New York City Marathon - Week 8

"You just call out my name

And you know wherever I am

I'll come running"

~ James Taylor

Week 8.  The halfway mark in our 16 week journey to the start of the NYC Marathon.  And the last day of summer vacation.  And the first day of school for my girls.  And last week of holding an official title of stay-at-home mom.  It was an emotional week, and I'm glad running - but more importantly my people - were there for me.

MONDAY

Easy 8

I was a little nervous about this run...my last attempt at more than 6 ended in a long walk home, but I was hopeful that keeping it slow and steady would allow me to finish all 8.  The running gods had my back on that one...it was a great run that included one stop at the world's coldest water fountain (because Sunday night included Green Flash).  

I hit the road again right after my thirst was temporarily quenched, and finished out the 8 miles with a 1 mile phone conversation with Dayna.  I never ever ever answer my phone mid-run, but I was craving company and what better company than your BFF.  

We really lucked out on the weather for Labor Day, and we hit the beach for one last hurrah before the school buses rolled in Tuesday morning.  

God help these kiddos...they all have runner moms and surfer dads.

TUESDAY

Easy 4 + PT exercises and dry needling

This run was totally boring, other than I ran into Karen and got to see her off on her mile repeats.

WEDNESDAY

Spin

I was invited to try out a new spin studio in town in a private session with my new coworkers.  They put me front and center...which authorities do I notify to report hazing of the new girl???

THURSDAY

Easy 5  + PT exercises and dry needling

I got to go for a moonlit run with my hubby at 5:45am.  The full moon was bright in the sky and we got to compare notes on training plans and race strategies.  Totes normal married people behavior.

One thing Week 8 reminded me of is that training for a marathon makes you hungry.  So very god damn hungry.  I took my mom out to lunch for her birthday and devoured every last bite of the most delicious balsamic steak and bleu cheese wrap you ever did see, and she may have been slightly disgusted about my membership to the clean plate club.  Dinner was no different.  I wanted something quick and easy - because I was so friggin hungry and didn't want to wait long for food to actually cook - so I whipped up this Asian quinoa concoction with chick peas, broccoli slaw, peanuts, and a homemade peanut dressing.  

I then proceeded to eat entirely too much of it and needed to walk around the block to aid digestion.  Luckily I had a willing companion.

FRIDAY

Easy 5

Rest (hang out with an inquisitive 4 year old and his copycat 2 year old brother) 

Lauren (PT extraordinaire) hit a new spot with the dry needling on Thursday, leaving me pretty sore on Friday, so I decided to let the hip rest up and save itself for Saturday's long run instead of running a few junk miles on Friday.  That worked out well, as I had been in a Benadryl haze for the better part of the week thanks to being stung by a bee last Sunday.  Five days later, this is what it looked like:

And since social media is a pretty reliable tool for diagnosing medical conditions, I dragged my little buddies to urgent care - on their last day with me, no less - to rule out a nasty infection.  The nurse practitioner didn't find my elephant arm as alarming as others did and instructed me to keep up with the benadryl but hang on to a prescription for antibiotics if the redness spread.  My worries were eased tremendously, so thank you to everyone on instagram who advised me to get it checked.

SATURDAY

17 miles

Not gonna lie.  This run scared me.  Like scurrrrred scared.  Not knowing how my hip would hold up was stressing me out, and I knew I'd be so much better off having company for as many miles as I could muster.  Enter Team Cancer Better Run.

I made my way to the oceanfront to crash the J&A Training Team party and run with my people.  Karen and I did 6 miles at 6am before the rest of the training team kicked off at 7.  At 7, we headed out for 10 more miles, and Steve was with me as I tacked on one more to make my 17.  This run wasn't fast.  I stopped a number of times.  But there was no quit in me.  I set out to run 17 miles if my level of discomfort stayed below a 3 out of 10, so 17 miles I ran.  I'm not sure what would've happened if I had to run those miles by myself, but I do know I'd be bored to tears.  I am so thankful I had these people to pull me along, and it was great to meet the other runners they spend their Saturdays with.

One thing that makes marathon training such a challenge is that I'm still Mommy after I've run for 2.5 hours.  My kids still deserve my time and my energy, so once I've showered and refueled, it's always on to the next adventure.  On this particular Saturday, that adventure included packing up the bikes and heading out to Norfolk to explore some new (to us) bike paths and breweries.  And street corn from the food truck.

By the time I collapsed into bed, I had racked up some steps.

SUNDAY

Easy 4-or 5

Rest

I thought about going for a run pretty much all day Sunday.  My legs felt pretty decent after Saturday's 17 miler, and I definitely could have squeaked a few more miles out of the week, but I spent my energy around the house instead.  Ryan took the girls to the rec center so they could play while he got his swim done, and I stayed behind to clean.

When they returned, the girls found some friends to play with and Ryan and I found some yardwork to get into.  I was pleasantly surprised by how good I felt all day, which made me really look forward to the coming week.  We're getting into the meat of training now, and we're going to have to dig deep.  I'm so glad I'm not the only one holding a shovel.