Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training Week 18: THE TAPER + Race Goals

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Another Mother Runner just sent me an e-newsletter with "tips for the taper" or something to that nature, and I was happy to see that I have been following most of them for this taper.  My number one priority for the week was to get sleep.  I am happy to report that my sleep so far this week has been all "green circles" (best rating in the Sense sleep system) and that my average amount of sleep was over 8 hours.

My goal for running was follow the plan and no run under 8:00 avg.  I did ok with this.  My throat has been feeling better with each passing day.  I'm still snot rockets and loogies, but hopefully that won't be too much of an issue.

Here is my taper week in review:

Monday, October 9
Plan says: 5 miles

What I do:  Given that sleep was a priority for me this week, I had no qualms about shutting off my 5 AM alarm and getting this done after work before the bus arrived.  It was one of those taper runs where you feel so tired and your mind starts going, "How am I going to run 13 miles at a much faster pace than this in less than week?"  Luckily for me, I have at least one of these types of runs with every taper so I know better.

5 miles, 38:51 (7:46 avg pace)

Tuesday, October 10
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Another day where I shut off the early morning alarm and then drove home from work in pouring rain.  Sometimes I will gut it out and get the run in, other times, I will take the break. I was really tired all day on Tuesday so I made the switch to make Tuesday my rest day.

0 miles.

Wednesday, October 11
Plan says: Rest

What I do:   Actually get out of bed with the 5 AM alarm.  I went to bed early on Tuesday night because I was so tired so it wasn't too difficult to get out of bed.  It was lightly raining but as I mentioned last week, if I don't run on Wednesday morning, I won't get the opportunity for the rest of the day.

5.07 miles, 41:07 (8:07 avg pace)

Thursday, October 12
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  My son woke up at 3:30.  So I tossed and turned for almost an hour and a half and fell back asleep right before my 5 AM alarm so I don't even remember shutting it off.   I ended up going for a run after the kids were in bed, which is something I have not done in a LOOOOOONG time.  It was actually really fun and I had to reign the pace in because I kept thinking that it was go time!  Getting excited!!!!

6.2 miles, 49:17 (7:57 avg)

Friday, October 13
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do: 5 miles in the rain (again).

5 miles, 38:05 (7:37 avg pace)

Saturday, October 14
Plan says: 3 miles easy

What I do:  3 miles, in the rain (again).

3 miles, 23:43 (7:53 average)

Plan Miles: 24
Total Weekly Miles: 24.27

I have logged 614.47 miles in the past 18 weeks. That is almost double what I ran last year in the 18 weeks leading up to my last half marathon, where I set a PR.  A PR that I am hoping to break on Sunday!  Though I am running the same event as last year, the race went through a makeover and new management since last year and while the course is largely the same, it is slightly different.  

The weather looks to be ok.  The temps look great - high 40s/low 50s.  The one thing we all will have to contend with is wind and probably more rain, but the course doesn't go in any one direction for too long so there will be breaks.

So goals.  If I am feeling good:

A goal: Ideally, I want to run in 1:28 land.

B goal:   PR.  I need to run faster than 1:29:22 to do this. 

C goal:  Break 1:30

I realize these goals leave the space wide open for disappointment because they are SO close together time-wise AND they are all times.  Ideally I would have a process goal in there...but I don't.

Plan
I plan on running the first one to three miles in the 6:50 zone to test it out and go from there.  I ran the first seven in the 6:50-7:00 range last year, kicked it into around 6:30s for the next 4 and then tried to hold on until the end.   I want to test out pace in the first few miles on the conservative side but don't want to get stuck there.

I plan on using Gen UCan before the race and then fueling with Gu on mile 5 and 10.  I used no Gu last year, but this is mostly mental for me as I did every 5 miles in my spring marathon and really liked that plan.

I am really tired while writing this. I was with my kids all day and we did a lot, which was dumb of me but I had them by myself so I wanted to wear them out so they would go to bed good and sleep through the night!  I am off to foam roll and hydrate!

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 17 Recap! One more week!!!!

Disclaimer: I’m promoting Milwaukee Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!"

''Twas the last true week of my 18 week training plan and I was pleased.  I had to squeeze in two long runs since I missed last weekend's which lead to cutting out a tempo run.  I had another strong strength workout though with mile repeats so I still got some quick running in.

I had a decent week of sleep, score-wise, however, I am typing this with another sore throat.  Midway through the week I thought I had finally kicked my allergy/cold thing and then on Saturday my throat was on fire and it remains.  ARGH.  I have definitely pumped up the fluids and am hopeful that with a week of taper ahead, I will be fine by race day.

By this time next week, I hope to be writing up my race recap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, October 2
Plan says: Rest

What I do: Run 12 miles.  I really wanted to get in my missed long run from last weekend so I was up at 4:30 am to do so.  This felt good - I didn't push the pace and it was rather monotonous since I was doing 1 mile loops in the dark.  That is what builds the mental muscle though, right?

12.01 miles, 1:37:59 (8:10 avg pace)

Tuesday, October 3
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 x 1.5 miles at 10K pace (0.5 mile jog in-between), 1.5 miles cool down

What I do:  I slept in.  My crappy week of sleep last week was catching up with me.  I was able to get in a run after work/before bus.

5 miles, 40:16 (8:03 avg pace)

Wednesday, October 4
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: Spent 2:45a-3:30a in my son's twin bed so yeah.  Alarm was shut off.  Unfortunately Wednesdays are a DAY from now until Christmas because I am taking a class and my daughter has play practice so there is no making up a workout if I don't get my butt out of bed in the AM.

0 miles.

Thursday, October 5
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  The time has come to get the mile repeats DONE.  4:45 AM alarm here we go.

The air was so cool - 45 degrees at 5 AM - felt great.  Goal pace for mile repeats was 6:34.

1.5 miles warm up, 12:32 (8:21 avg pace)

1 mile, 6:19.1 / 0.25 mile 2:21.7 (9:24 avg pace)
1 mile, 6:25.6 / 0.25 mile 2:19.4 (9:22 avg pace)
1 mile, 6:16.6 / 0.25 mile 2:15.8 (9:01 avg pace)
1 mile, 6:20.1 / 0.25 mile 2:22.5 (9:33 avg pace)
1 mile, 6:22.1 / 0.25 mile 2:24.8 (9:40 avg pace)
1 mile, 6:21.6

1.55 mile cool down, 13:25 (8:39 avg pace)

The first mile felt hard, as it always does.  I was surprised to see how fast it was and told myself to slow it down to be more in line with goal pace.  I slowed a bit for the 2nd and then the 3rd happened.  The last 0.25 miles of these first three miles felt hard but otherwise I was feeling good physically.  Mentally, I wanted to quit after the 3rd.  I took my long sleeve off to change it up and told myself I could quit after 5 since the first time I did this workout this cycle, I only did 5.  I got through 4 and 5 and then told myself that I could do the 6th.  The 6th was hard, and I felt like I was not getting great leg turnover so when the mile beeped I was very pleasantly surprised at the time.  I know these were too fast, but mentally I needed this workout so badly.

These were not as fast as my mile repeats that I did in August but they were more consistent and all done on my hilly neighborhood mile loop.

Friday, October 6
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  I was definitely tired for this run.

5.1 miles, 41:53 (8:13 avg pace)

Saturday, October 7
Plan says: 8 miles easy

What I do:  I did this in the afternoon since my kids were going to my mom's for the night, I spent the morning with them.  Consequently it was windy and rainy during the run, which actually felt quite good.  My throat was very sore during this though.

8.21 miles, 1:01:47 (7:32 avg pace)

Sunday, October 8
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  We went to see Rent on Saturday night so we were out late...BUT we didn't have the kids so I slept in until 8:17 AM!!!!!!!!!!!  That is the latest I have slept in in months...maybe years.  I did my run in the hot afternoon which was beautiful because of the gorgeous trees.  The only drawback is that my throat is still killing me and I still have so many snot rockets.  ARGH.

5.05 miles, 40:12 (7:58 avg pace).

Plan Miles: 42
Total Weekly Miles: 45.70!  

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 16 Recap

Last week was going to be a hectic one, I knew it from the outset.  It lived up to its billing and I had a terrible mileage week.  On top of that, my throat started to hurt last Sunday (Sept 24) and thus I was on a combo of Flonase, Sudafed, Zyrtec all week. I am still battling all the sinus things today.

We also were going to be out of town Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon for the Hall of Fame activities which threw a bit of a wrench in things.  Hall of Fame activities = I was inducted into my high school's athletic hall of fame over the weekend which included a dinner/ceremony Friday evening and a football game Saturday.  Here's my wave from the field:

I also wanted to cheer for peeps running the Lakefront Marathon on Sunday morning so by the time the weekend was over, I was so run down that I just skipped all running all weekend and got up super early this morning to get a long run in.  If I counted my long run today in last week's mileage, it would look a little more respectable, but I won't cheat the stats for you :)

Monday, September 25
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  Rest.  I had a night of sporadic sleep due to post-nasal drip.

Tuesday, September 26
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 x 1.5 miles at 10K pace (0.5 mile jog in-between), 1.5 miles cool down

What I do:  My son woke up....(I just wondered how many days of training begin with this phrase!) at 4 AM.  Luckily this was a rare occasion where he went back to sleep.   I did not and thus was dressed and out the door.  It was another warm morning and I told myself to enjoy it because soon enough it will be FREEZING for months on end.  63 degrees and 77% humidity.

Once again, goal pace for my strength workouts is 6:34.

