OC Marathon Training: Weeks 4 and 5

Considering that Week 6 is almost over, this post is a little bit late.  Whoops. To explain the delay, on Tuesday, I went back to work and Nathan officially started day care.  I wanted to make the most of my last two weeks at home with Nathan, so these awesomely exciting training summaries took a backseat to tummy time, stroller walks, and practicing our kicking. 

I was also completely freaking out about pretty much everything.  So, there was that.

In a nutshell:  Adrian ramped up the training in Week 4.  Week 5 was harder than Week 4.  Spoiler alert:  Week 6 is even harder.  Sometimes, marathon training still seems so weird to me.  You suffer for 16 weeks so that you will suffer less for approximately four hours on one day.  What is it that people say, though?  The Holy Grail is in the journey and not the finding.  Or something like that.      

To recap:

Week 4
Monday
Rest.

Tuesday
7 miles on "hills."  For obvious reasons, there is really no great way to do a hill workout on a treadmill, but I did my best.  After a warm up, I created an 8-minute "V" set, where I increased the incline gradually until a set point, and then went back down to my starting incline level (2.0).  As the incline increased, I decreased my speed, and as the incline decreased, I increased speed.  I was at each level for one minute.  After a warm up, I repeated that 5 times and then cooled down.  I did not get terribly bored and I was beat by the end, even though it was a fake hill workout.
7 miles @ 1:06:20/9:29 min/mile average.

Wednesday
5 miles aerobic with drills. 
5 miles @ 47:33/9:31 min/mile average

Thursday
7 miles.  Here is where Adrian told me that I would start to "suffer."  He was right.  After a few weeks of keeping everything at a nice, easy pace, I looked at Thursday and saw "HZ4," which is roughly my 10K race pace, give or take 10 seconds on either end.  The workout was sets at HZ4 effort squashed in between an easier (but not necessarly easy) warm-up and cool-down.  Luckily, my parents came to hang out with Nathan so I was able to do the workout outside around the golf course. 
7 miles @ 1:02:02/8:48 min/mile average

Friday
Rest.

Saturday
5 miles recovery.  I was pretty beat after Thursday's workout, despite the rest day on Friday, so I had no problem taking it way easy per the schedule. 
5.01 miles @ 48:12/9:37 min/mile average

Sunday
15 miles aerobic.  On Sunday, the group ventured out to Griffith Park for what sounded like a completely ass-kicking hill run.  Unfortunately (fortunately?), I couldn't join since he-who-refuses-to-take-his-bottle would starve since Griffith Park is pretty much on the other side of the world.  Instead, Marissa and I stayed as far west as possible and did a not-so-hilly long run.
15.1 miles @ 2:26:49/9:43  min/mile average

Total for Week 4 = 39 miles

Week 5

Monday
Rest.
Tuesday
7 5.75 miles on hills.  This was Nathan's day care "transition week," which meant that I was forced to send him a couple hours a day so both he and I could get used to being apart.  It was tough on both of us, but I'm pretty sure that it was tougher on me than him.  But, there was a silver lining to being baby-free, and that was that I was also treadmill-free for the week.  To help distract me from being sad, Coach Adrian volunteered to take me trail running on Amalfi.  (It was his second trail run of the day).  I nearly died on the hill, but it was a great run and definitely something that I would not have done alone.
5.75 miles @ 1:06:36/11:35 min/mile average 
Wednesday
5 miles aerobic.  Another outdoors run while Nathan was at day care.  (He only stayed three hours since I wussed out and couldn't bear to leave him any longer).  
5.01 miles @ 44:04/8:47 min/mile average

Thursday
7 miles.  This workout was a harder version of the previous Thursday's run.  Adrian increased the length of time that I'd be running at HZ4 and shortened the recovery time in each set.  Although I had some trouble with the workout the first time, this harder version actually felt a bit easier.  Either that, or I have just succombed to the idea of suffering.
7.0 miles @ 1:00:54/8:42 min/mile average
Friday
Rest.

Saturday
5 4 miles aerobic.  I really wasn't feeling it on Saturday and was debating whether or not to run at all, especially because I would be racing the Pasadena Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon the next day.  Nathan managed to get a pretty nasty cold from day care, and generously passed it onto me.  So, I wasn't feeling in tip top condition on Saturday.  I ultimately decided to run because I didn't want my legs to be stiff and dead on Sunday, but I cut it short and took it super easy. 
4 miles @ 39:47/9:56 min/mile average

Sunday
Race day!  As I wrote here, I ran the Pasadena Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon and surprised myself with a 2 minute PR.  Nathan was super excited about it too, and decided to rock his Future Marathoner onesie that Marissa gave him.  (I know, I'm repeating photos, but I just love this one so much)
13.1 miles @1:45:26/8:03 min/mile average (official results)

Total for Week 5= 34.85 miles