They Should Increase My Meds: Marathon Training Week 5

Week 5 meant that it was time to buckle down. In order to have at least a 10 day taper my last long run needed to happen in this week. I was really nervous and kept my weekday mileage low in order to be fresh for my last big run.

Week 5 ended up looking like this:

Monday: Driving back from South Carolina
Tuesday: 5.25 miles at 10:19 pace
Wednesday: 3.25 miles at 10:01 pace
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 17 miles at 10:44 average
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 4.1 miles at 8:37 average (10:04 warm up mile followed by a 25:12 5k)

Total: 29.6 miles

After 17 miles. I was not impressed that I didn't go 20.

Now I'm into week 6 and getting ready to face taper madness! The mister has already noticed my tendency to over-think every aspect of training and racing so it should be interesting to see if I can tone it down. 

Let me close with a question: To race or not to race (a 5k) this weekend?!

Calibration Celebration

Have you ever thought, "10 minute miles on the treadmill feels so much harder than outside." Or, "Why am I huffing and puffing at recovery pace on this hamster wheel?" Or maybe even, "Wow! This feels so much easier than the same pace on the road!" If so you've probably wondered if your treadmill's calibration could be off. So here's how to find out.

Disclaimer: I didn't figure this out myself or even locate the procedure myself. However, I did decide that it would be nice to have it laid out step by step with some pictures.

Step 1: Gather the necessary supplies: Tape measure (preferably a soft one), bright colored duct tape, a notepad, a pen or pencil, a stopwatch, and a calculator. Or you can do what I did and use your iPhone/smartphone as a stopwatch, calculator, and camera.

easy peasy

Step 2: Measure your treadmill belt using the tape measure. I found that it worked best if I folded my treadmill up and then wrapped the tape measure around. Record your measurement in inches. (Mine was 112.75")

Step 3: Place a piece of brightly colored tape on the treadmill belt.

Orange worked well

Step 4: Set your treadmill to your normal running speed while you stand on the side rails or off to the side. (My treadmill takes a minute to get up to full speed so I waited to start timing until it was humming along nicely.)

10 minutes/mile according to the treadmill

Step 5: Wait for the tape to come around again and then start your timer. Start counting on the next appearance of the tape at the starting point (one rotation) and continue counting until you reach 50 rotations of the belt. Record the time it took.

Time to reach 50 rotations

Step 6: Do some math. The speed of your belt in MPH = (50 x length of your belt in inches x 0.0568) / the time you recorded.

(50 x 112.75 x 0.0568) = 320.21 

320.21 / 51.3 = 6.24 MPH

So the 6 MPH button on my treadmill actually causes the belt to spin at almost 6 1/4 MPH! I conducted the experiment again at Shane's average running speed (8.0 MPH) and found that actually runs at 8.1 MPH! 

So now I can either adjust my time/distance for what I know the actual pace is or I can remind myself that a 10 minute mile pace outside feels easier because it's ACTUALLY a 10 minute mile pace instead of 9:35 per mile. I'll probably stick with recording the treadmill's distance and time readout since I'm lazy but it's nice to know I'm not just being a baby about the hamster wheel!

Long Run Leisure

On Thursday I posted about how awesome it is to be a third of the way done with my training plan. I thoroughly enjoyed my rest day Friday. I took it easy at work, went out to lunch with coworkers, and really did nothing of consequence Friday night. It was wonderful!

Saturday was a little crazier. Every summer our neighborhood has a community yard sale. This year the weather didn't cooperate and it was misting and overcast all morning. We still took a chance and put out all the junk treasures we had to offer. Shane's parents also set up with us. Between getting up at 6 am, setting up all our stuff, and sitting in the drizzle for hours I was already worn out. Shane took the opportunity to advertise our race to all the people browsing plus the local churches and businesses that were offering food and refreshments for the bargain hunters.

Ash and 'baby' at the park.

When Shane returned I went to get up from my chair and something in my left knee popped. I almost fell over and caught myself on the edge of our table. There was no pain but I knew something wasn't right. I waited a little bit longer before doing my scheduled 8 miler. It was supposed to be at marathon pace but I ended up running 5 miles pretty slowly and then doing the last 3 near tempo pace to come out almost at marathon pace for the average. My knee was still stiff and a little tender last night. After everything I gave up and went to bed at 8pm. I guess I needed it because I slept for almost 13 hours!

Today I felt better and my knee was stiff but no longer aching. I figured I'd give my long run a try. My husband kindly agreed to take Ash grocery shopping with him while Gem stayed and played at home. Being that Gem is 7 she can easily entertain herself for three hours so this worked out well. I hit the treadmill and decided to break the run up into 4 mile segments. After each 4 mile portion I took a Gu and drank about 6-8oz of water before starting the next one. It helped me stay fueled and hydrated but it also helped me stay aware of my knee. After slowing down my knee would be stiff again and it took me 2-3 minutes to loosen it up. It never gave me any pain though or I was prepared to shut it down and miss mileage for the first time this cycle.

After I finished (in 2:54:49), Shane had already put away the groceries and made gnocchi for lunch. I wolfed down my portion and then drove down to the corner gas station to pick up some bagged ice. I had a feeling the 4 trays in our freezer wouldn't be enough today. Our hot water tank went out a few days ago and the new one is like super-powered or something. Even when our faucet is on fully cold the water is still warm. Even with 7 lbs of ice I only shivered for a minute before the water started to melt the ice and I warmed back up.

Yeah, I rock the Disney princess wash cloth!

Luckily, the ice bath seems to have done its job. My knee is no longer tight or tender. I took 2 Advil after my ice bath and then focused on rehydrating and staying moving. We took the kids on a walk to the park where we played for about an hour. Dinner was a quickly thrown-together pulled pork BBQ, corn on the cob, and salad. It's really amazing how quickly the weekends go now that my long runs take up a significant portion!

Do you take ice baths? Why or why not? And how do you stay connected with family and friends when you're devoting significant time to training?