Much like last week, this week was a struggle. I felt frustrated and discouraged on many of my runs, but I’m just trying to focus on completing the miles on my marathon training schedule. Supposedly, I am getting stronger with every workout, but I feel like I’m getting worse. Just get in the miles…

Monday

Pure Barre on Monday night was great. Good workout and a big check on the plan to start the week.

cat stop

Tuesday

Three-mile run was the scheduled run on Tuesday. My plan was to do a heart rate run, which got thrown off because of this cat! I kept pausing my watch because it was following me and eventually I messed up and hit stop not pause! I probably did this is a 12:30-ish pace with an average HR in the 140s, which is good. Thankfully, the cat has a home.

beautiful sunrise
One of my favorite things about running in the morning is seeing the sunrise. God’s artwork.
check off the last 6 mile Wednesday run

Wednesday

My last 6-mile Wednesday run! It was a struggle, but I somehow did it an 11:56/mile pace with an average HR of 155, so I was very pleased with this. What I was NOT pleased about is forgetting my Apple Watch on the charger, so I didn’t get my stands for the day! Super bummer.

Thursday

Another 3-miler focusing on HR. Finished at 11:58/mile and an average HR of 141, which is right on target. I feel like I’m getting slower, but I’m hoping it’s just the humidity.

Friday

My standard 6 AM Pure Barre class went well. I’m not sure I’m getting any stronger though. I’m able to do some things better, but I’m just not sure how it’s impacting my running.

Saturday

I went on a short walk and then to Pure Barre. Not quite the cross-training I should do, I just wasn’t in the mood to do much else. I meant to do a workout on my Apple app, but I didn’t quite get there. I did take a non-recorded 30-minute walk with one of my Wag! dogs, which was hot but nice, and made $17 in the process. Sweet!

Sunday

Long-run day was so hard. I’ve had a chance to relax a few hours before writing this since I really needed it. It was so frustrating and gave me a lot of doubts as to whether I am going to be able to pull off this marathon. Long runs are the foundation of marathon training, and while not the singularly most important thing, a very important part of marathon training. Today was 13 miles (I made it 13.1 so I could officially call it halfway) which takes me back down to the river to start the south side of the course. I finished the route with 13.1 miles at a 13:06/mile pace and an average HR of 154 BPM.

It’s frustrating because I am sticking to my training plan. I’ve done almost every run and this week was hard. Just hard and awful. I left the house at 6 am since it was in the low 70s but the humidity was over 90%. My first 8 miles or so went well keeping my run 3 min/walk 1 min cycle. I had an Huma gel around mile 3.5. It was definitely getting warmer around mile 7 and my route wasn’t very shady. It was time for my treat of Clif Blocks around mile 7.5 and wasn’t too long after that when I couldn’t maintain my run/walk pattern.

I walked with a few run spurts before I made it back to my house around mile 9. It was necessary to refill my water bottle but had to tell myself not to sit down. The AC when I entered was glorious! Even though the pups wanted scratches, I couldn’t stay. The next mile was meh, as I did run some, but after mile 10, I was done. I kept saying “just get in the miles. It’s okay if you walk. Try to speed walk like Savannah Half Marathon.” It was miserable!

Even though I didn’t feel great on the run, I was welcomed by these two snuggly little friends. Who can resist those faces?

Reflection

When I got back home, I sat on my yoga mat looking like I had gone swimming. My adorable dogs just wanted some loving and snuggled even though I had to be very smelly. After a shower, protein shake (which I forced since it’s supposed to be good to have protein after a run), and catnap, I started to feel better. Online church was greatly appreciated, as I was in no mood to go anywhere.

One of my friends responded to my Instagram story to tell me good job. I told him how discouraged I felt, and he reminded me to keep going and that it will pay off. Hot, humid runs are hard. He said, “a bad workout is a trillion times better than not doing it.” It was what I needed to hear to start week 9 training.

Week 9 is my halfway point. The mileage is going to increase and things are about to get hard. Part of training s mental. I just need to stick with it and have confidence this training plan will prepare me for marathon day.