Marathon Quest 2011 - Week 17 Recap

Ahhhhhhh.  Had a massage this morning and I gotta say...if I won the lotto, I would be gettin' one of those at least once a week.  Heck, daily.  I love a good massage, and the girl who worked on me this morning (apologies to my regular girl, but I had to get one today) was amazing...almost as good as my usual RMT, and wasn't afraid to get in there and really work the knots out.  I've tried a few other RMTs that weren't bad, but I found that they just didn't press hard enough and I came out feeling no different than when I walked in.  Just cuz I'm little doesn't mean I'm some kind of delicate Asian lotus blossom...sheesh!

Well...one more recap to go.  I'm almost a little sad because my first marathon is the premise of this blog, but there'll be other goals to achieve, right?  There are plenty of PBs left in me and lots of inane observations on life and recipes to review, so I'll still be kicking around on the interwebz for awhile.  And who knows...I may get addicted to marathoning *sneaking sideways glance at Hubs*....

Sunday - rest day

Monday - stationery bike 20 minutes
I jammed on bootcamp...my foot was still bugging me from Saturday's run, so I decided to be conservative and let it rest by doing a quick workout on the bike. 

Tuesday - rest day

Wednesday - 6K treadmill run

Thursday - 6K treadmill run
I was in Vancouver for work for a big convention, and got to stay a really nice hotel, the Fairmont Waterfront.  Now when I checked out the amenities, it said first class gym...and it actually was.  Yay!  I carted my butt up out of bed early-ish to go down and do a quick treadmill run, and then ordered up some room service as I wanted to make sure I got a good meal in rather than just grabbing some scone or some big sugar bomb as we were going to busy working a tradeshow booth at the convention.  It's funny, because I absolutely cannot go without eating breakfast anymore. I was never, ever, ever a breakfast eater, but Hubs totally changed that.  When he found out I didn't eat breakfast, he was aghast...and would have to cajole me into eating it.  Now, I have to eat something healthy and hearty to start off my day or I'm a mess.  See, even old dogs can learn new tricks!

Friday - bootcamp

Saturday - 16K 13K run, at race pace
According to our training schedules, we were supposed to do our runs this week at race pace...eek! I've not run anything remotely close to race pace in months, so I was a little apprehensive.  My overall pace for a 4:30 finish is either 6:24/km overall or 6:09/km walk adjusted (meaning that if I take walk breaks, I have to run a bit faster when I'm actually running).  Gah.  Because the Running Room program does 10 and 1's and I'm doing something more like a 20 and 1 (which works out to be every 3K where the aid stations are), I figured that my pace needed to be about 6:15/km when I'm running to average to a 6:24/km pace overall once I throw in the walk breaks. 

Hubs took off ahead of me, as he was going for a  6:00/km pace...so I started off to what I thought was a conservative pace.  As I looked down at my Garmin, I kept seeing times below 6:00/km.  It was really, really hard to lock in my target pace of 6:15/km...and by the end of the run, I checked my average pace and it was 6:14/km, so 10 seconds per kilometre too fast even incorporating walk breaks.  Now the theory goes for every second you go too fast initially, you'll slow down by double that at the end...so I really need to figure out my pacing or I'm gonna be in a bit of trouble come the latter stages of the race. 

So the big question is...how is the foot feeling?  Truthfully - not great right now.  It's sore and achy, and everything below my knee is a dull ache.  I have an appointment with my physio on Monday, so I'm hoping the last round of IMS will help release all my muscles to give me some more cushioning/movement to get through the race.  It's not unbearable, and nowhere near how it felt last year...all I need is for it to hold out next week and I'm golden.  I just have a few short runs left and then it's "off my feet" mode until Sunday.

Eight more sleeps, kids.