Grandma's Marathon Training: Week 7 Recap

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!  

I ended up going to see my primary care provider about my cough last Monday evening.  My cough was not getting any better and was hurting my chest.  I felt wheezy during Monday's workout.  She diagnosed me with acute bronchitis and gave me a cough syrup with codeine to help me sleep at night, prednisone and an albueterol inhaler.  I wish I could say that all of this was a magical cure all but the fact of the matter is, I am still hacking away, although mostly without the tight feeling in my chest.  Argh.

Regardless, I had a consistent, good week of training.  At one point during my tempo run, I actually felt giddy because I could just feel my body getting in shape.  I do really like the process of marathon training, even on days when I would rather not get out of bed (ahem, last Friday morning).

Week 7 is the first week that a "long" run appears on a Saturday vs. an "easy" run.  These are slightly different in the Hanson's method as the chart below shows:

An "easy" run should be between 8:22 and 9:22 and a "long" run is 30-60 seconds faster than that at 7:22 - 8:52.  I generally fall in the "long" run range for my "easy" runs so I am not worried about this.  Doing my easy runs at an "easy" pace is something I am always working on!

I also decided that I am just going to train at my #dreambig goal pace (6:52/mile) for as long as I am feeling good.  My current speed workout pace of 6:12 is in the middle of the range above so that is fine.  I have been doing my tempo at 6:47/6:48.  I recognize that of course this is easy when my tempo run is 5 miles but I also think that I would be disappointed with myself if I don't try to train to this level and see what happens, of course being attuned to injury risk and overtraining signs.

I ended the month of March with 147.74 miles, which is the highest monthly mileage I have had since September 2017!

Sunday, March 25

Plan Says:  Easy 4 miles

What I did:  Easy 4.1 miles. 34:25 (8:21 avg pace)

Monday, March 26

Plan Says: 8 x 600, with 400 meter recovery in between and 1 mile warm up and cool down

What I did: The workout.  I overslept so had to leave work a bit early to get this in before my daughter's bus arrived home.  This was challenging for me because I was really having a lot of coughing attacks and felt like I couldn't breathe clearly.  I also picked a route with a slight hill, which meant that one way, I was running slightly downhill with the wind at my back and on the other way, I was running slightly uphill into the wind.  You can see in my splits below that there was about a 8-12 second difference between these two routes.  Generally, all of the downhill splits were in line and all of the uphill splits were in line with each other.

My goal time for 600m (0.37 miles) is 2:18.

1.0 mile warm up, 8:11.8 (8:10 avg pace)

1.   Downhill, with wind:  2:09.4 (5:44 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:26 avg pace)
2.   Uphill, against wind:  2:17.7 (6:12 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (9:12 avg pace)

3.   Downhill, with wind: 2:12.2 (5:50 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (9:13 avg pace)
4.   Uphill, against wind:  2:18.8 (6:15 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:49 avg pace)

5.   Downhill, with wind: 2:08.2 (5:45 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:44 avg pace)
6.   Uphill, against wind:  2:16.5 (6:06 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (9:17 avg pace)

7.   Downhill, with wind: 2:04.1 (5:35 avg pace) / recovery: 0.25 miles,  (8:49 avg pace)
8.   Uphill, against wind:  2:16.7 (6:09 avg pace)

1.65 mile cool down, 14:11 (8:36 avg pace)

Tuesday, March 27

Plan Says: Off

What I did: Off

Wednesday, March 28

Plan Says: 5 mile tempo, 1 mile warm up and cool down

What I did: TEMPO! I felt really good this morning.  I chalked it up to the drugs and getting a day off.  I felt good during the tempo, not as jittery as last week and my splits were a little more even.

1.15 mile warm up, 9:28.1 (8:14 avg pace)
5 mile tempo, 34:04 (6:48 avg pace)  Mile splits:  6:51, 6:45, 6:50, 6:49, 6:46
1.5 mile cool down, 12:22 (8:15 avg pace)

Thursday, March 29

Plan Says: easy 4 miles

What I did:  easy 4.7 miles.  38:16 (8:09 avg pace)

Friday, March 30

Plan Says: easy 6 miles

What I did:  6.2 miles, 51:11 (8:15 avg pace)
It was difficult to get out of bed.  I had book club the night before which meant I had two glasses of wine which, as always, meant my sleep was not great.  One of these days, I will just give up drinking wine.  Today is not that day.  I was proud of myself for showing up to this run anyways!

