Running past the BU Bridge during Saturday’s long run.

One thing I forgot to mention to you about last week’s long run is I woke up Saturday morning not feeling so great.

I was feeling off - almost like I had eaten too many hot dogs and chips the day before and my body was reeling from that. (I had - the day before was the 4th of July - and it was.)

But I thought it was worth mentioning because that’s part of this whole training deal - I’m watching what I eat and how I feel afterwards. I’m watching how I sleep and contributing factors to good or bad nights.

I slept terribly Wednesday night…but my watch told me it was restorative sleep. I’ll believe it. Maybe the time I slept was good sleep.

I’ll tell you this - I’ve been dead tired at night. So far I’m managing five day work weeks and marathon training…but my body feels it. Friday was a particularly on-my-feet workday, so I tried to rest Friday night in anticipation of my long run Saturday morning.

All told, so far so good. Here’s how the week went:

Monday: 3.25 miles, 10:57/mi pace

Tuesday: Cross-training in the morning - 5 minutes of core, 10 minutes lower body, and 10 minutes upper body, and then in the evening 6.28 miles, same intervals as last week with 2 miles warming up and cooling down

Wednesday: Full rest day

Thursday: 5 minutes of core followed by 3.87 miles on the treadmill, call it a 10:20 pace (tough to tell if the watch is completely accurate on the tread)

Friday: A very good 30 minute strength for runners Peloton class that I’ve taken before and will take multiple times during this training

Saturday: 8 miles, 11:09/mi pace

I do the intervals workout sometimes on Tuesday, sometimes on Wednesday. It’s definitely not a workout I’m going to be able to do in the morning before work - it always takes more than an hour and I don’t foresee myself getting up much earlier to run. Already the shorter Monday runs are pushing it.

But what I can easily do before work is the strength workout and instead of having 6 days a week with my only rest day coming on Sunday, I’m thinking of consistently doing the strength workout the morning of the interval workout and taking the next day to recover.

We’ll see how that plays out moving forward.

Thursday was pouring most of the day, so that’s why I used the treadmill. Always a great option, hopefully I am not forced to do it too much.

And then with the long run, I ran on the Esplanade, which I was hoping to do last week. I like getting there around 4th of July time, still seeing some of the set-up from the celebration. Getting down there this weekend was a little later than I’ve done in the past, and to be honest, I’m not sure how much more I’ll do this training cycle - I’m realizing the less sitting in a car I do after long runs, the better for my legs and hips. I already think sitting in my chair rather than the sinking couch is doing wonders for my recovery.

Another big move is taking off my wet, sweaty shoes and socks and putting on slides or my Oofos as quickly as possible after my runs.

Everything still feels good. I’ve been using the compression boots after the intervals runs, putting my feet up as much as possible, and taking my time stretching. I think it’s paying dividends so far.

On to Week 3!

Total Miles for Week 2: 21.4

Total Miles Overall: 40.47