Training Week 6: Growing stronger!

Week 6's schedule looked like this:

Monday: 4 easy miles
Tuesday: 5 yassos + 1-2 mi WU/CD
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: 4.5 mi tempo run + 1-2 mi WU/CD
Friday: Cross train 60 minutes
Saturday: 13 miles long
Sunday: Rest or 60 minutes cross train

Hard to believe that this week marks 1/3 of the way done with training! It's gone by so fast. I never thought I would be running 30+ miles a week, 9 miles on a regular week day. After this is all over, a half-marathon is going to seem like a breeze. Maybe I should find one to sign up for just to prove it to myself :)

This week also went pretty much as planned except for Thursday. I came home after work on Thursday knowing I should have just hauled my ass to the gym and done my workout, but I made the mistake of sitting down on the couch.  Once I did that I realized how completely exhausted I was. I could have fallen asleep right there at 4:30 in the afternoon. Between work and all this training I was just plain tired. So my body made the decision for me (I guess my brain chose to accept it even though it didn't have to) that I would not be doing a tempo run that day. Thankfully, I went to bed nice and early and woke up on Friday morning feeling completely refreshed and ready to tackle the day. So I did. I even decided I would make up that workout I didn't do on Thursday. After work I went straight to the gym and ran 7.5 out of the possible 8.5 miles. I felt really good.

Saturday our team met in Wellesley again for a big run - 13 miles, the halfway marker of this journey.  Unfortunately Saturday was also in the single digits (we're talking it was 6° when I arrived in Wellesley at 8:00 am). I knew this was going to be a long, cold run, but I was ready to tackle it. We didn't have a clinic this week so after we all warmed up together we headed out into the frigid New England morning. I started off listening to The Kite Runner, which I had purchased on Audible to try something new rather than listen to music for 2+ hours straight. I figured if I could listen to podcasts with no issue, an audiobook should be the same. And I had always wanted to read The Kite Runner, but never picked it up in the bookstore. I didn't listen for long though, as I was quickly approached by one of my team mates, Tim, who soon fell into stride with me. Tim was my savior for this run. I realized I made a big mistake by running as intensely as I had the day before and my legs were tired and heavy not long after we started. But Tim helped me to take my mind of things as we chatted for the entirety of the 13 miles.  This year will be Tim's 8th time running the Boston Marathon for Children's. I was in complete awe as Tim told me he'd never been a runner and had actually bandit run his first Boston Marathon. (Bandit running is when you don't officially register for the race and you just jump in on the course. All races don't allow bandits, but some are more strict than others. Boston has become particularly strict in the wake of the Marathon bombings in 2013). It was great getting to chat with Tim on everything from running, to his daughter, to cars, and the Pats. He really helped me get through the run and I was supremely grateful for that.

One of the greatest things about training where we do is the sheer amount of runners out on a Saturday morning, even on a single digit Saturday morning. We often run into other charity teams as we're out, especially when we're on Comm Ave. We've even run into some high school cross country teams out for a morning run.  Everyone is super friendly and will offer you a friendly wave or even some water from the water station they're running. We were lucky this week to have Ali who works for Children's Hospital Trust (which handles the marathon runners) manning our water station. It was so nice of her to support us like that, especially on such a cold day. The other cool thing is Ali now works with one of my former coworkers, Shannon, who was my cube buddy. We chatted a minute about how much I love and miss Shannon and her fantastic sense of humor. In the end, the run didn't end up being that bad and I was feeling pretty darn proud of myself when I finally walked through the door of the church hall we practice out of.

Today, my legs are surprisingly not as sore as I thought they'd be. It's definitely from all the miles I've racked up over the past 6 weeks. My legs are really growing stronger!  I completed 33.5 out of a possible 34.5 miles this week!