Saturday, March 31

Plan says: long 10 miles

What I did:  10 miles, 1:21:10 (8:07 avg pace)
The forecast for Saturday was not looking good.  Rain rain all day starting EARLY.  I usually allow myself to sleep in on the weekends (read: wake up at 6 AM instead of 4:30-5 window) but I REALLY did not want to run in rain so I kept my early alarm and got.this.DONE!  No rain for me!  I felt good for all but the last mile of this - I definitely felt tired for that.

Mile splits:
8:14 / 8:12 / 8:19 / 8:08 / 8:17 / 7:51 / 7:59 / 8:03 / 8:02 / 8:02

Weekly Total

Plan says: 38 miles

What I did: 40.04!

Grandma's Marathon Training Week 1

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!  

First week of marathon training - DONE!

I again am tackling the Hansons Marathon Method Beginner plan.

Going into marathon training, I am a little nervous about how it will go.  The good news is that I have done this exact plan before and that gives me confidence.  However, I am launching a big project at work this week, which has the exact timeline of this training cycle.  I'm a little concerned of being overwhelmed, but one day at a time, right?

The first 5 weeks of the beginner plan are basically ramping up mileage by doing all easy runs and so week 1 is really small mileage, because it technically doesn't start until halfway through the week (thus the amount of "off days" in the beginning).  My plan is to keep up with the 25ish miles/week that I have been doing until the plan catches up with me.  I fell a little short of the 25 mile mark this week.

I have 5 weeks until I have to worry about pacing so keeping my easy runs in the 8 - 8:30 range, which is on the fast end of my easy pace range per the HMM calculator (8:22-9:30).  However, based on my experience last time I used this plan, I didn't really get to that range until after I started track and tempo work (and was tired as all get out).

I'm not sure about my goal pace right now, but here are some current thoughts.  My current PR is 3:11:09 (7:17 pace).  My 2018 goal is to run a sub3 marathon, a DREAM BIG goal for sure, but there it is.  A 2:59:59 marathon is 6:52 pace.  I think it is lofty but within reach to try to run 7:00 pace this spring so I am going to start there to set my training paces and see how it goes.  (This would give me a 3:03:30 marathon). 

Sunday
Plan Says:  Off.

What I did:  Off.

Monday
Plan Says: Off

What I did: Off

Tuesday
Plan Says: Off

What I did:  3.25 miles after work.  25:56 (7:59 avg pace)

Wednesday
Plan Says: easy 3 miles

What I did: 5.25 miles, 44:14 (8:25 avg pace)
Morning run!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday
Plan Says: Off

What I did:  5.4 miles, 45:14 (8:23 avg pace)
Another morning run!!!!!!!!!

Friday
Plan Says: easy 3 miles

What I did:  4.25 miles, 33:26 (7:52 avg pace)
Unfortunately I was in the emergency department with my 3 year old for most of the night and thus did not get ANY sleep.  (He burned his hand on our stove earlier in the evening.) I was able to get in a run after work, before the bus.

Saturday
Plan says: easy 4 miles

What I did:  4 miles, 35:08 (8:47 avg pace)
Typically I have been trying to do a middle distance (7-9 miles) on Saturdays.  Poor planning on my part resulted in getting in half that distance on a treadmill.

Weekly Total
Plan says: 10 miles
What I did: 22.15 miles

Last Week Before Marathon Training Officially Begins!

Disclaimer: I received a WHITE pair of Under Armour HOVR shoes that I mention in my Race Recap below to test as part of the BibRave Pro ambassador program. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Last week was CRAZY in that it snowed every day and we now have tons of the white stuff to deal with.  3 of the 4 non-race runs that I did last week were in unplowed snow with yaktraks.  Snow running is QUITE a workout!

