marathon training

Week 14 – RunLab

Week 14’s a wrap!

With two weeks to go until we hit the GoodLife Marathon, many are excited and eager to hit their goal that was set 14 weeks ago and I think equally as thrilled that it’s time to taper and training is almost over! That is until the runners high sets in post race and we all start training for the next. 😉

I, on the other hand am excited to be back training with the Academy of Lions RunCrew after being off ill for almost a month. I had a severe eye infection that left me living as a hermit. No social outings, no work, little screen time, and the darker the space the better. My lungs were aching for the taste of air, my skin to feel that warm spring sun and my sanity to socialize and catch up with friends!

Coming back after 4 weeks off didn’t make for the easiest of runs but my heart is happy and it’s great to be back running with the Crew! With my first full week of training and Sunday’s long run of 16.5km, I’m  happy to say that my body hadn’t lost all of the great training it had gone through and I feel as though I’ve bounced back pretty well! I’m pretty happy of where I am at physically and yes, I may be a tad sore but it’s a good sore. A soreness that I’m thankful for because I’m back at it and still able to work towards running GoodLife on May 1.

Unfortunately with being off for so long, I missed the peak weeks of training and am falling short of being able to complete a full marathon, which I finally had set my heart on (I think haha). However, I have high hopes that I’ll be able to finish the half feeling great and ready to cheer on the rest of the Crew as they finish the 42.2!

It’s been incredible to see how far everyone has come in their training and see how they crush kilometre after kilometre after kilometre! I love that social media was able to connect us when I was down and out and allow me to follow their triumphs as each week passed. After all, we are #inthis2gether! I will admit I did have serious RunCrew envy when the sun grew brighter, the days warmer and they were all out crushing 30+ km’s each Sunday, but it made me even more excited to get back at it.

The solidarity this group has and the support they give is outstanding. They were able to connect with me while I was off, advise on what my next move should be and encourage me not to fret and that there will always be another race! It was humbling to know that people I’d met only 10 weeks ago were so genuine, concerned and supportive through my whole ordeal. Major crew love here and I’m super grateful!

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Get Running. xx

Week 7 – RunLAB

With week 7 of RunLAB under my belt, I think it’s safe to say that training on #theroadtoGoodLife has me in all sorts of feels. Highs and lows and in between. Right now, I feel great! Two weeks ago, not so much. Sometimes our thoughts can be our own worst enemy, especially when we’re feeling tired or sore.

What I am learning as we go or I should say being reminded of is that training the mind is just as important as training our body; more so than we often realize. With RunLAB, I am seeing this come alive each week as we set out on our long runs. I’m feeling stronger physically as each week goes – thanks to a carefully designed program to strengthen our body to be better runners. However, running with a crew has proven to be the biggest support system I’ve known to carry me through the long distances week over week. Their energizing presence continually reinforces the mind to think ‘I can do this’ ‘this is actually awesome’ ‘I so got this-done’ into existence.

This week’s long run of 24KM brought many moments when I was ready to give up because I didn’t think I could get through it. (Even though we just ran this distance last week!) Now, I know not every run is going to be a good run, but when you are at kilometer 17 the last 7 can seem almost unimaginable. With that being said, having a solid crew to run alongside every Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday is pretty awesome! Just knowing they’re there has probably made 95% of our crew runs better than I ever anticipated. It’s the kind support that has you feeling unstoppable during those agonizing mid-run moments and feeling full post-run because we are in this together, we got here together. Their camaraderie and self-motivation has me pushing my limits every week and actually looking forward to the next. 🙂

Now I am not saying, we can depend on a crew for 100% of our training because come race day, I am sure there will be a lot of alone time and we need to know how to manage this. But I do think it can be that extra push we need to get us to that start line in top shape come race day; after that gun fires – the rest will magically fall into place.

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Happy Vibes! xx

PS- I am super pumped to let you all know that I’ll be posting my progress on the Academy of Lions RunCrew blog as well to help inspire and encourage other runners in our community!