Training before the Training Week 3 Recap

Goal mileage for 11/16 - 11/22: 21.4 miles
Actual mileage for 11/16 - 11/22: 22.52 miles

Another good week!

And now it's time for a breakdown (never gonna get it never gonna get it...name that tune.)

Sunday 11/16: 5.14 mi, 37:11 minutes (7:14 pace).  First run in the snow!  It was a little slippery, but not too bad.  I was/am not mentally prepared for the fact that winter running has already started.

Tuesday 11/18: 1 hour Power Yoga and 5.01 mi, 37:21 minutes (7:30 pace) on the treadmill.  The dreadmill wasn't too bad because I listened to music, which I only do indoors.  Turns out I can run ok on a treadmill if I have Flo Rida blaring in my ear.

Friday 11/21: 5.33 mi, 40:00 minutes (7:30 pace).  I had wanted to get outside for this run but it was 5 degrees and very windy that morning so the dreadmill it was.  Thankfully last week's Serial podcast got me through.  I ordered a foam roller and started using it post-run.  My most painful spots are my quads and IT bands.

Saturday 11/22: 7.04 mi, 52:05 minutes (7:24 pace).  This was more of a struggle for me even though generally the weather was ok.  Again I was aiming for 7:30 pace

Mile 1: 7:24

Mile 2: 7:21

Mile 3: 7:28

Mile 4: 7:31

Mile 5: 7:25

Mile 6: 7:30

Mile 7: 7:08

Mile 8: 7:16

I definitely am jumpy when I start a long run, nervous even.  Thankfully after a few miles, I can settle in.  More foam rolling after this run!

Sunday, Tuesday and Friday runs were done in my Mizunos (new shoes) without any problems!  I still like wearing my cushy Asiscs for long runs.  

I was excited to get the Lauren Fleshman Believe training journal in the mail last night.  We had already finished all of the Picky Bars that were delievered weeks ago (both my husband and I loved them).  I am going to start using this Week 1 of marathon training, which starts Dec 28 (1 month away! Eek!). I like my Garmin and feel it makes the training log easy but I don't like having to manually enter the treadmill runs into the online interface and usually write them down on a slip of paper afterwards anyways.  Also, I have to check this site to even remember what my goal mileages are.  Call me old-fashioned, but I love paper and pencil.  (Yes, I do still use a paper calendar/planner!)  I also like that the book will be around should either of my kids get into running.  (Because I just said that, neither of them will!)

Goal mileage for 11/23 - 11/27: 23.6 miles  

Thanksgiving week!  Could be problematic or it could be easy to get runs in due to holiday time away from work!

Goal Marathon Pace

I started out this marathon training thing with a goal of qualifying for the 2016 Boston Marathon.  For my age group this means that I need to run better than a 3:40 marathon.  For all practical purposes let's say this means a 3:39 finish time which is 8:21 pace.

That still is my goal, but if I'm honest, I have had a few other loftier goals floating around in my head:

Lofty thought 1: Marathon PR
My current PR for the marathon is 3:30:20 (8:01 pace) ran in Chicago in 2006.  My goal for this race was to qualify for Boston which I did.

For all practical purposes, let's say a Marathon PR goal is 3:29 or 7:58 pace (even though I would take a 3:30:19!)

Lofty thought 2: Run a marathon at what I keep calling my default pace - 7:17

This would be a 3:10:57 marathon which is a huge PR jump.

Lofty thought 3: Run a marathon in what the Runner's World Race Predictor tool says based on my 5K time of 19:10.

This would be a 3:03:50 marathon at 7:01 pace.  I would probably shit myself if I pulled that off.

Obviously, this is a wide range of paces from 7:01 - 8:21.  I will likely narrow this down a few weeks into my actual training plan but has been fun to consider.

Until I firm up my plans, I think I will use 7:45 as my MP for my training runs and see how that goes.

Training Before the Training Week 2

Goal mileage for 11/9 - 11/15: 19.5 miles
Actual mileage for 11/9 - 11/15:  20.47 miles

Cue happy face and green text!

The breakdown:

Sunday 11/9: 5.64 miles, 40:18 (7:08 pace).

Monday 11/10:   4.53 miles, 33:29 (7:24 pace). Ran laps around my neighborhood in the dark. Wasn't the greatest, but wasn't as awful as I anticipated.

Tuesday 11/11: 0 miles, 1 hour power yoga.

Wednesday 11/12: 4.03 miles, 29:15 (7:16 pace). More laps around my neighborhood in the dark, however it was SO COLD I broke out the fleece lined tights I bought from Athleta.  It is too early to be this cold!

Thursday 11/13: 0 miles, gluteus medius and hip flexor workouts from Runner's World.  I definitely got cocky with these as they seemed easy at the time.  The next day I was sore!

Friday 11/14: 0 miles.  The PLAN was to get a run in before the hubs left for work (the only time that was going to work that day for a run) but he had to go buy a carbon monoxide detector so no run for me. The best laid plans...I'm happy to report our home is carbon monoxide free.

Saturday 11/15: 6.27 miles, 46:05 (7:21 pace). More cold air and more fleece tights.  I am working on my LSD (long slow distance) run pace, even though I'm not sure exactly what that is yet. (Sidebar: I have been thinking a lot about pace lately.  Check back on Thursday morning to get my thoughts.)  I was trying to slow it down to 7:30 for this run but was not successful.  My mile splits:

Mile 1   7:23

Mile 2   7:18

              Mile 3   7:28 (close!)

Mile 4   7:18

Mile 5   7:19

Mile 6   7:21

Mile 7   7:20

Goal mileage for 11/16 - 11/22: 21.4 miles.

Running in the Dark

I have run in the dark twice this week.  It is not an optimal situation but necessary if I am going to train for a spring marathon given my schedule.

I have ran laps around my neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhood because:

1) The lighting in my neighborhood is good due to extensive use of exterior lighting by most of our neighbors.  The lighting in the adjacent neighborhood isn't as good, but it's doable.

2) The traffic is very minimal.

I wear reflective gear to be seen - armbands, vest and a small blinking light attached to a visor/hat - but I have been contemplating purchasing something that facilitates ME seeing.  I have landed on knuckle lights.

Has anyone used these and if so, give me your review in the comments!

I am always happy to hear tips for running in the dark too!

Training before the Training Week 1

My goal is to provide a weekly update with the previous week's mileage summary every Monday or Tuesday.  That's the whole reason for starting the blog - social pressure to keep me honest, right?

Last week my family accompanied me to a conference and then we were on vacation for 4 days after that so I was way more tired than I usually am - and used my kids nap time to nap myself most days. The city we were visiting hosted a marathon Sunday morning which both inspired and scared me. 

Goal mileage for 11/2-11/8:  19.5 miles

Actual mileage for 11/2 - 11/8: 14.13 miles

Cue sad face and red text.

The breakdown:

Sunday : 4.3 miles, 30:02 (6:59 pace).  Outdoors, felt good.  This is a good example of my standard or default run in terms of mileage and pace.  I leave my house thinking hmm..what should I do today? And 9 times out of 10 think "how about 30 minutes".  I know that I can finish this workout and I'm really not pushing myself very much with it.

Tuesday: 0 miles, 1 hour of Power Yoga.  I have been doing an hour of Power Yoga on my nonexistant lunch hour every Tuesday for about 4 years.  My workplace offers it and it is an excellent class.  I have definitely noticed improvements in my running due to it.

Thursday: 4.02 miles, 32:00 (7:58 pace). Indoors on hotel treadmill, while listening to the latest Serial podcast...which THANK GOD I had that because it was all I could do to run during the entirety of that.  It was definitely one of those runs where I could feel every jiggle and the fact that I was running facing a mirror was not helping matters! Oh and sidebar...It may have not been the smartest to chow down a huge burger and drink a Moscow mule PRIOR to doing a workout (duh). My foot bothered me more than usual during this run and I wondered if it was due to the treadmill.  I had just read an article about how the biomechanics of running on a treadmill are different so my theory may be entirely because of that article.

Saturday:  5.81 miles, 41:24 (7:07 pace). Ran through my old college campus.  Most of me was exhilarated to be running on a "new" route and inspired by the nostalgia of it all.  A tiny part of me was hating how windy it was!  But my foot did not bother me at all so that was good news.

Week 1 Takeaways:

1. I realized that I have to be a little more proactive in scheduling my runs rather than the "we'll see what happens" approach I have been taking (which clearly wasn't really working for me if you read last week's post!).  

2. Additionally, an easy trick that I have incorporated this week is to stop viewing a regular run as 30 minutes/4 and some odd miles.  My new goal to build up mileage is to move my default run to 5 miles.

3. I need to ice my foot.  Period.

4.  I read 4 runners world magazines in the period of 4 days (back issues from 2013/2014 that have been decorating our coffee table for the last year) and have some new glute strengthening exercises I am going to try on my off days.

Goal for 11/9 - 11/15: 19.5 miles.

2014 Running Review

I did not have any mileage goals with running at the beginning of 2014 other than to get out there and enjoy it. (I did have race related goals for the 5 races I did, as I have already detailed.)  I wanted to run 3 days a week.  I didn't want to overdo it and have my milk supply affected as I am nursing/pumping until my son is 1 year old.  That's it.

The plan that I am going to follow for marathon training starts Dec 28 and has 34.5 miles total for week 1. (More on that later.) So, naturally I was curious how far off that is from my current state of affairs.

Um...turns out PRETTY FAR.

I've never been great at keeping a running log but with a Garmin watch it is easy since it does it for you.  Upon reviewing the last 38 weeks of running and running reports on their website, it turns out I did not run nearly as much as I thought I did this year!

Here are the details:

I started running on Saturday February 15, ten weeks after the birth of my son.  Or rather, I started running with my Garmin at this point.  I honestly can't recall if I ran before that and if I did, I didn't record it.  So I'm going with that date.  It was 5 miles at 7:54 pace.  Not bad!  As it turns out, most of my mileage clusters on Fridays-Sundays.  This makes sense to me because I do not work outside of the home those days, so it is easiest to fit a run in those days.  Most of my "good" running weeks occur during the summer.  Again, this makes sense to me because those are the days with the most daylight - most of my weekly runs occur after 7 PM when my kids are in bed and weekend runs typically occur in the early afternoon when they nap.  I am definitely struggling to get runs in these days when it is dark at 4:45 PM!

So how many miles have I run in 2014 so far?  388.02

How many of the last 265 days have I run? 89 (34%)

How many days/week on average have I run in the weeks since February 9 (counting weeks starting on Sundays):  2.3  yikes.

How many miles/week, on average, have I run? 10.3

Let's categorize that:

weeks of 0 miles = 1
weeks of 1-5 miles total = 3
weeks of 6-10 miles total = 18
weeks of 11-15 miles total = 11
weeks of 16-20 miles total = 3
weeks of 20-25 miles total = 2

Average length of a run: 4.36 miles
Shortest run (other than not running) = 1.49 miles
Longest run = 9 miles

Total time spent running: 46 hours, 20 minutes and 16 seconds
Average Speed: 8.2 mph (7:19 pace)
Calories burned: 42,623 (makes me feel better about all of the Halloween candy I have inhaled

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  it looks like I have to start slowly ramping up my mileage and paying attention to this in the remaining 8 weeks before my plan begins.  Holy mother.  Why am I doing this again?!

I back calculated kind of sort of using the 10% rule and came up with these goals for the next 8 weeks:

This week: 19.5 miles
Week 2: 19.5 miles
Week 3: 21.4 miles
Week 4: 23.6 miles
Week 5: 25.9 miles
Week 6: 25.9 miles
Week 7: 28.5 miles
Week 8: 31.4 miles
Week 9/Week 1 of Plan: 34.5 miles

Some say the 10% rule isn't the greatest (according to this read) but that's what I am going with since I've used it before without problems.