Also, I had my first race of 2018 on Saturday - the Pettit Indoor Marathon Relay!

I continued work on my WorkIn28 challenge - finishing off week 1 and moving onto week 2.  It has been more challenging for me to fit it in during week 2 (because Olympics), but I am still trying to make it work.

So here is last week's mileage recap with my race recap:

Sunday February 4
0 miles
SLEDDING!  This was a workout.  The sledding hill near our home is called "killer hill" for a reason.

Monday, February 5
0 miles
This is just me being lazy.

Tuesday, February 6
4.01 miles, 33:30 (8:22 avg pace)
First of the snowy runs!

Wednesday, February 7
4 miles, 33:29 (8:22 avg pace)
Kind of funny that both Tuesday's run and this run were one second apart.  I hit up the treadmill after my kids were in bed for this one - so, lots of button pushing.

Thursday, February 8
3.11 miles, 25:50 (8:19 avg pace)
Another night run! SO SO Sloppy with the snow/slush factor.

Friday, February 9
5 miles, 41:51 (8:22 avg pace)
My kids had a snow day from school which was ridiculous all things considered.  They ended up going to my MIL's house and I worked from home, which meant I could take advantage and run in the middle of the day.  It was so sunny and pretty out but this run was CHALLENGING because I decided to try to run around the pond on an ungroomed trail.

Saturday, February 10
8.39 miles, 58:00 (6:55 avg pace)
Indoor Marathon Relay time!

This was my third year participating in this with the Oiselle teams.  This year, Oiselle women from MN and IL came to WI to join us so it was extra large and in charge.   I had zero expectations for this race because as you know if you've been reading for the last four months, I have done nothing but generally easy runs.  I decided that I was going to enjoy myself, and run by feel.  I did not wear a watch even.  (Partially this is because my Garmin doesn't work well indoors and last year when I wore a regular Timex, I forgot to start/stop it half the time.)

The strategy for this is always the same - each of 4 relay runners runs a total of 12 "800s".  This is in quotation marks because each segment is actually two laps around the track, which is 886 meters total.  In the previous times I have participated in this event, I have always been runner #1.  This year, I was runner #3.

It is challenging to do because you aren't running long enough to take advantage of any warm up - you run your two laps and then stand on the sidelines and watch your teammates run a total of 6 laps and then you are up again.  There is NO space to continue jogging and you have to pay attention so that you can move the lap counter from ankle to ankle.  It is CRAZY.  And fun.

The other difficult thing is that the relay is in the afternoon and they have an indoor half marathon race in the morning.  There is maybe 20 minutes of clear track in between those two events so you don't get a ton of time to warm up either.

While I opted out of wearing a watch, I did wear my Under Armour HOVR Sonic shoes (see disclaimer above) to try to capture mileage and splits that I could analyze afterwards.  I ran as many warm up laps with my teammates that I could until they literally kicked us off the track.  My shoes tell me that this was 2.15 miles at 8:20 pace.

Then it was go time.  I felt good running my first few laps and I had no idea how fast I was running.  It felt like I was running fast, and I estimated that I was in the 6:30/mile pace range.  One of my teammates thought I was running faster than that so she had her husband, our official lap counter, time my 5th (or was it 6th?!) segment and he had me at 5:50 pace.  What the what?!  Admittedly, I ended up neck and neck with another woman during that segment and she was definitely making me work for my laps, but I was still pleasantly surprised.

Obligatory race photos where I look like a dinosaur:

Hello pain face!

Our team finished 5th women's and we nailed the sub 3 total time: 2:54:27.26 (6:40 avg).
My shoes show me at the following avg paces for my 12 segments:
5:45, 5:52, 5:54, 7:42, 5:57, 5:59, 9:24, 5:53, 6:15, 6:10, 6:07, 6:06

Obviously there are two outliers there - looking at the data charts for the 7:42 lap, it looks like my pace tanked at 2:00 in for some reason and it was a little longer than the others.  This makes me think that I kept moving immediately after my ankle tracker was removed for a bit, which brought my pace down.

For the 9:24 split, again it was a little longer than the others, making me think it counted some of my post-segment walking into the split.

