Full Marathon Training: Week 7 and Week 8

Week 7:
Monday- 5 mile run followed by sprints. 5.69 miles total. Little nervous getting started since Saturday's run was a little tricky. The run felt good and seemed to pass fast. Despite that, my pace was a lot slower than i thought I was actually going. Did a new 5 mile route and enjoyed it. I had forget how nice it is to switch up the routes!
Tuesday- Lazy day :(
Wednesday- 6 miles. Walked first and last mile. Ran mile 2 and 3 straight (11:34 pace), 3 minute recovery walk, ran 4 and 5 straight (10:36 pace). Crazy how there was a good min difference in pace.
Thursday- 4 mile run with Jill. 11:10 pace. Skipped some of our walks. Felt good to have a fast run.
Friday- Lazy day :(

Thankful for running friends.

Saturday- 14 miles. Furthest distance to date. Ran White Rock Lake. Overall paced 11:25. Finished in 2:39:55. 5-1 intervals for first 9 miles. Got a little off on the last 5 miles, did a lot more walking than I would have liked, but I made myself keep going. The weather all morning had been Texas weather to say the least. It was suppose to have been a beautiful, cool morning, which it was not. Until my last 0.2 miles, then the cold front blew in, literally. Never seen or felt anything like it. I thought I was going to blow away! The cold wind came in from across the lake, the sky got dark and it started to mist, just what I needed to help me push through and finish. Since it was raining and extremely cold, I jumped in the car immediately after finishing my run. Not a smart move! Walking it off is very important and stretching even more so! As I was driving home I could feel the muscles in my legs tightening up, not a very pleasant feeling. After getting home and stretching there weren't many aches. Only ache I had was in my right shoulder, a odd pain for having ran 14 miles, but I'll take it.

Week 8:

Monday- 5 miles plus sprints with Jill. Paced at 11:37 including all the walks in between my sprints. 5 miles paced out at 11:08. Love running with Jill and I hate that I am almost always running late to get to our runs. Let me just tell you, waking up at 4:20am sucks. But the feeling after the run always fantastic and well worth it.

Waking up sucks.

Tuesday- Lazy day :(
Wednesday- 6 miles. Walked first and last, ran middle 4 miles. Run paced out at 11:43. Really good pace for an afternoon run in the sun. After thinking about it, despite how much I hate running when it is hot and sunny, I need to do it. When I run the full the majority of the run will be in the sun, better get use to it now, otherwise it might kill me on race day.

Post run feels so good.

Thursday- 4.5 miles. Suppose to be a 5 mile run, but my run keeper paused unexpectedly and then didn't un-pause when I thought I had. That is one of the most frustrating things when running. Not knowing where the turn around point was, I just picked a place to turn around. Sadly, it wasn't the correct half way point but I let it be.
Friday- Lazy day :(
Saturday- 15 mile run. Paced out at 12:05. Did 5-1 splits pretty much the whole way. Started at Heights and ran up to Chisholm trail, looped around a neighborhood and then meet up with Jill at Jack Carter pool for the last 5 miles. Those last 5 were challenging. IT band started bothering me and wouldn't let up. Walked a couple times when it wasn't a walk. But ran the last most of my run intervals. Very thankful for Jill meeting me to finish my run. So nice to have someone talking to me and running with when all I wanted to do was stop. Foam rolled and took an ice bath when I got home. Holy moly, it was COLD. Getting in was the hardest part, felt like I was hyperventilating. So good for me though, thinking I might make it a habit after my long runs.