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 5 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!  

Last week, my family and I were on our annual trip to Orlando to visit family.  In recent years, I always have been marathon training during this trip and this year was no exception.  Lucky for me, I am doing a summer marathon which means my training week was one of my "easy" weeks on the Hanson plan.  No speed work, no tempo runs, just racking up miles.

Unfortunately, the minute I got off the plane in FL, I knew I was getting sick.  I ended up having a cold.  Every cold I get is usually of the sinus variety but this one was different.  My sinuses and nose felt fine but my chest and throat were awful.  At one point during one of the many fits of coughing I had, my husband half-jokingly asked if I had croup.

Coughing spells meant no sleep.  Given that my worst two days were days we were at Disney World parks, it was all I could do to get through those days.  I wasn't exactly going to get a run in in addition.

Which means, that I had more off days than I wanted. Ah well.  I still have 13 training weeks ahead of me.

Sunday, March 11

Plan Says:  Off.

What I did:  We had an 8:40 AM flight but I wanted to get a run in before I left so that I would have one less day to worry about getting miles in.  It was SO SO COLD and SO SO DARK and I didn't sleep well due to daylight savings time but I got it in.

4.0 miles, 32:47 (8:11 avg pace)

Monday, March 12

Plan Says: 5 miles easy

What I did: 5.21 miles, 39:16 (7:32 avg pace).  My only run on Disney property this trip.

Tuesday, March 13

Plan Says: Off

What I did: Off.  We went to Hollywood Studios this day and I felt like death.  Thankfully my in-laws kept me doped up on cold medicine.  According to my iPhone, we walked 5.6 miles through this park.

Wednesday, March 14

Plan Says: easy 4 miles

What I did:  We were at my in-laws condo this day, so no parks, and I went for an early morning run. 6.2 miles, 49:55 (8:03 avg pace)  

Thursday, March 15

Plan Says: easy 5 miles

What I did:  OFF.  We had early morning alarms set for Magic Kingdom and I had brought zero reflective items.  Still wasn't feeling great!  We walked 7.5 miles through the park according to my iPhone.

Friday, March 16

Plan Says: easy 4 miles

What I did:  Off.  This was the low point of my cold.  We went to Epcot this day and I was dying.  I had gotten no sleep the night before due to coughing and I had a headache.  Another 6.6 miles of walking through the parks though!

Saturday, March 17

Plan says: easy 6 miles

What I did:  9.25 miles, 1:14:06 (8:01 avg pace)

No parks were in the plan for this day and I felt like I was going to try to get in as many miles as I could.  Generally this was a nice run.  I explored new-to-me routes around my in-laws condo and I didn't feel too tired, although my legs were sore.

Weekly Total

Plan says: 24 miles

What I did: 24.67 miles

After several weeks of 30ish miles, I was hoping to be in the high 30s this week but felt my plan of getting in some miles, but also taking extra rest days was unavoidable since I was not sleeping well.  I was bummed to have had such terrible sleep on vacation since the weeks leading up to vacation were not exactly stellar in the sleep department.

The week ahead has my first speed and tempo runs so I will need to start getting some zzzs to keep up!  

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

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!"

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 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

Product Review: OOFOS OOriginal Sandal

Product:  Oofos Women's Ooriginal Sandal

Disclaimer:  I received a pair of Oofos Women's Ooriginal Sandals to review as part of being a BibRave Pro.  Learn more about becoming a BibRavePro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews.

OOF!

It's no secret that this round of Hanson's training has been kicking my butt.  Whether it is the fact that I am trying an "advanced" plan, the heat, the humidity, I am not sure but I have been tired and sore most of the summer.  After my first pair of Oofos shoes (reviewed here), I was happy to get a pair of sandals using the same amazing technology to assist recovery.

Again, I am boring, so I chose the OOriginal sandal in black.  Flip flops are not known for being very supportive but these are not just any old pair of flip flops.  The arch support is my FAVORITE.  The footbed is so cushy!  The sandals use the patented OOfoam technology to absorb 37% more impact, provide more arch support and are biomechanically designed allow your body to move more naturally.  I have found I do have a different posture and gait when I wear these which allows for some additional comfort in my low back.

These are my go-to throw on shoes for when I need to go outside with the kids in the yard, go get the mail, etc.  Easy on/easy off and some bonus recovery time.

This summer they have been a great shoe to throw in my race bag to wear after my run/race.  This saves the miles on my running shoes for actual running and gives my body an extra boost in recovery so that I am ready to go the next day.

We spend a lot of time at a family lake house during the summer and these shoes are great to wear on kayaks and boats since they are made with moisture repellent materials.  They also FLOAT in case your kid accidentally knocks them overboard :)  My mother-in-law has several pairs!

Post-run recovery staples: La Croix, Rx Bar and OOofos

Sizing advice:  Per the website, if you wear a whole size, order that whole size.  Women should size up if they wear a half size and men should size down if they wear a half size.  I have found this to be true.  I typically wear a 9 1/2 women's shoe and my sandals are a size 10 and fit perfectly.

OOFOS is sponsoring #BibChat on Tuesday August 15 at 8pm CST.  Join in and you could win a pair of your very own and #FeeltheOO.  Your feet earned it!

July 2017 Recap

I ran 157.36 miles in July!

This is huge for me as July has traditionally been a very low mileage month.

2014      53.13 miles
2015      87.18 miles
2016      34.55 miles
2017    157.36 miles

July 2017 was a 355.5% increase over the previous year.  (Ok, yes, I was injured July 2016 but still!!)

I missed a handful of workouts in July as well and had two races, neither of which really were stellar performances.  I have to remind myself that my goal (and my plan) are targeted to running a stellar half marathon in October, which might mean that I am not exactly primed to have break outs in the 10K or 5K, particularly when those races come during a cumulative fatigue building portion of the training plan.  As someone who struggles with wanting to be good at all the things, this feels disappointing at times.

Luckily, I had a great workout last night which was a good confidence booster.

What else happened in July?  I retired two more pairs of running shoes!  Neither of these shoes made it to the 400 mile mark.  I started noticing that much of the tread was totally worn down on the soles so thus, retirement.

Magenta Adidas Energy Boost 2 made it 378.07 miles.  The Mizuno Sayonara 3 made it 363.11 miles.  I really liked both of these shoes and am sad to see them go.

Currently, I have three pairs left in my rotation:

Adidas Ultraboost X (current mileage: 96.8 miles)
Saucony ISO 2 Triumph (286.37 miles)
Asics GT 2000 - 5 (171.45 miles)

I am excited to go shoe shopping with the gift card I won from the Race for the Bacon.  It has been a while since I purchased shoes at a running store (my two newest pairs I got for free - one through BibRave Pro and one through winning a contest) so I am excited to potentially try something new.  I like the Ultraboost Xs a lot but the other two pairs that I am currently running in I am only lukewarm on.  What shoes do you run in?

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