PUMP up the JAMmie! – Week 8/16

WhoaaaaOOOOOH we’re half way therrrre!! LAWL. OMG. Seriously you guys my first seven marathons and all the work that went into them was all just foundation for THIS training cycle. This shit is bananas and I love it!! Lifelong Endurance is giving me what I’ve asked for.

Monday, May 28th – easy day

Scheduled: 10k easy and controlled

I headed out along the Cannery Road and continued all the way to North Pacific Cannery instead of turning around at 5k for a total of 11.2km.

Tuesday, May 29th – hard day

• 5k warm-up
• 8 x 3:00 ~ 5k pace, 2:00 moderate jog
• 3k easy

The intervals were challenging today, so much traffic on the highway and it was raining but I took it from Beyond Grit to accept these distractions as extra challenges and got it done! I even felt so good after the 8th rep that I was able to run the last 3k at goal marathon pace, on average. YES.

Next up, swimming lesson 2/4. Awesome!!! After my 30 minute lesson I stayed at the pool for 1400m.

Then I found out a spot opened up in Kristen’s schedule, so I headed for a session with her at 7:30. As always, fan-fking-tastic. Anyone who has me walking on my hands on a treadmill is my kinda person. LOL.

Wednesday, May 30th – easy day

When I saw 10k on today’s schedule I did a double take. Usually Wednesdays are my non-running recovery day, but I didn’t question it because my body is feeling good and strong and I’ve fit in some naps this week. Coach says we’re just testing it and to let him know if/when I need a rest.

Thursday, May 31st – hard day AND LAST DAY OF FREAKING WORK

• 5k warm-up
• 6 x 1K @ 4:22-4:18, 2 min rest
• 3k cool-down

HOLY!!!! This was awesome. I think it’s worth mentioning a couple of things I noticed.

1. My self-talk has changed a lot, and for the better. When I first got on the machine I felt so tired and thought about waiting til after work for this shred fest. BUT, I had a dinner date with a colleague, so that was not an option. I literally said out loud to myself, “it’s only been a couple of minutes, give it a chance” and “don’t worry, it always takes a while to warm up this early in the morning” What do you know, by the time I’d run a mile there was a smile spreading across my face and I was rocking out to my Dad’s music! It pays to talk to ourselves as we would to a good friend.
2. My ability to negotiate with myself has improved. During the fifth of six repeats, I got that sense of giving up, resting, and trying again. I said “no!” out loud more than once, and then I explained to myself that last week I ran this same workout but the intervals were 1600m, so 1000m was SO doable. Then I said the ABC’s in my head and thought of someone I know who started with every letter. Then #5 was done and there was only one more!

Friday, June 1st – easy day

After some Skeena River Relay preparations with race co-director Crystal, I got in 10k nice and easy and then a hard nap.

Saturday, June 2nd – hard day (race)

hmmm..haha. So today I ran the 21.2k stage of the Skeena Relay. This leg is very PR-supportive. I don’t know if it was realistic of me or not to gun for a sub 1:45, but that was the plan. Considering I’d run 100km in the seven days leading up to this, I think I should have been more careful. Dammit. Good old hindsight. Lifelong Endurance and I aren’t working around these races along the way during Pump Up the JAMmie. Tapering and full rest days around non-goal races just takes away from marathon training. So yeah, I understand why there was no scheduled taper.  And I guess the importance of a taper before a hard effort is now knowledge that lives in my muscles, not just a rumour 😉

I took the first kilometer, which is uphill, pretty steady, and then found a really good rhythm on the huge 4k downhill. I let my body relax into gravity and things felt good, but I think I ran faster than I should have.

There are two hills before the course flattens around 10k all the way until the end. The hills felt fine, but I wish I slowed down as soon as the big downhill ended. Once I got over the second hill and onto the river, my pace started to really slip. Legs did not want to turn over and I fell into a ~5:15/km pace that I couldn’t seem to escape. It kinda felt like there was a spell on my body and it wouldn’t do what my brain was telling it to do ahahah

A headwind wasn’t helping, but I just kept going and enjoying my run, which is something I didn’t know how to do about a year ago when things weren’t going as planned!

Then I got the stomach ache. FUCKKKKK. I swear I am eating nothing but white rice for 48 hours before my next race. Two very fast, ninja-like pit stops happened between 12k and 15k. What a frustrating waste of precious time..ANYWAYS.

Thanks to my awesome team for the water support (and honking and cheering!!!!) which kept things extra fun, and I was able to pick it up a bit for a strong finish into the transition stage to high-five Marcie and send her on her way for stage 4.

The Skeena River Relay is the best day EVER and I loved every second of it this year, as usual. Here are the Gooeyducks, after Jana finished hard in the tenth and final stage.

Sunday, June 3rd – easy day?

Originally the schedule said 20k easy, so I got a ride out to where I started running yesterday and ran the opposite direction home. I knew from past training runs that it is almost exactly a half marathon. I actually had a solid run, starting easy to see how my body was feeling and then increasing to moderate for the majority of the run.

The run turned red on Training Peaks and then I saw that the schedule had been changed to only 8k!!! WHOOPS.

Yesterday, after my part of the race, I ate a protein bar immediately and drank a ton of water and Gatorade. We snacked all day, ate at the awards banquet, and later when I got home I chugged some green powder, a protein drink, took an ibuprofen and foam rolled my whole body. I will assume this was at least part of why I was able to churn out a sub 2 hour half marathon the day after a race. It felt good.

Week 8 is done and Jack & Jill is 56 days away.

SUMMARY

WEEKLY MILEAGE:  103 km

INJURIES/PRE-HAB?  just callous foot

SLEEP?  good but need more

NUTRITION BRAGS?  added a calcium supplement, increasing daily protein

CURRENTLY READING:  Beyond Grit (I’ll try to finish it soon)

CONFIDENCE BOOSTER(S)

• huge mileage for me, no pains
• second fastest half marathon ever, despite a less than ideal day and no taper

NEXT RACE:  Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon & 5k, June 24th

No clue if I’m racing the half or running some sort of training workout. We’ll see!