Week 13 Training

Week 13 is now complete. 5 weeks to go. Only one more 20 mile run to go in a couple of weeks and then the taper begins. The race is now in sight. This week’s training went well. No ill effects or major fatigue. Yesterday’s 5 miler was a nice tempo run at a good pace. I hope I can sustain that for the upcoming Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K run in 3 weeks time. That would be great.

Today’s 20 miler went well. I felt a little tired around mile 14 but got my second wind (or maybe that was the caffiene laced energy gel) and the last 3 miles felt great. My time was nothing spectacular but this was not designed to be a pace run just an endurance run. I came back and soaked in an ice bath (actually a bath filled with water from the cold tap only) for about 15 minutes or so to reduce any inflammation and then hopped into a nice hot shower. All being said I had run 20 miles was showered and ready for the day just after 9am today. Not bad.

In our house we are juggling two people training for a marathon at the same time. I started my long run today at 5am so I could be home in time for my Wife to get out and run her 18 mile run and not have our whole day disrupted. Mission accomplished. My Wife and I ran 38 miles combined today and were back at Sesame Place for their Halloween Spooktakular in the early afternoon. Actually this was our second visit of the weekend…in costume.

Fun times at Sesame Place this weekend

It seems many of my friends were running in marathons this weekend (Baltimore, Atlantic City, Hartford and Chicago) and/or will be running in the next few weeks (Marine Corps and New York). It’s getting to the exciting part of the marathon season when all the big races are being run. I have to wait patiently a week or two longer until Philly. It was really great following everyones posts and see their pictures on Facebook this weekend and I am really happy for all their successes.

Fall is definitely here now. I actually had to head indoors for a treadmill run this week. It was my first treadmill run since early August. I’ve been pretty lucky weather wise. Now I’m running through fallen leaves and routes lined with scarecrows and the temperatures are getting cooler. Good for running in the mornings but sooner than later it will change to the colder side. I remember last year at Philly it started around 40 degrees and I wore my gloves all 26.2 miles. I’m ready for it. I’ve got enough gear.

3 weeks until the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

4 weeks until the Trenton Half Marathon

5 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

13 weeks until the Dopey Challenge.

An exciting few weeks ahead and I’m full of anticipation for some fun times. I’ll be running Trenton and Philly with my Wife. It’s great to be able to share this with her.

Thanks for reading.