Last week, I began a new series where we will document our Marathon Training. Let me know if you enjoy reading these! Here’s the blog for week 2!

Week 2:

Monday: REST! It’s the most favorite day of the week! The past two weekends have been crazy at our house with birthdays and parties and summer fun and we’ve had to wake up VERY early to get our runs in so being able to “sleep in” until 6:30 on Monday is MUCH NEEDED.

Tuesday: 3 miles is what I was supposed to get… but we had a little issue. We ran at the gym (thankfully!) due to rain. 2 miles in, a potty emergency hit and I could not run another step. I completed the 2 miles in 21m, 3s with an average of 10:32 min/mi. After my emergency, I returned and was able to get in another .52 om 5m, 53s for an average of 11:19. I give myself a B for best effort under the circumstances :).

Wednesday: REST! We were surprised to find a random rest day on a Wednesday in this plan and we gladly took it :).

Thursday: 3 miles in 30m, 58s with an average of 10:19 min/mi. We ran outside and it was HOT. This time of year is just going to be tough for running outside. We did well, but ran in a one mile loop, 3 times so we could stay close to the house just in case.

Friday: CT or Rest. We slept in and caught up on some sleep, but we were both pretty active that day at our jobs and I mowed the grass after work so I count that as a B effort for cross train for last week :).

Long Run Saturday–5 miles in 56:32 with an average pace of 11:18 min/mi. It was really hot. I know… 71 degrees doesn’t sound bad, but when you’re running and the humidity is 90% or higher, it’s KILLER. We sweat a TON. We drank all our waters. My lip quivered (my MS signal that I’m getting a little too hot). We had to back off on our pace a bit. I wanted to get mad about that and have a tantrum, but I remembered the advice from so many other runners to adjust for the circumstances and listen to our bodies. We’re never going to have our best pace in heat index above 80. My best runs are when it’s 35 degrees outside! It’s okay. It’s summer. We’re training for a marathon in October. We’ve got to focus on staying healthy as much as we’re focusing on getting in the miles. We used the 1.5/.5 run/walk ratio and that was a big blessing with that heat. We would build our speed and be running a 9:30 pace and then get a little break to cool down before starting back up again. Time will tell, but I believe this is going to work nicely for us during the marathon!

Something happens to me in the summer that should be noted here. I had forgotten about it and then it hit me like a brick wall Saturday night. Fatigue. It hits me so hard in the summer. I’m fine all day and early evening. After our runs I run errands, work in the yard, go swimming–normal summer things. However. Around 8:00 pm I’m out. It’s reminiscent of June 2014 and the weekend of hard sleeping after that first MS attack. When my husband moved me from the couch to the bed I had a little panic attack that something was wrong. I was so out of it. I pleaded with him to google to see if it was MS that was causing me to feel the fatigue. I knew it was. I don’t know why I asked him to check. I just wild with panic in the midst of my fatigue. I slept well that night and woke up easily for our early morning run on Sunday. 

Sunday: 3 mi EZ. We ran 3 miles in 37:25 with an average pace of 12:28. This run is meant to feel painfully slow. It’s a chance to warm up fatigued legs and help our bodies learn different paces. It was blazing hot. Again.

Crazy fatigue hit me again that night around 8:30, but I didn’t panic. I gave in. I hate it. I want to hang out with my family, but they are so good and let me sleep on the couch next to them until they’re ready to go to bed. 

So, the final assessment of week 2:

I took off 5 points for the potty emergency Tuesday and 15 points for not getting up early and doing a proper cross train on Friday so 80%. B average. That was an improvement from last week! I’m not trying to be super hard on myself here, but the truth is we all can give more effort. I don’t know if I’ll ever say I gave 100% on any given week…. on a single run, sure! But it’s a training plan. Plan being the key word. We do the best and we strive for 100%, but we give ourselves some grace too. I’ll take a B for week 2 :).

This summer and the heat are going to be interesting for hard core training. I know we’re going to have to back off on our pace. I’m not one-bit happy about it. I’ve prided myself in averaging 10 minute miles. But, it’s about finishing. Not about how fast we get there. We will get there. We WILL get there. Just got to keep repeating that to myself on the hot, hard days :).