What other fun stuff can I tell you from the data from my shoes....

Max Pace, Avg Cadence, Avg Stride Length for each segment:
1 - 5:30, 196, 114.8
2 - 5:40, 194, 113.2
3 - 5:41, 194, 110.0
4 - 5:41, 186, 106.0
5 - 5:41, 194, 111.9
6 - 5:47, 194, 108.8
7 - 5:53, 184, 103.3
8 - 5:41, 194, 109.5
9 - 6:01, 190, 108.9
10 - 5:53, 190, 107.2
11 - 5:55, 190, 108.3
12 - 5:48, 190, 110.7

Pretty cool data, right!? I will be posting my official review of these shoes later this week but I couldn't resist sharing this early.

I also am pleasantly surprised that I still have some speed!  I mean, after just running 25ish miles/week for 4 months at a comfortable pace.  This makes me excited to build up some actual endurance/speed fitness in the coming weeks.  All in all, this event was a great way to end my base mileage phase.

W1D1 Marathon Training was yesterday (Sunday, Feb 11).

Weekly Total: 24.5 miles

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 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

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 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

Race for Bacon 5K 2017

I again raced for bacon last night in Sheridan Park!

I wanted this race to go better than it did, but given all of the events of the week, I am ok with my time.  (She says in an effort to convince herself.)

I have been struggling with some GI stuff this week, which likely started on vacation in Chicago.  Getting out of my routine usually leads to disruption in my GI system.  I started drinking this Smooth Move tea on Monday to try to remedy this.  Then I had a crazy lunch with lots of quinoa (which previously has never lead to good things with my body) on Tuesday which led to a failed tempo run and some vomit.  Thus, I took Wednesday off.  I was not looking forward to the race in the beginning of the week.

Then, we watched Moana, a movie that I love, and I had a great night of sleep.  I woke up Thursday with a better attitude.

However, I made the mistake of continuing using the Smooth Move tea throughout the day AND had Indian food for lunch because I attended a talk for work.  The pairing of these two things led to a lot of bathroom time for me.  (Sorry - I am trying to be real about this situation without being too gross.  Fine line, I get it.)

The race began at 6:30 pm and is on the south side of the city.  I live northwest of the city so I wasn't going to have enough time to go home between work and the race with traffic.  Thus, I changed into my race gear at my office and went straight to the park.  I arrived really early, went to the bathroom, picked up my packet, and then went back to my car and read my book for a bit.  I did a warm up run and felt a little weird at the beginning of the warm up -- wobbly legs --- but I was really nervous for the race so I chalked it up to that.  Then had to hit the bathroom, again.

We started to line up for the race, but it was strange because no one seemed to want to line up on the starting line.  I usually am hesitant to be on the line, but because no one else was, I stepped up.  There were protesters that cleverly got a hold of the race microphone for a bit before anyone figured out what was going on, and then we were off.

A younger guy took off after the bikes.  And then, it was me.  There was a guy next to me but that appeared to be it.  I was thinking that the situation was strange and thought, "Am I running too fast?" but I didn't feel like I was running fast so I just kept going.  I have not been able to pace very well lately (which is something I typically am decent at) so I should have checked my watch but I didn't.  I just kept running.  At about 0.75 miles, another woman came up by me.  We turned a corner and BAM!  Full-on headwind, which sucked.   My mile beeped at 6:00.  AW shit.  That was way too fast.  I could feel myself getting tired.  The woman took off and I did not go with her.  I just tried maintaining but the wind wore me out.  We finally turned a corner and then were on a bike path with the wind behind us.  I was done for.

So. Tired.  I sort of mentally gave up at this point.  My legs hurt, I was winded.  My second mile was 6:11.  Just keep running.  Just keep running.  Do not stop.

I could hear no one behind me but I didn't turn around.  The woman ahead of me had left me in her dust.  Seriously she was CRUISING.

I turned another corner and just could not believe how far away the finish line seemed.  I also saw that there was a guy catching up to me.  Randomly a family friend who lives on the south side was running with a group (not part of the race) and cheered for me, saving me a bit.  I mustered all I had to get to the finish.  I maintained the third place overall, second place female finish with a time of 19:33.