1.5 mile warm up, 12:50 (8:33 avg pace)

1.5 miles, 9:48.6 (6:32 avg pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:33.4 (9:08 avg pace)
1.5 miles, 9:45.1 (6:30 avg pace) / 0.53 miles, 4:48.4 (9:04 avg pace)
1.5 miles, 9:45.6 (6:30 avg pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:26.4 (8:53 avg pace)
1.5 miles, 9:46.3 (6:31 avg pace)

1.5 mile cool down, 13:01 (8:37 avg pace)

Total: 10.54 miles

The first rep of this workout was tough.  I was huffing and puffing and my throat was on fire.  Thankfully once I got the first one out of the way and a chance to feel the pace, the other three fell into place.  I did these slightly faster than the first time I did this workout on 9/5:

1.5 miles, 10:01 (6:40 pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:25.7 (8:50 pace)
1.5 miles, 9:46.3 (6:30 pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:21.4 (8:43 pace)
1.5 miles, 9:50.3 (6:33 pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:23.1 (8:48 pace)
1.5 miles, 9:48.2 (6:32 pace)

So funny that my second rep is the fastest in both cases.

Wednesday, September 27
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: 6.2 miles in my new supernovas.  I love them!  51:27 (8:17/mi avg pace).

Thursday, September 28
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Squeezed in 5 miles at the end of the day.  It was a glorious fall day.

5 miles, 38:11.4 (7:38/mi avg pace).

Friday, September 29
Plan says: 1.5 mi warm up, 7 miles tempo, 1.5 mi cool down

What I do:  Half that.  I was wrangling children in the early morning hours so I got out of the house late.  I was only going to be able to get this done in the morning so I had to get out and get what I could done.  I figured some was better than none.  I ended up being way late for work but oh well.  I had so much snot during this run.  The snot rockets were epic.  Gross.

1 mile warm up (8:07), 3 miles tempo (6:47, 6:40, 6:42), 1 mile cool down (7:49).

5 miles, 36:09 (7:13/mi avg pace).

Saturday, September 30
Plan says: 14 miles long

What I do:  0 miles

Sunday, October 1
Plan says: 7 miles easy

What I do:  0 miles

Plan Miles: 53
Total Weekly Miles: 26.76  YIKES  That is the worst total miles/plan miles ratio I have had all year.

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 15 Recap

Last week had some curveballs, personally and professionally, so running was not able to be at the top of the priority list.  I only logged runs 5 of the 7 days, and our weather has been CRAZY.  Temps the last three days were in the mid-90s.  So we celebrated the arrival of autumn by sweating like crazy. 

Monday, September 18
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  Rest.

Tuesday, September 19
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 x 2 miles at 10K pace (0.5 mile jog in-between), 1.5 miles cool down

What I do:  My son woke up at 5 just as my alarm was going off and insisted I lay with him.  Unfortunately this early morning rising behavior has been a consistent trend that is annoying to say the least when you are trying to get up and get out of the house before waking anyone up.  My morning workout was therefore shot.  Maybe I could leave work early and get some portion of this in before the bus arrives...

...except that I had been waiting to get in to my primary care doctor and they had an afternoon appointment so I took it.  Maybe I could switch up the plan and get some miles in on the treadmill after the kids are in bed...

...except by that point I was done in.  I went to bed at 8:15.

0 miles

Wednesday, September 20
Plan says: 7 mi tempo with 1.5 mile warm up & cool down

What I do: Wake up to my daughter's tapping at 4:30 AM.  Go with her and lay in her bed for a bit until she falls back asleep and then get dressed to do Tuesday's strength workout that did not get done.  I was anticipating it to be a typical cool fall morning and boy was I wrong.  The humidity as disgusting as I opened the door to outside.  And it was FOGGY.

Goal pace: 6:34 or 13:08 for 2 mi repeats.

1.55 mile warm up, 12:33 (8:05 avg pace)

2 miles, 13:13 (6:36 avg pace)  / 0.51 miles, 4:40.5 (9:12 avg pace)
2 miles, 13:01 (6:30 avg pace)  / 0.5 miles, 4:39.0 (9:15 avg pace)
2.01 miles, 13:01 (6:29 avg pace)

1.55 mile cool down, 13:07 (8:28 avg pace)

I was soaking wet by the time this was done, including my hair.  GROSS.  At times I felt like I was running through one of those rockstar smoke machines!

Thursday, September 21
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: Unfortunately/Fortunately I woke up at 4 this morning because of...you guessed it, one of the kids and never fell back asleep.  This meant I was up and on the roads.  Again it was 83% humidity and 68 degrees.  AT 5 AM.  IN WISCONSIN.  In mid-September.  ?????  Easy 10K this morning.

6.2 miles, 51:19 (8:17 avg pace)

Friday, September 22
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  I ran after work and it was, no joke, 96 degrees and full sun outside.  I was miserable.  I was never so excited to see a school bus in my life.

3.55 miles, 27:51 (7:50 avg pace)

Saturday, September 23
Plan says: 10 miles long

What I do:  I got out early because it was going to be another scorcher.  I actually probably ran another 0.25 miles than what my Garmin logged because I stopped to quick change my iPod from podcast to song and, duh, forgot to restart my watch for a bit.  I was excited to see that my fastest pace during this run was 6:44.

10.06 miles, 1:17:06 (7:40 avg pace)

Sunday, September 24
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Set my alarm for another early morning to beat the heat.  I bought new running shoes on Saturday afternoon that I was excited to test out so I ran the first part of this in my new Hoka Cliftons, leaving my Asics on the porch to change into for the second part.

3.25 miles, 26:52 (8:16 avg pace) - Hokas
3.75 miles, 30:17 (8:04 avg pace) - Asics

Total - 7 miles

Plan Miles: 46
Total Weekly Miles: 36.94 (womp womp)

THREE MORE WEEKS UNTIL RACE DAY! (Let's hope the weather cools down a ton before then!)

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training Week 14 Recap

Last week was decent.  I had a race on Saturday so I moved things around and that meant I was doing long run the day after a race, which isn't ideal but I made it through.  And honestly, my house was a shit storm yesterday so it was much better being out there slogging through a long run. 

I have been retiring shoes like crazy lately so I'm down to rotating between two pairs - my Adidas Ultraboost X and my Asics GT2000.  Good thing I won ANOTHER pair of running shoes!  Just waiting for a pair of Adidas Supernovas to show up at my doorstep.  I do have to get to our local running store to get another new pair though to beef my rotation up because my Asics are what I ran my spring marathon in so they are getting up there and I generally save my Ultraboosts for speed/tempos.  In the past I have noticed that I get around 400 miles out of a pair of shoes, but the last several pairs haven't made it that far before I've noticed weird things.  Are shoes not as well made? Do you get harder on shoes with age?  I dunno but annoying nonetheless.

Ok - here's the long form recap:

Monday, September 11
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  Rest.  Ok, so really Tuesday was supposed to be the rest day but I slept through my alarm.  In writing this recap, I switched the plan says portion of Monday and Tuesday to make it easier to read :)

Tuesday, September 5
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 2 x 3 miles at 10K pace (1 mile jog in-between), 1.5 miles cool down

What I do:  My alarm went off at 5 AM and I lagged in getting out of bed.  I finally got out of bed and hit the road to do this.  I had pre-ordered a new Oiselle crop top which arrived over the weekend.  I wanted to wear it for the race on Saturday so I tested it out on this workout.  Two thumbs up (even though I like how my old Oiselle crop fits better).

This workout is the top of the strength workout ladder in the Hanson plan.  After 2 x 3 miles, you work back down the ladder and do all the workouts you already did.  It is a hard workout and I was nervous going into it.

Goal pace was 6:34.

1.5 mile warm up 12:37 (8:24 avg pace)

3 miles, 19:45 [6:45, 6:35, 6:23] (6:34 avg pace)

1 mile jog, 8:38

3 miles, 19:36 [6:40, 6:31, 6:24] (6:32 avg pace)

0.6 mile cool down, 5:17 (8:52 avg pace)

SHAZAM!  I was pumped after this workout.  I had executed it perfectly according to how I wanted to - start each 3 mile segment slower and gradually get faster.

During marathon training, my 3 mile segments for this workout (goal 7:05) on April 17 were:

3 miles, 20:36 (6:51 avg pace) (Mile splits: 6:57, 6:45, 6:52)

3 miles, 20:30 (6:49 avg pace) (Mile splits: 6:48, 6:51, 6:49)

Wednesday, September 6
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do: 5 miles easy.  Nothing else to say about that one.

5 miles, 42:44 (8:32 avg pace)

Thursday, September 7
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: Overslept so had to do this after work/before bus dropoff, which usually means I get in around 4.5 miles.  So...I knew once my watch beeped 5 miles that something was off.  Turns out the bus totally skipped our neighborhood so I had to SPRINT after it.  Hilarious, in hindsight.  In the moment, I was an adrenaline fueled mom on a mission.

5.06 miles, 39:13 (7:45 avg pace)

Friday, September 8
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Another post-work run.  Getting lots of hot weather running in this week. The bus did NOT miss our neighborhood this time.

4.33 miles, 32:55 (7:44 avg pace)

Saturday, September 9
Plan says: 8K RACE

What I do:  My race report is here.

Garmin: 5.03 miles, 32:20 (6:26 avg pace)

Sunday, September 10
Plan says: long 12

What I do:  OMG.  This was a DAY.  My plan was to get up at 5 and get this in before church.  Then at 4:30 AM my son woke up and threw a fit that I only could lay with him.  He never ended up going back to sleep.  Then we moved on to my daughter who threw a L-O-N-G tantrum over having to do a piano lesson worksheet.  This was all before 7 AM.  ARGH.  The day could only get better, right?  Nope.  45 minute scream tantrum from my son at naptime.  After he FINALLY fell asleep, I went downstairs and said, "I'M OUT."

