I’m another week closer to the Grand Rapids Marathon! Here’s how my 8th week of training went:

Monday: Swam 2,000 meters, followed by 3 easy miles on the treadmill. I’m not real consistent with swimming lately, so it was nice to get this in. The treadmill run was my first with my latest pair of shoes – Brooks Launch. It’s my second pair of the Launch and I’m extremely thankful Brooks decided not to retire this model like they had planned. This is probably the pair I will use for my marathon.

Tuesday: 35 minutes of strength training, followed by a 7-mile tempo run. I added a mile for warm up and a mile for cool down, so the tempo part of my run was really the 5 miles in between. I’ve done my last few tempo runs on the treadmill, which makes it easy to lock in and stick with a pace. I did this tempo run on the trail, and it was a bit tough. I cut my pace by about 10 seconds each mile for a few miles, then gradually slowed down. I’m not good at keeping a consistent pace, so I tend to start too fast, have to slow down, then speed back up. I always struggle more on the way up the trail, which has just the slightest incline, and I speed up on the way back down. I probably ran a bit harder than I should have, and my right ankle/shin felt messed up at the end. I iced it right away and luckily I was fine the next day.

Wednesday: Ran 4 easy miles. Nothing exciting about this easy trail run.

Thursday: Ran 8 miles. Now that I’m running so much, I feel the need to mix things up now and then and run some different routes. I didn’t map anything out ahead of time, but decided to just wander some neighborhood roads that I don’t usually hit. It was nice to change things up and see some different scenery.

Friday: Rest.

Saturday: Ran 8 miles. Looking for more new scenery, Matt and I went to Riverbends Park in Shelby Township for a run. I’ve done a couple 5Ks there, but hadn’t really explored the park. I didn’t know the bike trails went for such a long stretch. We pretty much stuck to the paved trails and it was a peaceful and pretty run.

Riverbends Park

Riverbends Park

Riverbends Park

Sunday: Ran 17 miles. I ran up the Paint Creek Trail to Lake Orion, added a couple miles around town, then headed back down the trail. I’ve ridden my bike up to Lake Orion a ton of times, but have never done a run that long. This run went really well, and I even had enough left in the tank at the end to pick up my pace a little for the last few miles. It definitely boosts my confidence when these long runs go well.

Totals for the week: 47 miles of running, strength once, and 2,000 meters of swimming.

This marathon training business is tiring! My habit of not getting enough sleep on a regular basis isn’t going so well with all of these miles. I really need to work on that. Aside from being really tired and a bit sore, things are going well so far. On to week 9!

– Janet