Marathon Training: Week 4

Another week down, and it was wildly successful. To recap I had a 3-4-3 on Tue-Wed-Thur, followed up by a 9 on Saturday.

The week started with some easy cross training on Sunday. Monday is a rest day, which one of my favorite training days. Starting work and training on the same day would be too much, so I watch TV and lay on the couch. It can be really strenuous sometimes.

I had good intentions to run Tuesday morning, but when the alarm went off I realized there was no way I was getting up to run, God said so. The problem this presents is this....it is so hot in Atlanta right now, that it is almost impossible to run while the sun is up even late in the evening. Additionally, I had eaten a huge plate of fried chicken, so I needed time to digest. I wound up running my 3 miles at about 11:00 that night and I still felt like I was going to puke. Running so late meant that I wasn't going to run early the next day either.

If you remember, last week my four miler on Wednesday was brutal. This week I found a level course for my four miles and finished it no problem. Thursday I ran right before a storm blew in, so it was remarkably cool and easy run. It was so nice to finish all three runs in the week without the constant pain that I have had in the weeks prior.

All the stretching and massage has really paid off. Special shout out to my wife Leslie! Next time you see her tell her your back hurts and she will jump right on it.

After a rest day on Friday, I was really concerned about the jump to 9 miles on Saturday morning. Would I be able to handle it? I really thought my buddy Fabio may have to come pick me up and drive me to the finish. Some of you may consider this cheating, but I have yet to decide.

I was really happy that this Saturday morning was quite a bit cooler than the last two Saturday's have been. 7:00 came and I was off on my 9 miles. Small running group this week, so I was a little concerned the crowd I ran with may get lost. One of my biggest fears is that we will make a wrong turn and get lost from the other time groups while we will run 5 miles to nowhere and no water stops. Fortunately that has never happened, but I will let you know if it does and I live to tell about it.

However, we did miss the first water stop at mile 3 this week. Not off to a good start. I like taking water or gatorade at every stop; I trick my brain into thinking it is fuel to get me to the next stop. Stupid I know, but I think it works....sometimes.

There was no way I was going to miss the second water stop around mile 6. I was like a soldier on patrol looking for our little red crates beside the road. Fortunately we found it, and I don't think I was too dehydrated. After a minute or two it was back to the road. My quads had really tightened up.....I thought "oh no". It was manageable, but I was surprised that it happened. Marching on we finally made it to the finish. The only issue was I ran a 8 mile course, so I had to go out and do 1 more mile. This wasn't the most fun mile I had ever run, but I managed. It felt good not to cheat on my training plan too :)

Last week after my 5 mile run on Saturday, I put my legs in ice water to help with inflammation. While incredibly uncomfortable and borderline painful, I think it helped me recover for this week. So of course I did it again this week. Please enjoy the new photo of me celebrating another successful week of training.

Next week is another step forward, 3-5-3 and 10 on Saturday. Thanks so much for all your comments of support. I will post again next week.