As of yesterday, I'm officially half way through my training plan for the (now virtual) Marine Corps Marathon. 

I feel like I say this in every recap, but 

1. I can't believe I've stuck with it this long because the race is virtual and 

2. I'm still really on the fence about actually running a virtual marathon with no course support. 

But here we are, eight weeks into marathon training. Because of the pandemic, my long runs have pretty much been my only weekend plans so far. It's nice to have something to look forward to and plan for every weekend -- even if that means close to three hours of running.

I'm also finding at this point in the training plan, motivation is a bit of a struggle. It's hard to get excited to do all this training when there's not a real race to set my eyes on. Plus the pandemic struggles are still real and sometimes I just have weeks where I struggle in general and that bleeds into my running.

Week seven was definitely one of those weeks. I felt like such a useless waste of space that entire week. I was down in the dumps, dealing with a lot of stressful work crap, and just wanted to sleep the days away. I managed to do some of my workouts, but also skipped a couple. 

Monday - Strength training. 

Tuesday - 5 miles. It was 68 degrees on this run and the first hint that we might actually get some more pleasant running temperatures at some point in the future! It was the first run I didn't need to carry water on in ages!

Wednesday - 5 miles. This was a garbage run. I slept in in the morning, so did this after work, which is very weird for me. I was able to run for the first 3.5 miles and then basically walked the rest of the way back home. Felt tired and all around crappy. 

Thursday - Rest day. 

Friday - Rest day. Usually I don't take two rest days in a row, and I was actually supposed to have another five mile run on Friday, but I just couldn't do it. 

Saturday -10 miles. It was really humid. I was really unmotivated, but this run happened and that counts for something. 

Sunday - Rest day. 

Total: 20 miles

I rebounded a bit mentally in week eight. Some of the work stuff calmed down, which helped a lot. I got some better sleep and in general was just in a better mood all around. Plus I also tackled my longest long run in eight years, so that was a pretty exciting milestone. 

Monday - 6 miles. This was another super humid tempo run, but despite the humidity, I actually felt pretty OK and was able to push the pace during the middle miles. 

Tuesday - Rest day

Wednesday - 6 miles + strength training. This run ended on a really steep and long hill that I've never actually been able to run all the way up. I always stop to walk. Until this run! I shuffled my way to the top of the hill. 

Thursday - 5 miles. This was supposed to be my Friday run this week, but Friday was my birthday and I wanted to take the day off, so I rearranged my schedule. 

Friday - Rest day. 

Saturday - Rest day. Pushed my long run to Sunday because of the weather. 

Sunday - 16 miles. Felt pretty OK for the first 12 miles. Then had to swing by my house to refill my water bottle and motivation just disappeared for the last four. I think they were harder mentally than physically, which I guess is a good thing. Was so glad to be done this run and proud of myself for going so far. 

Total: 33 miles. 

Because I bumped my long run to Sunday this week and the next two weekends are a bit busy for me, I'm going to have to shuffle some things around in my training plan. My goal is to focus on first prioritizing my long runs, and then making sure I hit at least one of my key weekday workouts. If I have to drop a few other workouts, I will. It's only for the next two weeks, so it won't be the end of the world if I can't hit every workout. 

Week six of my training program brought a reduction in weekday mileage and an increase in my long run mileage.

I was super glad to have a midweek break. Instead of 3 weekday runs of 5-6 miles each, I only needed to knock out two five milers. Mentally that seemed far more manageable. Physically, I'm also getting to the point in the training plan where I can feel the cumulative mileage increases pretty acutely in my legs. 

Having an extra rest day thrown in last week was just what my legs needed.

I took two back-to-back rest days after my long run on Saturday, and when I woke up Tuesday morning to do my five miler, my legs felt really fresh. That run was a tempo run and I was definitely able to push the pace more than normal. 

Wednesday was a full-body strength training day.

Thursday was another five mile run. This one was at a much slower pace, and it started to rain in my last mile. I didn't hate it though since the rain felt like a bit of a break from the heat. I also did another strength session on Thursday. 

Friday was another rest day and then Saturday was my long run. 

I ran 14 miles on Saturday, which is the furthest I've run in a really long time. I intentionally mapped out a course that I hoped would be less hilly since I'd been struggling with the hills on my long runs for the last several weeks. 

The new course still had some pretty major climbs at the beginning (and unfortunately also in the last mile), but the middle portion was a lot less up and down. 

Even though I was blessed with a cloudy day, I still ran out of water before I was finished with the run. I don't remember having this hydration problem when training for past marathons, and I was trying to figure out how I managed before. 

For my first marathon, I remember carrying a massive bottle of Gatorade with me. It was so inefficient and made running so hard, but I never worried about running out of water. 

