Vermont City Marathon Training - Week 5. Training log with workouts, goals and hopes for the VCM on May 29, 2016! Follow along to see if this mother runner can come back strong with a PR after her second child.

Vermont City Marathon Training – Week 5

14 Comments / Running, Vermont City Marathon Training 2016 / By

This week while I was doing my long run, I listened to one of the Runner’s Connect Run to the Top podcasts. Tina was interviewing Trent Morrow, aka ‘Marathon Man’, who holds the world record for most marathons in one year (160!). At one point, Trent said he believes his body has adapted to what might seem to be a particularly punishing training and racing schedule – that when you repeatedly ask your body to do hard things, it becomes able. (I am paraphrasing and I’m sure he expressed it better, but you get the idea.) I think this week for me was definitely one where I realized my body has started to adapt to the training and even when a workout was hard, I felt amazing afterward. Recovery is getting quicker, too.

Vermont City Marathon Training - Week 5. Training log with workouts, goals and hopes for the VCM on May 29, 2016! Follow along to see if this mother runner can come back strong with a PR after her second child.

Current Goal: 

I achieved last week’s goal of getting four runs done! This was my highest mileage week, unsurprisingly, and it felt amazing to get some extra running done. This week Fran is changing work schedule and will be out of the house a lot more. My first goal then is to just get the training done – I’m hoping the daylight savings time might work in my favor at some point. I also want to run my long run at a slightly faster overall pace again (this week is a slight cutback of 12 miles).

Long Run:

14 miles, baby! I ran from home to Lake Champlain, then along the lakeside trail and back. It was in the 50s but overcast and was the perfect running temperature. Maybe it was because I was running along the water, but as I sweated, the slight breeze kept me really cool.

Vermont City Marathon Training - Week 5. Training log with workouts, goals and hopes for the VCM on May 29, 2016! Follow along to see if this mother runner can come back strong with a PR after her second child.

At 10 miles, I was hurting. I couldn’t find my bodyglide before I left (you know where this is going) so I just aluminum-free deodorant instead. I read somewhere that worked for chafing in a pinch. Maybe it does, but 9 miles must be its limit. The last four miles were awful. The chafing hurt and because that was making me miserable, the running felt harder. 

I will say, though, that I think this was my turning point workout. The day after I felt sore, but not as sore as my first 10 mile run of this training cycle. And the rest of the week I just felt good, you know? That feeling you get when your fitness has really improved and you are kind of itching to move as much as possible.

Vermont City Marathon Training - Week 5. Training log with workouts, goals and hopes for the VCM on May 29, 2016! Follow along to see if this mother runner can come back strong with a PR after her second child.

Speed Workout:

My speed workout was so crazy mental I wrote a whole post on it, which you can read here. Basically I rocked some speed intervals by feel and mis-read my splits, meaning I got in my own head with disappointment and fear of sucking at running forevermore.

Vermont City Marathon Training - Week 5. Training log with workouts, goals and hopes for the VCM on May 29, 2016! Follow along to see if this mother runner can come back strong with a PR after her second child.

This coming week I’m going to attack some hills…. eek.

Regular Run:

I did two extra runs this week. One was a 5 mile run I did at a very slow recovery pace (which I learned about on Laura’s Runner’s Reset – you can read more about that here) and the other was 6 miles on muddy trails, which was such a fabulous run. I felt amazing  – totally in the zone of feeling like my legs were light as air, my breathing didn’t feel difficult and I really felt like I could go forever. My overall pace was 10:00 in the mud, which I was pretty happy about. I even felt so good that I rocked the last mile at an 8:59 pace because it really felt like my legs were machines.

Vermont City Marathon Training - Week 5. Training log with workouts, goals and hopes for the VCM on May 29, 2016! Follow along to see if this mother runner can come back strong with a PR after her second child.

Other Workouts:

Lots of walking with the boys, yoga at home and I also tried out these balance exercises for runners which Angela shared.

Notes From the Week:

Last week I was on the verge of announcing “I just want to finish!” or “I don’t really have a goal!” This week made me think I might have a shot of at least getting close to my current marathon PR of 3:59:40. I’m not confident enough (yet) to say I’ll definitely go for a PR, but let’s see how the next few weeks go.

Oh, also, I mapped out an out-and-back 20 mile route that would take me right to the end of the Island Rail trail, which is smack bang in the middle of Lake Champlain. Is it weird that it means I’m already excited for my 20 miler? 😉

Weekly Mileage:

31.58

Total Mileage:

120.96

What workout gives you the most confidence in a training program?

Have you tried trail running in the mud?

A great week of #marathontraining for this #motherrunner! Vermont City marathon, here I come!

Click To Tweet

More from my site

14 thoughts on “Vermont City Marathon Training – Week 5”

  2. Allie

    Sounds like you are in the sweet spot of your training and I’m so happy for you!!! That mud run sounds so great. I love it when a run comes together like that. Keep it up – it can only get better from here and, the fact that you’re excited about your 20 miler means you’re having a really great training cycle. Yeah YOU!
    Allie recently posted…The Rundown – Putting the Work in WorkoutsMy Profile

  4. Paria@momontherunsanity.com

    Exciting to see you build all these miles back up post baby. I think what most amazes me is also how much better my recovery time is from workouts…. when I first started running, I felt dead after a long or hard run, but now, I literally just need 20 minutes to rest and am ready to go for the rest of the day…. Or when I’m doing some type of hill repeats, I recover so much faster in between hills.
    Paria@momontherunsanity.com recently posted…Still Here, Still HighMy Profile

    1. Carly Pizzani

      Yes, recovery is such a great indicator of fitness! If I have a training client who has cardio goals, I’ll sometimes gauge their progress by heart rate recovery times – it’s extraordinary how quickly your body adapts (in a good way) to the training.
      Carly Pizzani recently posted…High Five Friday – RuntasticMy Profile

  5. Alaya

    You’re so awesome! I love muddy trail runs! And running along a lake is so invigorating. I miss running along Lake Washington when we lived in Seattle. So beautiful. Keep up your badassery! 💜

Comments are closed.