Week 4 and week 5 are tightly intertwined with each other. Week 4 ended the phase where I built up my volume to develop my stamina and attempt to reach 100 mile week milestone. Week 5 transitioned me into my hill and strength phase. It gave me an opportunity to rest and recover from the constant impact on my body as well as test my strength and speed.
I missed 100 miles by 11 miles. It’s okay. If I forced the final 11 miles out of me and my schedule, I have a feeling it could have broken me more ways than one. My muscles were sore. The ligaments were at the brink of breaking. I needed the rest. I did accomplish a few records for myself. I ran the most mileage in week, 89 miles, and the most mileage I ran in a month, 243 miles in June. I discovered what my limits are and I can build something from that.
I spent most of week 5 recovering from that high mileage week. I needed the rest to allow body to adapt and repair itself. I needed to gather myself for the next phase of training. I ran two races this year. The first race was the “I Run Because…” 5k at Fullersburg Woods in DuPage County. I got a little tweaky during this race but I started to hard and two fast. I think my warm up was too aggressive also. I didn’t have someone to keep me cool and collected. The Stampede Run was a different beast. It was a quality run from the beginning until the end. The knee kind ached for a few seconds during the race. Everything else was expected.
During these two races, I learned two things about me and running. First, too many thoughts spin in my head when I go solo at an event. It causes me to do things that aren’t good for the race. Second, my abs cramp up when my pace is around 7:30 mi/min. The core needs to be worked on big time.
The past two training weeks provided valuable information for the next phase of training. I need to improve my strength for the marathon. A big focus should be my core muscles. Hill workouts and resistance training will aid in gaining strength.
The saying, “You are what you eat,” is true at all levels of fitness and activity. I also want to focus on my nutrition. I need to provide the body the building blocks it needs to rebuild and adapt my body. I also need to keep my weight loss more consistent.
Week 6 will be a challenge with the adding another component to the training routine and adjusting my diet to reach my weight goals. I’ll post more information about each of these components in the following weeks.
