Week 2 Recap

Me and my Poppa.

Second week of marathon training in the books, just 39 miles but definitely a different arrangement of miles than what I’ve been doing. Plus it came on top of a difficult week. Last Sunday the difficult decision was made to move my grandfather to Hospice care, so we had a busy day — long run that morning and our anniversary dinner. Monday was an off day from running, but I also had a key presentation in the evening.

Since I couldn’t visit on Monday, I went down to the hospital Tuesday morning. My grandfather passed away around lunch that day. It was a heartbreaking day. When we left in the afternoon, the most logical thing I could think of to do was to go run. My grandfather loved nature, being outside, hiking, biking — a trail run seemed like a great way to honor his memory and work through the grief. I had 11 scheduled for the day but initially didn’t think I would do it all. But I just kept adding on trail segments and was having an enjoyable run until a ground wasp stung me around mile 8. — also known as the farthest-away point, of course. But, in the end, I got the whole run in and the alone time did me well.

Wednesday was an off day, so I did a strength/flexibility workout from Runner’s World and went to stretch and abs class at my gym. I also weighed in on the Tanita scale at Milestone … could be better, so we’ll file that one and put in some more work.

Thursday was workout day — 8 miles with 4 at half-marathon pace. I’ve had better, but I also haven’t done any speed work since … er, let’s say April. I split the workout with an easy half-mile halfway. Goal pace was 6:50-7, and I went 7:01, 7:09, 7:12, 6:54. Can’t win them all. Just good to get it under my belt.

I swapped my easy run from Saturday to Friday — I took the day off work — and ran easy with a friend. Saturday I went for a couple of walks but really an off day. We had services from my grandfather most of the day.

Sunday was the big day, 15 miles easy solo. I had picked up a new pair of Boracays and threw those on. It was really humid and I kept the pace easy.
In total, 39 miles for the week plus another 2:45 of crosstraining/other exercising — altogether 8 hours of work.

This week might be a little crazy — I’ve got some weird scheduling so I’ve only got three weekday runs but may have to shuffle them around. But, we’ll see how it shakes out. Excited about a massage tomorrow, plus meeting with my Pilates instructor to make sure I can get in at least two, if not three, workouts a week. I may have to pay for some individual sessions which is something I’m not a fan of. But, I think it’s key for good running so, we’ll make it work.

Off we go!