CIM Marathon Training: Week 4
Last week was the hardest of CIM training so far. I was recovering from the previous Sunday’s half marathon and was up in Big Bear with the cross country team that I coach Monday-Friday. While the runs in Big Bear are beautiful, the altitude was surprisingly hard for me this time around (usually altitude doesn’t affect me too much running wise).
The trails were beautiful and it was nice to have the extra time for second runs and recovery that usually gets pushed to the end of the to-do list with a little one. I was supposed to do a workout on Tuesday and Thursday but they got pushed to Wednesday and Friday because I just didn’t feel recovered from the race by Tuesday. This turned out to be a good choice because the Wednesday’s tempo went horribly! I couldn’t breathe, my legs were heavy and I felt like I was working much too hard for the paces I was hitting. Luckily, since my second workout had been pushed to Friday that meant I could wait to do it in the afternoon when I was back home at “sea level”. The 6x 3 mins on/2 mins off went much, much better and thankfully gave me the confidence boost I needed after Wednesday.
I also had my longest long run in 2ish years on Saturday and I’m surprised at how good 14 miles felt. I was really excited to hit 59.7 (<- kind of wanted to run .3 extra on my long run!) miles which is the most I’ve run in a week since before Liv was born!
We are officially 14 weeks away from CIM! Lots more work to do but excited about how things are going and ready to put in the work! 😀
Training Summary: 8/21/2017-8/27/2017
Monday – 6.5 miles @ 7:36 pace
Tuesday – [AM] 8 miles @ 7:44 pace [PM] 3 really hilly miles @ 8:24 pace + 20 mins core + 15 minutes Normatec
Wednesday – [AM] 9 mile tempo workout
2 mile warm-up, 6 mile tempo @ 6:19 avg (goal of 6:00), 1 mile cool-down
[PM] band exercises + core + 20 mins Normatec
Thursday – [AM] REALLY hill run – 7 miles @ 8:23 pace [PM] 3 miles @ 7:55 pace + 20 mins Normatec
Friday – 9 mile workout on the treadmill
2 mile warm-up, 6x 3 mins on/2 mins off (@ 5:33, 5:39, 5:29, 5:33, 5:32, 5:31 pace), 2.6 mile cool-down
Saturday – 14 mile long run on the treadmill @ 7:51 pace (set treadmill on slightly downhill setting to simulate the downhill nature of the CIM course)
Sunday – REST DAY!
TOTAL: 59.7 miles