Happy Labor Day! I hope you had a wonderful weekend- hopefully a long, relaxing one too.
Dustin and I spent our weekend at the cabin in northern Wisconsin and it was awesome. Lots of running of course, but plenty of paddle-boarding and relaxing too. And good eating! I brought a few Hello Fresh meals up there to make, which were tasty.
The next time we head to the cabin will be when I attend Kara Goucher’s Minnesuing Acres Running Retreat in October. I am super excited for the retreat! It was a lot more affordable to register for the “day camp” option, which is all day Saturday, rather than Friday-Sunday. I believe there are a few spots available in the day camp if its something that works for you; here are the details.
With that long intro out of the way…here’s my weekly recap of training for the Richmond Marathon. We are now 10 weeks away!
Monday: 7.5 miles easy in the morning
Tuesday: Morning tempo run: 2 mile warmup with 4 miles at tempo pace (7:45 min/mile), 2 mile cool-down. 8 miles total.
I had a work dinner in the evening at Mill City Kitchen . I was excited that this was the restaurant selected as its within walking distance of my house (yay!) and the food is great. It ended up being kind of a late night though with post-dinner drinks at Tilia which meant no early morning run on Wednesday.
Wednesday: Mini-golf during the work day…FUN! Then 7.5 miles after work with Dustin. It’s pretty rare these days that we run together, so this was a treat.
Thursday: 7.5 miles with Matilda in the morning. I warmed up with my friend Lindsey, but she had a tempo workout, so she was off on her speedy way for the rest of the run.
After work, my company had a summer-end outing at the St. Paul Saints game. So many work outings this week, but all good fun.
Friday: I took PTO to do my 20 mile long run. “You know you’re training for a marathon when..you use PTO for a long run…” Am I right?
I had company at first from a few run club friends for the first 7 miles, but then the last 13 were on my own. The first 15 were at an easy pace followed by 4 miles at goal marathon pace, and 1 mile to cool-down. The idea was that I had to do goal marathon pace on tired legs at the end of a long run. Not easy. It was a hot and humid run, even though I started at 5:30 am. Those 4 at goal marathon pace were not easy but I made it and was glad to be done before we headed to the cabin.
Saturday: 8 mile recovery run at the cabin with Matilda the vizsla. Then we drove along the road to give Dustin fluids during his long run (he did not take PTO to do his, but did it on the hilly country roads! Tough.)
Sunday: 6 mile run with Dustin in the morning, 4 miles in the afternoon alone.
Double runs are tough to fit in at home, but they felt even harder mentally at the cabin. I love to start my days up there with a run, but it was hard to have that second run hanging over my head. My coach said there should be a minimum of 5 hours between each run. Ideally each run is less than one hour, so its a way to increase my mileage and run on glycogen-depleted legs, without being quite as hard on my body, i.e. 10 miles in one run requires more recovery than a 6 mile run and a 4 mile run. Make sense?
I know I get the side-eye from some people when it comes to double runs, but there is a lot of research behind why they work in marathon training. Minneapolis Running has a great article HERE about double runs. I am on board with them, but I have to be honest that it was hard to do it while at the cabin. But it did make my Spotted Cow afterwards taste even better! #earnedit
Summary: 68.5 miles. Cross training was lots of stand-up paddle-boarding.
Marathon training with Antonio as my coach is definitely intense, but I trust his knowledge. Hopefully it all pays off in a few months!
I’ll leave you with a picture of Matilda sitting on my lap on the last day at the cabin. She did not want to leave. She loves it there! It seemed like she knew it was the end of the summer.
Don’t worry Matilda; we will be back soon.
(Honestly vizslas are such lap dogs; this was just Matilda being her normal cuddly self!)
Did you run a Labor Day race this weekend? Travel somewhere fun? Please share!
Wow, you are an amazing runner. 68.5 miles! Just spectacular. I did my 20 mile long run today. I ran the whole thing at goal marathon pace since this is my first marathon and I had no idea whether my goal was reasonable. Super relieved that I pulled it off, with negative splits. I don’t know about 6.2 more miles and the hill, but this was a huge confidence booster. Glad I pushed it from the weekend to Monday to take advantage of the perfect weather. Managed to mow the lawn before the endorphins wore off, but now the legs… Read more »
Wow Eric- if you can do 20 at goal marathon pace during training you will have no problem with 6.2 more! But definitely recover…probably a good choice not to race a half this weekend.
Marathon training definitely dominates the running schedule but it’s so fun and it sounds like it will be worth it for you in a few weeks! Good luck during the taper!
Also, so cool that you are going to Kara’s retreat. What a great opportunity. Take lots of pictures – we expect a full write-up. I infer from her post on the Oiselle blog that she’s running the TC 10-mile this year – sweet!
You bet I will write about the camp! I’ve never attended anything like it so I hope to learn a lot. And yes she’s running the TC 10 mile too! I’ll be out there cheering for both of you!
Looks like you had a great week! I am jealous of your Kara Goucher day camp you’re going to!! I am already looking forward to the recap on your blog. Also, super cut pic of you and Matilda!! She is so sweet!
Thanks Katie for reading and commenting! Matilda thinks she should be on at least 90% of all posts 🙂