Marine Corp Marathon Training – 14 miles

August 1, 2015

After my whining and complaining the other day on my blog, I followed through on my promise to myself and woke up when my alarm went off (6:30 on a weekend morning), made my oatmeal and tea, mapped out a route, and loaded up my ipod.  I was on the road by 7:30.  I hadn’t checked the temperature; but it wasn’t as humid as it was during the week.  It was still warm though.  I’d take a guess that it was still around 70 degrees at 7:30 this morning.

To help make this easier for me I reached out to my Mickey Miler friends and learned that I was not alone.  My friend Kristie Green was heading out to do 18 miles at 1:30 in the morning in Texas!  If she was doing that, then my little 14 miler was nothing.  Others were also having a hard time with putting in some more miles lately and we are thinking the heat may be to blame.

To help me mentally prepare I began gathering up my running gear during the day and laying it out so I would see it and start to embrace the fact that I WAS going on this run and I AM picking up my training mileage.  Summer is here, and yes it’s harder to get in the longer miles during the summer months, but I knew the worst that could happen would be that I may need to walk more of it.  I also made sure to make my water bottles and freeze them as well as mix up some Nuun to make sure I am properly hydrating with electrolytes during the warm warming run.

I set my alarm for 6:30 and was very good about getting up as soon as it went off.  I didn’t want to wake up my husband and I knew that I had to get up at that moment or else I could possibly back out or delay it even longer.  I am very good at sticking to my plan; but with the way I have been thinking lately I didn’t want to leave any opportunity to fail.

It took me a few miles to get into the game.  I walked the first 1/2 mile to warm up my mind and body (or stay cool) and then once I was in the shade I began my 30/30 intervals.  After around mile 3 I was starting to get into a little groove; I was also on a shady road so it was helping me feel more comfortable and not overheated.  The first 2 miles had a lot of sun on it and it was starting to concern me.

As I approached mile 4.5 I had to walk up some beastly hills.  It was tough.  Then I was in a lot of sun again.  So as I finished around mile 6 I decided that I would stop at my house to get some ice and refresh my water bottles with ice and water.  It was too hot and I didn’t want to take any chances of getting sick from the heat.  My stomach was also growling so I grabbed a few pretzels.  I think my pit stop was for about 15 minutes and then I was back out on the road to finish the last 6 miles.  I decided to take a different route than originally planned and ran again on one of the shadier roads.

 

 

 

For the last 2 miles I did a lot more walking than running.  But I wasn’t too hard on myself.  I knew I was getting back into it again both mentally and physically and the fact that I was out there still in the heat and being smart about it made me feel ok about my pace.  When increasing my mileage the last 3 newer miles I tack on since my previous long run are always the hardest.  So since my last long run was Chicago 2 weeks ago I knew I’d be ok.

Now to keep up the positive momentum and continue onward toward the Marine Corp Marathon and the 2016 Dopey Challenge!