This past week of training was probably my hardest one so far. This is my 13th week training towards this goal of running the New York Marathon and my body is exhausted. Early on in training I felt eager and like I wasn’t doing enough, but now I am at the point where it feels like too much. This was the final building week and this coming week is a down week. I hit 50 miles and got in my first 20 miler. I was very much reminded of my limitations as a mom to 3 boys that does this running thing just for fun. Between still nursing Declan and the very physical nature of being at home with 3 young boys, 50 miles of hard training is a LOT to add in to an already full and demanding schedule. I am so thankful I can pursue this goal and have a husband that is supportive and is pulling extra weight for me. The big day is getting closer and closer and though my body has been feeling not amazing, I know this is part of marathon training. After last week’s hard week of training, I am trying to really focus on nutrition (it seems like I need to eat more calories- I’ve been feeling weak and always seem to be hungry) and recovery (doing more foam rolling and even squeezed in a massage a couple days after the 20 miler).

Mileage: 50 miles spread across 5 days.

Cross-Training: Same as previous weeks. Skipped some days of core since I was feeling so exhausted after certain runs.

Workout: 5 x mile with a mile recovery between each. This workout was mentally a bit discouraging because my mile splits were slower than what the effort felt like. I was supposed to be sub-6 minutes for the majority of these and I just couldn’t hit the times. It wasn’t until my last mile I hit a 5:59. It wasn’t perfect, but still proud that I finished and pushed through even when it felt super hard and long.

Long Run: 20 miles. I mixed up my course for this long run and did an out and back course, but still ran a few miles in PV so got a good amount of hills and ended the last few miles on the nice flat strand. Mentally feels good to have 20 miles under my belt for this training cycle. Hoping to get 1-2 more of these in.

So I got it all done, but I am absolutely exhausted. This coming week my mileage will be lower and I am intentionally working on resting as I get prepared to race a 10k this coming Saturday! It will be a good test to see where I am fitness wise because I really have no clue.