It was a nice cut back week for my third week of marathon training. I had built up to 33 miles the previous week. Things are still going well. Here’s what I did from Coach Dawn‘s plan:

Monday – Plan: Easy 4 with strides. Strides after 2 miles. 4 x 20 seconds. Actual: Ran 4.01 early miles with strides, average pace 9:20. Tuesday – Plan: Hills on treadmill. Warm up 2 miles easy at 1% grade.
Increase grade to 7%, ease in and then do 8-10 seconds fast at 7%.
Ease back down and recover 2 minutes at 1%, then repeat.
Recover 5 minutes at 1%.
Then do 5 minutes at 3%
Cool down at 1% until you reach 5-5.5 miles.

Actual: It’s been a while since I ran on the treadmill but I got it done. I did all of the above. My Garmin had me at 5.0 miles with it’s built in accelerometer, average pace 9:41. It always seems tougher to run on the treadmill.

Wednesday – Plan: Rest day. Actual: Rest day.

Thursday – Plan: 5 miles easy, then 1 mile at 8:30-8:45. Actual: Ran 5 miles easy and average pace of last mile ended up being 8:26. Average pace for the total 6.01 miles was 9:11.Friday – Plan: 3 miles at recovery pace (slower than 9:40 or heart rate under around 140).
4x drills after. Include lateral drills + Core workout. Actual: Ran 3.01 miles in slush. We got a little snow, average pace 10:11. I did some drills afterwards with karaokes. I also did a short core workout consisting of different planks.Saturday – Plan: Easy 1:15. Actual: Ran 1:15:01 which ended up being 8.05 miles, average pace 9:19.Sunday – Plan: Rest day. Actual: Rest day.

Total miles = 26.08 miles. I’d say it was a good recovery week. It was chilly out most days I ran outside but it wasn’t too bad. I dress warmly so it was all good. Looking at the next couple of weeks, things will be picking up with more mileage and intensity. It should be interesting. 🙂 It’s so nice to have a coach plan my workouts. Thanks Coach!

On to the rest of the week’s highlights:

On Wednesday, I met Allyson Felix! She’s the most decorated female Olympian in track and field history, with 9 medals. It was pretty cool that she gave a talk at work about her Olympic journey and overcoming adversity. I didn’t know that she had an ankle injury (torn ligaments) less than 3 months before the Olympic trials. It’s funny because someone asked if she would run longer distances and she said no. Her long run consists of running 20 minutes. 🙂 Perry the Elf is enjoying his stay. The kiddos love looking for him.

On Saturday, we went to Tualatin Community Park to release the salmon my 8 year old’s class were caring for. They had received eggs from the Oregon zoo and were caring for them until their release. They learned all about the salmon life cycle. It’s pretty neat.

I finally got around to framing the posters I got from my marathons. We were at Michaels and I saw some frames that were 70% off so I thought it was a perfect time. It’s pretty cool that they gave out posters for my first two marathons.

Do you have any marathon posters? How was your week? I’m linking up with HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin for the Weekly Wrap.