Sunday, April 26, 2020

Weekly Running Report: Pennypack Creek Marathon - Week ending April 26, 2020

Hi Everyone! Hope you are doing well!

How's training going for you?

I've been following my spring marathon plan. This was week 20 of 20...


Race Week! The Bryn Athyn Pennypack Creek Marathon. (Not a real event, just me. ðŸ˜‰)


Goals for the days leading up to Saturday. Carb load, hydrate well, foam roll, ice bath or Epsom salt bath, and get rest. 


My Week in Training:

Monday: 5 miles. Sunday rest day, focused on recovery. Ice bath, hydrated well, use my Belifu TENS gadget, foam roll and in bed on time. Adjusted my alarm this week since I won't be working out (per the plan). "Sleeping in" till 5, could probably sleep longer, but my morning routine requires me to be awake for a while before heading out. Coffee, stretch, and out the door by 6. Going to try to push it a bit less this week. Settled in around 8 and faded to 8:15 through my hills. Felt good, rolling along. Forgot to make a turn. lol.. To my surprise my run should of been done and I was nowhere near my usual end point. only .5 away. On the way back thought about doing a few more, but trying to taper and this was supposed to be a 40 min run. Oops. lol.. 

Tuesday: 1 mile. Monday, tempted to stay up late, since I'm not working out this week. Foam rolled and in bed on time. Adjust my alarm to sleep int, nope I'm up! Coffee and taking my time. Stretch my back out and out the door around 6:30. Usually push it a bit on 1 mile days if I'm not in recovery mode, not this week. Made an effort to not apply too much effort. Comfortable day. 
Wednesday: 4 miles. Forgot to make a note about Wed. What I do remember.. Sleep issues. Seems to be a theme this week. Frost warning, wind chill 25! Don't mind it, but a bit surprised. Comfortable before/after my hills. 
Thursday: 3.11 miles. Wed, foam rolled and in bed on time, but tossed/turned with anxiety. Eventually a decent night's sleep, but up again before my alarm. Coffee and taking my time. Stretch my back out and out the door by 6. Another brisk morning! Frost warning, but didn't see any. Applying some effort, but making a point to not apply too much. A fine line I guess. Settled in around 7:45. Midway hill, and shortly after that a new route since I don't do 5k's that often. Two hills in mi 2. Maintain up, pick up the pace on the way down, and up then maintain to the end. Felt pretty decent. Could of pushed it but held back. 
Social distancing: only saw one person as I flew by a bus stop. 
Friday: 1 mile. Thu, in bed on time and up before my alarm. Again. Up and ready to go, bu taking my time. Stretch and out the door by 6:40. Going out for a gentle warm up. Comfortable, felt like I was in slow motion at times. Tempting to pick it up but cruised along.
Saturday: 26.3 miles "Long run day". (that plus .1 was to make sure I don't lose a few feet to fall short of 26.2
The Bryn Athyn Pennypack Creek Marathon. (Not a real event, just me. ðŸ˜‰)
Friday, hydrated well, Epsom salt bath after work, get my gear ready (got most of it ready throughout the week), foam roll, and in bed on time. Alarm set a few minutes earlier than usual. Really want to start by 6. Up before my alarm. Coffee and getting ready. At my trail before 5:50. Daylight, but I'm the first car in the parking lot! Parked at one of the ends of the lot to avoid people later as I pass by to hydrate. Spread my water and gatorade bottles out on my windshield. Packed plenty of fluids!
My trail Pennypack Creek. park in the middle, Welsh and Terwood Rd. My trail back and forth is 11 miles. Will be doing that twice. The first round I will also be doing 20 minutes at each end. The Rockledge Park end has a nice hill in the nearby neighborhood. The Byberry Rd end has a business complex that's empty on weekends. That 20 minutes at each end ended up being the perfect amount, I finished my 26.3 about .2 from the parking lot! Math done right. lol..
Fueled every hour on the hour. Hydrated each time I passed my car (that's why I park in the middle parking lot).
Pace avg 9:05-9:09 for at least 16. 9:15-9:20 till about mi 20. Faded from then on. The last 10k is usually rough for me, but making progress. No walk breaks (which was a first for me), didn't even think about giving in. Legs just kept getting heavier and heavier. lol
I look fwd to easing back into "long" runs in a few weeks, eventually resuming some sort of plan, and the fall races (god willing). If they don't happen, I'm sure I'll be doing another solo marathon here. Want to do at least two marathons a year. Not the same without the crowd support and hoopla, but today I proved to myself that I and can do it. I've had 20 mile days here where I thought briefly about doing extra to do the full 22 but backed out at the end.
In lieu of race fees, I will be making a donation to a charity supporting those who are affected by the pandemic.
Social distancing: The first hour was peacefully quiet. Started to see more people from then on. Only saw a few run groups, although that is few too many. Most people weren't wearing masks early on, but as the parking lots got completely full did start to see more. 
I passed a few of my friends, would of loved to have run a few miles with them, but that would be irresponsible.

Full pics on Facebook
Sunday: rest day, one for the streak. Run Streak day 1555. Saturday, did an ice bath and hydrated like heck. Offset hyration a little bit with other beverages, but pretty well hydrated. Tried sleeping in, woke up a bit sore and couldn fall back to sleep. Just not programed to sleep in. Up and taking my time. Out the door around 9. Overall soreness, through the motions. Did an ince bath after and will continue to focus on recovery. Grey and misty out, don't feel bad skipping yard work for a couple days. 😄
Weekly Summary:
Miles: 38 miles scheduled, 41 miles completed
Strength Training: Scheduled for 0 minutes, 0 minutes complete. Tempting to do at least some, but know the importance of being fresh for race day. I've had long runs where just a small cough can hurt your abs, or arms hurt just from running. Reducing strength training will help prevent those types of pains on race day.  
Training Plan: 
This was week 20 of marathon training, using the below plan.
marathon training plan
Image from Coach Jenny Hadfield
Race Schedule: 

04.26.2020 - NJ Marathon: 1. rescheduled to 11.15.20. 2. Option to defer 2021. 3. option to take online or in store credit! (minus tax/fees). I deferred to 2021

05.03.2020 - Broad Street Run - rescheduled to 10.4.2020

10.11.2020 - Chicago Marathon

11.22.2020 - Philly Marathon

Good luck to everyone with training! Kick some butt! 

If you do any races, please remember to review them on ! Your opinions help other runners decide what races to run!  Follow me on BibRave Joe G

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