Happy Labor Day! We are heading to the beach and doing a bbq with a good friend. Before all that, I want to jot down a few quick thoughts from the past week of training…

Wild to me that I am already starting week 10 of training. Last week I ran my highest mileage so far (40 miles) and got in my first 16-miler.

Overall, it was another solid week of running. The only negative was I made the decision to run in my old Nike racing shoes during the last half of workout and it rubbed on my left achilles and caused some bleeding. It’s now really sensitive and keeps breaking open every time I go for a run. It is more so just annoying and I’m thankful it is not something that is preventing me from training. It was definitely a reminder that I need to get some new racing shoes this month for the MB 10k and the NYC Marathon.

Mileage: 40 miles spread across 5 days

Cross-Training: 1 30-minute Peloton ride + consistent core spread throughout the week. I have a little routine I have been doing that takes less than 10-minutes and is fully body weight. It mostly involves planks and a variety of different lunges/squats.

Workout: This week’s workout felt long and tough, but overall happier with paces I hit, especially compared to last week. I got out bright and early to squeeze in this 10-mile workout before H headed to school. Here’s what workout entailed:

• 2 mile warm-up
• 3 miles of tempo (6:28, 6:22, 6:30)
• 1 mile recovery/switch to racing shoes (bad choice!)
• 1 mile harder effort (5:52)
• 1 mile recovery
• 2 x 800 with equal recovery. Overall felt done at this point and 800s could have been faster, but were fine.
• Mile cool down

Long Run: 16 miles in PV. I took this longer run with a slightly less intense approach and tried to really enjoy each mile as it came. I stopped and chatted with someone I met on a run in PV a while ago and we connected over both recently having babies this past year. I also saw a fox on one of the trails! I snapped a photo to show my boys and turned around and avoided that section of trail just to be safe. The past two long runs, I have tested out two different gels we had in pantry from past training: Maurten and SIS energy gels. In my past 2 marathons, I fueled with Maurten gels. Thinking of maybe switching it up this time.

Body is definitely feeling tired, so I am ready for a down week in this coming week of training!