Boston training week 9. The wordy edition

The weeks are flying by at this point. I feel like it was about point two seconds ago that I did my long run last week and here I am, long run done again...

This week was a mixed bag.
I don't see that as a completely bad thing though. One does not wish to get bored with never ending stellar runs and ever speedier mile splits, right?!?
......right......

Monday: started out with a bang and the typical 10 miles of hill work.
I'm not going to lie, I felt like a bag of crap. I had not slept well in many days and was experiencing some female complaints. "Gross" was my basic description of this workout.
Gross doesn't mean I had to stop, or quit, or puke on my shoes and my legs felt good enough but the rest of me was like "whaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!! gonna poop!!!! everywhere!!!!" Oh wow. No good. 
The weather was a bit more brisk than my previous weeks hill attempt. 37 degrees with some snow showers certainly kept me from getting too warm. #soblessed

Ugh all he hills

Imagine my surprise when I finished this run in just about the same time as last week. There was some astonishment. I  can only imagine that I was in a hustle to get home to the comfort of my own bathroom.

OK then, I'll take it

Tuesday: Boring slow easy treadmill run. Pouring rain so not going outdoors, thanks.
This run was hardly inspired but that is what recovery runs are for.
My Mom is super nice and she brought me a cinnamon bun the size of my face which I immediately stuffed IN my face with many shrieks of happiness. Easy miles call for huge snacks.

I had already had a few bites.

Wednesday: Speed work day! So much joy!
It was another warm one. 53 degrees and sunny so the short shorts ad tank got to come out and play again.
Today's workout involved 2 miles of warm up and 8 miles at slightly better than race pace with the final mile/ish being more effort based as there is a solid and significant hill.
This was tough, my legs were super dead which can only mean that I didn't run my recovery run slow enough. Annoying, since it was literally a death march. I had a couple minor technical issues (I had to stop and remove layers during mile one, which didn't change my tempo miles but was annoying, I had to re-tie my shoe in mile 9 which was a bother. Little things but since I wasn't feeling light footed and fleet to begin with, just a hassle.)

Post run exhaustion. So much drama.

 The good thing is that I just got shit done. I don't stop or cry (or, nobody sees me do such things!) I can tough it out and I try to assume that speedwork that feels like a bucket full of assholes will make me stronger and blah blah *insert bullshit line*

Putting on a brave face in my times of trouble.....

I had been feeling a little ouch from my toe for a couple days but had never thought to look a it (it was a minor ouch.) After this run I looked and found that my friend the Blister had made  return. Like any self respecting person would I grabbed my foot, took a pic and sent it to my Mom. Sorry Mah. It started little like it is in this pic, then it got way bigger and now it is turning into a little callus. GROSS. You're welcome.

Wow this is nice.

Thursday: REST DAY THANK THE SWEET BABY GEEZES
We all know a mid week rest day means that I work all day and am on my feet until like, 7PM but who's really paying attention. It was a nice Spring like week so that meant it was time for some nice Springtime beers! I drink IPA all year but I enjoy most of Bissell's beers and this was a favorite from the week. I find that a couple of their beers are so similar enough to be almost interchangeable, if you like Substance you will like Reciprocol. (and Bucolia, they are all very similar.)

Yum, beer is great!

Friday: After a few days of FINALLY sleeping again I was beginning to feel more like myself and less like an exhausted hell bitch. #gains
I had an 8 mile base pace run on the docket and despite the 56,098 MPH wind I went forth and got it done.
My legs, post rest day felt decent. The first 3 miles were straight into the aforementioned wind so I was like "urghhhhhhhh whoooooooohhhh this is harrrrrrrrd" (imagine how a really jowly dog looks when it sticks his face out a moving car window, that was me in the wind. cute, I know.)

LIKE THIS, no kidding.

It was a bit of work and when the wind let up I apparently kept working at the same effort without meaning too because my base miles ended up much, much closer to MP miles.
I don't approve of myself doing base runs at a greater effort but in the grand scheme of things it will make zero difference. I will be sure to calm down and dial it back a bit next week.
*Unless, of course a true miracle has happened and overnight I have become a person who runs fast. In this case I suppose I will just have to accept this and watch in awe as I literally crush all my current PR's.*
Right......

Windy AF. Seriously Maine, knock it off

Saturday was long run day and it was cold and windy. 35 isn't bad in the grand scheme of things but last weeks long run was a helluva a lot warmer, 53 I believe. So I was a little sad to need a warm shirt and full length tights.

I got off to quite a late start as some work issues had put me well behind schedule. Due to these work issues I didn't want to get too far away and then get called back to sort things out.

Basically, I spent 16 miles running back and forth along a couple roads near home, going no farther than 3 miles away. There were lots and lots of tight little turns as I reversed direction which I am sure is good practice for something (If I was running Great cranberry Island this year it would be!)

The run was decent enough and I didn't have any issues other than getting really cold hands and a little bored seeing the same things 300 times. My phones GPS got a little boggled at the end of my run (I assume because I was literally running back and forth) so it was like THIS mile was 9:45 and the NEXT one is 8:22 and the NEXT one is 9:55 but the FOLLOWING one is 8:08!!! I don't think any of that actually happened and I pay more attention to my overall pace but this kind of data always makes me laugh.

And another week of training comes to a close.

I did have one annoying TMI thing happen that I am going to share because I'm special like that. Somehow during this run my actual butt crack got chaffed. HOW does this happen?! I can picture my ass cheeks clapping away back there not giving a fuck and this baffles me. Anyhow, this kind of chaffage is no joke and I recommend somehow trapping the butt cheeks so that they can not do this! Ugh, the horror.

After running Eric and I went to grab a drink with my sister which then turned into dinner.
I was starving per the usual and I ordered a cannoli for dessert. Imagine my delight when there were TWO of them! I ate them both. This might or might not be playing a role in my butt cheeks smacking together but I honestly don't care.

"THERE ARE TWO" I yelled in joy!!!

So there you have it, week 9 is done. Next week will be loads more exciting because we are supposed to have some sort of storm, I'm super busy AND I have Eastern States on Saturday. Good times.

The weekly wrap up
Miles: 50.0
Favorite TV: Only one TM run, and I watched some old Dance Mom's. I'm lame.
Favorite beer: Bissell Brothers Reciprocal
Low temp: 17 glorious degrees on Saturday AM
High temp- 53 on Wednesday
Favorite food: A few things. My Mom (who I swear keeps me alive during marathon training because I run out of time to cook so I steal things from her *occasionally*) made Cheesecake (which was insane) and this lamb roast which was great and also some hard boiled eggs which I usually don't love but right now I do. Also, my Dad made fries which were sooooo good. I didn't make anything good this week except a Boboli pizza....