11 miles, 1:26:09 (7:50 avg pace).

Amended Plan Miles: 43
Total Weekly Miles: 39.53

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training Week 13 Recap

Once again, I was coming off a weekend of being sick.  Two weeks in a row!  Instead of diving right back into the plan, I amended my plan to ease back into the toughest weeks of training. I opted to do the strength workout instead of the tempo, which admittedly I decided solely because I like the strength workouts and I hate the tempos.  I tried pushing my long run a bit towards the fastest end of my prescribed long run window (7:30 - 9:00).  Other than that, I just tried to run easy.  I also ended up running 5 days instead of 6.   I have been toying with cutting out a day of running for a few weeks.  I decided to do 5 days this week because it worked well with my busy schedule this week AND I figured my body could use an extra day of rest after the last two weeks!

I look back at this week and it makes me smile.  Right now (Sunday night), I feel pretty good.  My legs are tired but I don't feel like I'm on the verge of sleep like I have been in the weeks prior.

Monday, September 4
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  I had a dull headache on Monday still and just felt off still from the weekend migraine so I took the day off.

Tuesday, September 5
Plan says: Easy 6

What I do:  It felt really really good to run, even though I felt a little off and still had a bit of a headache.  Managed to get an easy paced 10K in.

6.2 miles, 51:22 (8:17 avg pace).

Wednesday, September 6
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 x 2 miles at 10K pace (0.5 miles jog in-between), 1.5 miles cool down

What I do:  Alright it was go time.  Time to do the one fast workout I was going to do this week.  This felt AMAZING.  Seriously.  I was flying and feeling good.  I zoomed past the high school cross country team on their practice.  "Old Lady on your left!"

Goal pace is 6:34.

1.5 mile warm up 11:44 (7:49 avg pace)

2 miles, 13:03 [6:25, 6:30] (6:30 avg pace) / 0.5 miles 4:11.5 (8:25 avg pace)
2 miles, 13:08 [6:36, 6:28] (6:33 avg pace) / 0.5 miles 4:20.3 (8:42 avg pace)
2 miles, 12:45 [6:20, 6:24] (6:22 avg pace)

1.5 mile cool down, 12:19 (8:13 avg pace)

I had to do this same workout twice during my marathon training, so you KNOW I was curious.

Two mile repeats on April 10:
13:42
13:43
13:49

Two mile repeats on April 24
13:24
13:10
13:27

Granted, my goal pace for the 2 mile repeats during marathon training was 7:05, not 6:34.  Just typing that seems insane.

Thursday, September 7
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  I slept in on Thursday, which meant I was running after work before the bus, which meant that unless I sprinted, I wasn't getting 6 miles in.  I did log 4.52 miles.

4.52 miles 36:41.2 (8:07 avg pace).

Friday, September 8
Plan says: Off

What I do:  This day was my daughter's birthday and she wanted doughnuts for breakfast.  I was up early but not to run - to go get doughnuts! We went to see Wicked right after work/school so no run, and I was out until after midnight.  SO TIRED!

1.5 mile warm up 12:53 (8:36)
4 miles, 27:33 (6:53 avg, mile splits = 7:03, 6:59, 6:45, 6:44)
1.5 mile cool down 11:44 (7:49)

Saturday, September 9
Plan says: 10-12 miles

What I do:  The official plan said 10 miles, but I wanted to see if I could do a bit more if I was feeling good.  My husband let me sleep in until 8 AM which was awesome.  I ended up doing this run after lunch.  I didn't want to do this too fast, but I did want to be closer to the 7:30 end of my long run pace since I skipped a tempo run this week.  I was happy with this run.  After the first mile, I was in 7:30 range for the remainder of the miles and it felt decent.

11.02 miles, 1:23:14 (7:33 avg pace)

Sunday, September 10
Plan says: easy 6

What I do:  I got up early and headed out the door.  First run of fall where I needed a long sleeve shirt for the entire run.  (Funny because I did Saturday's run in a crop top and shorts.)  My legs definitely felt tired, even with my compression socks.  I finally started loosening up around mile 6 (!) so I decided to go the extra mile, literally.

7.2 miles, 1:00:37 (8:25 avg pace)

Amended Plan Miles: 38
Total Weekly Miles: 38.94 (seriously wish I would have calculated that before hand so I would have ran an extra 0.06 miles!)

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 12 Recap

Sigh.  Last week started off really well.  I was getting workouts done and feeling ok.

Monday, August 28
Plan says: Easy 5 miles

What I do:  You may recall that I was coming off of family sick-fest last weekend so I didn't set a morning alarm.  I also reworked my workouts a little bit so that I wasn't coming off sick-fest and doing speed. My daughter started school that morning so I was going to try to squeeze in a run between work and when she got off the bus.   Due to school restructuring, she was going to be on the bus 10 extra minutes this year and I was going to use them!  I ended up logging 4.4 miles.  I still felt tired.

4.4 miles, 36:12 (8:09 average).

Tuesday, August 29
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  Yes! I had FINALLY gotten back to having Tuesday as a rest day.

Wednesday, August 30
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 x 1.5 miles (0.5 miles jog in-between), 1.5 miles cool down

What I do:  I woke up early, did this workout and slayed.  Honestly, my goals for this were (1) to be around 6:30 pace; and (2) to ease into the workout.  I accomplished both.

1.51 mile warm up, 12:45 (8:27 avg pace)

1.5 miles, 10:01 (6:40 pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:25.7 (8:50 pace)
1.5 miles, 9:46.3 (6:30 pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:21.4 (8:43 pace)
1.5 miles, 9:50.3 (6:33 pace) / 0.5 miles, 4:23.1 (8:48 pace)
1.5 miles, 9:48.2 (6:32 pace)

1.1 mile cool down, 8:50 (8:02 avg pace)

Thursday, August 31
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  6.2 miles easy.  Two days in a row with the morning alarm!

6.2 miles, 51:19 (8:17 avg pace)

Friday, September 1
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 6 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  So tempo run.  I haven't had a good tempo run in weeks.  I decided that I was going to start over with these and work myself up physically and mentally rather than beat myself up over them.  My goal was to do a 4 mile tempo, easing into it and negative splitting.  It was still slower than what I wanted, but the progression of my miles was good.

1.5 mile warm up 12:53 (8:36)
4 miles, 27:33 (6:53 avg, mile splits = 7:03, 6:59, 6:45, 6:44)
1.5 mile cool down 11:44 (7:49)

AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE PLOT TWIST! (As I alluded to in my Instagram post this morning, I stole that from Devon Yanko's Leadville 100 race recap. It's a good one.)

I woke up Saturday morning at 1 AM with a throbbing, vice grip headache that was out of control.  What the hell was going on?!?!  I thought I was going to puke so I crawled (yes, crawled) into our bathroom.  No puke but man I could not shake the jolts of pain going through my head.  I thankfully fell asleep and then proceeded to rot in bed, in and out of sleep, for the remainder of the day, clutching my head.  My husband thought I was on the verge of death.  "I've never seen you like that!".  (He wins some award because he did all of the cooking for my daughter's birthday party AND yard work AND house cleaning AND wrangled our monkeys that day.)

He was Googling symptoms and diagnosed me with a migraine.  I was chugging ibuprofen and it was doing absolutely nothing so he went and got me some Excedrin migraine.  That at least took some of the edge off but I was not able to be upright at all.  

I felt better on Sunday - "better" meaning I was able to get up, shower, and stay upright while Maggie's party was going on.  I wasn't feeling hungry (I hadn't eaten anything since Friday night outside of a small bowl of oatmeal) and still had a headache.

Yesterday I felt a bit better as well.  I still had a headache, but no zingers.  I didn't feel as though I was on the edge of vomiting.  I ate some food, despite not really being hungry.

And here we are this morning.  Still feeling "eh".  Trying not to freak out that I missed two long run weeks in a row and, rather than being back up, like I was anticipating at the beginning of last week, my weekly mileage plummeted below 30 for the first time since the week of June 12.  I have 5 weeks and 5 days until race day.

Plan Miles: 51
Total Weekly Miles: 27.75

August 2017 Recap

Happy end of August!

I ran this morning (that's two mornings in a row!) so I have officially logged all the miles I am going to log for the month.

Total August 2017 miles = 153.14

I am ok with this number.  I can't change it, obviously, but I also know that it should have been higher.  August was a rough month.

Focusing on the positives:

1. I logged at least 100 miles this month, making 8 months in a row of 100+ mile months.

2. I was only 4.22 miles short of the total mileage for July, so although I didn't increase, I maintained.

3. My August 2017 mileage was a 129.1% increase over August 2016 mileage.

My goal is still to PR the half in October.  I PRed the half (and broke 1:30) last fall after a less than stellar summer of mileage so while this training cycle hasn't been as tight as my marathon training cycle was, I still think it is an improvement upon last year and that my consistent mileage this year is a big benefit to the race.  I want to be in 1:28:xx land for the half.  Strava says my best half-marathon effort right now is 1:28:23.  I'll take it!

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 11 Recap

Let's start with some positive news.  With Friday's run, I officially logged more miles in 2017 than I did in all of 2016!

2016 total mileage: 1206.42
2017 total mileage: 1211.61

Huzzah!

Friday was the last time I ran.  Yep.  Two unplanned days off.   My body feels better today than it did in the past several days.  I am hoping to lace up the shoes this afternoon.

Monday, August 21
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  Rest

Tuesday, August 22
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 6 x 1 mile at 10k pace with 400 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I work up with a very stiff and sore neck, likely from sleeping on my side with my arm at a weird angle underneath my head.  I started running after work and it felt like knives were digging into my neck with every step.  This feeling gradually lessened but it became apparent that I was not going to be doing mile repeats.  My goal was to make it 5 miles and I did it.

