn’t find me asleep with my face in my dinner.
I Sweat Pretty 
I like those shoes…………..the laces really stand out
Thanks! Let’s hope their neon color keep the cars away.