Seven weeks done, nine weeks to go! The middle weeks of marathon training feel similar to the middle miles of a race. You do not want to run too fast in those middle miles, nor do you want to train too hard in these middle weeks. The finish line seems far away and the miles blur a bit together with the anticipation of harder work to come.
Even in this middle week of marathon training, I feel the full physical effects of marathon training. My appetite has increased. My calves are tighter. I need more sleep. Yet I am also looking forward to the harder weeks of training to come and enjoying the process of training.
After a beautiful week of fall weather, we had an odd week of humidity and warmer temperatures. I don’t mind the warm as much, but the humidity is rough when running.
Monday: 9 mile easy run & 15 minutes core work
Ollie and I ran uphill, downhill, and through the rain on this run – and had lots of fun. As the mileage builds up, I’m really grateful that I have my furry running buddy on these runs, especially since it’s too dark in the mornings for Ryan and me to run before he leaves for work.
My strength workout was a short and simple circuit: kettlebell swings, stability ball pikes, stability ball hamstring curls, and stability ball passes.
Tuesday: Long Intervals (9 miles total)
The workout:
2.25 mile warm up
3000m at half marathon effort (2 minutes recovery)
2000m at 10K effort (2 minutes recovery)
1000m at 5K effort
2.5 mile cool down
I prefer long intervals to shorter ones – I find it much easier to settle into pace. I was really pleased with my splits on this workout, starting at a 7:18/mile for the first interval and working down to a 6:50/mile. Ladder workouts like this one are really fun also – each interval is shorter than the last, so the enitre workout flys by.
Wednesday: 7 mile easy run & 30 minutes strength training
Another easy run with Ollie! It was so foggy that I brought a KnuckleLight with me even though the sun rose an hour before our run.
I received a new kettlebell from Rep Fitness (more on it soon!) and used it for my strength training workout. I included squats, lateral lunges, single leg deadlifts, windmills, and various shoulder/upper back exercises.
Thursday: Rest day
My daily steps are significantly less on rest days during marathon training. That is really all there is to say about a rest day!
Friday: 17 mile hard long run
89% humidity and a decent headwind for the first half made this already hard workout even harder. Humidity will do me in on a long run, even if it’s not hot. I finished this run feeling covered in a layer of sweat and overheated – I had absolutely no appetite for a few hours after the run. The headwind had kept me cool for the first half, but as soon as I turned around for the second (harder) half, I felt overheated and my perceived effort skyrocketed. Although the beautiful sunrise at the start of the run was a treat!
This long run ended up being sort of mess of a workout. I changed the workout partway through from 2 x 3 miles at MP to 2 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile at MP and calculated wrong (mental math is hard when running), so there were uneven recoveries between the marathon pace segments. Then, I started on the marathon pace miles at 7:47, which was just a bit too fast given the humidity. I managed to stay on pace (7:50-8:00) for the segments and gained a decent amount of elevation, but this run was harder than it should have been.
A few times over the final few miles, I stopped for a few seconds because the run felt just too hard. I somehow finished. After the run, forced down a couple graham crackers and tart cherry juice, and then elevated my legs while Ollie leaped back and forth over me as I was a human hurdle.
Saturday: 5 mile easy run
Ryan and I ran 5 very easy miles with Ollie and Charlie. My legs had only one speed to them and I really did not feel loosened up until 4 miles into this run.
We spent the rest of the day watching movies (Beauty and the Beast surpassed my expectations and Transformers: Last Knight was just as bad as we expected) and, after evening Mass, enjoying some craft beers at home. I probably slept at least 8.5 hours both Friday and Saturday nights – once the miles pile up, I need a lot of sleep!
Sunday: 90 minute light hike
We decided to explore a nearby regional park that is popular amongst trail runners and mountain bikers. Ryan and I both want to try trail running but I wanted to scope out the terrain on a hike before we ran it. We really enjoyed the light hike – the park was filled with scenic dirt trails and views of the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges.
[Tweet “The middle weeks of #marathon #training are like the middle miles of a race via @thisrunrecipes #runchat”]
How was your week in running?
Are you training for anything right now?
12 Responses
Great job this week! The middle weeks of training can be so tough for the reasons you said. We finally got some fall weather here and its reminding me of past years of marathon training. In a way its nice to not have to worry about all those miles, but I also miss it!
Thank you! That’s great that the weather finally cooled down for you!
I’m so sorry you had to suffer though that humid run! I feel for you and know how it feels to have your effort skyrocket and then try to calculate splits – ugh. At least you had some other good runs and strength training to round out the week. No one said it would be easy, right? Keep going!! You’re doing great!!
Thank you! You are so right – no one said marathon training would be easy! And I’m grateful for those hard runs because they make me feel better…okay less nervous… about bad conditions that could happen on race day.
The middle weeks are always so tough for me. Training isn’t new, fatigue is there and race day still seems so far off. Nice job on all your runs! We dumped the humidity here on Thursday and it quickly turned to fall. It’s quite bizarre to go from 90 to 55 in a day!
Thank you! We had that day happen this weekend – now it’s perfect fall weather!
I’m training for the Kiawah half in December right now. I guess I’m kind of in those middle weeks at the moment, too. Last week was a pretty brutal week of training and I ran 13 on Saturday, which is a lot for me. I’ll probably run a bit less mileage and intensity this week to recover some. You had a great week and can’t wait to read more about the new kettlebell (esp. since I’ve debating buying some for home workouts).
Thank you! I am sharing the post tomorrow (Wednesday) on the kettlebell. I got it from an online company called Rep Fitness and have been very impressed with it so far.
That is so true about the middle of marathon training paralleling the middle miles in a race! I’m around that place too, feeling more tight, needing more sleep, etc.
Humid running is so brutal! We finally had our first cool weekend- sorry you had to deal with that for your 17 miler… but I do find that training in that kind of weather makes me feel so much stronger on a cool race day!
I agree so much about training in that weather – it makes racing in better conditions even more comfortable, and it prepares for the chance of bad weather on race day!
I still can’t get over that 17 mile run in the humidity – that takes serious mental power if you ask me.
I wanted to quit so many times. I don’t know how I did it!