5.24 miles,  40:57 (7:49 avg pace)

Wednesday, August 23
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  MILE REPEATS.  My neck and shoulder were still very sore.  The warm up was uncomfortable but not as awful as Tuesday so I decided that I was going for it.  I again was doing this after work so my time was limited. Six seemed like SO MANY so I again did the trick of "Just start with 1". I opted to do 5 repeats instead of 6 so I could get a cool down in.  By that time, my body felt shot anyways.  I ran these too fast.  My 10K pace is not in the 6:15 range.  I haven't been happy with the two 10Ks I ran this summer.  My best 10K this summer (also my PR) was 6:46 pace, which is slower than I hope to run this half marathon.  Maybe not a good sign?!  Anyways, my goal for these mile repeats was 6:30.  Totally overshot that.  Probably not the smartest.  I ran two different mile-long loops in my neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhood.  Loop A is hillier than Loop B, which is reflected in the time.  I also stopped during the last two for a breath.  I need to not do that.

1.5 mile warm up, 12:23 (8:15 avg pace)

LOOP A: 1 mile, 6:14.0 / 0.25 mile, 2:10 (8:36 avg pace)
LOOP B: 1 mile, 6:09.9 / 0.25 mile, 2:16 (9:05)
LOOP A: 1 mile, 6:16.9 / 0.25 mile, 2:16 (9:08)
LOOP B: 1 mile, 6:06.6 / 0.25 mile, 2:20 (9:20)
LOOP A: 1 mile, 6:23.6 /

2.05 mile cool down, 17:24 (8:30 avg pace)

I took a epsom salt bath to hopefully help the neck and shoulders.  This was awesome and made me very sleepy.  I still went to bed later than I should have.

Thursday, August 17
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 6 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  5 miles easy.  I actually got up with a morning alarm!!!!  Neck and shoulders were still feeling off, but better than the previous two days.  I AM GETTING OLD!

5.1 miles, 42:46 (8:23)

Friday, August 18
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  I wanted to get in my tempo run but wasn't feeling that great.  My neck and shoulders still felt sore and generally I didn't feel great.  I went out for a run and tried to push several miles.  It was inconsistent but I logged a few tempo miles.

7.15 miles, 52:02 (7:17 avg pace)

Saturday, August 19
Plan says: 10 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  Oh man.  Our house was hit over the weekend.  My son started feeling ill Friday during the day and was puking every 3 hours on Friday night.  Luckily he woke up feeling ok on Saturday morning.  I, on the other hand, now had a neck, shoulder and back thing going on that was horrible.  I felt crummy, and had no appetite (unusual for me!).  I took a bunch of Advil and we had a family thing to attend.  We returned home and kids fell asleep at 6PM.  I was not far behind at 8PM.  Then my daughter woke up with fever + headache + body aches.  Luckily she never went the puke route.

0 miles

Sunday, August 20
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Again woke up feeling like junk.  My back felt miserable. I still wasn't very hungry. We had a chill day relaxing.  By the end of the day, I felt like I had gotten hit by a bus.  Kids went to bed and I again went to bed at 8PM with chills and body aches.  Luckily I woke up on the other side of the curve this morning so I think we are all back on the mend!

0 miles

Plan Miles: 45
Total Weekly Miles: 32.06

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 10 Recap

Spoiler alert: I did not hit the mileage goal for the week.  In fact, I was not even close.  I took an extra unplanned rest day and cut a few workouts short.  

Mario Fraioli retweeted something by @jcissik : "You cannot out train a bad diet, lack of sleep, lack of studying, and a poor attitude."  It was basically a sign from God.  Like DUH.  I have been complaining for weeks about the lack of sleep I have gotten.  My diet has been terrible lately.  I have skipped breakfast a ton.  (SUPER BAD IDEA....just in case you were wondering.)

I tried to get more sleep over the weekend.  There were some successes (nap on Sunday!) and some fails (daughter up several times last night because of bad dreams!).  I definitely paid more attention to eating this weekend - as in I ate really amazing food and I ate very hearty breakfasts both days.

I'm going to keep on keeping on with my plan and *try* to not be so down on myself.  It's always a work in progress for us type-A, overachiever types, right?

Here is my recap:

Monday, August 14
Plan says: Rest

What I do:  Rest

Tuesday, August 15
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 12 x 400m at 5k/10k pace with 400 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  This was the last speed workout on the plan!  (The remaining weeks focus on "strength" workouts which are longer repeats (1+ miles).) My kids had a rough night of sleep Monday night so I did not get up early.  I left work to do these before piano lessons and managed to get the repeats done but had to skip out on the cool down.  It was a nice sunny day, temperatures were in the upper 70s.  I again did these in my neighborhood (0.25 mi) on a quasi hilly stretch.  My goal was NOT to blow them out of the water - try to stay consistent and close to goal pace (1:33).  I didn't want to kill my legs for the tempo run later this week like I did last week.

1.6 miles warm up, 12:43 (7:55 avg pace)

0.25 miles, 1:30.0 (5:57 avg pace) / 0.25 miles, 2:01.0 (7:59 avg pace)
0.25 miles, 1:28.7 (5:57) / 0.25 miles, 1:56.1 (7:46)
0.25 miles, 1:30.8 (6:07) / 0.25 miles, 1:57.2 (7:48)
0.25 miles, 1:30.8 (6:05) / 0.25 miles, 1:59.2 (7:45)

0.25 miles, 1:28.7 (5:54) / 0.25 miles, 2:05.3 (8:01)
0.25 miles, 1:30.6 (6:02) / 0.25 miles, 1:58.8 (7:57)
0.25 miles, 1:28.5 (5:58) / 0.25 miles, 2:01.4 (7:55)
0.25 miles, 1:30.6 (6:03) / 0.25 miles, 2:06.7 (8:17)

0.25 miles, 1:30.2 (5:56) / 0.25 miles, 2:02.3 (7:58)
0.25 miles, 1:28.6 (5:54) / 0.25 miles, 2:03.4 (8:08)
0.25 miles, 1:29.8 (6:01) / 0.25 miles, 2:04.5 (8:04)
0.25 miles, 1:28.5 (5:57) / 0.30 miles, 2:26.1 (8:07)

The last time I did 400s was during week 2 (6/20/17).  I ran those on a track, and they were much faster.

1 - 1:24 / 1:55  (5:33 avg pace / 7:43 avg pace)
2 - 1:26 / 1:50  (5:36 / 7:23)
3 - 1:25 / 1:58  (5:40 / 7:53)
4 - 1:25 / 1:54  (5:31 / 7:39)
5 - 1:26 / 1:59  (5:38 / 7:59)
6 - 1:22 / 1:56  (5:22 / 7:47)
7 - 1:27 / 1:59  (5:39 / 8:03)
8 - 1:25 / 1:54  (5:27 / 7:36)
9 - 1:25 / 1:57  (5:31 / 7:43)
10 - 1:24 / 1:59  (5:23 / 7:49)
11 - 1:23 / 1:57  (5:20 / 7:45)
12 - 1:25 (5:33)


Wednesday, August 16
Plan says: 5 miles

What I do:  I stayed up late on Tuesday night (10 pm) to read my book which made it hard to get up at 5 AM but I did eventually roll out of bed.  These were easy paced miles, although I felt tired.  It is always harder to have a hard afternoon workout and then an early morning workout the next day!  I added some on to make up for reduced cool down the day before.

5.70 miles, 49:27 (8:41 avg pace)

Thursday, August 17
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 5 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  Nothing.  Nada.  I was spent and slept terribly because my husband and I were kid-free on Wednesday night so we went out to dinner and wine was had.  I have noticed that whenever I have a DROP of wine, any sort, my sleep is awful.  I had several million drops (ok, half a bottle) with dinner and thus, I was up all night long and did not get a workout in before work.  The day sort of spiraled from there.  I ended up having to leave work early to go get the kids and then we had back to school night and by the time all was said and done, there was no way I was running.

Friday, August 18
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  Tried to get the tempo run in.  It was an epic fail, as I wrote about at the end of last week.

2.27 miles, 19:14 (8:29 avg pace)
1.35 miles, 9:23 (6:56 avg pace)
0.18 miles, 1:31 (8:38) and walk.

I felt like death and abandoned ship.  3.8 miles total.

Saturday, August 19
Plan says: 12 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  I was up early so I decided to get a long run in.  I was not in a good place mentally but thought, "Try to get to 6".  Six came and it became, "Try to get an hour of running in".  An hour came and then it was "Try to get 10 in" and then I hit 10!  I had hit my max allowable run time (we had to get to an event that morning) so I stopped there.

10.06 miles, 1:20:28 (8:00 avg pace)

Sunday, August 20
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  I inadvertently napped on Sunday after getting the BEST night of sleep ever on Saturday night.  I slept through the ENTIRE NIGHT.  Hallelujah.  I laid down with my son to help him relax for his nap and ended up falling asleep myself! I did this run after the kids were in bed and the first two miles felt heavy.  I switched off of podcast mode and fired up some music and voila.  Hit some fast miles.  Of course this was off plan, but it felt good after the crappy week to show myself that I could get some fast miles done.

5 miles, 36:42, (7:20 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 45
Total Weekly Miles: 32.27

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 9 Recap (Halfway THERE!)

Week 9 is finished and boom! I am halfway done with the Hanson Advanced Half Marathon Training program.  Last week was a bit crazy - lots of switching workouts around.  My July racing messed up my typical schedule and I have yet to recover from all the switching.   I ended up cutting 3 workouts shorter than prescribed this week, but was only 2.33 miles short from the weekly total plan due to adding little bits of mileage to other workouts.

