Mesa-PHX Marathon Training – Week 6/10

Okay. In less than four weeks I get to do my favourite thing in the whole world for the 7th time…run a marathon!!!! As it gets closer and Lifelong Endurance gives me workouts that challenge me, but leave me feeling strong and confident, I keep getting more excited!! Plus, seeing things like this start to pop up on social media…wooooo!

Monday, January 22nd

I started with Coreflex at K2 Cycle Fusion. Just like last week, it was awesome. Lots of planks and push-ups (I have a new love for the tricep plank), hamstring and glute strengthening with foot gliders and back strengthening with resistance bands. OH, and bird-dog holds with a bender ball under the supporting shin…kicks my ass and I love it!!!

Then the first run of the week was my favourite kind again – the longer workout!

3k warm-up, 6x [5 minutes up-tempo, 2.5 min recovery], 3k cool-down

I used to whine about having nowhere flat to do interval workouts or tempo runs. Once I quit thinking that way and just did my best on the terrain at hand, I realized that most of the time I can make it happen anyway. Yeah, it’s way harder in some spots, especially when my Garmin beeps to run fast for x amount of time, just as I’m coming up to a long hill, but this has made me a better runner. 14.4k total and that felt AMAZING.

Tuesday, January 23rd

8k aerobic

Wednesday, January 24th

Early Bird Spin at K2 with Karen ❤

Today I bought myself the MEC Kelowna Okanagan Race Series Value Pack! I could not be happier about this, FIVE RACES (even though I can only for sure run three or four of them..) for seventy bucks!? There are so many MEC Events that I am just becoming familiar with. The races are AMAZINGLY priced and there are also tons of Run Crew meet-ups, clinics, etc, in lots of cities. Check out MEC events here. The line-up is…

Race ONE	West Kelowna	21.1K	April 15/18
Race TWO	Rose Valley	10K	May 6/18 (same as BMO Van…can’t go)
Race THREE	Myra Station, KVR Trail	21.1K	August 12/18
Race FOUR	Knox Mountain	10K	September 9/18
Race FIVE	Mission Creek Greenway	10K	October 14/18

Thursday, January 25th

Hill workout! I stayed inside for this one due to darkness + iciness.

3k warm-up, 8x [30 sec. @ 8% incline, 90 sec. recovery], 4k cool-down

I like to adjust the incline about 15 seconds before the interval actually starts. The machine takes at least that long to transition from the 1% that I usually run on, to 8% for the repeats. Then when my Garmin beeps to start the interval, I’m already at the grade I want. This workout was so sweaty and so awesome. Today was also the day to enter the draw for SeaWheeze 2018! I’ve never run the SeaWheeze! Fingers crossed.

Friday, January 26th

Fantastic run with Mary and Sam! We started on the road, ran to our go-to local trail for two loops, and then parted ways. I ran back to my vehicle and the girls crossed the highway to head up the Tall Trees Trail. 13k total for myself, and Sam got in 21k and lots of elevation as she prepares for a 50 MILE ultra in Oregon!

4pm rolled around annnd not looking good for me with respect to SeaWheeze! Ah well!

Saturday, January 27th

32.2km!! (= 20.0 miles)

KILLER morning. So gorgeous out! The girls came over and we took my truck out to Rainbow Summit, which is about 22k from home. We ran back in, Sam saying farewell around 17k (her car was at the bridge), Crystal finishing up at my place, and then I went for my own 5k out-and-back along the North Pacific Cannery road. Boom. Four weeks til race day!

Sunday, January 28th

7k relaxed. Felt pretty tired today but it was expected.

Got in 40 minutes of functional strength exercises with my ankle weights on.  So good. Now for complete Sunday-mode. Another week, DONE!

Talk soon! I’ll tell you something really cool about my BQ-attempt training cycle in the Spring.

@jammiekomadina