Disclaimer: I am running the Madison Marathon in November 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! Wanna run Madison with me? Enter code MMRAVE18 at registration for 10% off!
Welcome back to marathon training! Seems like I just was doing this...oh, that's right. I was.
I am again using a Hanson's Marathon Method plan; but rather than return to the beginner plan, which brought me much success for my previous two marathons, I am bumping up to the advanced plan. The format of the plan is very similar; however, I start speed work in week 2 in the advanced compared to week 7 of the beginner; tempos start in week 3 compared to week 7; and the overall mileage volume is more. I will get into 60+ miles per week with this plan, whereas I topped out at 56 miles last cycle. I am going to use 6:50 as my marathon goal pace to start because my goal for this marathon is really focused on increasing volume without injury rather than increasing my time. Madison Marathon is quite a hilly course, so if I can increase volume and get to the start line healthy, I will be happy. I also think that if I can sub-3 on a hilly course, that will be good. Grandma's Marathon isn't entirely flat, but I don't recall any elevation being difficult.
Week 1 of marathon training was fairly uneventful. I don't know why but the first week of the Hanson's marathon method marathon plans is always a half week. I mentally do better thinking about full weeks so I kind of made up the first part of the week based on what I had been doing with recovery runs. I already feel pretty badass for having a 34+ mile week on week 1 when my week 1 mileage for Grandma's was 22.15.
I also met up with someone mid-week for some (way-too-fast) miles. I am part of a running group on Facebook for the city where I live and the meetups are always in the evening, which doesn't work well for my schedule. There happened to be a thread about running in the morning so I met up with J for some early morning miles on Thursday. She is training for Chicago so is weeks ahead of me so I defaulted to her mileage. It was fun to run with someone, and even if I was supposed to run at an easy pace, it was also fun to run fast again.
Finally, I really fell off my of JasYoga July last week. I only did yoga twice. Yikes.
Sunday July 15
Plan says: 45 minutes easy running
What I did: 5.5 miles, 45:41 (8:19 avg pace)
Monday July 16
Plan says: 45 minutes easy running
What I did: 3.52 miles, 30:02 (8:33 avg pace) plus JasYoga post long-run quick reset. I was pretty sore from waterskiing the day before so I cut this short. I rationalized it by saying the plan *really* doesn't start until Wednesday.
Tuesday July 17
Plan says: Off
What I did: Nothing
Wednesday July 18
Plan says: easy paced 6 miles
What I did: 6.1 miles, 48:21 (7:55 average pace), JasYoga Stephanie Howe Violett Hip Reset
Thursday July 19
Plan says: easy paced 6 miles
What I did: 5.0 miles, 35:58 (7:11 avg pace). This was neither 6 miles, nor easy paced. I blame having a running partner for the first time in a LONG time. One of the reasons I picked Thursdays as a meet up is that it will always be a recovery day for me. However, I might have to have a "I need to run slower" conversation with J if we continue to make this a weekly thing.
Friday July 20
Plan says: easy paced 6 miles
What I did: 6 miles, 45:10 (7:31 avg pace). Also too fast. I was listening to music, something I rarely do on a run, and it was making me run too fast. MUST.STICK.WITH.PODCASTS
Saturday July 21
Plan says: easy paced 8 miles
What I did: 8.4 miles, 1:08:08 (8:07 avg pace). This was a really nice run. I listened to some podcasts, I saw a lot of wildlife activity, and had a great time. Wonderful way to start my Saturday!
Plan Total: 28 miles
What I did: 34.54 miles
Showing posts with label marathon training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marathon training. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2018
Monday, June 18, 2018
Grandma's Marathon Race Recap
Disclaimer: I ran Grandma's Marathon 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!
How do I even start to write about Grandma's Marathon?!
Let me first tell you how it ends. I ran a 2:59:50.
Sub 3.
Dream goal of 2018...achieved.
Ok. Now that that is out of the way, I'll tell you the long story. Well, what I remember of it anyways because quite honestly, I don't remember a lot about the last 3-4 miles of the race.
Thursday Afternoon
We left for Duluth Thursday after work so that we could break up the driving a bit. My husband and two kids were coming with me and if anyone has taken car trips with young kids, you know they can be brutal. Duluth is about six hours away from our house. We stopped for dinner at Buffalo Phil's train restaurant in Wisconsin Dells and I had a philly cheesesteak that did not agree with my stomach. We stopped for the night in Chippewa Falls, WI which was our goal. We promised the kids a swim when we got there and we were in bed by 10 PM, which is way later than my usual bedtime and I was little freaking out about that.
Friday
We were awake by 7 AM on Friday and slept well. We headed down for breakfast where I stuffed more carbs in my face and then went to do my 3 mile shakeout run while my husband took the kids swimming. We were truly in the middle of nowhere so I ran around the parking lot and on two small roads along cornfields in loops until I got 3 miles in. My legs felt good and springy.
I got back to the hotel and we showered, packed up and resumed driving. We arrived in Duluth around noon on Friday and went to our hotel. The hotel staff were all wearing green Grandma's Marathon t-shirts which made me very excited. They clearly had worked the marathon before and had organized everything around the marathon. Extra snacks, earlier breakfast, shuttles to the the start, allowing you to say when housekeeping could clean your room...these were all some of the benefits. Our room was not ready yet but they said they would call so we made the decision to go to the Expo.
The Expo was crowded, but my kids got plenty of free samples and I got my packet. I really wanted to be at the talk with Carrie Tollefson and Kara Goucher but I also did not want to deal with taking my family back to the expo with me later in the day. My husband said we had to eat at Grandma's restaurant so we went there for lunch. I had a chicken pot pie that was yummy.
