Bellingham Bay Marathon Training: Week 6 – Ode to The Running System

In this post: I had a great running system from my old apartment before I moved. Also, I nailed 2×2 miles, did OK at 10×200 and my 14-miler sucked.

Ode to a Perfect Warm Up/Cool Down System
I moved to a new apartment on June 30, but before that I had my running plan all worked out. There were two routes I could take to get to Liberty State Park from my old place – a one mile route and a two mile route. This turned out to be absolutely perfect based on how my runs were usually set up.

Most of the time, I’d have a two mile warm up and a one mile cool down. That meant I could take the two mile route to the park, begin the “meat” of the workout, turn around halfway through, and then when I was done take the one mile route home for my cool down.

No thinking, no brainwork, no calculations involved. And no extra walking at the end. It was perfect.

Now, I’m in a MUCH better apartment in a much better location (and closer to the park!), but without my perfect little system. I will miss the system, but I won’t miss anything else about the old place. Not even the pool.

On that note, here were last week’s workouts:

Week 6: June 23 – June 29

• Monday – Maintenance legs + easy 4 miles (42:00)
• Tuesday – 2 mile warm up, 2×2 miles at 8:00-8:10 with 5 min active recovery, 1 mile cool down
• Wednesday – Refine
• Thursday - OFF
• Friday – 2 mile warm up, 10×200, 1 mile cool down
• Saturday – 14 miles (1:26:37)
• Sunday – OFF

Total (running) miles: 29.87

Summary of Week 6 running:

This week was actually a milestone – June 28 marked three months until the Bellingham Bay Marathon! I can’t believe how fast it’s approaching. And after a tough week before involving a total failure of a tempo run, I needed a confidence boosting run. Badly.

And that is just what I got on Tuesday! Even though I was nervous for this run – 2 mile warm up, 2×2 miles at 8:00-8:10 with 5 min active recovery, 1 mile cool down – I also knew this was my kind of workout. I have a whole other post drafted about this topic, and I mentioned it a little two weeks ago, but basically it comes down to this: I struggle with shorter track workouts but I tend to do well on extremely-challenging-but-attainable paces for somewhat longer intervals. I think I’m good at mentally pushing through discomfort (which is why I like marathons) but not as great as physically pushing through discomfort (which is why I don’t like shorter, faster races as much).

Since we went directly from winter to summer this year, the humidity has been rough throughout most of my training. But I was sick of making excuses and hoped I could get through this despite the weather. I took my perfect 2 mile warm up to the park and got going. I kept reminding myself it was just 16 minutes of pain. 16 minutes isn’t that long, I could do it.

The first 2 miles were hard, but I had a lovely reward of 5 minutes of rest waiting for me. I fought through the pain, tried not to look at my watch too much (and succeeded! I barely looked) and I was so thrilled to hit that recovery.

(1) 2 miles: 8:13

A success! Sure, it’s 3 seconds off what my plan said but what’s 3 seconds on a humid day? MUCH MORE THAN THREE SECONDS IN REAL LIFE. Trust me. And I’m running a marathon in a place that doesn’t even get humid.

I walked through the five minute active recovery; I was way too spent to try and jog it. I also like walking recoveries because I can stretch my neck while I walk. I also guzzled quite a bit of Ultima. It was hot and it was humid! At the end of the five minutes I felt refreshed and ready to tackle the next two miles, knowing that it was just another 16 minutes of pain before I could jog home.

As soon as I started running again, I felt faster and lighter on my feet. That recovery did wonders! I did have to stop for a few seconds in the middle of this set to massage/stretch out a side stitch, but once I did that I was good to go for the rest. Despite starting out feeling so great, this set was much more difficult than the first. I was tired, I was hot, I was out of breath and I wanted to be done. I was looking at my watch way more often than the first set. I pushed through because, really, what’s another 16 minutes? And…

(2) 2 miles: 8:00

NAILED IT!!! The feeling at the end, when I looked down and saw my pace and know I gave this run everything I had and ran exactly how my plan said – AMAZING.

I jogged (hobbled?) home feeling accomplished and strong, and more ready for my sub-4 marathon goal than I have been in awhile.

That brings me to my next run – 10×200. Eek! Well, 200 meters are by far my favorite of the track workouts because the pain is over quicker. But it’s still really hard for me. I don’t enjoy it. The pain, the gasping for air between intervals, the nausea. I do these workouts because they will make me a stronger runner, but I have never hit a pace I’d like to see. No matter how hard I push, I can never seem to get there.

All that said, this workout wasn’t too bad! Again, I ran my two mile route to the park and then got going. Even with the pain, I felt better during this workout than during my previous track workouts this training cycle. Again, it was VERY humid but I can’t escape that. I would try to tell myself “by the time you get to that tree you’ll be done” or “that bench will be about halfway” to make these intervals seem less daunting. Does everyone do that? Do you?

During my very last 200 I ran past a woman, and when I finished she came up to me and said, “Nice job. Next time, try swinging your arms more.” How nice is that? Free coaching! I will definitely try her suggestion next time. So, even though I didn’t hit the paces I would like, I did do MUCH better than my last attempt at 200s.

1 – 0:50
2 – 0:51
3 – 0:49
4 – 0:48
5 – 0:50
6 – 0:50
7 – 0:46
8 – 0:46
9 – 0:51
10 – 0:47

And lastly, I had my longest long run to date – 14 miles. Every second of this run sucked.  It was SO HOT at 6:40 am when I left with the sun beating down on me. I couldn’t get enough water and kept draining my handheld bottle (I usually don’t need to drink that much or refill very often during training runs, I must have been dehydrated). My stomach hurt a lot, and after mile 7 I couldn’t run faster than 10:30 without my stomach cramping up. My neck ached at times. It just sucked. The good part was that I ran miles 8-13 with my friend Miranda and chatting with her helped take my mind off the misery.

But by the time I got to the end I felt more miserable than ever and couldn’t wait to stop. The only upside of this run (aside from finishing it, which is always a good thing) was ending at my favorite breakfast place in Jersey City, Sam A.M.

Even Larry loved it!

Mmmm grease

And jus like that, I finished another week of marathon training!

In other running news, Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, the subject of Unbroken (one of the BEST books I’ve ever read, and the movie comes out later this year) died at age 97. His story is absolutely incredible – for being a record-breaking runner who succeeded against all odds and competed in the 1936 Olympics, but especially for his experience as a World War II POW in Japan who survived against SO MANY ODDS. Including being on a boat for 47 days and being treated in ways you can’t imagine at the POW camp – and having his future Olympic dreams crushed in the process. It’s an amazing, inspiring book that anyone would love, but runners might appreciate even more. As a runner myself, I know I did.

And finally, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who helped me reach my goal to run the NYC Marathon for the American Cancer Society Team DetermiNation in memory of my Aunt Dale. I am so grateful and amazed by how generous people are. I’m excited to get a second chance at this race and honored to have had the opportunity to raise some serious $$$ for ACS in the process.

What kinds of runs are you the best at nailing? Do you have any interesting running “systems” like I had for my warm up and cool down? Have you read Unbroken?