Marathon Training - Week 4 & Real Beer 5K Race Report

Summary of Weekly Miles

Monday - 3 miles, 27:40, 9:13 min/mile, done at 5:45 am before work!

Tuesday - 6 miles, 54:43, 9:07 min/mile (HR was a bit high at 155 bpm) - I didn't have class this Tuesday so I ran after work. It was HOT. On Monday I bought a kiddie pool at Target and on Tuesday I blew it up, filled it up, and dunked myself in it after my run. Thinking about that kiddie pool is what got me through the run. We then had a pretty raging storm that night which the kiddie pool survived!

you're never too old

Wednesday -  3 miles, 27:47, 9:16 min/mile

Thursday - 6.2 miles, 57:11, 9:13 min/mile, HR 146 - This was hill repeat day. I ran the ~2 miles from my house to the Bay Park West entrance on Orchard Park Blvd. (this hill was recommended to me by Richard and it was PERFECT). It was exactly a quarter mile long, steep, and shaded the entire way. I did 4 hill repeats and then ran home. I was dreading this workout all day (especially after Rich told me he couldn't go) but I sucked it up and did it anyways (I suppose that is the joy of marathon training) and REALLY enjoyed myself!

here are my hill repeats - not so impressive

this is the elevation profile of the ADK Marathon which is WHY I NEED TO DO HILL REPEATS

Friday - off

Saturday - 5.90 miles, 45:46 (total time) - I ran the Real Beer 5K at Park Point. It started at 10 am, so I showed up at about 9 and ran 3 warm-up miles and then ran the race. The course was short so I don't really know what my time would have been (which I am bummed about) but it would have been 21:XX I am fairly certain, which shows improvement for me for sure. (My Garmin read 2.91 miles and my finish time was 20:17, at 6:59 pace). I ended up taking 3rd place female (small race) and won a free entry to the Boilermaker! So I'm pretty psyched about that! Need to work on my 5K pacing.

Sunday - 13 miles, 1:59:45, 9:12 min/mile, HR 151 - This felt pretty good. I felt like I ran strong, handled the mid-day heat well (didn't run until around 11 am), and ran a consistent pace. My legs started to get achy at about 11 miles but I cured that with a lovely ice bath in my kiddie pool after the run with some chocolate milk and Gatorade.

post-long run recovery - felt AMAZING

Week 4 Mileage: 37.1
Total Training Cycle Mileage: 114.38

I would say this week went really well for me. The kiddie pool was a fabulous idea and I think it will get much use this summer. I like that my miles are creeping upwards and I am still feeling good. I don't think I've ever run more than 40 miles per week so I'm excited to hit that and keep going! Life-wise, things are going well. I am extremely busy between work (has been a little nuts lately), marathon training, and school. But it is GOOD busy and not "rip my hair out stressful" busy (like it was training for Wineglass) so I can handle it. I flop into bed every night exhausted from my day but also smiling. Truth be told, I haven't felt this good about things in a while. I'm glad I've made it back to this place. Took long enough! Life has its ups and downs and sometimes you really just have to suck it up through the downs (and not dwell on them) to get back to the ups.

Real Beer 5K Race Report

I don't really think this deserves its own entry so I'm sticking it here. I entered it as a low key event to see how my training is progressing and to try to win the Boilermaker Entry that was advertised as the prize for first place. The Airport 5K which is a Rochester Runner of the Year series event was also on Saturday so I knew fast people would go to that race and that I *might* have a shot at the 5K with "beer" in the title. I ended up in 3rd place at this race, was passed at about mile 1 by one lady and in the last mile by another one. I am very disappointed that the course was short because now I can't use this 5K as a benchmark like I wanted to, but I ended up winning the Boilermaker entry because no one else wanted it! That would be me - claiming the prize reject! Also got a fun blue t-shirt and a free pint glass (and a free beer afterwards).

Update: After fiddling with McMillan, I extrapolated my expected finish time using my average pace from the 5K to be 21:43. That is 45 seconds faster than my 5K from May (22:32). So that makes me happy, and anxious to keep up my training!!

new McMillan predicted times based off of this 5K!

pretty sweet colored T-shirt

smiling and leading a pack of runners!

I'm basically an Eggers

me and my "real beer"

After racing, I hung out for a while at Lovin' Cup and then went to meet my homework/study partner at the lab at RIT. She raced the Airport 5K and it is safe to say that she is WAY the hell faster than me. But it's nice to have someone to study with who has other things in common too! We were there for 5 hours and finally left after finishing most of the homework and we were both fried I think. I went home and crashed on my couch for the rest of the evening. Ran long the next day, did some studying, and went to Jazz Fest in the evening which was fun! That wrapped up my week!