Monday, August 7
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 6 x 800m at 5k/10k pace with 400 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I did some switching around because I did not want to do a speed workout the day after doing a long run.  Today = rest day.

Tuesday, August 8
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:
The weekly speed work was on the plan for today.  I was planning on getting up early but my Sense alarm never went off so I didn't wake up until my husband's alarm (which is an hour later than mine).  ARGH.  I left work early to get this workout in mid-afternoon but wasn't able to complete the entire cool down because I had to pick up my daughter and take her to piano lessons.

This was a workout for the books.  I felt great.  I was shocked when I saw the first 0.5 mi split because it didn't feel that hard.  To be sure, I had to fight to get the last repeat in at that pace, but hot damn!  It's about time I had a solid speed workout where I didn't feel like death. And check out that consistency across all six 800s!!!!

Per the Hanson plan, my goal pace for 800s is 3:05. I did not do these on the track because I try to follow their advice of doing speed work on the roads since that is the surface the race will be on AND I had a limited window of time to get this done so doing it in my neighborhood would allow for the maximum amount of running.

1.5 miles warm up, 12:01 (8:01 avg pace)

0.50 miles, 2:51.6 (5:42 avg pace) / 0.25 miles, 2:06.7 (8:25 avg pace)
0.50 miles, 2:51.9 (5:44) / 0.25 miles, 2:01.5 (8:04)
0.50 miles, 2:52.8 (5:43) / 0.25 miles, 2:09.1 (8:35)
0.50 miles, 2:51.0 (5:41) / 0.25 miles, 2:10.7 (8:37)
0.50 miles, 2:51.3 (5:42) / 0.25 miles, 2:15.9 (9:01)
0.50 miles, 2:52.9 (5:44)

0.78 miles cool down, 6:40.8 (8:34 avg pace)

I will admit that 800s are among my favorite track workouts.  I just love love love them.  It is fun to see some improvement in this training cycle, and since my marathon training earlier this year.  Here are my 800s on July 10:

1 - 3:03 (6:02 avg pace)
2 - 2:59 (5:57)
3 - 3:01 (6:03)
4 - 2:53 (5:43)
5 - 2:55 (5:48)
6 - 2:54 (5:51)

My 800s on March 16:

1- 3:04
2- 3:04
3- 3:06
4- 3:07
5- 3:02
6- 3:04

Wednesday, August 9
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 5 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  Flip flopping Monday and Tuesday means that Wednesday and Thursday also have to be flip flopped in order to not have two hard days in a row.  I got up early and just went on autopilot to get the easy 6 miles done.  I added a little more to make up for my shortened cool down yesterday.

6.75 miles, 57:12 (8:29 avg pace)

Thursday, August 10
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  4:45 AM ALARM BABY.  Shut off.  Groan.  Roll over.  Groan some more.  Get my butt out of bed and get dressed.

I tried a Honey Stinger Stroopwafel before this run because I felt a little hungry when I woke up and it was hanging out in the cupboard, a free sample from something.  (Typically I do not eat anything before an early morning run.)  It was very sweet but went down easy and didn't seem to bother my stomach.

My first mile of warm up beeped in at 9:07.  I think next week I am going to try doing a 2 mile warm up and a 1 mile cool down versus 1.5 miles for each.  My body just does not seem ready to go after 1.5 miles in the early morning.

I switched into tempo mode and felt like I was cruising, but first mile clocked in at 7:05.  I could be checking my pace during my runs but when I do this, it seems to make me more nervous so I just am trying to only check pace during the mile beeps.  My legs were tired, I had more than 1 stop to catch my breath and then finally, 5 miles were done.  I am sure doing the 800s at faster than prescribed pace was partially to blame for how my legs felt.  I also am not very confident during my tempo runs. They totally freak me out and the pace is not comfortable which is something I am struggling with. During marathon training my tempo runs were at a 7:15 which I always could finish faster than that. I am finding that 6:44 tempos are a whole other ball of wax.

1.51 mi warm up, 13:32 (8:59 avg pace)
5.0 mi tempo, 34:16 (6:51 avg pace)
1.5 mi cool down, 12:22 (8:15 avg pace)

Friday, August 11
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Throw my alarm clock on the floor.  Ok, not intentionally, but in an attempt to shut if off, I knocked it over. I got up 45 minutes later than I should have which meant an interception from my son, which delayed me getting out even further.  I eventually got out the door and did 4 miles, which was pushing my luck with morning timing, but my daughter has been a fan of helping to make lunches in the morning so that helped me.  One of the joys of kids growing up I guess - more and more they can do things for themselves! (...yet at the same time sobbing that they are growing up.  Motherhood in a nutshell.)

4 miles, 34:09 (8:32 avg pace)

Saturday, August 12
Plan says: 10 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  We had an insanely busy weekend.   Friday night I had dinner with girlfriends. I was home at a very reasonable hour, only about an hour past my bedtime, but my son had breathing issues all night long so we did not get a lot of sleep.  Saturday morning was thrown off by a trip to urgent care for breathing treatment and Saturday afternoon we had an outing with my husband's office.  Thus, come 8:00pm, I was outside running.  I didn't have the energy to tackle 10 or 7 miles, so I logged 5.25.

5.25 miles, 43:04 (8:12 avg pace)

Sunday, August 13
Plan says: 7 miles easy

What I do:  I slept in on Sunday because I needed sleep.  We had a Brewers game (baseball) with my family all day which was a lot of fun.  My kids were zonked and went to bed early so I again had night miles, but early bedtime meant that most of my miles were done in daylight and I was able to squeeze the long run in!

10.1 miles, 1:19:04 (7:50 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 43
Total Weekly Miles: 40.67

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 8 Recap

Week 8 of half marathon training is in the books and after a few weeks of getting close, I finally crossed the 40 mile threshold, despite only logging 5 running days instead of 6.  I still struggle with motivation.  I also am dealing with a bit of fear that my goal pace is too much.  I think a lot of my motivation struggles are really just being afraid of the goal I set and not knowing if I can do it, especially after I struggled to run a 10K at the pace I want to run a half-marathon at.

Monday, July 31
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 5 x 1km at 5k/10k pace with 600 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I went to a concert with my mom on Sunday night and thus, went to bed late, slept like crap and did not plan to get up early to get this done in the morning.  I started this workout at 3:30 in the afternoon, it was 81 degrees and sunny.

For the most part, the heat did not bother me.  Put that in the win jar.  I incorrectly thought that 1km =0.63 miles so I technically did a bit over the 1K so I was pleased that my paces were below my goal pace for this workout (3:48 / 6:07 avg pace).

1.5 miles warm up, 12:05 (8:03 avg pace)

0.64 miles, 3:51.6 (6:04 avg pace) / 0.37 miles, 3:07.9 (8:24 avg pace)
0.63 miles, 3:48.8 (6:01) / 0.36 miles, 2:58.2 (8:09)
0.63 miles, 3:43.9 (5:55) / 0.37 miles, 3:08.6 (8:25)
0.63 miles, 3:47.4 (5:59) / 0.37 miles, 3:20.1 (8:59)
0.64 miles, 3:49.7 (6:00)

1.75 miles cool down, 15:09 (8:39 avg pace)

One of the big differences with the Hanson's Advanced half marathon training plan compared to the beginner marathon training plan is that the amount of speed work is larger in the advanced plan.  In the beginner marathon plan, I had 6 weeks of mileage building (re: NO speed work), followed by 6 weeks that included speed work, followed by 6 weeks of "strength" work (1, 1.5, 2, and 3 mi repeats). The speed work weeks started with 400m repeats and ended with mile repeats.  In this advanced plan, I have 9 weeks of speed work followed by 7 weeks of strength, so the speed work is done like a ladder, from 400m repeats up to mile repeats and back down to 400 m repeats.  Thus, I had to do 1Ks a few weeks ago, during week 5 of training.   I would say my pace was more consistent this time around and I recall the first session of 1Ks being a struggle.  I was pleased that I gained some consistency and this was not as difficult as the first time around AND I did them in much hotter weather this second time!

Tuesday, August 1
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:  Rest.

Wednesday, August 2
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 5 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  Had to set the alarm for 4:45 for this one as I had an early morning meeting at the office.  UGH.  Even though this alarm is a mere 15 minutes earlier than my standard, why does it seem so much earlier?!  My sleep was terrible.  My son fell out of bed at 3 AM and I never fell back asleep after that so the good news was that I was ready to go for this run.  I grabbed my knuckle lights and ran the warm up in my neighborhood as well as the first 2 miles.  Then I ditched the lights and grabbed my water bottle to finish it out of my hood.  My goal for this was to ease into the tempo run and not start out mile 1 of tempo at full on pace.  It went well.  It was so humid already that morning so even though my pace was a little slow, I was satisfied.

1.5 mi warm up, 12:55 (8:36 avg pace)
5.0 mi tempo, 34:00 (6:48 avg pace)
1.5 mi cool down, 12:24 (8:16 avg pace)

Thursday, August 3
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  We were lucky to have our friends from Calgary staying with us Wednesday night so I stayed up late talking my friend's ear off.  My alarm went off at 5 and it was raining/storming so I shut it off and went back to sleep.  I left work early to get this run done and on my way home, it started downpouring.  So I thought, "I'll do it after the kids are in bed."  Then the kids were in bed and again, it was raining.  I was zonked by that time so I just threw in the towel.

Looking back, I'm annoyed that I just didn't hop on the treadmill.  After all, this is why I got a treadmill!

