We are now in single-digit territory for the number of weeks till the Twin Cities Marathon, and nine weeks feels both like forever and no time at all.

My mileage for this week topped out at 50, which is monumental for me. The last time I ran that many miles in a week was when I was training for the Two Oceans Ultramarathon. That was in 2012. Even though I ran another marathon between then and now, Chicago in 2015, my training was not as aggressive. I actually joked back then that I was halfassing the running, but this time, I am very much fullassing the training. I am building my mileage, spending time on the track, and focusing on tempo runs. I’ve even done a few strength workouts (but I could use to do more).

It wasn’t my intention to do 50, but I was so close at the end of the week that I couldn’t help but run a couple extra miles in order to get that big 5-0. To get here, I added mostly easy miles, which made this a pretty painless build up week.

One of my biggest goals in signing up for the marathon was to put a great deal of effort into the training. Almost like a coping mechanism, I wanted to immerse myself in the process of building a training place, improving my recovery, and giving what I could to each workout, hard ones and easy ones. Hitting that 50-milestone, without injury, was proof that my body can handle the mileage and that I am doing what I set out to do.

At the end of this week, I am tired. On top of running 50 miles, I worked nearly 50 hours between my two jobs and took a final exam to finish out my summer semester. This week will likely be as intense as I took a few extra shifts to make up for a vacation I am going on the following week, and so I’ve schedule out all of my runs and recovery time. I am starting to get nervous about fitting in my training when school starts back up, but that is still a few weeks off. For now, I need to revel in and celebrate a great training week.

Weeks to Marathon: Nine
Miles: 50
Goals: My workouts are starting to get longer, so I made sleep a bigger priority for the week. This meant scheduling out every hour of my day, including commute and shower time, and being less social, but it helped me to get bed early for the next day runsAlso, the weather wasn’t too terrible that I felt like I had to start each run at 5 a.m. so I could sleep until 6 or 6:30, which helped.

Monday: Shakeout – 6 miles – I can barely remember this run, it was that insignificant. Just an out and back with the weekend’s podcasts to get my legs ready for the week.

Tuesday: Tempo + Hills — 10 — The TC Marathon has more elevation, inclines, and hills than the entire landscape of Chicago, but I am trying to get some practice on hills. There is one specific hill near the Lakefront that most people use as their practice, so I decided to run there one morning for repeats. To add more to the workout, I threw in six slightly-slower-than tempo miles as part of my run to the hill and back (which is about four miles from my house) and then 8 hill repeats.

Wednesday: Yoga with Adrienne. I’ve been terrible about doing yoga in this training cycle, but this 30-minute video for tired legs did help me stretch a bit and my legs were a bit more restored for the next day.

Thursday: Ladder Run — 7 — This workout always seems so easy on my schedule, but it is a beast. It’s 3 minutes at 5K pace, then 3 minutes at recovery pace, which is 30 slower than long run pace. You build up to 4/4, then 5/5, and finally work back down to 4/4 and 3/3. I wanted my 5K pace to be around 8:05, but it was a struggle to get there at times. So, I did what I could and tried not to let my recovery pace get too slow.

Friday: Easy Run – 5 – We were up before the sun on this one, but I did five quite easy miles with some members of my neighborhood running group.

Saturday: Long Run – 16 – A day or two before this run, I posted to the message boards of the neighborhood running group about finding water fountains in Evanston and further north, explaining I was running 16 miles and wanted to avoid the Lakefront Path (it’s nightmarish on Saturday mornings). I couldn’t run with CES this week, so I figured this would be on my own, which is usually when I get in my own head and have awful runs. However, after that post, four people offered to run parts of it with me. We ended up creating a little train in which we picked people up along the way, and it was really great. Also, I ran this a bit slower than my usual long runs, and it honestly helped with the recovery along with having to go to work after and be on my feet for several hours. My legs were not trashed, and I definitely felt like I could keep going. Lastly, I tried a few new nutrition options and decided to only take water instead of Nuun, which I have been running with. That worked really well, in addition to the GU I took before hand and the Cliff Blocks along the way. If you haven’t tried the GU Roctane Cold Brew Gel, you absolutely must. It’s amazing. All in all, a good run.

Sunday: Shakeout – 5.6 – I originally planned to run four, but decided to get to add a little extra to make that 50-mile mark. This was a nice, easy run with some members of my neighborhood running group. Running with people makes me happy.

Next week’s goals: My long run is 18, and I really hoping to focus on negative splitting it. I want to start more conservative and build from there. Another very busy week so again working on the rest. I want to keep my mileage right around the same level, but I will need to take cues from my body.