Then I remembered that the last time I trained for Marine Corps, I did most of my long runs on a trail with water fountains. I'd always stop to fill my water bottle up after the half way point. Since water fountains aren't really operational at the moment, I'm going to need to come up with another plan. 

Here's a throwback from 2012 training for MCM and doing long runs with Megan and Jax, one of her roommates at the time.

I've considered figuring out a loop that takes me back past my house, and I think that's what I'm likely going to end up doing. But, ugh, the thought of getting back home and then having to turn around and run a whole bunch more miles doesn't seem incredibly motivational. 

Despite still struggling on the hydration front, I did manage to get a better handle on the nutrition side and I didn't feel myself bonking in the middle of this run. I did a half piece of toast with some peanut butter before I left the house. Then I carried a bunch of gummy bears with me and started popping a few at a time starting around mile 5. 

Typically during races and training in the past I've been a big fan of Gu. But I keep forgetting to order it, and it was easy enough to grab a big bag of gummy bears at the grocery store. So for now, that's sort of the plan I'm sticking with. 

My final time for the 14 miles was 2:27:15. I had been keeping a slightly better pace, but in the last two miles hit some big hills and had to walk a lot -- like definitely more than half a mile. 

Overall, it was another pretty good week of training. 

Back when I started training for MCM in early July and before the race got canceled and switched to a virtual event, I had planned to summarize each week of training like I had done for the run streak.

But after the race went virtual, I was really on the fence about whether or not I was going to do it, and it seemed weird to recap every week of training while I was still so undecided.

So here we are five weeks later, and I'm still pretty on the fence about whether or not I'm going to actually do the race. I just can't quite wrap my head around running 26.2 miles with zero support. A marathon without aid stations and spectators just seems really, really hard.

But despite all that, for the last five weeks, I've still been following a marathon training plan. 

Overall, training has been going OK. I'm following a plan from Women's Running, and there are two things I really like about it. 

First, it incorporates strength training, which I've learned over time is really important for me when it comes to injury prevention.

Second, I really like the way this training plan approaches long runs. As you build mileage over time, every other week you drop back to a long run of 10 miles. That's good for me both mentally and physically to help prevent burn out. 

I've been struggling a bit to run in the heat this summer. It's been brutally hot and incredibly humid in DC this year. We've set all sorts of records for highest heat indexes and the longest stretches of time without a night dipping below 70 degrees. That makes running really hard, even in the early morning.

On top of that, my new neighborhood is incredibly hilly. And I'm not talking some little hills here or there or even one or two really big hills. I'm talking constant up and down. My legs never catch a break and it's really demoralizing sometimes because of the impact it has on my times.

But I'm trying to keep these two things in perspective. All the heat and hills will make me a much stronger and faster runner come fall. So for right now, I'm trying not to be too discouraged by my times. 

Here's a closer look at how my first five weeks of training have gone.

Week 1: I love the first week of a marathon training plan. The runs are all pretty short and just feel like normal runs for the most part. Total mileage: 14.75.

Week 2: My second week of training was at the beach. This was such a treat because it was fairly flat and running along the boardwalk gave me a nice breeze even on the humid days. Typically I don't follow a training plan too closely while I'm on vacation, but since the runs were all pretty short this week, it aligned with the amount I normally run at the beach. Total mileage: 18.

Week 3: This was the week DC was under constant heat advisories. I actually think I skipped one of my mid-week runs this week because the heat was just taking so much out of me. This was also the first week of a double digit long run. Total mileage: 19.

Week 4: I ran my first ever virtual race this week. It was the BTN 10K and I finished in under an hour. I intentionally tried to find a route that wasn't insanely hilly so I didn't have to post a super slow time. I was also supposed to do a long run of 12 miles this week, but I ran out of water part way through and had to turn back early and cut this short. I ended up with 11 miles and didn't have an ounce of extra energy left. This long run was a strong reminder that I need to remember how to properly fuel for long runs. Total mileage: 25.

Week 5: This last week felt really hard. The titles of some of my runs in Strava were "this run sucked" and "supposed to be a tempo run." Some of it was the heat for sure, but I think some of it was just that I was in a bit of a funk last week with this whole pandemic and that just impacted a bit of everything. I wasn't sleeping well and in general just felt blah about everything. Throw in some slow run times and it just made for a rough week. Total mileage: 26.

I'm super grateful that week six is a bit of a cut back week. Only two weekday runs and then my long run. After a rough week five, it's definitely what I needed.

So that's how training is going so far. I think I'll likely plan to post more frequent updates on how training is going. Whether or not I end up running this virtual race, I'd like to document how my training goes. This is the first time that I will have trained for a marathon with basically nothing to distract me from my runs. With the pandemic having basically shut the rest of life down, I have no excuses to not stick to the plan.