Bellingham Bay Marathon Training: Week 7 – Nailing The Progression Run

Last week was a big week for me. On Monday morning, I woke up at 5am at The Westin hotel to get ready for a day of moving to a new apartment. So on Tuesday morning, with nothing unpacked except only the items I needed for my run, I set off to do my second ever progression run.

My first progression run was a bit of a failure, and I was looking forward to the chance to do a better job this time around. I was also nervous – my plan called for 10:00, 9:30, 9:00, 8:30, 8:00, 8:00. With something like 90% humidity when I woke up, I knew this would be tough but after last week’s awesome 2×2 miles I figured it would be doable.

Once I started running and felt how thick the air was, I adjusted my expectations. My new plan became to stick to the first four miles, and then do as well as I could for the last two, without being upset if I can’t get to 8:00.

I surprised myself with this run! After a slower-than-planned first mile, I was able to stick to my pace exactly right through mile 4. As I speed up with each mile, I felt strong, despite the weather. And even though I pushed as hard as I could those last two miles and didn’t get down to 8:00, I was close enough that I feel really great about it. Especially since I still maintained a progression! I feel like I really nailed this run:

1 – 10:35
2 –  9:32
3 –  9:01
4 –  8:35
5  – 8:17
6  – 8:08

Seriously, it was SO hot and so humid and I felt incredibly badass after this. It was a serious confidence booster and made me feel great about my marathon goal.

The rest of my week’s training:

Week 7: June 30 – July 6

• Monday – Maintenance Legs OFF
• Tuesday – 6 mile progression run
• Wednesday – Refine
• Thursday - OFF
• Friday – 1 mile warm up, 10K time trial
• Saturday – 11 miles (1:57:17)
• Sunday – OFF

Total (running) miles: 23.20

Summary of Week 7 running:

In addition to the progression run, I had a really great Refine class. Instructor Laura told me I had great form during my jumping lunges – which made me REALLY happy because I must have done hundreds of these since working with Coach Abby. They’re a big part of the plyos she has me do. Good to know my form is right – and I loved feeling awesome at them at Refine. We had the option to jump back to center between each lunge but I jumped into each one since that’s what I do in my plyos. I felt pretty great about it all.

I was supposed to do my maintenance legs on Thursday since I didn’t have the chance on Monday’s moving day, but I actually didn’t feel well and spent the day resting. On Friday — the 4th of July – I woke up to another humid, rainy, gross day for my 10K time trial.

I was dreading this run, so nervous for it. A time trial is like a race – mapped course, etc. I gave myself a pace plan that I wanted to stick to (assuming a less humid day). I wanted to run the first 3 miles at 8:30, the next at 8:20, then the last two as close to 8:00 as possible. I think that’s a doable strategy and one I’d like to try during an actual 10K race!

But the weather was not on my side. I just want one nice day! Just one! I don’t remember it being this bad every single day the last few years?

After a warm-up at 11:50 (THAT is how humid it was), I surprised myself by speeding up to 8:35 for the first 10K mile. It didn’t feel too bad! But after three miles like this, I was not able to speed up any more for the fourth. In fact, I slowed down.

And after that, running the same pace as the first three (8:35ish) felt like I was putting in double the amount of work.

1 – 8:36
2 – 8:35
3 – 8:35
4 – 8:44
5 – 8:37
6 – 8:31
.2 – 8:30

10K Time: 53.31

Miles 5 and 6 weren’t much different time wise from 1, 2 or 3, but they took SO MUCH more effort. By that last .2, I felt like I was sprinting even though I clearly wasn’t.

I gave myself permission to alter this run as much as needed. I know that an 8:35 in humidity equates to a faster pace on a drier day, and I tried to allow myself to account for that and slow down. But I’m tough on myself, and I wanted to try as hard as I could to stick to where I wanted to be.

When I finally finished, I felt nauseous and totally beat – but also pretty proud of myself for holding such a hard pace on such a miserably thick day. In fact, it poured not long after I finished my run. So, not the time I wanted, but I was very pleased. And it made me really want to find a 10K to race!

And lastly, the long run. 11 miles is the shortest long run I have until the weekend before the marathon. I couldn’t find anyone to run with, and my Team DetermiNation group wasn’t meeting because of the 4th of July holiday weekend. I was on my own.

While it was finally a beautiful day and not very humid, I didn’t feel great during this run. In fact, I felt miserable. I had to stop at Duane Reade for Naproxen about 2 miles in, the sun was beating down on me, I forgot to wear my compression sleeves (I have no idea if they actually do anything, but as soon as I felt a calf pain I was like OMG IT IS MY FAULT – and for the record, that calf pain disappeared after I did a quick stretch later on in the run), I forgot fuel (which I don’t even usually want or need for 11 miles, but once I realized I didn’t have it that was all I could think about), and I was slow. Really slow. Well, for some of it. In the end, I averaged a 10:39 pace which isn’t bad at all. But I struggled mentally with the 11:00 miles, and it definitely fucked with my confidence from earlier in the week.

I basically slogged through to 5.5 miles on the waterfront, turned around, and got through another 5.5 until I could finally reach my ultimate destination: Sam A.M. The thought of my favorite breakfast got me through the run. And I thought about it a LOT.

And that’s the week! It was a stepback week, and my lowest mileage week for a long time. Despite the crappy long run, I feel really good about how I did. I’m already feeling like a stronger runner, and even though my “easy” pace isn’t as fast as other people with similar goals, I think I can hold my own on the tougher runs when I have to quite nicely.

Do you adjust your goals for the humidity?