Bear Mountain 50k Training – Week 7

I gotta say, I’m getting the hang of this whole “training” thing. You know, where I actually can train and don’t end up in a boot or on a surgical table! My legs still feel heavy and tired a lot of the time, but I feel confident in my abilities. I’m pretty sure I’m more prepared now for my 50k that’s 2 months away than I was when I actually ran my first 50k.

Tuesday I finally #justshowedup to a Tuesday with The Breakfast Club! Most of my Tuesday runs have been less than 6 miles so far, and it just hasn’t seemed worth the 5:45AM drive to go run for a half hour and then drive back home (especially because I really freaking hate waking up early). Finally my Tuesdays are longer. I was planning on running solo (most of the group is faster than me, and a few are my pace but were planning shorter runs) but Matt offered to run with me. He left for California for the week this past Monday, so we wanted to enjoy our weekday runs together while we could! I felt tired and slow, with my average pace 9:26/mile, but overall pretty good.

Wednesday was the first track workout I’ve done this training plan! I did a 1.5 mile warm-up to the track by Harvard Stadium and then did 5 x 800m hard with a 2 minute recovery jog between each rep. By the last lap I was tired, wet from the rain, and had a sore shin, but I was proud of the effort I put in. I averaged 8:48/mile pace for the run including the warm up and cool down, and had my pace for some laps between 7 and 7:30/mile! It was definitely worth the effort.

Thursday Matt and I overslept – did I mention I hate mornings? – so we did our run together after work, and it was pretty miserable. Runs after work now tend to feel a lot longer than morning runs, and it was windy as hell. In order to feel like it was an easy run, I felt like I was barely moving against the wind. We got it done together and enjoyed the parts where the wind was at our backs!

Friday was supposed to be my first non-rest Friday, but with my shin being on the brink of injury still, I decided to get my 4 miles done on the elliptical instead. It was boring as always, but I’m 100% sure I made the right decision for my body.

Saturday was our 3 year anniversary – Woohoo! We had good intentions to go to Heartbreak Hill Running Company’s long run, but nothing sounded better than spending the morning sleeping in and cuddling with our adorable pup! I ended up having some horrible stomach problems the whole day, so I did as much as I could (barely 3 miles) and decided to move my long run to Sunday. I’m grateful I did – I still had stomach issues on Sunday, but they were much less terrible.

I did 17 on Sunday (10 with Matt, 7 on my own) and it was probably the worst long run I’ve had in a long time. That being said, I averaged 9:33/miles despite feeling like my stomach was being wrung out like a sponge. I was grateful to have Matt with me for the first part to keep me distracted. Around mile 12 my stomach started to feel worse, but I knew my legs could go all 17, so I sucked it up and listened to a podcast to distract myself.

I’m proud of the week I had! My shin seems like less of a threat, but I’m still trying to be on the cautious side to avoid every injury I can. Unfortunately, week 8 has not been going well for me, as I just threw out my back yesterday, so I’m just hoping I heal in time to get my long run in this weekend!