Monday, March 24, 2014

Boston Marathon Training: Week 15

Training for This Week:
Sat.: 18 miles with 12 miles at marathon pace of 8:20
Sun.: day off
Mon.: 2 mile warm up; 5X800m at a 7:13 per mile average pace with 400m easy jogs in between; 1 mile cool down
Tues.: 11 miles on hilly course at between a 9:20-9:30 pace per mile (my Garmin messed up, but I hit the pace)
Wed.: day off
Thurs.: 4 miles recovery run at 10:00 per mile pace + 6X100m strides
Fri.:  day off
Sat.: 17 hilly miles; 9:09 average pace

On Saturday I ran 17 hilly miles in Umstead State Park.  On the way there, I was disappointed that I was getting a late start because of factors beyond my control, and because I had missed the optimal 50 degree temperature hours earlier.  During the run I came to realize that this was a perfect training run.  My start time for Boston is 11AM, and this run started at 10:45AM.  The temperature was close to 60 degrees at the start, and it was 75 degrees when I finished.  With the crazy, cold weather we have had this winter, I do not expect it to be warm in Boston in one month, but if it is, I will have had a long training run in warm conditions.

Just planning to get to the run 30 minutes away was an exercise in logistics.  My husband was out of town (so no help with the kids), and I learned mid week that Saturday was a school make-up day (3.5 hours of instruction) for Tuesday's inclement weather.  My girls go to two different schools with different start and dismissal times, so I reworked a carpool schedule to get my oldest to and from school.

On Friday night, my oldest daughter who had been suffering through a cold came back from seeing the movie "Divergent" and declared that she was too miserable to go to school on Saturday.  I agreed. Then my youngest daughter told me she had an ear ache.  She had what seemed to be a cold during the week, so one could have developed.  I told her she couldn't have an ear ache because I had a long run scheduled for the morning (not one of my greatest motherhood moments, but most mothers could probably relate). She didn't seem to be in pain, so I planned to monitor her and to decide if a trip to the doctor's office on Saturday morning was warranted.

Sure enough my young daughter told me her ear hurt on Saturday morning.  Again, I didn't sense that she was in acute pain like with some other ear infections.  I couldn't tell if she was trying to get out of going to school on a Saturday, or if there really was a problem.  I let her know that she is more important than any run and that I would take her to the doctor if she really felt something was wrong.  Luckily, we got an early morning appointment.  It turns out she has a sinus infection, which explains why she felt pressure in her ear.  With the prescription for antibiotics being filled at the pharmacy, I sent her to school and went on a long run.  Funny thing is that because she was tardy, she won't get credit for attending that session of Saturday school.

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