I had to wait at the finish a bit, bent over.  A guy came up to me and asked if I was ok and I was...eventually.  I talked with the first place female, who I believe ran a 18:22.  So fast and so nice!

I headed over to do a cool down.  My family wasn't there, and I didn't know anyone at the race, so that made it easy to get a cool down in.  I really struggled to move my legs during the cool down, but got 1.7 miles in.

After my cool down, I changed my shoes and went to grab my post-race food.  Given that this race is around dinner time, they post-race food is substantial for this.  Each participant gets a beverage of choice and then essentially a boxed lunch type meal.  I sat on the lawn to watch the band and eat my meal.

At that point, I remembered how cold it gets by the lake at night.  I remembered freezing at this race last year.  A little too late since I hadn't remembered to pack a long sleeve shirt or jacket.  Luckily the awards started soon.

It turns out that my finish time beat the previous course record, which meant that the first place woman has the new course record!  That was pretty exciting. (We high fived.)  It was fun to be a part of a strong women's finish, being the top two and three overall.  They also improved the awards this year.  The top three men and top three women all got the cooler full of bacon (and other pork products) AND a gift certificate to Performance Running Outfitters!  I was pumped as last year I finished second woman and did not get the gift card (only the first place in each gender did).

I again could not resist texting my husband, "I'm bringing home the bacon". :)

Ok.

So I did have a bit of downward spiraling after this race.  I really thought I would be faster.   I ran a 19:49 last year at this race, only two weeks after ditching a boot for a stress reaction.  I have been so consistent with training, particularly over these summer months, I was expecting a big payoff in this race.  I feel better about it today and am also happy that I have a break from racing for a while.  My next planned race, an 8K, is not until mid-September.

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 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

Cellcom Green Bay Marathon Training: Week 17 Recap

A reminder that I switched up to go exactly by the plan for the remaining two weeks.  Thus, my off day is now Wednesday, my speed day went from Monday to Tuesday and my tempo run went from Wednesday to Thursday.

I don't know if is just that fact that May has been sort of packed with stuff going on, if I'm getting sick of training, or some other factor, but I had a lot of moving things around this week!

This week I crossed over the 700 mile mark for my yearly mileage count.  AHHH!  That seems insane to me.

Monday May 8
Plan Says: 7 miles

What I Do:  Sleep in.  Skip running.  I mentioned that the left side of my torso was sore after my brother's wedding.  This impacted my sleep Sunday night and I really felt like crap so I opted to take my rest day today.  Nothing sets you up for a good week like taking your rest day on Day 1, right?!

Tuesday May 9
Plan Says: 1 mi warm up, 6 x 1 mile (7:05 pace) with 400 recovery, 1 mile cool down

What I Do:  4:30 Alarm!  It was really difficult getting up this early since I hadn't gotten up early to run since last Wednesday morning.  Almost a whole week off of early wake up calls!

1 mi warm up:  8:18

1 mi 6:37 / 0.25 mi recovery 2:18 (9:01 pace)
1 mi 6:33 / 0.25 mi recovery 2:17 (9:09 pace)
1 mi 6:35 / 0.25 mi recovery 2:11 (8:48 pace)
1 mi 6:29 / 0.25 mi recovery 2:07 (8:31 pace)
1 mi 6:32 / 0.25 mi recovery 2:09 (8:38 pace)
1 mi 6:25

2 mi cool down: 16:10 (8:05 avg pace)

I felt fabulous during this.  My mile splits were way too fast but I told myself not to pay attention to my watch and run by feel.

This was the last strength workout of the program!  EEK!!!!

The last time I did this workout, on March 27, my mile splits were 6:51 / 6:50 / 6:49 / 6:49 / 6:49 / 6:36.  It is fun to see improvement in just a few weeks!

Wednesday May 10
Plan Says: Off

What I Do:  I again slept through my alarm.  My ribs have not be hurting in the morning, but are fairly sore by the end of the day.  Each day seems to be a little better.  My goal was to get up early and do the miles I missed on Monday.  Instead I got miles done after work.