0 miles

Friday, August 4
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  My husband has a weekend in Northern WI every year with his college buddies and this was the weekend he was going to be gone.  SO I had planned on getting up super early and knocking my long run for the week out before he left. Except then 4:30 am came and I was like, ugh.  I finally peeled myself out of bed at 5:15 which meant I wasn't doing 12 miles before work.  I ended up with 6.4.

6.4 miles, 51:51, (8:06 avg pace)

Saturday, August 5
Plan says: 12 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  I had big ideas that I might be able to get up before my kids and get on the treadmill. Unfortunately, Friday night was sort of a cluster getting them to bed. I might have fallen asleep before my son.  They definitely woke me up in the morning so I stayed in bed snoozing in and out of consciousness while they watched TV.

I had big plans of taking them hiking a few times this summer and had yet to do anything about that so we loaded up and went to a nearby state park.  They did better than I was expecting!  We did lots of climbing.  Being there actually made me want to do more trail running.

It came time for bed and again, it was a shit show.  My son would not go the f*** to sleep.  It was 8:30 and I was tired and I was about to just skip running but then I was just like, no.  I let this bedtime situation infuriate me the night before, I was not going to do it again.  I changed into my running clothes and jumped on the treadmill.  It was slow and mentally so painful but I did it.  I logged 6 miles.  Best part was when I came back upstairs, everyone was asleep.  I drank some Nuun mixed with LaCroix, read my book and crashed.

6 miles, 53:15 (8:52 avg)

Sunday, August 6
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  My husband returned from his trip mid-afternoon so I was like, SEE YA!  I went to run my long run and really had no motivation for it.  I just kept saying one more mile and did a bunch of small loops (which mentally always helps me for some reason) and before I knew it, I had 12 miles in!

12 miles, 1:32:53 (7:44 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 45
Total Weekly Miles: 40.31

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 7 Recap

Week 7 is in the books.  It was again all over the place since I had a mid-week 5K race but by the end of it, I recovered nicely and finished all of the workouts.  I am looking forward to a "normal" week of no races! I finally feel like I am not on the brink of falling asleep.

Monday, July 24
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 x 1 mi at 5k/10k pace with 800 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I was not going to do another speed workout the day after a 10K race so I opted for 6 miles easy.  This felt good.  I was able to get out of bed early, the air was cool.  I was slower than usual, which I was happy about.

6.05 miles, 51:31 (8:31 avg pace)

Tuesday, July 25
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:  Wanted to do my tempo run today since I was using the 5K as a "replacement" for mile repeats.  I did NOT get out of bed early to do this because I went to bed 2 hours later than usual (and having consumed more wine than usual, #bookclub ).  I ended up doing this late afternoon, when it was hot out, but not nearly as hot as it had been.  I had attended a work conference all day and had different food than usual for lunch, including quinoa.  Ever since doing Whole30 last year, quinoa was a food that always provoked a reaction:  major stomach cramps, sweats, total gross.  Two of the salads that I ate huge portions of at the conference were quinoa-based.  I knew this was taking a chance, but I was hungry.

Needless to say, I left for my warm up and wasn't feeling so great.  Thought it would just take a bit to get going.  Ran 1.5 miles and then had to kick it into gear.  I opted to start out a little slower than tempo pace and was still not feeling that great.  I circled back to my house since I had a water bottle on my mailbox.  I started chugging the water bottle when stuff started coming back up in the opposite direction.  Ew.  I thought I would be ok, so I continued on.  Yep.  It wasn't ok.  I abandoned the tempo run 2.6 miles (and plenty of stops) in.  I walked home from that point feeling like I was going to die, the sweat just running off me.

1.5 mile warm up, 12:04 (8:03 avg pace)
2.5 mile tempo, 16:44 (6:47 avg pace)

3.97 miles total

Wednesday, July 26
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  Took my off day here.  Day before the race.  Felt amazing to do nothing.

Thursday, July 20
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: Race day! 5K.  Race recap here.

1.69 mile warm up, 12:29 (7:24 avg pace)
3.13 race, 19:33 (6:15 avg pace)
1.65 mile cool down, 14:19 (8:40 avg pace)

Friday, July 21
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  OOH Thursday night was a rough one.  I was pretty amped up when I finally got home after the race and went to bed around 10pm but could not fall asleep.  This turned into one of those nights where every noise made me think someone was in our house.  Then I had a bout of digestive distress similar to my entire day Thursday.  When I finally felt myself drifting off, my daughter came in because of a bad dream.  This happened again a few hours later.  I got back to my bed at 4 AM.  On the plus side, because I was already awake, it wasn't too hard to get out of bed and get out the door!

This was a beautiful run.  I intentionally chose to run laps around the pond so I would not be able to go fast and just sort of zone out with a podcast.  My right hip was REALLY bothering me though.

6.1 miles, 52:39 (8:38 avg pace)

Saturday, July 22
Plan says: 10 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  I struggle with waking up early on the weekends because I so love laying in bed with my husband and kids in the morning.  During the week, our mornings are GO GO GO so it is nice to veg out with them on the weekend.

I am then running during my son's afternoon nap, which is usually the warmest part of the day.  I mostly have been successful at convincing myself that this will make me a stronger runner.   Mostly.

I headed out in the hot sun to get this done.  I really wanted to be around 8:00 for the first half this, to ensure that it would not go off the rails and I was successful in this endeavor.  I ended up getting a Garmin tan because I did not put sunblock on my arms which was a dumb move.  My hip was still sore but not feeling as rough as it was on Friday.

10 miles, 1:16:40 (7:53 avg pace)

Sunday, July 23
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  My family went on a long (6 miles - long for a 6 + 3 year old!) bike ride mid-day and I ran afterwards.  I again went on the pond to get 5 miles in (flip flopping my Friday and Sunday runs).  I was hot and tired, but got it done which was my only goal.

5 miles, 39:26 (7:40 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 42
Total Weekly Miles: 37.6

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 6 Recap

If you stay true to the book on the Hanson's plan, they are anti-racing during training.  I stuck to this during my marathon training but I enjoy shorter races so have not stuck to this during my half-marathon training plan.  I get why they don't really encourage it - it messes everything up!  I wasn't sure which workouts to keep, what order to do them in, and/or which to modify so this week is a little all over the place.  I ended up skipping the long run entirely.

Additionally, I am still super tired during my runs.  I recall feeling like this around week 12 of the beginner marathon plan.  I didn't start speed work until week 6 of that plan - so this would correspond to week 12 of that plan.  I kind of am feeling a little overwhelmed that I still have 12 weeks to go on this plan.

Finally, the fam and I took off for a long weekend in Chicago leading up to the BTN Big10K race on Sunday.  That did nothing to quell my fatigue, even after taking Saturday off running.  One forgets how much walking is involved in the Windy City...and carrying/pushing two kids who are also not used to it!

Glad this week is in the books.

Monday, July 17
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 x 1200 at 5k/10k pace with 600 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I did 6 miles easy on Monday as I was going to do speed work on Tuesday.  I don't recall my rationale for this.

6.06 mi, 48:43 (8:02 pace)

Tuesday, July 18
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do: Rest.  I pushed the 1200s off another day because I overslept.  I overslept because I stayed up late to watch Spartan races on TV with the hubs.  #truth

Wednesday, July 19
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  UGH.  I had to do the 1200s.  I was using the 10K race on Sunday as my weekly tempo run (which no doubt will mess up next week too).  I had to do the 1200s after work when it was no joke 88 degrees and sunny outside.  At least the humidity was not off the charts.

It did not seem to matter though because they felt like hell.  My goal pace for 1200m is 4:35.  I only had one come in under that.  I did these on the road so 1200m = 0.75 miles.

1.5 mi warm up, 11:52 (7:52 avg pace)

1 - 0.75 mi, 4:38.9 (6:09 avg pace) / 0.38 mi, 3:13.1 (8:27 avg pace)
2 - 0.75 mi, 4:27.5 (5:54 avg pace) / 0.37 mi, 3:06.7 (8:19 avg pace)
3 - 0.75 mi, 4:41.8 (6:15 avg pace) / 0.38 mi, 3:22.2 (8:55 avg pace)
4 - 0.75 mi, 4:44.8 (6:19 avg pace) /

I was pretty dizzy and hot after this.  I ended up walking a bit as I wasn't even sure I could do a cool down.  I was back at my house and chugged 1/2 water bottle of Nuun and felt ok so I trotted along.  I cut the cool down short as I had to go pick up the kids and I was still feeling a little out of it.

1.12 mi, 9:40 (8:40 avg pace)

Thursday, July 20
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: I was up in the morning!  Unfortunately, it was lightening and pouring outside so I stayed in bed and hoped to get in my run after work.  I was able to squeeze it in.

6 miles, 46:33 (7:45 avg pace)

Friday, July 21
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  I was going to try to get a long run in before we left for CHI.  OMG.  My legs would NOT move.  I called it quits at 4 miles, after stopping a bunch.  Absolutely no gas left in my tank.

4 miles, 34:28 (8:36 avg pace)

Saturday, July 22
Plan says: 12 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  0 miles running.  My legs were tired.  I had two full days of walking around.  My iPhone indicates that Friday was 4.7 miles of walking and Saturday was 5 miles of walking.  I know that doesn't seem like a lot but I probably walk 0.25 miles a day normally.  Ok...I just checked. 0.48 miles on Wednesday and Thursday before that.  I did a terrible job hydrating which I knew would come back to haunt me.  Add in two hot and sweaty kids who at times needed to be carried and pushed in a stroller, and you have two hot and sweaty parents.

Sunday, July 23
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  10k race plus 1.5 mile warm up.  It was not that great.

41:59, 6:46 avg pace.  Race recap coming tomorrow.

