Isn’t it comical how you can go from one week of training (last week) and feel like you are basically an Olympian to the next week feeling like running suddenly got 200x harder (this week for me)?! It’s bizarre, but it even happens to the pros, so I guess it can happen to us, too.
The workout called for 7 miles @ 6:14 pace. Due to the St. George Marathon being a downhill course, we started with 4.5 miles down the canyon and then up a hill to finish off with flat. I hit a 6:15 average, and then we finished with 14 miles total, and I was happy to checkmark that workout. Nothing about it felt good. Nothing.
The kids were outside playing with Andrew when I got home and this scene felt pretty dang good…
It was just Beck and me for a few hours. I told him I would take him anywhere he wanted, and his answer was to get hot chocolate from a gas station. It was only 90°F, which sounds logical to me!
We hit up Athlecare for a sports massage! I also tried the Rapid Reboots hip attachment for the first time, and it’s my new favorite. If I were to choose between the hip attachment and the legs one that I have, I would choose the the one below. It felt so good on my hamstrings, hips, and back.
Skye and I got out for a scooter adventure and roamed the hills.
We went and shopped for Brooke’s birthday…
And we caught up on Skye’s favorite series!
This Easy Creamy Shrimp Linguine recipe. This one was a winner with a side salad and warm sourdough bread on the side.
The other night, I went to see Dr. Iain Hunter speak at Runner’s Corner. Last year, he was ranked #1 in the world for 50-54 year-olds and he also ran the St. George Marathon in 2:23 (at 52 years old)! He is an expert at many things, including the St. George Marathon. He put together all of the statistics for the best pacing guide (get the exact splits you want HERE to run your best St. George Marathon).
The following two slides are from his presentation. The best way to run this particular marathon due to the course is to run a negative split. My biggest PRs on this course came when I did this, and it resulted in me feeling my best for that final 10k, too. He put the numbers together and found that only 19% of people running this marathon finish with negative splits. I found the graph below very interesting… It shows that the higher the place ranking, the percentage increases for people running negative splits! If you run St. George, go for the negative splits!
He also included an example of the 1st four weeks of Connor and Clayton’s training from Ed Eyestone (not for St. George but for any marathon build they do). Just seeing these workouts made my heart rate go to 180 bpm.
Oh, and another thing that I found shocking recently… Can you imagine smelling McDonald’s for 26.2 miles in the heat? I cannot.
——————————————————————————-
Anything shocking you have seen on the internet lately?
Who has an August birthday, anniversary, or race?
-BROOKE is turning 12 this month and I don’t know how to process this.
What have you found works best for you and racing… positive, negative or even splits?
-My best races have been a negative split.
Seafood fan? What’s your favorite?
The post Isn’t it Comical? + Shocking (I couldn’t) first appeared on The Hungry Runner Girl.
