As of this post being published I am one month away from my very first marathon and the nerves are really getting to me! I cannot believe all the hard work I've been putting in the past few months is finally going to be put to the test. While we had yet more of that strange early spring weather here in the Smokies, I still go my training on. Here is how my week went.
Monday - 4.7 mile progression run. I hit the local greenway for this one, since it's relatively flat and easy to watch my speed. First mile was a slower warm up with the next 3 miles under 9 minutes, followed by 0.7 miles of cool down. It was a great run and I even got out there in shorts and a T-shirt because it was so sunny!
Tuesday - 7.5 miles progression run. This runw as supposed to be a steady pace for the first five miles, then a pick up for miles 6/7, followed by all out on the last half mile. Well, I misread my Garmin. I got all confused about what miles were which because it says "lap" at the end of the mile. What I thought was mile 5 was mile 6. I didn't run as fast as I should've on my 6th mile, but mile 7 and the last half mile I gave it a solid effort and ran my fastest mile in a LONG time. I also fixed my Garmin to show me my mileage in real time so I don't screw that up again!
Wednesday - 6ish miles of easy hiking. I took my friend Shannon hiking in Elkmont this morning. It was snowing and freezing cold, but we took a walk through an old community and even explored the site of an abandoned hotel. It took hours to warm back up after this chilly hike!
Thursday - Active rest. I had a 3-mile easy run scheduled for today, but under the advice of someone wiser than myself, I was told to take it easy. I took my dog for a walk and did some vinyasa yoga since my legs seem to be tight.
Friday - 7ish hiking miles. My backpacking trip went from plan A to plan B to plan C to plan D before we had to call it a loss and scrap it. I got in some great trail miles on a pretty day though.
Saturday - 1 mile backpacking. We gave it another shot on attempting a backpacking trip and this time got to where we were going. Mother Nature has been playing with us lately here in the Smokies and Newfound Gap Road keeps getting closed due to weather. It even snowed on us at camp and then we woke up with frozen tents in the morning.
Sunday - 1 mile hiking plus 4 miles dog walking. I was supposed to be doing my first 18-mile day, but it just didn't happen. Our drive home turned from a 1.5 hour to a 3 hour trip for me since Newfound Gap Road got snow again. I had to drive all the way around the mountain to get home. By then I could have gotten 18 miles in, but since I hadn't had adequate food and water for fueling, I decided to put it off until Monday.
This week threw me a lot of curve balls, but I'm excited to get my long run in on Monday. Sorry for the lack of photos this week (and lateness posting my weekly runday post!)
That was my week in training. My very first marathon is the Knoxville Marathon on April 3rd! Are you training for anything right now? How was your week in running?
I'm linking up with the Women's Running Community Share it Saturday:
