Marathon Training Week 9

Miles: 35.18  Ice Baths: 1

Happy Halfway Point! I am unsure whether I am more amazed that I have completed 9 weeks of injury-free training, or that I have 9 MORE WEEKS TO GO. I’m going to go with completion and amazement.

This week had a pretty steep learning curve. Not the running kind, but the adjusting to real life kind. That’s right kids: School’s Back! While the pre-school week for teachers is exciting and busy, you can count on at least one mind numbing experience per day to catch back up on sleep. Administrators like to call these professional development or in-service meetings. I can’t really remember much – if anything – that I have learned through a school-based PD. I teach music, so I really don’t give a shit about ways to integrate online math games into everyday classes. I think the best school-based PD I ever attended was “How to work the copier”. No, really. Stop laughing. That actually happened. At one point in my career, I took to writing haiku during each early release day where we were blessed with 3 hours of PD before we could leave and do anything useful.

music is more fun

we should sing at school meetings

P.D. karaoke.

But, I digress. This week was about getting back into the swing of things. And there were NO meetings in which I could rest. And boy, do I need it. I realized that getting up 4 days of the week at 4:15 a.m. – running 6-7 – and then going to teach classes that include singing, dancing, and moving 10 times EACH DAY is not going to work. By Tuesday I took a 2 hour nap when I got home, and then went to bed at 9:00 p.m. Sorry, not functional. I’ve got one more month of heavy mileage before the blessed taper period where the miles begin to cut back. I need to be a real, working person during this month – not Zombie Mom. I think I’ve worked out a plan with the Hubster to run two nights per week and keep my early mornings to a manageable 5 a.m. Who knows, I’m grasping here.

Running wise, the week was meh. Nothing awesome, a few tearful I can’t do this runs, and lots of pulling up of the Big Girl Panties. Thursday’s tempo run was nothing more than getting my shoes on and trudging out the door. But I got out – I didn’t bail. The miles got under my feet. Just not as fast I they should have been. Not every week is the first week of school – it will get better.

For the long run, I hit a new mileage milestone: 17 miles. Every mile over 15 was a one-minute at a time bargain: just run for one minute then you can take a walk break – just. one. minute. I can’t say it was awesome, but it was fairly even up to the last mile: that was mostly a walk. It was the newest mileage, so I’m ok. I kept moving.

I came home and hopped in the pool – my favorite post run activity. The pool is not all that cold this time of year, but it is heavenly to get gravity off of my legs. Back floating takes an effort, as my legs are dead weight at that point. For the 16-miler two weeks ago, my legs cramped up so bad for the rest of the day, it was awful. So I took the plunge into my first ever ice bath! It wasn’t so bad – definitely need more ice next week, I only had 1 bag. But the best part was I didn’t have the squirmy-leg feeling that plagued me before. Add that to the two beers I downed before lunch, and even felt good enough to sweep and mop the floors later in the day. You know, Rockstar, Supermom, Cinderella – just another one of the nine lives I lead each week.