Training so far:

• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 1
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 2
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 3
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 4
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 5
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 6
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 7
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 8
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 9
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 10
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 11
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 12
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 13
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 14
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 15

***

Monday – REST!

I rested last Monday after my big 20-miler weekend!

Tuesday – 5.75 mile / 9.25 km trail run

I met my friends and there dogs to test out a trail run with Chloe! She did really well and was up in front with my friends husband and not even really running with me or caring where I was. Ha! It ended up being a bit longer run than we planned but the first 2 miles were basically a hike as we went straight uphill, gaining 1,000 m in elevation, before getting to some nice rolling, single-track trails. Chloe definitely slept good that night!

5.75 miles / 1:09:10 / 12:02 pace
9.25 km / 7:28 pace

Wednesday – 7.25 miles / 11.6 km speedwork

Week 3 of speed work consisted of a 2 km warm-up run to the track followed by 2 km at marathon pace. I was able to keep my pace pretty steady. We then did four yasso’s (800 m repeats with 400 m jogging in between each one) which I ran in 4:20, 4:15, 4:18 and 4:00! I was trying to keep it steadier this week but I had A LOT of gas in my tank the last yasso so figured I’d just let myself go and 4:00 is what I ran it in. I felt really good during speed work this week and had lots of energy.

7.25 miles / 1:14:12 / 10:14 pace
11.6 km / 6:21 pace

Thursday – 75-minute flow yoga class

Started my morning off with a 75-minute hot flow yoga class and it was amazing. I am going to start going to more of these morning flow classes. It’s hard to get myself there at 6 am but once I’m there I feel great and it’s a lovely way to start off my morning! I also just really love the flow style of yoga with lots of vinyasa’s.

Friday – 14.0 mile /  22.5 km long run

I was traveling all weekend and my only real hope for fitting in my long run was Friday after work. So at 4:30 PM I left the office in my running clothes and set out to run for 2.5 hours. Not going to lie, I was NOT excited about this run and had no idea how my body would react to doing a long run in the afternoon but it actually went really well.

It was hot out, around 20 C, but a lot of my run was along the river (as shown in the gorgeous photo above) and in the shade so I actually didn’t get too hot. The last few miles were tough and my feet were starting to get sore since I had a few blisters but overall I felt really, really good during this run and I would be way more on board with doing evening long runs in the future! It was also really nice to finish and know my whole weekend was free.

14.0 miles / 2:29:34 / 10:42 pace
22.5 km / 6:38 pace

Saturday – REST!

I made a really quick trip back to FSJ this past weekend so I flew up early Saturday morning and then was driving back by Saturday afternoon with my mom so I spent all day Saturday on a plane and then in a car – no time for exercise really! My legs also got pretty stiff after doing my long run the night before and then sitting all day.

Sunday – 3.5 mile / 5.6 km treadmill run

I did my first, and ONLY, treadmill run of this training cycle on Sunday morning. I did 0.25 miles warmup, 3 miles at MP (marathon pace) and 0.25 miles cooldown. This run was so mentally tough. I swear it was worse than my 14 miler on Friday after work. I really, really hate the dreadmill and will avoid it at all costs.

3.5 miles / 36:58 / 10:34 pace
5.6 km / 6:33 pace

Training Tally:

Miles/Km ran last week: 30.5 miles / 49 km

Training-to-date mileage: 439.8 miles / 707.05 km

Yoga: 75 minutes

Strength Training: 0 minutes

Cycling/Spinning: 0 minutes

Thoughts:

I’m happy with how this week went! I want to get in way more yoga over the next two weeks though. My goal is 2-3 classes per week minimum and maybe even four classes next week before the marathon.

I’m really happy with how I feel at this point of taper. I’m a little more tired than usual but nothing like I remember being when I trained for the Portland marathon so hopefully my energy levels stay up. The next two weeks are going to be all about hydrating, eating well, sleeping lots and preparing my body for the big day!

***

Question of the day: Do you do the majority of your running/training outside or on the treadmill? I absolutely HATE the treadmill and will avoid it at all costs. Running outside is what finally made me fall in love with running as I’d begrudgingly been running on the treadmill my whole life at the gym and HATING it. Ha!

Training so far:

• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 1
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 2
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 3
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 4
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 5
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 6
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 7
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 8
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 9
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 10
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 11
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 12
• Vancouver Marathon Training: Week 13

***

After the week before last’s awful training week I am very, very happy to say that last week was much better.

Monday – REST!

I took one more rest day last Monday to get all caught up around the house after being away all weekend. Did some household chores, caught up on email and blogs etc. I was still feeling kind of wiped so it was needed.

Tuesday – 4.0 mile / 6.4 km run

Easy run with my group. I still felt pretty blah and tired this night and it was really windy out. I just kind of plodded along on this run.

4.0 miles / 43:04 / 10:56 pace
6.4 km / 6:47 pace

Wednesday – 6.70 mile / 10.8 km speed workout

Wednesday was our first track workout and we will now be doing them weekly leading up to the marathon. On Wednesday we did an easy 2 km jog over to the track and then did 3 x 2 km repeats at marathon pace. It was tough! This was the first time in 1.5 months that I truly missed my garmin. It was hard to keep a steady pace without having a watch!

It was an OK workout. My stomach started bothering me near the end and my left calf seized up so much that I was limping after this workout. So not a stellar workout by any means but I got it done.

