High Intensity and High Volume – 3 Weeks to MCM

October 2, 2017 Faux Runner Comments 15 comments

With a relatively easy fallback last week, this week was a high volume high intensity week. I started the week a bit tired and a lot sore.

Monday – Yogalates

Perfect start to the week with lots of hip openers.

Tuesday – My babysitter quit on me by text. (I am still fuming about the younger generation texting important information like quitting or breakup. Face up and learn to have uncomfortable conversations!) I was tried running to figure out a plan of action, but I just could not focus and stopped running after 4 miles instead of my usual 5.

Wednesday – “Let’s see what you got” tempo run

This was a crazy insane workout! After 1.5 miles of warmup, I had 3 miles at Marathon Pace followed by a 3 mile decreasing tempo run with 3min recovery. Since my 5am girls were away at Yeti100, I started the run by myself at 6am.

I was actually looking forward to this; love a challenging run. But by mile 2 of the MP part, I was beginning to question my earlier enthusiasm. When I finished the MP segment, doubt was looming.

Instead of jogging the 3 min recovery, I took the time to fill up bottles and stretch a bit. And mentally reset myself.

I knew I could do the decreasing tempo. 3 miles altogether seemed hard, but 0.5 x 6 wasn’t that bad. Surprisingly, even though I had not hit the MP I was aiming for in the 3rd mile of the previous segment, I didn’t struggle at the tempo miles! I had to remind myself to run tall and focus, with a mini-goal of just 0.5 miles and that made it much easier.

Even as I consciously pushed the last mile of this segment to be near 5k pace, I was pleasantly surprised that I actually did hit that pace for the mile!

I need to remember this feeling in the last 8- 10 miles of MCM!

Thursday – Rest Day

Never have I embraced rest day with as much zest as I did this time after the brutal pace work that equalled 9 miles.

Friday – Marathon Pace Run

Even though I did this on the treadmill, I ran 3 easy miles with the last 2 at marathon pace catching up on Marvel’s Defenders – one more last episode to go! The best part of Friday was visiting one of my favorite people to get a good sports massage.

Saturday – 10k Strides Run

I really wanted to try and run this in the heat of the day, and little worried about the nice cool morning speed been having if Marine Corps decides to go hard like last year. Too much going on later in the day so early morning it was rather than risk not being able to do the run.

When I started the warm-up, the legs wouldn’t move. The first quarter mile or so I was seeing really slow numbers on my pace. But I guess it just needed my legs to warm upA little bit because after I had no problem running and I actually enjoyed the rest of the run.

In the meantime, Ms. FauxRunner had her 2nd cross country meet and came in as the 8th runner in her team (out of 8 runners 😉 ) and squeezed her team into 2nd place by 2 seconds.

Sunday – Last Long Run before MCM

I had 2 goals for this run – 1. run steady and confidently 2. test the nutrition of Gu only moving away from UCan + Gu

Even though I started only at 7:30am, it was chilly and super windy. For the first almost 4 miles I was struggling putting one feet in front of another. I was beginning to *almost* understand accumulated fatigue. It’s also a great confidence booster when your body moves forward by itself in autopilot mode in that scenario.

Since I ran from home to get some hills in the first 4-5 miles, Mr. FauxRunner came to pick me up near my destination and joined me for the last 7 miles. Even he was surprised that I had energy left in me to run my 5 strides after 17 miles/3hrs 40 min (shhh… I was only supposed to run 3hrs, but how many times do I get a running date with my husband?).

The nutrition mix of Gu + margarita shot blocks worked. It was hard forcing myself to take the Gu in the early parts of the run. I didn’t feel like I wanted/needed to but I know I need to keep a steady intake else I’d run out of steam.

When I finished the run, I had a feeling that I might have an upset GI, but it was just a feeling. Weird thing was that I was feeling hungry towards the end of the run.

And then I ate the entire house the rest of the day!

MOST of the hard work is done for MCM. It’s been a great journey so far. I’m starting to get a bit angsty but I know that I have atleast 1.5 weeks of intensity training if not volume and then begins the super hard job of staying healthy and keeping germs at bay.