Marathon Training Wk 11 - Distraction, Heartburn, and Taper

As you may recall, last week was my BIG run of 22 miles (wahoo!). So, this week was the beginning of "taper" or a winding down period before the big day. My schedule seems to have a slightly longer taper built in than most (?) but timing wise I'm so thankful. This weekend was INSANELY busy and there was no chance of fitting in 20+ miles. So I'm going with it. 

Planned/Completed

Monday - 3 miles/ 0.  I obviously didn't get up at 5 (because I apparently an incapable of waking up with my alarm on Mondays?) so I planned to run at lunch or in the evening. But then we got "the call" and I got all distracted by adoption business. :)

Tuesday - fun workout/ nada. I have yet to actually do a "fun workout" on my schedule. :( I spent a lot of my "spare time" Tuesday sorting out more adoption stuff. Priorities people.

Wednesday - Rest or XT/7.6 miles (quasi-tempo). In an effort to not completely blow my week schedule, I moved Thursday's run up, sort of. I did 5 miles on my lunch break (1 WU, then 4 tempo-ish).  I was shooting for a tempo pace of 9:30, which I discovered is really hard with the hills, uneven sidewalks and traffic lights downtown.  I averaged more like 9:50 for 3 miles, but the last mile (mostly downhill) was around 9:10. : / It was certainly an effort, so I guess that counts as tempo in my book.

Wednesday evening I did a 2.6 mile race with my kids. It was a fundraising run put on by the high school to raise money for a school in Haiti. It was a lot of fun and I'm really impressed with the kids!  S ran ahead with her cross country friends and I kept G, H and A with me. Mark and Al cheered us on. Abi kept begging to run ahead, so after a mile I let him. H joined him and off they went. I thought for sure they would sprint and tire (and walk) but they didn't! Well,they sprinted, but they could keep it up! G struggled a bit more, but I stayed with her and she ran the whole thing. I was so proud of all of them, especially since we did not really train.

Thursday - 7 miles (mid 5 tempo) / 3.1 miles. Pretty much moved Monday's run here and Thurs to Weds.

Friday - Rest or XT / 13.1 miles.  I knew the weekend was going to be crazy, so I moved Saturday's planned 16 miler to Friday night. I am not a nighttime runner, usually, even for short ones. This was my first 6+mile run at night. I hated it. It started off okay, but I started checking my watch before mile 4 - not a good sign. :( Just wanted to be done. Tired from a looooong busy week and heartburn and stomach problems like crazy! And I misjudged my location vs darkness and had to run quite a ways back home in the very dark. :( It was really creepy and frankly not a very smart/safe choice. I didn't actually have any problems, but I was so creeped out that it just ruined everything. I tried to finish the last few miles in my neighborhood, but mentally I was DONE. It was better than skipping it completely, but I felt really disappointed, given how well last week's run went.

Saturday - 16 miles (10 in strong finish) / nada, rest. See Friday.

Sunday - Rest/ Art Prize walking!  :)

Total Miles: 26 miles /23.8 miles

(P.S. I know it's taper, but that seems like not very many miles! I'm a little nervous about how training went in September and I need to really get on top of this upcoming race mentally!)