Plan Miles: 44
Total Weekly Miles: 30.6

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 5 Recap

Monday, July 10
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 5 x 1000 at 5k/10k pace with 600 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  REST.  I switched up this week as I was still very tired from the weekend and knew it would not be in my best interest to do a speed workout today.

Tuesday, July 11
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:  Speed work! Unfortunately I had a 7 AM meeting at work so that meant 4:30 AM alarm to get this done.  Ooh I laid in bed for ten extra minutes.  I was so not prepared for that alarm, despite my 8:30pm bedtime the night before. Eventually, I rolled out and got dressed.  It was still kinda dark so I wasn't sure if the track was open so I did this on the road (which Hanson's prefers to track anyways).  This was struggle bus for me.  I definitely could have used another rest day, or at least an easy workout today.  The barometer for this is my recovery jogs - faster 1Ks were slower recoveries!

1.63 mile warm up, 14:07 (8:40 avg pace)

5 x 1000m with 600m recovery  (Goal pace for 1000m = 3:48)
Road conversions = 1000m = 0.62 miles, 600m = 0.38 miles)

1 - 3:51.6 / 3:15  (6:12 avg pace / 8:48 avg pace)
2 - 3:47.2 / 3:10  (6:06 / 8:23)
3 - 3:38.6 / 3:27  (5:50 / 9:04)
4 - 3:46.3 / 3:22  (6:04 / 8:49)
5 - 3:40.7 / (5:54)

1.6 mile cool down, 13:22 (8:22 avg pace)

Even though I know I am probably setting myself up for disappointment in doing this dumb comparison game, I can't help myself.  The comparison this week isn't great.  Back in March, I did this workout on a treadmill so I could basically guarantee hitting my goal pace of 3:48.  These were my 5 1Ks on 3/19.

1- 3:48
2- 3:48
3- 3:47
4- 3:46
5- 3:47

Wednesday, July 12
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 4 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I planned to do tempo on Thursday this week to have a day in between the two hard workouts of the week.  Since I had taken Monday off, this meant that 5 miles easy was up.

Wednesday was one of those days, beginning at 2 AM when the severe weather alert on my phone went off warning me of the possibilities of flash flooding.  Trust me when I say, I did not care.  We were having crazy storms, complete with downpour, and in between the loud thunder and drip drip drip on my windowsill that my brain refused to ignore and my kids waking up, I did not get much sleep.  Thus, when the alarm went off at 5 AM and it was still pouring, I said "F it and went back to sleep".

This led to all of us OVERSLEEPING and me getting to work 30 minutes later than usual, translating to me getting home later than usual.  It was so hot and muggy out, but I did have time to squeeze in 5 miles.

I started running and it was so hard.  I was listening to a podcast trying to distract myself but it wasn't working.  Then the few routes that I tried to take were underwater.  I stopped several times and at around 3.5 miles I said that I was quitting at 4.

4 miles, 31:32 (7:53 avg pace)

Thursday, July 13
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  It was time to tempo.  Again, I overslept.  I think my sh**ty sleep from last week just caught up with me.  (I know scientifically they say that this doesn't happen, but I truly think it does for me.)  SOOOOOOOOOO....again I was running after work in the heat.  The good news was that the humidity was not as bad as Wednesday afternoon.  The bad news was that this run still felt so hard.  My legs were dead, with no zip in them at all.  I made multiple stops along the route for water.

1.51 mile warm up, 11:49 (7:50 avg pace)
4.0 miles tempo, 26:52 (6:43 avg pace)
1.5 mile cool down, 12:17 (8:11 avg pace)

7.01 miles total

Friday, July 14
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  I was up around 3/4 AM because my son woke up.  I tossed and turned, but never went back to sleep so it was not too difficult to get up at 5 to go run.  Reflecting on my week of running, I had the duh moment that I got caught up in pace and again was in a place where I was trying to force the run.  This lead to feeling like junk, being extra tired and really not enjoying myself.

My goal for this run was to run EASY.

6.1 miles, 53:39 (8:47 avg pace)

Saturday, July 15
Plan says: 10 miles at long run pace (7:30-9:00)

What I do:  I wanted to get this done early, but slept through my alarm.  (That is basically the theme of my summer running.)  Thus, I was running in the heat in the early afternoon for my son's nap.  This run was fine.  I was excited to run over a newly constructed bridge over the river.  I was excited to be able to fill up my handheld several times along my route.

10 miles, 1:17:36 (7:45 avg pace)

Sunday, July 16
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  We stayed at my husband's family lake house on Saturday night and I was in charge of making breakfast so I wasn't able to get up and run early.  I again headed out when my son was napping and it was a breezy, partly cloudy day and scenic.  When I returned to the cottage, my son was awake, but CRABBY.  I did a few cannonballs off the pier in my running clothes to cheer him up.  They felt AMAZING!

Additionally I got some more stand up paddle boarding in AND a long kayak ride.  I LOVE SUMMER!

Plan Miles: 41
Total Weekly Miles: 39.96 (FOR REALZ.  I should have checked the weekly mileage before heading out to at least get that up to 40).

And with that, I've cleared the 1000 mile mark for the year!!!

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 3 Recap

Week three of half marathon training was a good one.  I have found myself definitely back in the "Hanson's groove" and love it.  Honestly it is a big stress reliever for me to just have routinized workouts.  I know that Monday is a track day, Tuesday is a rest day, Wednesday is a tempo day and the other days I just run.  My tempo pace is faster than marathon training, but my speedwork paces are not since they are based on 5k/10k pace.

Monday, June 26
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 8 x 600 at 5k/10k pace with 400 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do: Woke up to my morning alarm and got out there.  It was cool out in the morning which was awesome.  I again ran to the track for my warm up (1.8 miles).  Once I got there, there was a guy running on the outer lanes and another guy walking in lane 1. I started out running in lane 1 and of course the guy does not move out of the way.  My second 600 was fast because I basically hate sprinted past him in the inside lane.  Mature, I know.  He was done with his walking by then so I had the first lane all to myself for the remainder of the morning.  This workout was ok.  I hit the paces but it did not feel as flowing as the 400s did last week, likely because my legs were definitely tired.

1.81 mile warm up, 14:54 (8:14 avg pace)

8 x 600m with 400m recovery  (Goal pace for 600m = 2:18)

1 - 2:15 / 1:59  (5:53 avg pace / 7:57 avg pace)
2 - 2:09 / 2:04  (5:34 / 8:14)
3 - 2:12 / 1:59  (5:42 / 8:00)
4 - 2:13 / 2:01  (5:44 / 8:04)
5 - 2:13 / 2:06  (5:43 / 8:22)
6 - 2:15 / 2:03  (5:58 / 8:18)
7 - 2:15 / 1:59  (5:55 / 7:53)
8 - 2:09  (5:36)

1.78 mile cool down, 14:35 (8:10 avg pace)

Again, I compared these to my 600s workout in early March.  I can guarantee that my June 600s were probably cooler than my March 600s since I can still remember the HOT and HUMID day I did these at our Disney resort the morning after two park days:

1- 2:22
2- 2:19
3- 2:14
4- 2:17
5- 2:14
6- 2:15
7- 2:15
8- 2:18

So there was definitely some improvement from March, although that may all be comparing sidewalk time (March) to track time (June).

Tuesday, Jun 27
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:  No running.  My family and I went to the library for family Zumba so I did get some activity in!

Wednesday, June 28
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do:  I did not feel like getting out of bed in the morning when my EARLY alarm went off at 4:20-something.  So I didn't.  At that point, I rationalized that I could get the workout done after work since my MIL had my kids for the day and they wouldn't be home until 530.  Yeah...except for I didn't know that it was supposed to have huge downpours of rain!  So yep.  I was doing this in the rain.  It felt decent. It was faster than it should have been but did not feel as bad as this workout did last week!  I think the day of rest helped!

1.6 mile warm up, 12:29 (7:49 avg pace)
3.01 miles tempo, 19:43 (6:34 avg pace)
1.53 mile cool down, 11:55 (7:48 avg pace)

6.13 miles

Thursday, June 29
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Back to the early morning.  It was easy to run at a slower pace because I was tired.

5 miles, 41:56 (8:23 avg pace)

Friday, June 30
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  Another early morning which totally sucked because I went to a fundraiser dinner the night before, stayed up 2 hours past my usual bedtime and had a drop of alcohol which meant that I slept like CRAP.

5 miles, 40:40 (8:08 avg pace)

Saturday, July 1
Plan says: 7 miles easy

What I do:  I didn't set an alarm this morning and naturally woke up just before 6.  I got dressed and headed outside.  It was a beautiful morning.  Often I find that I get on autopilot on a run or get supremely focused on actually running.  All in all those are not bad things, but I don't often pay attention to surroundings in those modes.  Today's run I was very much into the surroundings and it was so inspiring.

7 miles, 53:44 (7:41 average)

Sunday, July 2
Plan says: 5 miles easy

What I do:  SKIP A RUN!  I know.  Kind of crazy.  I slept like junk the night before and ended up reading a book from 2-4 am.  (Great because I finished my book, not so great for sleep).  Thus, I slept in on Sunday morning and then with church, fishing trip with my dad, dinner with by brother's family, we got home late and went to bed.  I don't regret skipping that run :)

Plan Miles: 35
Total Weekly Miles: 31.56 miles

I am not going to be posting my sleep data on a regular basis anymore since it doesn't vary drastically.  I may include it when I receive a particularly useful piece of feedback. Until then - I know that I feel best if I am in bed by 9 PM (with a 5 AM wake up call).

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 2 Recap

Week two was fun to get back into the "Hansons" swing of things.  My first track workout in a long while was AWESOME! My first tempo run in a long while was not.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.  My legs definitely felt tired this whole week and I'm sure will take a bit to get used to being on a training plan again.

