I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving! We were able to spend the day with family and couldn’t ask for anything better!

 

The countdown is officially on for my marathon. In case you are wondering we are down to 13 days until the big day. 13 days. 

That also means that the taper is slowly beginning to start. I truly believe that my body and my legs are really going to benefit from getting a bit of a rest during this taper. I plan on mainly sticking to easy running except for 2 faster “workouts” each week. More to come on that this week.

Hansons Marathon Method

This past week has been fun. Yes I said it. Sometimes when we get into training we forget the importance of having fun. I guess you could say some of the fun came from the fact that my workouts went great, but still this week was extremely fun and enjoyable.

Here is a breakdown of my runs this past week:

Monday (11/24)

6 miles easy

 

Tuesday (11/25)

1 mile warm up
2 miles at marathon pace
4 x 800 meters (7:19 pace)
2 miles at marathon pace
4 x 400 meters (7:03)
1 mile cool down

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10.5 miles total

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I was a pretty sweaty mess after this one. I’m still on the hunt for some good headbands! I recently got bangs put back into my hair and now I can’t just throw my hair up and run anymore. I need a way to keep them out of my face.

 

Wednesday (11/26)

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6 miles easy

 

Thursday (11/27)

10 mile tempo run

 

Friday (11/28)

Off

 

Saturday (11/29)

10 miles easy

 

Sunday (11/30)

10 miles easy

 

In case you don’t feel like adding that up my last week of full training was right around 55 miles.

Thanksgiving morning I had my very last 10 mile tempo of my training. It was one of my key workouts I had been focused on the last several weeks. Unfortunately, as the weak progressed I realized the conditions were going to be pretty rough.

The weather called for rain and low 30’s weather. Not really what I had in mind, but there was no way I was going to run my last tempo run on the treadmill. I kept holding out hopes that the rain would hold off for the run, but at 6:00 am when my alarm went off Thursday morning I realized it was going to be a rainy run.

After layering up with all the appropriate clothing I headed out to the trail to get the fun started. My husband offered to meet me about halfway through. I didn’t want to start on the trail until the sun was coming up so he ran from the house and met me about halfway through.

The first half went great aside from the fact that I was battling the rain and cold. I saw Wes halfway through and that allowed me to stop looking at my watch and just trust him to pace me through. We stayed steady until the last 2 miles and then he encouraged me to push it a bit

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10 miles with an average pace of 7:50! The greatest thing about this run? At the end of the run I felt like I could have kept going! I focused on keeping it steady until the last couple miles. This is the exact same game plan I have for the marathon itself.

I seriously could not have asked for a better final long tempo run!

 

Saturday’s run was COLD! I bundled up to head out for an easy 10 miles.

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One good thing about this run was the fact that I determined if I need a hat during the marathon, this will be the one I wear! It was the perfect thickness.

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A good run but nothing much to report!

 

The countdown is officially on and I am looking forward to it!

 

How was your Thanksgiving?

Do you have any races coming up?

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