Marathon Training Weeks 5 & 6

So maybe I am an every-other-week sort of writer. That is going to have to be okay. Things have been great here at the store. I am especially pumped about our two big February announcements that we have unveiled in the past two weeks. The 1st ever 605 Summer Race Series leading up to the Sioux Falls Marathon weekend and the big news that we have landed Asics as the latest line of shoes offered at the store.
 
To be completely honest my training has not gone well as of late. The past to weeks have been a bit of a pity party for myself, but I’ve made some changes and I think I’m getting back on the right track. In particular I was frustrated with my slowing pace per mile and the fact that I felt like I was gaining weight while running so much.
 
The reality is I’ve stayed the exact same weight this whole time not losing or gaining anything at all – it is all in my head. The pace thing really erks me so I intentionally cutback mileage last week in hope of recovering and picking the pace back up as I move forward. So here is my daily progress report for weeks 5 & 6.
 
February 2nd – We had a pretty spectacular blizzard today so I went to the gym to get my work in. I utilized the Woodway curved treadmill and holy cow did it kick my butt. 6 miles!
 
February 3rd – Today I split my total mileage doing 3 in the morning at the gym again on the curve. The evening offered up a very difficult 4 mile run in fresh snow going uphill. 7 miles!
 
February 4th – I got up super early this morning (3:45am) to be on KSFY in Beresford to help promote the Frostbite 4. That didn’t stop me from getting back to the pool for some laps before actually starting my workday.
 
My beautiful bride and I took the time to sit down and talk with Sports Dietitian Lizzie Kuckuk about our eating habits and where we could improve our diets. I found this to be a very productive meeting and highly recommend it for everyone. As I previously mentioned I’ve struggled with weight and appropriate eating for my training. Lizzie had great examples of serving sizes and real-world examples of things I like to eat and can incorporate into my diet.
 
I followed up our meeting with Lizzie with my running analysis and group-training program at Sanford. The fieldhouse really seems to be becoming a second home for me and I am truly blown away by the number of experts in the sport available under one roof.
 
February 5th – This was the day that I really started to get exhausted by running during this training program. My run on this particular morning was completely miserable and left me in a very down mood going into a race weekend. 8 miles!
 
February 6th – Frostbite 4 Race Day! This is seriously one of my favorite events of the whole year. The community of Beresford does such a great job hosting a race and the Chili feed afterwards is top notch. I was thrilled that I got to talk to so many people at our booth and enjoyed seeing so many familiar 605 Running Co. shirts present for the race. While I ran 3 minutes better than my time last year I was disappointed with my race performance. Chalk it up to too much standing around talking, not eating any pre-race food the whole morning, and no warm-up. Bottom line is I fell short of my personal expectations and that put me in such a bad mood following the race I blew off the other 10 miles I was supposed to run that day. 4 miles!
 
February 7th – We hosted a family super bowl party at our house and I spent the day cooking and cleaning. In my house the super bowl is a holiday, which means I took the day off from training and ate as much food as possible with no regrets.
 
February 8th – Monday is normally a rest day for me, but after a bad running day Saturday and the super bowl on Sunday I felt compelled to be active. I made my way to the gym and incorporated several my Thursday Sanford workouts into my sweaty AM workout.
 
February 9th – I made the conscious decision to cutback on my running workload for the week so I once again did some work in the gym and stayed away from running for the day.
 
February 10th – Wednesday night group run once again had a great turnout. What I most enjoyed is that this group joined me for a slightly longer than normal evening run which brightened my spirits significantly. 7 miles!
 
February 11th – Tonight at the Fieldhouse we got a new workout and I really enjoyed it! Hard work pays off and my mood about running is once again improving.
 
February 12th – Travel day! We took the weekend to visit family in Iowa City. Good timing for a cutback week.
 
February 13th – In case you were wondering it was cold in Iowa this weekend too! They have some great running areas near my family’s house and I took full advantage with a long slow restorative run. I may have nearly frozen to death, but this was just the run I needed. 14 miles!
 
February 14th – We drove home through a snowstorm and my valentine suggested we go straight to the gym before we lost motivation. I was thrilled with decision and happy to be home.
 
 
    

---