Welcome to week 14 of our Marathon Training Blog series! Click here to read week 1!

Week 14:

Monday: Rest–love it.

Tuesday: 4 miles well, it was another off week. After our 16-miler, I began to develop some lower back pain. I could not pin point if it was a pinched nerve or pulled muscle or something internal (gastrointestinal/female related/etc.). It was bad enough that it made sitting, standing, or finding a comfortable position on the couch or in the bed pretty difficult. I also had a headache that just would not go away. The weather had heated up and summer was letting us know she was not quite done yet so I’m wondering if it was weather related. At any rate, I could not drag myself out of bed and then I could not make a run happen that evening. I get so disappointed in myself when things like this happen, but I have to remember these training plans are built for little set-backs like these. And while I don’t want to use that as an excuse to skip out on runs, I need to remember to listen to my body and discern what it needs most.

Wednesday: Crosstrain. Squats, lunges, sit-ups, etc :).

Thursday: 5 miles in 54 m, 13s with an average 10:51 min/mi. Gym. I can’t remember what I watched, but it was likely Gilmore Girls :).

Friday: CT or Rest. Rest.

Long Run Saturday–12 miles Well, we had to get creative. We had the remains of a hurricane in the area which caused a lot of lightening on Saturday morning and rain all day on Sunday. We made the executive decision to split the run into two and run half at the gym on Saturday morning and half outside on Sunday, raining or not (as long as no lightening).

The only trouble is the treadmill has a limit of 1 hour so we didn’t quite get 6 miles on Saturday:

And on Sunday, we ran after lunch and I didn’t wait quite long enough. We made it to mile 5 and then I had a side cramp that nearly brought me to my knees. We walked the remainder so our time stunk.

Sunday: 3 mi EZ. Nope.

So, the final assessment of week 14:

85%… I was kinda generous with this grade… I cut myself some slack for the pain earlier in the week.

18 miler coming up this Saturday. Trying to hydrate and carbo load with sweet potatoes and pray that we can FINISH and NOT DIE. That’s our new goal for the marathon: “Finish and don’t die.” Hoping we can accomplish both of those!