Wow we are officially half way through my second dopey training and honestly these past 3 weeks since my last post have been some of the hardest! Week 6 I got my Disney gift card and was so full of belief and confidence and well a really freaking hard run in week 7 has messed with me tough! So lets break this all down and chat all things week 7-9!
Week 7:
Week 7 was jump in weekday milage and our second one! we went from our 3,6,3 in week 6 to 4,7,4 in week 7 and at first it really didn't mess with me mentally, I welcomed it as I knew with the increase it meant one week close to race weekend! The week day runs went well and Saturdays 6 is when it all changed for me. Our weather drastically changed this week as you can see in the photo we went from summer to winter in a week and with that came lots of wind and rain as well as below 50 temps. This run I also chaffed pretty tough which hadn't happened in a long time, thank you weird stitching! It hurt and I knew that 16 was going to be a challenge but I felt ready for it. We got up earlier than we have been and the first 13 miles I CRUSHED I was feeling so good on a very challenge course until... we hit a hill that I mentally wasn't prepared for! You see with these long runs Saturday nights my hubby and I sit down and map it all out the roads, trails, all of it, I start visualizing each part of it and with this run we both forgot about a MASSIVE hill that we would need to climb at 16 and did not realize that the road we would be on would have a very gradual incline (thanks garmin for showing us this after!) That hill kicked my butt and that is when the self doubt the fear of failing and the hard that is marathon training took over and has been these past 2 weeks! I was comfortable and strong that entire run and even had my last mile as a sub10 pace but when I say it messed with me mentally, babe it messed with me and is still if I am 10000% transparent with you!
Week 8:
Week 8, YAYYY! A cut back week! we had our 4,7,4 and then a 10 mile on Saturday. I was pretty discouraged going into this week after the run on Sunday and honestly it wasn't my best week, but something I can say about week 8 is I got my adorable new Marathoner tank top from Sarah Marie Design Studios (ARIEL save you 10%), and I also took some time to really appreciate how far I have come with this journey ever since I signed up for the princess half back in 2015! This week all the runs I did on the treadmill due to the nasty weather and my partner in crime being out for running. Each day it was just telling myself one run at a time and that is just what I did, I accomplished each mile and I am celebrating getting through it! Yes you pay hundreds of dollars to run these races, and know what a privilege it is to be able to have a body that will do it, but it doesn't take away how far it is and how many mental hurdle you have to over come to get to that start line! I complain, I share the hard and I know how incredible it is that I can do this, and I remind myself of that each and every run sometimes that is the only thing that gets me through them!
Week 9:
We are going to call this the breakdown week because well I did just that and honestly it was probably the best dang thing for me! Week 9 we had the training mixed up yet again lol! We are now on to 3 days on our big long run weekends so its 4 on Tuesday, 7 on Wednesday, 2 on Friday, 7 on Saturday, 17 on Sunday, this is the last big step before we do the dopey stimulation in which we do 4 days and the miles double each day (just like race weekend). The 4, 7 and 2 were fine, it was the just get them done type runs again. 7 and 17 are where it got really hard, I mentioned that our weather drastically challenged well this weekend it was 40's with headwind and down pour. We lost power Friday night which meant Saturday we got a very late start as it didn't come back on, we got the 7 in even got to hurdle some fallen trees and I felt ok mentally. That didn't last long though, Sunday we got up it was so COLD and the rain was ROUGH, before we got started I really questioned whether or not I would complete these miles, I know that its important to get some training in, in all kinds of weather because you never know what race day will bring and I also did not want to be on a treadmill for 2+ hours. We decided to do an out and back course as I really didn't know what I was going to be able to do. We got to 2 and I lost it, so much doubt, so much fear, so much of wanting to run this race weekend well, and better than the last one took over me and I broke down, THANK GOD for my incredible husband who knew exactly what my mind was needing to hear and for taking a half mile walk break with me just to get my head back into some sort of space that would allow me to do this thing. We got to 6 and I told him let's turn around, I was done I was so wet cold and miserable that I just wanted to finish it out on the treadmill. So we did and once we hit 10 the rain let up for us, we had a couple errands to run so I ditched some of the wet clothes and ran another mile to target getting me 13.1 in and only needing the 4 when we got home, which I did! The 17 was not pretty but you know something I went out there I did it, there was NO ONE else on that trail until the rain was almost completely gone, I pushed through the barriers that where holding me back and I did that 17 miles earning my 3rd Disney Gift card reward! I also used this week to finalize outfits that I will be wearing for race weekend ordering some last minute items that I want and that helped so much with the excitement for it as well as seeing so many kick off this RunDisney race season at Wine and Dine which I will be at next year!
We are now half way through this training cycle and I am getting so excited to crush this thing yet again, as hard as these last 3 weeks have been I know that they are what make that race day so much sweeter when you cross that finish line and realize all you have accomplished in the 18+ weeks you have been training!
Until next time babe
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