BQ Hopeful Week 6

Guys! This week was GREAT! In the beginning I felt like this was such a dumb goal. Everyone told me it was a bad idea but everyone also understood my rationale for going for it. After this week, with under a month to go until race day, I feel like I can do it! Part of me keeps saying “it’s just running your easy pace for 26.2, you don’t need to bring the house down” but then I’m reminded of all the times I was unable to even start 26.2 and I’m reminded that there’s no such thing as an easy marathon. This is still going to be hard! BUT I am picking up confidence as I go!

Monday: 6 miles @7:56: I’ve been trying to pull off this double run/spin class in order to do some consecutive aerobic work to get those glycogen stores built and make up for my tiny excuses for long runs and medium long runs at just 5 weeks out. I was running late today. Matt and I planned to pick up the girls and go to the gym but i needed at least 50 minutes to get in 6 miles before spin class. As Matt drove to the gym I realized he could just drop me off 6 miles away as we drove to the gym... it would save me 15-20 minutes of driving through the city. I could get started right away. I finished my 6 miles 3 minutes after spin class started so i booked it in! but it was a sub instructor so the class was dead. Probably the most boring hour of my life! I just kept telling myself that marathons can get boring and I’m getting aerobic training and mental training

Tuesday: OFF
I’m loving Tuesday’s off. The girls don’t have Daycare on Tuesday so when I get out of work I get more time with them. I’ve loved getting out and having a few hours to myself this summer, but of course the extra time with my beauties is great, too! A nice balance! I love their new room and all the work I put into rearranging the house last week that I’m happy to spend more time doing nothing formal and just enjoying our time at home.

Wednesday: 7 miles, 8:05/mi
I got to run with Matt after work since the girls were still in daycare. It was a pretty rough day at summer school and SUPER hot and humid but we had a big sun shower/downpour/thunderstorm come and go mid-run so that helped a lot. Loved the new section of this bike path! If you haven’t noticed, I am a sucker for bike path running! We closed at a good pace. I know I’m “technically” running marathon pace everyday-ish, but it’s not the pace that gives me trouble...

Thursday: stroller run, 6 miles, 8:22/mi
LAST DAY OF SUMMER SCHOOL! Bittersweet as always. I loved the extra money and actually really enjoy the 4 hour day. Most of my students tantrum after lunch so going home immediately following lunch is so nice! After school I had a massage and then packed for the weekend. My parents have a cabin in the white mountains, usually it’s booked on weekends and not weekdays so I just assume I can ask my mom with short notice to go up on Monday but in this case the weekend my sisters planned to go and weekdays my mom was bringing a group from her track team up...at least it was family and not being formally rented so we could maybe still go. My other sister had extra tickets to Storyland that she left there for us. I promised Raea we’d go and now I was like “crap, poor planning, Caitlyn!” I asked my mom and sisters if it was okay if we overlapped. My moms group would take up all the beds so my sisters were the better option. To avoid too much overlapping we chose Thursday to Sunday at the last minute. On our drive up we stopped to get this run in, ate, and then continued our drive arriving at 11pm. MAKE IT WORK!

Friday: OFF/walk all day at Storyland
I had a scheduled cross training day and while I didn’t formally cross train, walking around a theme park all day is no walk in the park! (Ha... wait...that saying is so wrong!) we had a lot of fun! We struggled a little bit because Raea is now big enough to go on less “baby” rides so she’d say she wanted to go on something but chicken out. It was tough because as a parent you need to find balance between pushing your kid to step out of their comfort zone and not pushing too far. We “waisted” a lot of time looking at rides and ultimately deciding not to do them. We went to Daniel tiger and the “episode” was about catering getting the courage to ride a roller coaster. Right when we left the show Raea got the courage to try. I’m not sure she likes it, but she survived! 🤣 Maebel was still too short for most rides, but I’m 100% sure she’s ride them all fearlessly, so next year will be interesting to see how Raea reacts to Maebel stepping up. Kids are resilient!

Saturday: small hike/6 mile run @8:03
I originally thought we could hike the Jewell trail up Mt Washington and take the cog down with the girls... but with a little rain in the forecast we decided against it and instead took the tram up Cannon and hiked the rim and just random trail sections. We thought we could get to lonesome lake but it was cold and wet and more slippery than we liked for the girls... and for us carrying/supporting them! So we gave Raea a good taste of hiking on her own feet and then turned back just before it down-poured. It was freezing up there! Raea got some Hot chocolate for her hard work, Maebel got my long-sleeve

After we ride the tram back down Matt took the girls to echo lake where they actually swam (it’s warmer at the bottom by a lot!) and I did a quick out and back 6 miles on the Franconia bike path. Then, I traded with Matt. He ran a longer point to point to the Flume Gorge where I took the girls. We didn’t hike it because they fell asleep in the car... but the gift shop and theater were enough to keep them happy.... especially since the theater was basically playing scenes from all the things we did that day (tram, rim, echo lake, bike path,) I’m always amazed at how much we fit in and how flexible the girls are. We returned back to the cabin to find Auntie Jane and Emily (Jemily) back from their long hike. They went out for dinner while Matt and I got the girls settled. Once Jemily returned both girls were sleeping and we did the worlds dumbest crossword puzzle. Highly frustrating clues and answers!

Sunday: 14 miles! Pace unknown... 8:00ish? Last mile 6:57 (my watch is dead- it recorded the whole run but died when i saved and i can’t find charger)
Jemily agreed to help us out in the morning so Matt and I could run the long run together. They are the wake up slow/go with the flow type so we got started at around 9:00 and ran the presidential railtrail. It was beautiful! I felt great! Tired but not injured. My foot got a bit sore from shoes being tied too tight, (i keep doing this because my orthotics make it feel like my feet are sliding out of the shoes!) and my hip felt sore later (long ride home) but as a whole... awesome awesome long run and lots of confidence that I can do this now. In exchange for Jemily helping us, we agreed to do all the sheets and clean the cabin so they didn’t have to worry about coming back from their hike to do that. My moms group was arriving later that night, so it needed to be ready! That’s basically all we did. The girls got a walk in the stroller while we were running to collect flowers. They always have fun with Jane! No fun was had on the long ride home... but with one stop for dinner, we survived and got home right before 9pm

Total: 39 miles, plus 1 hr bike, plus 2hr hike
​I slacked on the PT a lot this week having been on the road, but still impressed with how much we accomplished! Big boost of confidence. Mileage is almost in my normal range (mid 40s-mid 50s) and my body isn’t in total rebellion. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not ideal to be bumping my long run this quick. I’d love more time to adapt... I just don’t have it... so after this marathon I’m definitely going to drop the long run down and focus on tolerating workouts before I build for Boston. I have one more mini vacation/road trip left for the summer and it’s to the Cape for the Falmouth 7 miler. This is a prestigious race so it pains me to know I won’t be giving it my all there. I’m still not 100% sure what my plan is... I’ll discuss it with my coach in the upcoming days... but, it’s going to be more of a progression run than race... keeping it safe! But really looking forward to that race atmosphere energy that I’ve missed out on so much!