Dallas Marathon Training: Week 15 Complete!

Last week's workouts:
Sun 10/20: 5 mi, 55:53
Mon 10/21: Rest (I have a massage booked, can't wait!)
Tues 10/22: Intervals 1:00 2:2 6.25 mi, 1:00
Wed 10/23: Strength training Base + strides 6.75 mi, 1:12:43
Thurs 10/24: Base + strides 1:20 Lower body strength training with 15 min elliptical warmup
Fri 10/25: 50 min recovery run 4.38 mi, 52:19
Sat 10/26: 20 miles long 20.83 mi, 3:49:23
Sun 10/27: Fired Up 5K 3.1 mi, 29:41

Week 15 was one of my favorite weeks so far in this training season!

Monday's massage was so awesome! My masseuse worked a lot of tension out of my calves and hips. I will definitely see her again after our 22 mile run and of course after the marathon.

Tuesday's interval workout went great. We did a warmup mile, then 2 minutes fast and 2 minutes recovery (not sure how many intervals exactly) then 1 mile cooldown. It was a cool evening at the lake and my legs felt great after my massage. The weather was so nice again on Wednesday evening that I decided to move my leg workout to Thursday and run my base plus strides workout instead.

Saturday's long run was great, everything came together nicely. The weather was cool with a chance of rain in the forecast. We got sprinkled on a few miles in, but after that we stayed dry. My legs felt strong and the group conversations were great. (Although we all got very quiet on the hilly sections towards the end!) Our coach Steve ran with us for a while and we talked about nutrition: pre-race meals and race day fuel. I came away with a lot of good information! Once I got home I took an epsom salt bath and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday morning I ran the Town North YMCA Fired Up 5K. This is a small race right in my neighborhood and benefits our YMCA. Last year, the race also happened to fall the day after my 20-mile training run and I ran it in 34:33, my slowest 5k to date. This year, I managed to finish in 29:41! While this is not a PR by any means, I'm still surprised that I manged to finish in less than 30 minutes on such fatigued legs. I think the biggest difference is that this year, I have put more importance on recovery after a long run or hard workout.

This week is a step back in miles for us, we will run the DRC Half Marathon on Sunday and that will be our "long" run for the week. (I am counting the Fired Up 5k as my base run for this coming week.)

This week's plans:
Mon 10/28: Vinyasa yoga 1:00
Tues 10/29: Progression run 1:00
Wed 10/30: Recovery run :50
Thurs 10/31: Strength training
Fri 11/1: Base + strides 1:30
Sat 11/2: Rest
Sun 11/3: DRC Half Marathon

I am not sure what (if any) goals I should set for the half marathon. My pace leader Clay is going to be pacing for the 2:05 group, so I may join him.

Have a happy and healthy week!