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Tokyo Marathon training week 12: January 13-19

Writer's picture: Sarah SechanSarah Sechan

This is week 12 of an 18-week training plan that will hopefully get me to the marathon start line ready to have an amazing race, and maybe even PR!

Monday, January 13

This morning, I slept in! In the afternoon, I completed my speed workout, which totalled 11 miles: 1.5mi warm up 4 * 1.5mi @ goal marathon pace – 10 sec; .5mi rest 1.5mi cool down

It got a tiny bit drizzly toward the middle-end, and I was glad that I brought some gloves with, just in case.

Last week, Lior told me that his office building (not his company) is hosting a puppy play date later in the month. I’ve been refreshing the website multiple times per day, so I can RSVP the minute it becomes available…that happened sometime this evening, so I was registered by 7:41pm! I can’t wait to cuddle some puppies next week! I also registered Lior, but he said he can’t promise he’ll be able to attend…more puppy cuddles for me, I guess…

Tuesday, January 14

Between insomnia and late night/early morning bathroom issues, I didn’t get to sleep until very late, and it was 100% thanks to melatonin. I decided to cancel my yoga class in favor of sleeping in. I skipped my coffee today in hopes of preventing insomnia tonight. The combination of lack of caffeine and taking melatonin meant that I felt very sluggish today. I decided I don’t have the bandwidth today for social interaction and I was going to run relatively slow, so I did my 5 mile run during the day, rather than with the running group. I felt a bit better during my run, but still so lethargic. The weather was a bit drizzly and then it got windy and rainy once I returned home…oh yeah and it got dark around 4:15pm…so I was happy to be inside for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, January 15

I woke up today feeling so much better! In the afternoon I went for an 11 mile run, and I was dragging my feet at the end. Did I fuel right? Probably not. Oh well, it’s over and it was nice and sunny during my run!

Thursday, January 16

I had some insomnia again last night, but it wasn’t quite as bad as Monday evening. I made it to yoga today, and I’m glad I did because my hip felt tight…because that’s a thing that happens to me now. After yoga, I went for a 10 mile run. I was a little nauseous at the end, probably because I needed a snack in between the run and yoga. At least the weather was relatively nice again? Afterwards, I went grocery shopping and resumed my homebody ways.

Today’s long run was supposed to be during the weekend, but I’ve been experimenting with doing my long runs during the week and a shorter run on the weekend (one weekend day is a rest day), to spend more time with Lior. I obviously don’t regret this–but man, this was rough. To prevent burnout in upcoming weeks, I moved some of my workouts around, to make my schedule more balanced.

Friday, January 17

I woke up a bit groggy today, but there was no insomnia! I ran a 5 mile easy run, and had a lot of energy.

Today I also came up with my music/playlist strategy for the marathon. I’m running/counting in miles, but the course is counted in kilometers and is notoriously long…so I’m setting my playlist according to KMs:

  1. Start-KM 18 (first 11-12 miles): Running playlist, pump up music to get me running at a solid pace. This is what I listen to during my races, and it’s worked well this training cycle.

  2. KM 18-34 (until about mile 21): Podcasts! Girls Gotta Eat/Berning in Hell/Taste of Taylor. These podcasts are hilarious and I like to listen to them during my speed workouts and long runs. Also, they tend to put out longer podcasts, so between the shows they put out the week of the marathon, I’ll have more than enough material to listen to for these 100-120 minutes. At this point in the race I usually have a mental low point/start going loopy, so having a conversation to listen to should be helpful.

  3. KM 34-end: A mashup remix that I’ve been using for a lot of my runs! It’s about an hour long, so this should see me through to the end!

Later in the day, I went to Richmond to go swimming! (I wanted to go on Tuesday, but I was too tired.) I swam for a bit under 45 minutes, swimming 750m freestyle in 29:55 and then swimming 250m breast stroke at a leisurely pace.

In the evening, I met Lior at Dinerama, and we had dinner and a drink there, before returning home (where the gin and tonics are free/pre-purchased).

Saturday, January 18

DAY OFF! Lior and I made a leisurely breakfast (finishing most of the groceries that we bought last weekend), before heading out to do some shopping–getting a birthday present for his niece and then braving Primark. Primark is giant and in general I try to avoid stores like this…but everything is SO CHEAP! I am the happy owner of a new sweater, sleep pants, and some work shirts.

Sunday, January 19

Today I slept in (I was having a dystopian adventure dream and didn’t want it to end at a bad/weird place…also I just like sleeping). In the early afternoon, I went for my last run of the week–an 8 miler. I had a lot of energy and finished the run faster than anticipated, and had a fantastic time! Minus

The rest of the day we were lazy…well, I was lazy and Lior worked.

Total Distance: 50.3 miles, 1 yoga class, 1000m swimming

Pace-wise this is definitely one of my slower weeks of training, and I felt it! With next week’s long run being a weekend race, I hope that next week will be a bit lighter (one less long run during the week). Also, I’m officially 2/3 done with marathon training! I’m very proud of the fact that I have been sticking to my training plan, which involves running 6 days a week and running 40-50+ miles per week. I hope that this sluggish week was a fluke, and I’m looking forward to my last six weeks of training.

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