Day 57 and the second half of marathon training, PLUS the return of the lady with the cane!

Deep down, I think I thought this would be easy.  Well, maybe not easy, but not incredibly hard.  More than doable, I mean.  But you know what?

Marathon training is fucking HARD. 

Amazing that it's taken me eight weeks to truly reach that conclusion, isn't it?  Feel free to smack me around, like the doofus I am. 

It was another LONG long run yesterday.  Thinking about stopping the insanity of training.  But now I can't quit.  My mom is definitely coming down for the marathon, and while she is kinda short she is also scrappy.  She definitely could still thump my ass if she wanted to. 

So I keep going.  Very slowly, but I keep going.  I may really die trying.

Sunday I had to split up my long run again, since I had to do the five mile race first.  I say "had to do" because I have realized that I really, really do not like splitting up my runs.  It sounded ideal at the time but mentally, it does not mean good things for either part of my run.  Like how my second half yesterday averaged 17 minute miles.  Because I walked almost the entire eight-plus miles.

Let me back up.  First of all, the new shoes are working out great.  I decided to make the race their inaugural run.  I threw my old shoes into the car, so that if I needed them for the second part of my long run I could change shoes (I ended up doing all my Sunday miles in the new shoes, with no real problems).  I had my goal of finishing the five miler in 1:10, which I did:  1:10:54 according to my Nike+, I think about ten seconds under than according to the race results (official results aren't posted yet).  I was happy about that.  Especially since....  Lady with the cane was back! 

Right after I got to the race course, I joined the porta-potty line, like you do.  I'd been in line for about five seconds, admiring my new shoes, when BAM!  A cane slams into the ground, next to my pretty shoes.  I'm really not making this up.  It would have been like a gauntlet, except that she didn't do it on purpose; she just had to quickly fix her shoe.  But for me, it was on.  I had to beat the lady with the cane.  (Whose name is Carol, I learned.  I really hope she's not doing Eugene.)

The Red Lizard 5-Miler course is deceptively not easy.  It seems like it should be, as more or less an out and back, but a lot of it involves a slow but steady upwards grade, plus there is the hill of death at roughly 3.3 miles.  I've never seen anyone really run up this hill, probably because all of the actual running people are long gone but the time I get there.  I felt like crawling up this hill this time.  And since I was going so slow, I was in a perfect position to notice... the squished little lizard in the middle of the hill.  A real lizard, flat as a pancake, and in the Red Lizard logo position.  That gave me the energy to get up the rest of the hill, lest I end up like the lizard. 

Lady with the cane caught up with me right after that, so I had to spend the rest of the race keeping myself ahead of her shuffle-shuffle-thump.  I know, I'm so sad.  But it's good to have goals, right?

For the rest of my long run, I took the Ambitious One's advice and decided to go around Oswego Lake.  It was supposed to be 6.8 miles.  It isn't.  Which was okay, since I was aiming for nine miles.  But it was just one more thing to grumble about during this part of the run.  And my brain and body found lots to grumble about. 

When I split up my runs, I spend the first half saying I should go slow since I still need to do X miles afterwards.  Then I spend the second half saying no wonder I'm slow since I already did Y miles, so why speed up?   I also don't like running in heavy traffic, which most of this lake path had (luckily only a few spots where I had to worry seriously about being hit), plus I spent the majority of the time not lost but thinking I wasn't where I thought I was.  This is what happens when part of your map is to scale and the other part not so much.  I also wasn't fueling enough and by that time I needed something solid other than Gu or Powerade, except that I felt nauseous from the peanut butter and bread I'd had earlier.  So I felt sorry for myself, and I walked.  8.15 miles in 2:18:49.  I should have been much closer to two hours.  Did I mention that a good chunk of the south shore of Oswego Lake is all uphill?  But I still should have been at least ten to twelve minutes faster overall. 

Oh well, Week 8 is now officially over and I will be happy, shiny, and perky for Week 9.  I can do this, and I will do this.  I am a marathoner!!

Time for recaps and forecasts.

Week 8:

Mon/Day 50 - Rest.  Check!


Tue/Day 51 - 4 miles.  Check!  4.01 miles.

Wed/Day 52 - Rest.  Check!

Thu/Day 53 - 6 miles.  Check!  6.01 miles.

Fri/Day 54 - 4 miles.  Nope!  I needed a mental health day. 

Sat/Day 55 - Rest.  Check!

Sun/Day 56 - 14 miles.  Close!  I did 13.49 miles between the two runs.  While I didn't actually hit the wall in the second run, I was feeling my way along it for a good four+ miles and could not imagine squeezing in another 0.5 miles to make my total.

Total mileage for the week:  23.51. 

Week 9:

Mon/Day 57 - Rest.
Tue/Day 58 - 4 miles.
Wed/Day 59 - Rest.
Thu/Day 60 - 7 miles.  Gack!  I should be able to finish this in about 85 minutes; we'll see.
Fri/Day 61 - 4 miles.
Sat/Day 62 - Rest.
Sun/Day 63 - 16 miles.  This will be another split run, with the 15K Shamrock followed by the balance somewhere. 

I need a nap!  And a masseur!

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl