Pages

Monday, May 21, 2018

Grandma's Marathon Training: Week 14 Recap and RAGNAR RELAY!!!

Disclaimer:  I am running Grandma's Marathon in June as a BibRave Pro, which means my entry fee was covered for me. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews!  

Last week was crazy and I am already sad it's all over.

First, it was my first week in my new office location, which is located farther away from my house.  This means more commute time for me, and although it's not a crazy amount (I am spending about 20 minutes more in my car per day), it is enough to make me feel a little off kilter.  I'm sure in time, I will adjust.

Then, I ended my week participating (and our team winning the women's open division) in Ragnar Relay Chicago!  I knew participating in this would throw a wrench in my schedule so prepare for the fact that I moved my whole schedule around (after consulting with my friend Eric of High Miles Running).  Eric recommended swapping the Ragnar miles for my tempo run so I got out of doing that last week.  JAZZ HANDS ALL AROUND for that one.

Sunday, May 13
Plan Says:  Easy 5 miles

What I did:  No running.  It was Mother's Day and our day was pretty booked.  I did not get up early to run, because my family was planning breakfast in bed for me and by the time the day ended, I was pooped so I opted to take my rest day on Sunday instead of Tuesday

Monday, May 14
Plan Says: 2 x 3 mile, with 1 mile recovery in between and 1 mile warm up and cool down

What I did:  I did the 5 miles I missed on Sunday.
5.01 miles, 40:49 (8:09 avg)

Tuesday, May 15
Plan Says: Off

What I did: Top of the strength ladder!  I did Monday's missed strength workout on Tuesday.  My goal pace for these workouts is ten seconds faster than my marathon goal pace (6:52) so my strength workout goal pace is 6:42.  My first was a bit slow, but my second was a bit fast.

1.12 mile warm up, 9:35 (8:34 avg)

1.  3 miles, 20:11 (6:43 avg pace)

Recovery mile: 8:43

2.  3 miles, 19:53 (6:37 avg pace)

1.2 mile cool down, 10:31 (8:46 avg pace)

Wednesday, May 16
Plan Says: 9 mile tempo, 1 mile warm up and cool down

What I did:   Friday's 8 easy miles
I told you there was a lot of switching around!

8.1 miles, 1:07:46 (8:22 avg)

Thursday, May 17
Plan Says: easy 5 miles

What I did: Saturday's long run!  I got luck in that my long run this week was only 10 miles (and not 16).  10 miles before work means an alarm in the 4s but it is doable.

10 miles, 1:22:59 (8:18 avg)

Friday, May 18
Plan Says: easy 8 miles

What I did:  First day of Ragnar!  Our start time was 3 PM.  Our projected finish time was based on each of us entering our half marathon pace when we registered.  At that time, I entered 6:45 as my pace for this so my goal was to run all my miles at 6:40-6:45 pace, which is in line with my tempo pace of 6:42 for this training cycle (also why we decided to not run the tempo this week).

I was runner 11 so that meant that my first run time wasn't going to be until 9:13pm.  I started running at 9:15PM.  It was dark and raining and I was running into the wind.  Most of my 6.3 mile leg was running on a dark trail through the woods, with no other humans in sight so I was pretty scared.  I am definitely used to running in the dark, but running through my neighborhood in the dark and running through the woods in the dark are NOT the same.  The other thing that was annoying to me is that I had to stop at stoplights in the 2nd mile, which definitely affected my mile pace.  Despite stopping at lights, I still almost was hit by a car.  ARGH.  (For the record I was wearing a reflective vest, a headlamp, a blinking tail light and a reflective hat.)

I ran my 6.3 mile leg in 41:19 which is 6:34 pace.
My mile splits were: 6:31 / 6:56 / 6:31 / 6:26 / 6:26 / 6:30

I warmed up a lot for this leg and generally felt ok while running.  I definitely felt that I hadn't eaten enough food during the day though so I wanted to eat more before my next leg.

Saturday, May 19
Plan says: long 10 miles

What I did:  I had two more Ragnar legs on Saturday.

Leg #2 began at 3:43 AM, which was still right around the predicted time I would be running (3:38 AM).  I had 4.5 miles.  I had gotten some sleep in the van, and we had a midnight stop at McDonald's to refuel.  It was the only place that was open, but honestly, a cheeseburger and fries never tasted so good.

We had finally started catching up to some teams so we weren't running alone and it was FUN to start to pass people (every pass is a "kill" in Ragnar terms).  I felt really good on this leg.  I only had a few stoplights on my first mile and then I was back on a dark trail.  I passed 15 people on this leg.

4.44 miles, 28:59 (6:31 avg pace)
Mile Splits: 6:40 / 6:26 / 6:23 / 6:31

Then it was back in the van.  I was able to sleep a little bit more and then I woke up and ate a banana with peanut butter, and two superhero muffins with peanut butter on them.  My stomach was definitely feeling off.  As the day progressed, it stopped raining and became more and more humid.  I didn't plan on running with any liquid on any of my legs, but my teammates convinced me to run with water for my last leg and I was so grateful.

At 11:33 AM, I was off for my third and final leg.  We had gotten far ahead of our projection by this point as the time prediction sheet had me beginning my last leg at 12:15 PM.  (Side note - this time sheet was pretty cool - they had some algorithm that calculated each running slowing down a bit with each leg and our team did not slow down as much as their algorithm would suggest we would.)  I had no gas in the tank and my stomach did NOT like me.  My route was through the east side of Madison and had so many freakin' stoplights and the first mile and a half was uphill.

4.41 miles, 30:44 (6:58 avg pace)
Mile Splits: 6:55 / 6:52 / 6:43 / 7:33 (SUCH A LONG A** STOPLIGHT right before the exchange)

All in all, I ran a total of 15.14 miles according to my watch for a total run time of 1:41:02.  My avg pace across all miles was 6:40, which is right where I wanted to be!

It was definitely hard to run short distances fast in the middle of marathon training, but an unforgettable experience!  The results are not official yet, but unofficially my team won the women's open division with a total time of 21:37:11 which was 34 minutes and 23 seconds faster than the 2nd place women's open team!!  There will be a blog post about our team's experience on Oiselle's blog sometime this week.

Weekly Total
Plan says: 48 miles
What I did: 47.58 miles.  I was happy that I was able to get this close to the plan goal mileage with having Ragnar in the mix.

3 comments:


  1. Buy Rudy Project sunglasses, prescription glasses, helmets and accessories for cycling and action sports at the official Rudy Project Australia eShop.rudy project photochromic

    ReplyDelete

  2. Buy Rudy Project sunglasses, prescription glasses, helmets and accessories for cycling and action sports at the official Rudy Project Australia eShop.rudy project photochromic

    ReplyDelete
  3. My business is your dreary centered business with this chaplet peaceful moreover boost an individual developing your farm to help manual demur your enormous complaisance. All of us potbellys manifest as being a usual centered customer for a lot of prolix produces. best multivitamin for thinning hair

    ReplyDelete