I know you’ve been waiting on pins and needles waiting for my marathon training of week 3, right? The marathon training plan called for four runs this week: 3 miles, 4 miles, 3 miles, and 5 miles. It was kind of a drop back week because I added a mile to my mid-week run. It wasn’t actually meant to be a hard week of marathon training.
I don’t know why this week was so hard for me. I struggled to get out of bed. I struggled with every single run this week, but I’m thankful I was able to finish all the runs. I finished all of those runs with some pretty decent paces. I am still hoping that this horrible summer runner turns to faster paces in the fall and winter. If anything, it’s preparing me to run in any condition.
My mid-week run was a struggle. I was just adding one mile to mix and I knew I am beyond capable of this. The humidity was high and I had Mollie Tibbetts on my mind. It’s such a shame that we can’t go out and do something good for ourselves without worrying about being a victim. I know there are many stories like this in every town. A couple of years ago we had a series of incidents happening to women in my city. At one point, everyone thought I was a victim of one of these senseless crimes. I stopped running that route. It’s just a scary reality. It just really creeps me out.
When I was about 8 years old, my mom and I were a victim of a crime like this. I basically saved my mothers life because I was able to run away to get help. I noticed the guy when we went into the grocery store and I noticed he was still there on our way out. I also noticed that he started following us to the car. I tried to get my mom’s attention but it was too late. He pulled the gun on her and the only thing I knew to do was run. I’ve never run so fast and hard in my life. I went for help and I think everyone was in shock and didn’t believe me at first. I remember feeling I shouldn’t have left my mom there and that could have been the last time I would have seen her. Those were the longest 10 minutes of my life but my mom finally made it back into the store to see me crying. She thought he had taken me and I thought he had killed her. We were both ok. That was a moment that changed my life forever and I have been FOREVER cautious after that incident.
It’s just been creeping me out when I’ve gone out to run this week. As women, we shouldn’t be afraid of what is going to happen to us when we go out to improve our health.
Anyway, back to my mid-week run. My shoes were making it a struggle. My journey back into running has gone through many phases which have included different shoes. The shoes that have catapulted me to this wonderful running place I am in now, have become the thing that is holding me back. My form is improving and I’m a moving a bit faster now and these shoes aren’t working for me anymore. If anything, my Hokas are becoming a tripping habit. I had to stop and change shoes to finish my run.
My Friday run was supposed to be easy, but guess what? When I finished those 3 miles, I immediately started throwing up all the water I drank. I felt much better and felt like I could run much more but my miles were done. I did some reading on this and it may be my digestive system shutting down from running in high humidity.
Running while it’s hot and humid outside also produces the same result because blood flow is redirected to the skin as a means to cool down the body.
This made me nervous for my long run on Saturday. I didn’t want the same thing to happen. The plan called for 5 miles, but I wanted to 8 miles. I knew I could only do 8 miles if I got out of bed on time. I snooxed my Saturday alarm just one time, but it put me a tiny bit behind. The humidity was horrible. I struggled with my run and I thought I would be lucky to make 3 miles. The urge to quit was REAL and I just had to take it one mile at a time. I had to stop every 2 miles to just get in the best frame of mind. I stopped at stores to buy COLD drinks but I checked the miles off. I ran 6 miles and walked the 7th mile. With all the stops, the sun came up and it got really hot really fast. I was just thankful to make it through the miles.
Come to find out this has been one of the hottest weeks of the summer. I didn’t really recognize this and now I’m starting to wonder if I’m too focused on the paces and getting faster that I’m not noticing the weather. I just expect it to be hot and humid, so it’s not something that I focus on. I learned this week it’s something that does make a difference. I am REALLY hoping we are peaking out with these summer temperatures. This is the reason why I didn’t want to train for a fall marathon my first marathon back. The heat is debilitating and discouraging. I’m glad I’m at the “easy” part of my training and developing my habits now.
I completed my third week of marathon training even though it was rough. I’ve been here before, but I’m learning to “embrace the suck” again. Marathon training isn’t easy, if it was everyone would do it, right? This is a re-learning experience.
