Marathon training is slowly taking over my life, and eight weeks into the work, I thought it would be good idea to set a time aside at the end of the week to recap my workouts. I’ve been really putting in the effort this cycle, and I want to celebrate my accomplishments but also look at the lessons learned and apply those in the upcoming training week. It probably would have made sense to start writing recaps at the beginning of my training, but I guess I just didn’t think of it, and because it’s never too late, we are starting here, at week eight of training.

First, let’s talk about the race – the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. I live in Chicago, home to one of the acclaimed majors, which I’ve run, but decided to tackle my third marathon in another state. This was partly because Chicago’s lottery opens in November, and at that time, I was still easing back into running after nearly a year off recovering from a hip surgery, so I couldn’t commit to the marathon. The other part is that I really wanted to run the Twin Cities Marathon. I am from South Dakota and grew up in a devoted Minnesota Twins family, so we made many trips to The Cities as kids. In college, we often took random trips there to shop or go to concerts, and now my brother lives there and it’s a good meeting spot for us and our South Dakota family.

When I started getting healthier and stronger and I realized that I could definitely do another marathon, I did not hesitate in registering for the TC race. Because many Chicago runners have to find alternative races in they can’t get into our city’s marathon, many have run the TC Marathon, and they ALWAYS have great things to say about it. Some of my family will be there, and it promises to be a gorgeous race. Plus, it’s the week before Chicago, so I can run there and then be home to cheer on friends and teammates.

Anyway, let’s look at this week’s training:

Weeks to Marathon: 10
Miles: 38.7
Goals: This was a cutback week, so my goal was to bring down my mileage (from 43 the week before) and concentrate on rest and recovery. This meant lots of naps between runs and work, and a full rest day in which I barely left my apartment, but they helped. I am still tired at the end of this week, but it’s not the same kind of desperate exhaustion that I felt last week.

Monday: Shakeout – 5 miles – Nothing special here, just doing the easy miles. One thing that I did really great this week was slowing down my easier runs. I’ve been known to go too hard on recovery days, so putting my watch on the HR setting and keep it in the green has helped me slow down a bit.

Tuesday: Tempo with a friend 6 (2 WU, 3 tempo, 2 CD) – I did these with a CES friend around mid-day. We tried to keep them between 8:45-8:30, and it was a struggle, but we got them in. It was nice to have someone push me on these tempo runs and make me want to go faster.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Neighborhood Group Run – 9 miles – This was supposed to be six but it turned into 9, and I was OK with it. Because I was committed to cutting back, this longer run meant that I needed to adjust the rest of the week’s runs, but it was worth it to run with some pretty fast badass women.

Friday: Fartleks – 3.6 miles – I did half of these at a mini track (.10 distance) and the other half on the street. At one point, I saw 5:45 on my watch, which seems impossible but also not. This was also the workout in which I joined the #SportsBraSquad. I did some strength work after that made my glutes hurt for days.

Saturday: Easy miles with Neighborhood Running Group – 3 miles – I went slooooooww, but I knew that my legs needed it.

Sunday: Long Run with Training Team – 11 miles – I woke up for this workout hating running and wanting to quit, but I did not. I made myself eat a bagel, get in my car and drive, and keep running that first painful mile, But, by mile five or so, I was feeling great. This ended up being a great run. I did try to experiment with salt tabs, but I didn’t take it with another water and got a mouth full of salt. Something to try for next week.

Next week’s goals: I’m increasing my mileage and a bit worried about fitting runs in with two jobs and a final. My goal this week is time management and making sure I get enough rest.