Gettysburg Marathon Training : Week 11

Man, it's crazy how quickly things can change with training.  I was starting to struggle the past two weeks and haven't had a good run in what felt like forever, then I hit week 11 (which means I'm officially over the halfway point for training) and I have phenomenal workouts all week.  Going through rough patches really makes me appreciate those amazing, I LOVE RUNNING days.  Coincidentally, or maybe ironically, this was also my highest mileage week ever, at 36.25 miles.  Without giving too much more away, let's just get into a recap of my awesome week!

Monday

Rest Day!

Tuesday

5 miles / 9:05 pace

I decided to go out on this run without a watch and just run by feel.  It ended up being a really great run and I felt amazing the entire time.  Afterwards I treated myself to sushi since it was Valentine's Day and Dan was away for work.  I caught up on the Bachelor and opened a bottle of wine, so it was an all around great day!

Wednesday

Rest Day

Thursday

4 miles / 9:00 pace

My manager let me take a half day since I had to work all weekend, so I was able to push my run back to the middle of the day.  I was procrastinating and didn't want to go out at all, because it was super cold and snowing out.  I eventually made myself go, and ended up having the best run ever.  I felt like I could have gone forever, and ran without my watch again.  I just put on a podcast and felt smooth the entire time.

Friday

5.25 miles / 8:51 pace

The weather was pretty terrible during the week, so I ended up pushing my speed work back until Friday.  Don't ask me why I thought it was a good idea to do it the day before my longest run in training (or why I had to do it on a treadmill....whoops) but luckily this run went great.  I did the Fun Reminder workout in Kara Goucher's half marathon plan, but made it a bit more challenging.  I was supposed to do 2x1 mile at half marathon pace, 1/4 mile rest, 2x1/2 mile at half marathon pace.  I ended up taking out the breaks between each rep, so I did 2 miles at 8:00 pace, 1/4 mile jog, 1 mile at 8:00 pace.  With a mile warm up and cool down, I ended up with 5.25 miles and felt great the entire workout.  

Saturday

17 miles / 9:33 pace

I did it- I made it to a group run with Pro Bike and Run again!  There were a few different distances offered, and luckily one of them was 17 miles which fit perfectly with my training.  The 9:30 group that I run with is pretty large to start with, and it breaks up at each stop.  I was happy to start off the run with Jessie (and to see Jennifer and Ciara before the run started), and ended up with three guys who were doing the full 17 miles.  It was definitely a challenging run because I was completely overdressed again (it ended up being 70 degrees at the finish and I thought it would only be 50!  Whoops) and the course was pretty hilly.  I'm so glad that I had the group to run with because the miles went by surprisingly quickly.  This was my longest run of training so far, but I felt really good at the end, and ended up "racing" one of the guys to the finish line!  He turned to me with about 100 meters to go and said "let's see who has more left in the tank" and I can't turn down a challenge :)

Sunday

5 miles

It was another gorgeous day, so I took Selma to North Park and did a 5 mile loop with her.  We did the lodge loop, which is a lot quieter and secluded than the main loop.  We probably ended up running about 3 miles, but it was great to be out there and have an easy workout after a high mileage and hard week.

This week I have my first race of the year- the Spring Thaw!  The weather is looking perfect right now and I'm really excited to try out some longer miles at race pace.  Let's hope it goes well and gives me the confidence I need.

How was your week?

Did you get amazing weather this weekend?

Do you prefer busy roads or quiet trails?

linking up with Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin and also with Courtney at Eat Pray Run DC.