6.7 miles / 1:07:34 / 10:06 pace
10.8 km / 6:16 pace

Thursday – 75 minute flow yoga class

I woke up Thursday morning to an extremely tight calf muscle – apparently rolling and icing the night before did not help. I was not pleased and knew I needed to do something. I tried yoga to see if that would help and while it did feel looser after 75-minutes of downward dogs, sun salutations and warriors I decided to make a last minute appointment with the chiropractor just in case. 25 minutes of intense ART later I was almost in tears and my calf was still sore. I then spent Thursday afternoon icing it while at work hoping it would be better. Luckily I woke up on Friday morning and it felt 100% again! I love the chiropractor!

Friday – 6.0 mile / 9.65 km trail run

I was glad my calf was feeling better for this run as I’d been looking forward to it all week and I was so excited to get back into the trails. That wasn’t so much the case anymore after I climbed my third or fourth steep hill in 30 minutes, but the views were totally worth it. It was definitely a hillier run than I’ve been doing lately and that showed in my pace and I felt really exhausted at the end – but also happy because I LOVE trail running. I didn’t even care that my pace was so much slower than normal! Trail running is definitely a completely different beast than road running.

6.0 miles / 1:26:54 / 14:29 pace
9.65 km / 8:59 pace

Oh, and Friday afternoon I went and bought a new garmin at Costco! I love having a garmin again. I wanted to get the same 305 I had before but apparently they’ve been discontinued so I went with the 110. It’s actually really nice having a less clunky garmin that is more like a normal watch.

Saturday – Active Rest

Spent Saturday helping Eric with backyard work and doing stuff on the deck I then took Chloe for a 40 minute walk / hike in the afternoon since the weather was AMAZING. We were both tired by the end!

Sunday – 18 mile / 29 km long run

What a great long run! I wish I had a photo to share of the beautiful (new to me) trail we ran on but I was too busy gabbing to take any. I started the morning off with my trail running friends from Friday and spent about 1.5 hours with them. When I was heading back with one of my friends we ran (ha) into the half-marathon group from the Running Room so I decided to tag along with them for the last half of their 18 K (11ish mile) run. I basically spent the entire three hour run chatting away with people and it was great.

I felt stiffer than normal at the end since 90% of the run was on a gravel / dirt path but I also felt really good and energized. It didn’t hurt that the weather was amazing and I got a bit of a sunburn even! Definitely time to break out the sunscreen for my runs again.

18.0 miles / 3:18:23 / 11:02 pace
29 km / 6:51 pace

Training Tally:

Miles/Km ran last week: 34.7 miles / 55.8 km

Training-to-date mileage: 371.1 miles / 596.55

Yoga: 75 minutes

Strength Training: 0 minutes

Cycling/Spinning: 0 minutes

Thoughts:

I’m happy with how the week went! Even though it doesn’t look like I got much cross-training in I did get a few walks in with the dog and my arms and back were also very sore after all the backyard work we did so I’m counting that as cross-training. I’m just happy that I had another strong running week and another great long run.

One more big week stands between me and taper! Only four weeks to go until the marathon!

Question of the day: How was your training last week?

I’ve been so tired lately but four days off of work with no real plans was just what the doctor ordered. I wouldn’t call the weekend relaxing necessarily as it was very go-go-go, but it was certainly rejuvenating!

Here are a few pictures from my weekend…

I started the long weekend off with my first trail run in ages. I was treated to amazing views coupled with some brutal hill climbing that made me really miss trail running. I can’t wait to get back into it after the marathon! And the beautiful sunshine stuck around every day this weekend. It made me so happy! I even got a bit of a sunburn on my cheeks during my long run on Sunday.

Eric and I (mostly Eric) also got to work on our backyard reno’s. He ripped up our old deck and we purchased all the lumber for a new deck and fence. Eric also painted the new boards last night. All that’s left is actually building the deck and fence! We are just waiting on a waiver from our strata corporation before we start. I can’t wait to have a fully fenced in yard and big new deck for grilling on this summer – we’re going from an 8 x 10 deck to an 11 x 12 one!

Spring cleaning also happened (again mostly by Eric!) Here is Chloe watching him clean out our storage room. She was too lazy to stand there so sat her butt down on the top step of the stairs. Haha.

Sunday morning I got in a killer 18 mile (29 km) run on a GORGEOUS new trail. More on that in tomorrow’s week 14 recap!

My grandparents have been here camping on there way back from spending the winter in Arizona so my grandma made us an amazing Easter feast on Sunday. It consisted of cabbage rolls (veg for me), mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, coleslaw, brussel sprouts and cheese sauce, roasted carrots, fresh buns and lemon meringue, apple pie and ice cream for dessert!

Our freezer is also now full of frozen cabbage rolls so Eric and I will eat well for the next few weeks.

I ended my long weekend by spending yesterday morning in bed reading blogs and doing some wedding research and then in the afternoon I went for a hike with Bronwyn and Chloe, to a hot power yoga class and for coffee with Meghan. When I got home I helped Eric make dinner for my grandparents; handmade pasta with shrimp and prawns in an alfredo sauce. Also to die for delicious.

Oh, and for the first time in weeks there are not piles and piles of clean and dirty laundry. It is all clean, folded and put away.

Yup, a 4-day weekend at home was just what I needed!

How was your weekend? Did anyone else have a long weekend for Easter?