Let the insanity continue in Casa de Boyle.
I spent the morning juggling Healthy Living Summit work, writing a freelance article on personal finance (oh, the irony), and filming a segment about Operation Beautiful for the local NBC news in Charlotte (it will be on at 5:00 PM today).
It’s my personal goal to get Maggie and James in as many shots as possible.
After that madness, I called the Husband (who snuck away to Starbucks so he could get work done) and asked him to bring me lunch. It was already 1:45 PM and my stomach was GROWLING.
Please and thanks!
I had a spinach salad with goat cheese, carrots, golden raisins, pine nuts, onions, and honey mustard sauce.
It really hit the spot.
Plus, toasty bread with real buttah:
Stepback Weeks
This week is a Stepback Week in marathon training. I live for stepbacks.
What exactly is a Stepback Week? In any good training plan, every three or four weeks will feature about 25% less mileage. Usually, you try to increase your overall mileage by 10%. Two weeks ago, I ran 22.5 miles; last week, I did 23.5. It’s not an exact science, but my training plan (and my body) is calling for a mileage reduction.
Stepback weeks are necessary for two reasons:
- Physical: Stepback weeks give your body a break and allow time for muscles to heal properly. Avoiding injury is key, and stepbacks really give your joints and bones a break from the constant pounding of ANY distance training plan.
- Mental: Most importantly (to me), stepbacks give you a mental break. Especially for a longer race like a half or full marathon, the training program is such a huge time commitment. Stepbacks give you some breathing room and help boost your spirits. I always come back from a stepback week ready to go!
When developing or choosing a training plan, look at your personal schedule and try to move around the weeks on the plan to accommodate big events, travel, or holidays. I scheduled this stepback week the same week as the Healthy Living Summit for a reason! 🙂
Do you ever feel mentally or physically burnt out during training? Do stepbacks help? What other tricks do you use?
Real buttah is the only way to go!
This week is a ‘stepback’ week in my (half) marathon training, as well, due to traveling to/from HLS.