Weekend & Workout report

I survived the peak of my training cycle, barely, with lots of doubts and aches. But let’s rewind

Saturday:

9 miles steady run went well, although the pollution was pretty bad at the end.

Lizzy had her piano lesson early at 8am. She complained that that’s too early and asked me to reschedule. I not-nicely told her “The teacher is not only teaching you and can come whenever you feel like”.

We left home 9:15am, first dropping me to the dermatologist, then daddy took the girls to Sofia’s swimming practice 10-12pm while Lizzy did her kumon math worksheet almost the entire time. My dermatologist was happy with my progress, no acne for 3 week. She’s adding retinoid and whitening cream to my routine to fade the scars. I’ll see her again in a month, hopefully I can resume my normal skin routine by then. I am surprised how quickly adapted to no make-up look and nobody seems to have noticed. Then I went to dentist for my root canal treatment. Thank God for the dentistry advances, it was painless, I was out in 45 min. The family came to pick me up, running up and down the quiet dental office. Sigh…

Sofia had her piano theory class from 3:30-4:30pm. I took Lizzy to swim practice and arrived 30 min late. I took her by taxi instead of daddy driving because I wanted to have a talk with her about her lack of focus when doing homework, and our plan to get better at it. The talk went well. I was glad I went to see her practice, first time in the big pool. She was really putting the effort, suddenly feeling she is no longer my baby.

We got home by the time Sofia started her art class with her favorite art teacher, parent of one of school student from India. I could hear their chat while doing the work. So funny. After that, we had quick dinner and both girls had their allocated time for TV. Lizzy decided she doesn’t want to watch “the summer I turned pretty” with Sofia, so she watched “carmen San Diego” by herself.

I went to bed for reading, mentally preparing for the 20 miler the next day, anxious, worried, excited.

Sunday

20 miler with 6 miles cut down (faster each mile) starting from mile 13, last mile super easy. That was the plan.

The first 6 miles went well. I left a bit later than usual (5:30am) as I wasn’t sure the air condition was good enough to run outside. Fortunately it was 132 PM2.5 when I left.

Miles 6-8 felt never ending. All kind of doubts came to mind. 10+ miles to go and I was already feeling tired, and my hips soreness started. “How am I going to do the cut down portion? Am I too old to train for marathon? Am I doing damage to myself? Why the sun is already up so strong? (6:30am) Should I do another Physio to rule out hip fracture?” etc. etc. No matter how experienced runner we are, we all have doubts in our heads ALL THE TIME. That’s the moral of the story I guess.

Miles 8-13. Someone offered to run with me (I met him once few months ago, introduced by a mutual friend). I wasn’t sure I wanted someone to witness my failed attempt, but he was super accommodative and texted me 6:10am, so I said okay. It was good that he ran with me, chatting but not too much. It made those 5 miles go through quickly. I felt warm up by then.

Miles 13-17. I managed to cut down for 3 miles and abandoned after mile 17. My legs were fine, but I was badly affected by the sun, couldn’t take more gels as I was spitting sour liquid. My hip soreness concerned me even more, so I decided not to pursue the full 6 miles cut down.

Miles 18-20 super easy. I felt somewhat bad that I didn’t do the full workout but at the same time I knew I could have done it but chose not to do to preserve my hips? does it make sense? maybe not when I am clear headed but made sense then.

I was tired and beefed up when I got home at 9am. I soaked in the pool for 10 min, went home and saw the family just coming back from golf. Girls asked for smoothies, I said I was exhausted. And what happened next? Sofia learned to make smoothie!

Then I texted my coach about my fear of getting a hip stress fracture. He assured me that I should be fine, he’s fairly certain that I just have general hip pain from the marathon grind (yes! did I mention this was the peak week?). I wish I had detailed training notes from previous training cycles so I can see how was then as my memory with running related pains is pretty bad, just like birth pain. hahaha…. I did check last year 20 miler, I was 40 secs slower per mile.

I felt better by lunch after 45 min of stretching. Then I went to a special massage place. Too expensive for every week but this week feels like worth it. Look the ambiance

the bell is to call the therapist when I finish changing.

I loved the 120 min massage, especially all the deep stretching she did on me. I felt renewed after it, and half forgotten the pain just few hours earlier.

The rest of Sunday was dinner, reading for me, TV for the girls. Light out by 8pm. My new sleeping schedule has been 8-4. OMG!

3 weeks until the race

Monday: 6 miles easy with strides. Had some hamstring pain afterwards maybe because I actually ran faster than I should have for an easy run.

Tuesday: 6.5 miles quality run, 16 min band workout for runners, 16 min core for runners. Hamstring issue continued but did not get worse.

Wednesday: physio. She did ultrasound and magnetic waves on my hamstrings which helped a lot.

Thursday: 5 miles easy with strides and physio again as I didn’t do much core/hip exercise the day before. No more hamstring pain. I was sleepy the whole day.

Friday: 4 miles easy run, stretching. Sleepy and tired, felt some muscle pull when running on my stomach.

Saturday: 9 miles with 6 miles at steady pace (8:41 min/mile). Felt strong on this run.

Sunday: 20 miles with cut down.

Total miles: 50.8

Physio: twice

Zero strength as I was feeling tired most of the week and tried to save the little energy for my runs.