It feels closer, it feels scary, it feels intense some days, it feels miracle on others. That’s what I like about marathon, the training cycle more than everything else, it’s the process, the step by step, the showing up no matter what, the adaptive knowledge on my body and what it can take.
Monday: I was on work trip in Teresina, arrived 2am and woke up 6am with 3.5 hours of sleep. It was a tough day but I was glad I didn’t have training plan so I could just lay in bed until I had to get up.
Tuesday: I woke up 3:30am to take 5:20am flight. Got home 8:20 and headed out for my workout run. It was supposed to be 3 sets of 6 min at threshold pace. It was hot, 29C, humidity of 36%, and full sun on my face. I tried, did one set and turned it into an easy run, totaling 5.2 miles. It was so hard to run with this dryness. I’m glad I didn’t push on which would require much longer recovery. Slimfit followed.
Wednesday: 8 miles at 76% humidify felt so much better. Averaged 10:28 min/mi for a recovery run. Saving energy for next day’s workout. My hamstring is behaving well. What bothered a bit was the lower back sacrum.
Thursday: I did everything I could to rest despite how disturbed after picking Cookie from the dentist so I slept so so. The plan called for 60 min MP (8:35 min/mil) which I found a bit daunting to do. I went out conservative for 3 miles and felt quite good so pushed on a bit more, ending averaging just as prescribed and felt great! I felt I had more to give, RPE of 7/10. 9.7 miles. I wonder if it’s because of caffeinated gel I took every 20 min (half packet to test how not to upset my stomach). I finished the run feeling very hopeful. Then I went to my physio and he gave back exercise to release lower back pressure, glute plant exercise to build core stability.
Friday: rest day. I wanted to do some swimming but had early meeting at the office so skipped it and did some stretching and foam rolling before bed.
Saturday: woke up feeling sleepy. Did 6 miles easy run, still not waking up. My blood pressure was 97/55, no wonder I felt my energy by the basement. The rest of the morning was busy preparing for Sofia’s birthday party. Then I took a nap.
Sunday: the plan called for 2.5 hrs easy run. I signed up for 10 miles race to run through the three bridges in Brasilia. Husband kindly dropped me off at the start at 5:45am. I did 15 min warm up and realized I didn’t have my phone with me. Gosh… never run more than an hour without music. yet, immediately I felt amused and curious how I would like running without music. The race went well, mostly flat and gorgeous views. The only issue was after 7am, the sun was so strong on my face but otherwise I loved it. I loved running only listening to my breathing and fellow runners’ effort. Then I finished the race, found a huge crowd lining up for the medal as there were 5, 10, 16km races. I had to continue to run so I didn’t wait to get the medal and continued. Since I didn’t have phone, there’s no way I get a uber back, so running back was the only option. I was worried about the last 5km which is sustained uphill. I stopped twice to catch up my breath and finished 16 miles in total. Not total agony but those last 3 miles of uphill and strong sun was a test for mental strength. My right hamstring did complain a bit at the end, so I did the protocol prescribed by my physio at night after getting back from swimming competition.
Total: 45 miles
Strength: 2 slimfit
Zero other cross training this week and it was okay.
