Monday 5.5 miles easy
Tuesday 8.5 miles (speedwork: 4x1.5miles @ 7:28 pace)
Thursday 11 miles (10 miles @ marathon pace 7:38s)
Friday 5 miles easy
Saturday 10 miles easy
Sunday 10 miles easy
This week has proven fruitful. The nasty headcold is finally subsiding although the snot-rockets have been non-stop on all runs....but at least I'm back to feeling about 90%.
Thursday was the Run Of The Week. I woke up fully aware that I only had 2 Tempo runs left before the marathon (Jan 20). I always feel pressure near the end of training to make sure that I push as much as I can through these last few quality workouts to ensure that I am MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY ready for race day. I set out on the regular river route (it was a whopping 14 degrees outside even though I had waited until 10:30am to run). One mile warm-up, then the pacework began. (7:38 is the goal pace).
7:37
7:42
7:41
7:32
7:37
7:38
As mile 7 began, I realized I had a blind flash-spot in my vision....this is a pre-cursor symptom of a migraine for me (I have only had 4 or 5 in my life but they always start with this weird vision thing). I can't see in my focal point...it's like I have just looked at a camera flash that is in a crescent moon shape. I couldn't see where I was stepping...over ice, over snow. I couldn't make out people's faces as I ran past them. It then progresses to weird tunnel vision.
7:23
I speed up worried I'm not going to make it home. I'm also confused about what to do. "Just get home."
7:28
Do I stop? It's so cold (still less than 20 degrees out with 8mph wind so it feels like about 10 degrees). If the migraine hits I will be stuck 3 miles from home in wettish clothes incapacitated and possibly vomiting....alone. I keep saying "Just get home".
7:28
I don't have my phone. Should I borrow one and call home? I just keep running. I keep telling myself (I'm saying it out loud now) "Just Get Home".
7:23
I make it home....somehow....running at VERY encouraging tempo pace. Vision is a mess. I get in the door and ask husband to get me Coca-Cola, Aleve and water. I sit down, hoping that won't trigger anything. I chug the coke (the whole thing...weird....they are usually such a special treat....the Mexican ones made with real sugar). I chase that with 2 Aleve and water. I wait. Nothing. I lay down and close my eyes. "Please no headache. Please no headache." I try to relax. I'm still breathing hard and heart is pounding from the run. I wait. I feel a dull headache creeping in. Maybe I caught it soon enough. I rest for 40 minutes. I feel exhausted. I have a dull headache and feel super tired but I managed to stay ahead of the complete breakdown migraine (which usually ends with vomiting and fetal position in the dark for a few hours).
Once I was able to evaluate, I realized that if I can run through the beginning symptoms of a migraine, in freezing temps, at faster than marathon pace, at the end of weeks and weeks and weeks of hard training.....then I can rock that RocknRoll marathon in 2 weeks. I hope.
"Just Get Home"
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