I did a longer than usual cool down on Tuesday to take some of the miles away from this run so that I wouldn't feel so tired on Thursday.  Throughout this plan I have had a rest day between my speed/strength day and my tempo day so throwing 7 miles in between the two wasn't going to be the greatest idea, particularly on the last "hard" week of work.

6 miles, 46:02 (7:40 avg pace)

Thursday May 11
Plan Says: 1 mile warm up, 10 miles tempo (pace: 7:15), 1 mile cool down

What I Do:  The last tempo run of the plan!  I was up at 4:30 to get out and get this done.  I felt tired but knew that was making me mentally stronger.  True to form, it also took me a few miles to feel like I was in a groove pace wise.  I wanted to be pushing myself but not too hard and not be so obsessed with pace so I intentionally did not turn my watch to display pace.  Thus, I knew what each mile came in at and that was it.  I felt strong at the end.  Once I finished the tempo portion, averaging 7:10 pace, I stopped and started crying.  I was really really proud of myself for completing this plan.  I still had 9 days of taper left but the hard work was over.  DONE.

1 mile warm up, 8:18
10 miles tempo, 1:11:42 (7:10 average)
1 mile cool down,  7:59

Let the taper begin!

Friday May 12
Plan Says: 6 miles easy

What I Do:  I came home from work Thursday to see a big box on my doorstep.  I ripped it open and it was the new Adidas UltraBoost X running shoes that I was selected to test through BibRave.  OOMG.  While this is my 4th pair of shoes in the Adidas Boost family, they are significantly different from all of my other running shoes so I was nervous to take them for the full 6 miles of this run.

I ended up running 2.4 miles in the Adidas UltraBoost X and switching to my Asics GT shoes, which right now are the leading contender for the shoes I will wear during marathon.  Except that they felt SO CLUNKY after running in the UItraBoosts.   It is highly likely that deciding which shoes I will wear for the marathon will be something I continue to agonize over.

I do not run with my phone and often when I see something just so awesome, I wish I did.  Today was one of those runs.  With a beautiful sunrise in the backdrop, I was chugging along the path by the river and out of the corner of my eye something startled me.  It was a blue heron in flight.  Blue herons frequent the river, but I only ever see them standing near the water's edge.  To see the wingspan was magical.

6.07 miles, 51:58 (8:34 avg pace)

Saturday May 13
Plan Says: 6 miles easy

What I Do:  I did more shuffling and did 8 miles easy this day.  We didn't have a lot going on for Mother's Day (Sunday) but I knew the kids wanted to make me breakfast in bed so I wasn't going to get a early morning run in then.  My daughter also fractured her arm about mid-day Saturday so that was a bit of unexpected craziness!  We got back from the urgent care center and she just wanted to chill and my son was napping so I took full advantage.

It was a hot day - almost 80 degrees.  I was glad to be able to get another hot run in...race day is trending toward the warm side this year, but we are still a week out.  I ran the entirety of this in my Asics shoes and they felt fine so I'm fairly certain those are going to be my race shoes.

8 miles, 1:01:42 (7:43 avg pace)

Sunday May 14
Plan Says: 8 miles easy

What I Do:  I didn't get out to run until after the kids were in bed.  It has been a while since I did an evening run!  I wasn't really into this run which means it was good mental practice for me. 

6.06 miles, 49:01 (8:05)

Weekly Mileage
Plan says: 48 miles
What I did: 48.4 miles

Sleep Data
I again lost 3 days of data because of not getting enough motion data.  I never move the button on my pillow so I'm not sure why some nights it works and some it doesn't.  I did not have this issue for the first 6 weeks of use of this device and now it is becoming a pattern.

Average amount of sleep:  8.0 hours
Average sleep score: 83

45% deep sleep, 47% medium, 8% light.

My deep sleep took a hit.  I can only guess this is due to my son waking more than usual at night.

Podcasts
I listened Real Talk Radio Nicole Antoinette interview Lauren Fleshmen and herself (recalling her hike of a section of the PCT) and an old Running On Om interview with Kate Grace.

One week until race day.

ONE.
WEEK.