Monday, June 19
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 12 x 400 at 5k/10k pace with 400 m recovery in between, 1.5 mile cool down

What I do: I slept through my alarm.  I could have done this after kids were in bed at night but I knew I would have a hard time getting to sleep so I pushed it off a day.

Tuesday, Jun 20
Plan says: 0 miles

What I do:  Get my a** out of bed.  It was a tough one because my son had gotten up in the middle of the night and that always throws me off but I did it.  The high school track is 1.8 miles from our house so I ran there and home for my warm up and cool down.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good these felt and how fast they were.  My goal was 1:33 for the 400s.  Crushed it.

1.79 mile warm up, 14:14 (7:59 avg pace)

12 x 400m with 400 m recovery

1 - 1:24 / 1:55  (5:33 avg pace / 7:43 avg pace)
2 - 1:26 / 1:50  (5:36 / 7:23)
3 - 1:25 / 1:58  (5:40 / 7:53)
4 - 1:25 / 1:54  (5:31 / 7:39)
5 - 1:26 / 1:59  (5:38 / 7:59)
6 - 1:22 / 1:56  (5:22 / 7:47)
7 - 1:27 / 1:59  (5:39 / 8:03)
8 - 1:25 / 1:54  (5:27 / 7:36)
9 - 1:25 / 1:57  (5:31 / 7:43)
10 - 1:24 / 1:59  (5:23 / 7:49)
11 - 1:23 / 1:57  (5:20 / 7:45)
12 - 1:25 (5:33)

1.8 mile cool down, 14:18 (7:57 avg pace)
Total: 9.43 miles

I had to do this workout on February 20 as part of marathon training and I was curious how these paces compared since I had the same goal pace of 1:33 then.  My 400s were significantly faster in June!  The caveat being that I did these on the road in February and on a track in June.  Here are my February 400s:

1:35
1:36
1:31
1:29
1:30
1:30
1:32
1:32
1:36
1:32
1:31
1:31

Wednesday, June 21
Plan says: 1.5 mile warm up, 3 miles at half-marathon pace (6:44), 1.5 mile cool down

What I do: Oh the return of tempo run Wednesdays.  My legs felt tired when I woke up in the early morning to do this.  (YES! I woke up early two days in a row!)  But I knew I had to get it done so that my legs could rest enough for my race on Saturday.

1.5 mile warm up, 12:39 (8:26 avg pace)

Yep.  No problem getting over 8:00 miles on that one!

3 mile tempo, 19:49 (6:36 avg pace)
By the numbers this looks good but it was a bit of a disaster.  I chugged along and hit my first mile in 6:51.  Rather than just let it ride and let the pace come, I freaked out that it was "slow" and kicked it in and then realized that I had kicked it in too much. Stop. Mental Reset. Continue.  Second mile was 6:42.  Continued mental freakout that it felt too hard, but had to keep pushing. Felt like I was dying.  Stop. Mental Reset. Continue. Third mile, 6:14.

So yes.  There continues to be some work to be done.  All of my mental prowess that I developed in the months leading up to the marathon seems to be gone, or at least diminished.

1.5 mile cool down, 11:48 (7:50 avg pace)

Thursday, June 22
Plan says: 4 miles easy

What I do:  4 miles, real easy.  My first mile clocked in at 8:30. 33:30 (8:22 avg pace).

Friday, June 23
Plan says: 4 miles easy

What I do:  After getting up pre-5:00 am for three days in a row, I was bound to sleep in.  Thus, I did this after work.  I only did 3 easy miles on account of the fact I had a race in the morning.

3 miles, 23:51 (7:56 avg pace)

Saturday, June 24
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do:  See Bigfoot Trail 10K Race Report  and my bibrave.com review.  I will say that after I read some articles re: trail racing vs. road racing, I feel a bit better about the race.  You can lead the Type A runner to a trail, but you cannot undo competitive hard wiring in one race!

6.2 miles, 42:58 (6:55 avg pace) plus some pre-race warm up running (untimed/unmapped)

Sunday, June 25
Plan says: 4 miles easy

What I do:  4.85 miles easy.  The last 0.15 miles were with my 3 year old and my BILs dog, both of whom are not runners.  We switched to walking :)

38:42 (7:58 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 33
Total Weekly Miles:  33.45 miles

Sleep Data

Yeesh.  My sleep was not anything to write home about last week.  Sense missed data recording on 4 of the nights - 3 because of sensor issues, 1 because I didn't sleep at home.

Average sleep score: 78 (out of 100)
Average sleep duration: 7.3 hours (7.3 hours weekday, 7.5 hours weekend)

Sleep quality: 7% light, 44% medium, 50% deep

Milwaukee Marathon Half Marathon Training: Week 1 Recap

I'm back on a training plan.  Half-marathon training started last week and it was a tough week.  I was not/am not mentally prepared to start a grueling training plan yet.  I may have mentioned this before, but when I signed up for the 10/15/17 half marathon, it seemed so far away.  It still does.  After the marathon, I was so excited to kick ass at the half marathon.  The Hanson's book mentions that working on your half marathon is a good way to lower your marathon time.  My experience thus far has shown that to be true - I PRed in the half marathon last fall...then PRed in the marathon in spring.
I wanted to try doing the Hanson's Advanced half-marathon training program, which is 18 weeks in length and thus, needed to start last week.  It is a strange thing doing a training program for the second time.  I made the mistake of looking at all the workouts and freaked out.  The speed workouts are the exact same as the marathon speed workouts.  Now, I LOVED the speed workouts, but felt like, "Oh man! Don't I get a break on these - I'm only training for half the distance!".  Then I looked at the long runs and there are several long runs that are over 13 miles.  WTF.  Finally, while the Hanson's beginner marathon plan featured 6 weeks of EASY running (therefore, only 12 of the 19 weeks were "hard"), this advanced half-marathon plan only gives you one week of easy running, and I have now done it.  Time to shift into high gear.  This is what it means to be "advanced" I guess.  All in all - these thoughts are not helping me, I know.

Last week was the lone "easy" week in the plan and it felt hard.  There were several things that I didn't do.  While I had gotten better at running slower paces on easy runs during marathon training, I seemed to have forgotten that.  Many of my runs last week were me pushing myself to beat the clock and telling myself that I wasn't in shape if I couldn't hit that for an easy run.  NOT HELPFUL.  I pulled my head out of my ass for yesterday's run and it was enjoyable.  It is hell running in heat and humidity.  This I know.  However, this knowledge wasn't enough to pull me out of bed most mornings.  I am having a really hard time getting to bed before 10 pm lately!  During marathon training, I was a machine.  Clock strikes 9 PM, I'm in bed.

Just typing this I realized how much I am comparing this half marathon training to my recent marathon training experience.  Comparison is the thief of joy, or something like that, right?  I have to stop.

While I work on that, here is my recap of last week:

Monday, June 12
Off

I slept through my alarm.  There was no time to make up for the missed miles later in the day because my daughter had her cast removed, my son had an ENT appointment and I had a meeting a church in addition to work.  Bleck.

Tuesday, Jun 13
Some late afternoon miles:

4 miles, 32:13 (8:00 avg pace)

Wednesday, June 14
First official day on the plan.  I again moved the plan back a day so that I could do long runs on Saturdays instead of Sundays.

Plan says: 4 miles easy

What I do: 4.65 miles, 36:44 (7:54 avg pace)

Thursday, June 15
Plan says: 4 miles easy

4 miles, 29:59 (7:29 avg pace)

Friday, June 16
Plan says: 4 miles easy

What I do: 4.1 miles 32:26 (7:54 avg pace)

Saturday, June 17
Plan says: 6 miles easy

What I do: HOLY HOTNESS.  I avoided running early morning and instead went out mid-afternoon.  It was a shit storm.  I was relentless in trying to keep this at a 7:30 pace, regardless of the heat, humidity and how I was feeling.  That was dumb.  Then I had a sunscreen fail which turned into a contacts issue which lead to a detour to a Dairy Queen bathroom to fix my eye.

6.0 miles, 44:57 (7:29 avg pace)

Sunday, June 18
Plan says: 4 miles easy

What I do: It was Father's Day so I was up early not to run but to make my husband's favorite breakfast.  I ended up running after the kids were in bed and it was much cooler outside so it was fine.

4 miles, 32:30 (8.07 avg pace)

Plan Miles: 22
Total Weekly Miles:  26 miles

Sleep Data
Sense told me today that during the last 10 nights, I moved 43% less than the average person using Sense.  About 6% of my sleep consists of agitated sleep.  This is interesting because last week I had more agitated sleep than I typically do - I spent a few nights tossing and turning between the hours of 1 and 3 pm.  Thus, the percentage of my "deep" sleep is lower than what it typically is, but apparently I am still getting better sleep than the average Sense user.  One could argue that people with sleep issues are more likely to invest in a system like Sense.

My take on this is that I personally feel like I need a lot of quality sleep to feel good, no matter what other people need.  In other words, it is not useful to me to compare myself to others (hmmm....I can reach this insight here but not always with running...hmmmm....) Yes, I get a lot of deep sleep and yes, I am hovering around the 7.5 hour range.  But I still feel tired.  I think the "magic" of a system like this is that it tracks things for you and allows you to see patterns. (Laura Vanderkam would be so proud of me right now.) I do not feel "tired" on days when I am closer to 8 hours of sleep, the majority of that being deep.  Lucky for me, if I go to bed early, I can usually make this happen.

Average sleep score: 79 (out of 100)
Average sleep duration: 7.5 hours (7.4 hours weekday, 7.7 hours weekend)

Sleep quality: 4% light, 52% medium, 44% deep