Vegas, Long Run on the Marathon Course and Training Week #4!

18 miles turned into 19 miles because we miscalculated things a bit and since I felt good… we just kept going until we got to where the Lyft driver was picking up Andrew to take him back to our car.

It’s been a very long time since I have gone this far (my last marathon… St. George on 10/16) and it was so fun to be back at it again.  I love the distance stuff.

Well, we are counting this run as our date for the week… it was kind of the best in my opinion.  Now to find a marathon that allows me to do the entire course with Andrew on his bike next to me.  That was something else.  It was so much fun to have him there with me and to talk and hang out.

PS not only did Andrew get up at 4:50 to do this with me but he also ran afterwards too.

Rockstar.

We got out the door a bit later than we planned Saturday morning and stopped at a gas station for more water before driving to where we were going to start.  When I first checked out the weather it freaked me out a bit.  It should be cooler on race day (probably start at 60 degrees and finish around 75-80 degrees) so it was great practice for me to get in a long run with conditions that are warmer than it will be during the race.

We started at about mile 4 on the course.  The first 4 miles of the course are pretty boring with zero uphill so we skipped over that and focused on the hardest parts of the course… mile 7-12ish and mile 19.

There were SO many runners out practicing the course… we probably saw about 30-40 just while running.  Everyone’s getting ready for the race and it was fun to see a bunch of runners out there!

I am so glad that I was able to get a test drive in on the course.  I realized that Veyo isn’t as hard as I was thinking it was BUT that the next hill after that one is (probably because it is right after Veyo).  It was about a mile long but a gradual incline.  Veyo felt shorter and steeper.  I also realized I need to save a good amount of energy for mile 19 too.

PS I’m sharing a bunch of lessons I learned (that might be helpful for your training too) tomorrow because I feel like I learned a ton yesterday.

This.  This is why I love this marathon so much.  The views are incredible.  And I’m praying for a nice tailwind on race day (this tends to happen often on this course)!

See, gorgeous!

During the four mile w/u I had a few stops.  I had to go to the bathroom twice (I think I over drank water leading up to the long run because this never happens to me normally) and before the workout portion started to take off all of our lights etc because at that point it was very light outside.  Once the workout started I didn’t stop again until the end but there were stops (where I stopped my garmin) during the warmup.

4 mile w/u, 3 x 3 miles fast w/3 minute recovery jogs, 5 mile cool-down.

The first set of 3 miles were the hardest because there was a good amount of up in those, the second set of 3 miles had a lot of down which felt awesome and the very last mile of the third set was killer and up the entire time.   The c/d was pretty quick because there is some good down in that section too.  I felt good and strong so I just kind of let my body do it’s thing.  That 6:15 thrown in there is a screaming fast mile… pure down.  You are rarely ever on a flat portion for this race, you are either going up or down pretty much the entire time.

I was excited to see a new record (post-Skye) after the run finished.

And the final stats.  SOOOOO I definitely wore the wrong socks and they were way too low and that caused some blisters on the back of my feet. Working on figuring out all of the exact things we need to wear/use on race day is quite the process.

And then the Lyft driver picked up Andrew to take him back 19 miles to our car.  Andrew’s parents watched the kids while we were doing this.  They are the absolute best.   I just sat with Andrew’s bike at the gas station, stretched and had water and gatorade.

When I finished it was 82 degrees.  I felt a little warm towards the end but nothing too bad… all of our summer training is going to really pay off this fall you guys!

I’m not sure if Brooke and Knox even noticed we were gone.  They were quite involved with the lizard and all of the new to them toys.

This might have been my best post-long run lunch to date.  We went to a Peruvian restaurant called Viva Chicken and it is amazing.  I had the rotisserie chicken fried rice dish and sweet potato fries.  I need this after every long run.  It hit the spot.

Skye gave us the silent treatment throughout lunch for leaving to do something fun without her in the morning.  Or maybe she is just the biggest people watcher ever right now.

And then we drove to Vegas to go to Andrew’s sister’s house.  A lot of my in-laws are all in town for our nephew’s farewell (he is leaving to the Philippines) so we hung out and caught up with everyone.

I also took a nap on the couch and it was magical.

Skye just hanging out with her great great grandpa!  Brooke and Knox were very busy with their cousins running around:)

I hope your Sunday is a great one!

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Here is what week #4 (of a short marathon training cycle:) looked like for me!

Monday:  Off—>  Recovering from strep.

Tuesday:  6 miles on the treadmill with some hills thrown in there @ 8:00 pace

Wednesday:  10.16 miles at 8:04 average pace.

Thursday: 8.2 miles @ 8:38

Friday:  8.1 miles @ 8:55

Saturday:  19 miles @ 7:03 average pace.  4 w/u, 3 x 3 fast (w/3 minute jog recoveries), 5 c/d.

Sunday:  Off!  I’m going to take today very easy.

51.46 miles for the week and 48 days until race day!

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What is your Sunday going to be filled with?

What was your best run last week?  Hardest run?

Is it cooling down yet where you live?