It was another busy week of training as I prepare for the Grand Rapids marathon. Here’s what the week looked like:

Monday: 45 minutes of strength training followed by an easy 3-mile run. I had done the Clarkston triathlon the day before, and during the day on Monday, my left shin began to throb. I’ve struggled with shin pain for about 2 years now and have finally gotten the pain under control thanks to the help of a chiropractor. My shin pain has dropped off a great deal, but it hasn’t completely gone away. The throbbing I felt as I walked around work on Monday was the worst I’ve had for quite a while. I was practically limping at times. I figured I’d skip my run to let it rest. By the time I got to the gym after work, the pain had gone away. I chose to give it a shot on the treadmill to see how it went, and I had no problems. I kept my pace slow and got through 3 miles without any pain during or after.

Tuesday: 5 hill repeats – 6.5 miles total. I ran about 2 miles to warm up and 2 to cool down, with 5 hill repeats in between. I ran my usual hill in our neighborhood and wasn’t too excited that a family was out on their porch at the top of the hill, probably wondering why I was torturing myself. They had a small dog who barked during a couple of my repeats, and it took off after me as I headed down the hill following my final repeat. Luckily it never actually got close to me, but it did follow me down the street for a bit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a car came along. It really pissed me off to think that the dog could have been hit. I can only hope that it was enough to teach the people to keep the dog on a leash.

I used my ankle resistance bands for about 10 minutes of exercises after this run. I’ve been feeling my hips a bit lately and need to keep doing some exercises to work them.

Wednesday: 4 easy miles. This is when the ridiculous part of my week began. Thursday was going to be really busy for me after work, so I’d have to run in the morning that day. I didn’t feel like running 4 miles Wednesday night followed by 8 early the next morning, so I ran the 4 easy miles early on Wednesday morning. Tuesday night’s hill workout didn’t wipe me out too much, so it wasn’t a problem. I headed out with my headlamp, and it was actually pretty nice and peaceful, aside from my encounter with a skunk. Luckily it didn’t spray!

Thursday: 7.5 miles on the treadmill. I had 8 miles on the schedule and didn’t want to attempt to run that much in the dark so crazy early in the morning. Since our gym is open 24/7, I thought I’d finally take advantage of that perk. Less than 10 other people were crazy enough to get there even earlier than me. I’ve never seen the gym so quiet! I listened to a podcast to keep distracted, and made it through 7.5 miles on the treadmill before I thought I’d better stop to get ready for work. This worked out pretty well, aside from the sleep deprivation factor. We went to a concert Thursday night and I didn’t get to bed until just before midnight, so it made for a really long day, and a very tiring Friday.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 8 miles. This was the day of the AdvoKate 10K, and I ran 1.8 miles prior to the race. My schedule called for 8 miles at marathon pace, and I kept below the pace for the warm up, and way below the pace for the 10K. My pace is supposed to be 8:13 and I ended up running around a 7:45 pace. My recap of the race is posted here.

At the AdvoKate race

Sunday: 16 miles. I had 16 on the schedule, which was the most I’d ever run. I was pretty worried after running a bit too hard the day before. I took it nice and easy and actually felt pretty good. I ran from our place to Oakland University, where I ran a loop around the campus. I ran through Rochester Hills and hit a portion of the Clinton River Trail, followed by a small stretch of downtown Rochester. As I waited at a crosswalk, I saw Matt across the street! He was not running 16 miles, so we did different runs. I hadn’t mapped out anything specific, so he didn’t really know where I’d be. We just happened to luck out and hit the same spot at the same time! At that point, I had 2 miles to go and it was great to have his company. By the end of the run, I still felt fine. The nice and easy pace certainly helped, as well as the beautiful and cool weather.

I did about 20 minutes of exercises with my ankle resistance bands right after the run. After cleaning up, we went to the Rochester Diner & Grill to reload some carbs. They have great breakfast food at a really reasonable price. The soreness began to hit eventually and got worse as the day progressed, but otherwise, I’m really happy with how this run went.

Totals for the week: 45 miles of running, and strength once. No swimming or biking this week. The lack of sleep and craziness of my schedule this week made it difficult to squeeze in much else.

I will probably cut back on the biking and swimming quite a bit from here on out. I don’t think I’ll do any more triathlons this summer, and it’s hard to fit everything into the schedule. I’ll do some when I can, but won’t worry about it if I don’t have time. Marathon training alone is quite a handful.

– Janet