Marine Corp Marathon Training Weeks 5 and 6

I feel much better about my week 5 and 6 training than I did in weeks 3 and 4.  Things seemed to really align for me to manage to get the majority of my mileage done.
Sunday of week 5, I eased into increasing my mileage by splitting my long run into 2 separate runs.  I did 6 miles that morning and then 6.63 that evening for a total of 12.63.
Tuesday was a tempo day.  I did a 1 mile warm up with 2 miles tempo and then a half mile cool down.  This run was done on the treadmill, unfortunately.
Thursday was an easy run of 3.2 miles.
Saturday I did 4 miles of negative splits in the pouring rain.  This was one of the best feeling runs I have had in a long time.  The rain kept me cool and refreshed.  Average pace for this run was 9:23.

Total mileage for week 5 = 23.33 miles
Week 6 started with a 13 mile long run on Sunday.  I started my run at 6 am and got almost 3 miles in before I met up with a couple of friends who were doing 10 miles.  As refreshing as my Saturday run was, this one was the opposite.  I am pretty positive I have never sweated like I did.  The humidity was 100% which is common here this time of year.  When I got done, I squeezed out my hair and there was a puddle left on the ground below me.  I could have easily pee'd my pants and nobody would have known ;-) .
Monday was a rest day and the last day of summer break for my boys.  We decided to pack up and go spend the day at the beach.  We went to Hunting Island which is a state park and the beach is totally undeveloped.  We had a great time and found over 20 sand dollars.  I wanted to climb up into the lighthouse (just so I could count the stair climbing as a workout) but, we ran out of time.  Here is a pic of the lighthouse from the beach (photo credits: huntingisland.com)
We had a great family day to wrap up the summer.  Here are the boy's enjoying the beach....

Tuesday marked the first day of K3 for Colton and K5 for Clayton.  They are going to the same school that I went to.  It looks exactly like it did when I was there.  I know their teachers very well, and know that I will never once have to worry about them while they are there.

After I dropped them off I went for an easy 4 mile run and finished it off with 6 x strides for a total of 4.6 miles.
Wednesday, was another rest day and I also went and worked at my part-time job for a few hours while the boys were in school.
Thursday, after I dropped them off, I headed over to the track for some speed work.  Did a 1 mile warm up and 3 x 1 mile at a 7:45 ish pace and finished with a 1 mile cool down.  This was as fast as I have run in a long time.  Could it be that my body is finally adapting to the heat and humidity that summer brings?!?!?!?
Friday, was a hot 5 miles of negative splits.

Weekly total = 26 miles

T Minus 12 Days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ready or not, here I come.  I am 12 days out from my first marathon.  I have in some sort of way been preparing my mind and/or body for this for over a year.  Charleston Marathon I am on my way!
I am not going to lie and say that I am as ready as I will ever be, because I am not.  I could have trained more but, I am a wife and mother first.  Life happens and logging all of the runs that my plan called for just didn't happen.  I do not think I will finish in near the time that I initially set out to do but, I am confident that I WILL FINISH and I WILL HAVE FUN.  At this point I will say that I believe this will not be my first and last marathon.  I have enjoyed my training for the most part.  The training I did was a plan that I downloaded from Marathon Nation .  I felt like the plan was totally doable and didn't take me away from my family for hours on end.  I will say that I have had to tweak the plan the last month or so due to life =) .
In the last month, I have teamed up with a long time friend for runs.  She is doing the half marathon of this race.  She has really done a great job!  I am not sure if we have enjoyed our running together in itself, or 2 + hours of adult conversation the most.  Now, we are looking forward to a little retail therapy along with our marathon weekend.

Any advice for my final 12 days?

Anyone else running the Charleston Marathon?

Great Deal On Runners World Magazine!!!!

If anyone is reading, there is an awesome deal on Runners World Magazine right now.  It is from Southern Savers  Click here Runners World Magazine and you enter coupon code SOUTHERNSAVE to get a full year for $5.99.  The offer expires at midnight tonight.

Constant State of Paranoia

I have been living in a constant state of paranoia since this past Thursday night. Colton had a stomach bug that night. He was pitiful and I felt helpless.  Thank goodness he quickly bounced back to himself. I spent all day Friday disinfecting our home. If I could reach it, it got wiped with pin-sol or Sani-wipes. I even took the cushion covers off my couch and washed them.  I mopped and even wiped down baseboards. Seriously, you could have licked my floors they were so clean. I also spent lots of time washing my hands to try to prevent th spread of this bug. 

Saturday came along and I just didn't feel right all morning. I am thinking Iust be getting what Colton had. I was supposed to go watch my beloved #Gamecocks play but, just could not get it in gear to get ready and go.  After a while of thinking about it, I decided that I was subconsciously depressed. Saturday would have been my moms 65 birthday and it was also the 7th anniversary of my grandmother's funeral. So, after deciding that this was my problem, I began to feel better.

Sunday, I had a long run planned with a local that I found out is training for the same marathon as me. I am beyond excited to have found a potential running partner!  I was so excited to have someone to run with that I feared all day long that I was going to get hit by the stomach bug before we could go run. Well, I didn't get sick so I started to think and hope that the rest of us had dodged the bug. 

Monday was fine. We all did our Monday things. However, after we got settled for the evening, Clayton started vomiting. Boo!!  Thank goodness again, he didn't have it as bad as Colton and he also bounced back to himself within just a few hours.  

So , as I sit her tonight I keep thinking my stomach doesn't feel exactly right. Am I getting sick now?  Is it just in my head? 

I did manage to get quick tempo in tonight.  It was on the dreadmill but, it was a run. I did 2 sets of 6 minutes marathon pace, 4 minutes half marathon pace, and 2 minutes long run pace.  

Hopefully, I can out run the illness.

On the bright side, my house is pretty near spotless. If Jody and I can manage to stay well, I shouldn't have much cleaning left to do before our family Thanksgiving. 

Unchartered Territory

Yesterday marked the beginning of unchartered running miles on my long runs. Until yesterday, I had never ran more than the half marathon distance. I did a total of 14.13 miles in 2:30. Yes, it was sllllllllllow paced but, I did it!  The first eight miles were all my long run pace (10:50-11:00 min/miles) and the last 6 were alternating between half marathon pace (8:57-9:03 min/miles) and long run pace.  I felt great during the run except my hip flexors knew exactly when they had hit mileage they had never seen before.  

When I got back home I was greeted by this little monkey....

Every time he see's me in my running clothes he says in the cutest little tone "Been runnin mama?  Your shirt wet?" and inspects my shirt for sweat.  I guess he is staying on top of making sure that I am giving it my all during every run. 

Besides having a first run greater than 13.1 miles, I also experimented with my first ice bath. I should have probably researched that a little more before trying it ⛄️.  I figured I would be pretty sore today so I decided to do the ice bath to keep that to a minimum and to hopefully keep the ole IT band from giving me too much of a problem. Today I am not sore and no IT band pain.  Coincidence? Luck? Who knows, I am just glad I feel as good as I do. 

After settling down from all if that, I settled down with these.....

Next thing I knew, the bag was empty...oops. 

So, what are your tips on not overeating after a long run? 

Ice bath or not?

How do you feel after finishing miles never done before?