After lunch we opted to go to the Duluth Children's Museum which was great because it was pouring rain (it rained most of Friday), the kids could run around and I didn't have to be on my feet.
We went to the Oiselle-organized dinner at 5 PM at Va Benne Cafe. Oiselle did a great job having a bunch of activities for runners during marathon weekend. I probably would have gone to many more of the activities if I hadn't had my family with me so I was glad we were able to go to the dinner. They had yummy pasta. I spent most of dinner trying to keep my kids entertained but chatted a bit with some other Volee. We ditched out early though because the kids were super antsy by the time dinner came. There was a cute ice cream shoppe near the restaurant that we went to afterwards and then we did a walk along the lake, even climbing down to test the waters of Lake Superior.
Everyone was good and tired by then so we headed back to our hotel. I organized my stuff for the next morning (race morning). The weather forecast all week was showing thunderstorms during the race and it was unchanged as of Friday night. I had brought a throw-away pair of shoes and socks as well as a jacket, tights and long-sleeve from my throwaway clothes pile at home. I had grabbed a poncho from the stash at the hotel and my plan was to wear all of that and keep my race clothes dry and change into my race shoes and socks at the last minute. I got my watch ready and it was blinking showing me there was an updated. I shrugged and clicked accept and the watch began updating.
I prepped my food as well. I brought my picky oats for race morning but didn't bring milk for them so I made them into overnight oats using chocolate milk that we were given at the race expo. I prepped my Gen UCan and some nuun in my handheld for on the course. I also had another throwaway water bottle with Beachbody energize - which was what i was using in the mornings before many of my workouts. I had gotten some Gatorade Endurance the week of the race in the mail that I was using a lot because I liked it but I was a little nervous to use it during the race since I hadn't had the opportunity to test it during a long run. (I'll be reviewing Gatorade Endurance soon on the blog!). I did drink a lot of Gatorade Endurance all day on Friday.
I was in bed by 8:30 PM on Friday night. My legs did not feel good. I was a little panicked that we had done too much on Friday (even though I felt like I was good about not using my legs much). My calves in particular felt really crampy and tight. I rolled them out before bed and prayed for the best.
Saturday - Race Day
I slept beautifully - until about 4:45 when I could hear others in the hotel moving around. I was fine with this because my alarm was set for 5 AM. I checked the weather and it was like a gift from God. All of the rain had disappeared from the forecast. WHAT?! Like when does that ever happen?!
I got dressed. I was wearing my Oiselle distance shorts (these are always my race day shorts) and crop. I had to wear my BibRave singlet as a condition for getting my marathon fee covered by them. Honestly, I was a little sad that I couldn't just wear my Oiselle crop but the singlet is a Rabbit tank, of which I have several and like so I knew it wasn't going to be an issue. I brought along both my Balega blister resist and Balega silver socks for the race in my gear check bag. I slapped on a temporary Oiselle tattoo on my bicep and started to braid my hair. It took me three tries to braid my hair because my arms were shaking so much.
I realized that my spray deodorant sample was actually NOT a deodorant - just an antiperspirant so I grabbed my husband's deodorant to wear for the race. I then ate my picky oats. I was not hungry so eating the oatmeal was a challenge but I ate it all. I grabbed my three hydration bottles and my pre-packed gear bag....and then my son woke up.
NOOOOOOOOO.
I laid with him a bit and then went to the bathroom. In that time, he had crawled in bed with my husband. I prayed that he would fall back asleep so that my husband wouldn't have to get up so early, gave everyone kisses and then left my hotel room.
The lobby was jumping with all the runners and then the shuttles came. I boarded the first one and we were off to the start!
It seemed to take forever to get to the start. Of course, all the while, you are thinking, "Oh wow. I have to run all of this back." We approached the starting area and then....kept going! All of us on the bus were looking at each other like, "What is going on?" Finally the bus driver stopped and said, "I think I missed the drop off so I'm just going to let you off here." Um...yes. Just what a bunch of marathoners want to do - walk extra before the race! The extra walk did let us see two deer though, which I took as a good omen since I was constantly running into deer during my training runs!
We got to the start and I got into the porta potty line when I see Jana from MN. I met Jana at the Icebreaker relays. She came over to say hi, and told me to run fast. After I used the bathroom, I saw some Oiselle singlets by the med tent and it turned out to be Kelly and Carrie from WI, whom I follow in Instagram. So I went over there and gave them big hugs. Carrie also used Hanson's and all of us were going for PRs. (Spoiler - all of us got PRs!). Carrie also told me to go for the sub-3. I changed into my race shoes and got my gear bag situated. It was 7:30 and I was getting nervous so I just headed for the corrals.
Once I got in the corral, I saw Amy from BibRave which was exciting as we had been following each other's training on Instagram as well. We took a pic and she also told me to go for the sub-3.
I ended up lining up at the 3:05 pace sign. I was surrounded by smelly guys. I mean, I just do not understand why guys have to be smelly BEFORE THEY EVEN RUN. I ditched my sweatshirt with a few minutes left. The air was cool. It was a great day to run a marathon. I got my watch ready to go, made sure my shoes were ready, and did my Kristina Power Pose.
The horn went off.
Here we go!!!
The Race
Miles 1-3
I started running in the big 3:05 pace herd, and immediately got boxed in by the smelly guys. I was not running my pace - it felt slow - so I looked down at my watch. Why the hell is the pace in the 4s?! I kept going with the guys and then my watch beeped. "Why is my watch beeping??"
OMG. It is showing me kilometers. It must have reset to defaults in the updates. NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!
After a brief panic, I decided to just stay with the 3:05 pace group for the first few miles.
At the mile mark, the pacer yelled out the split. 7:02. I didn't feel great...I definitely was still all nerves so I decided to stay with the group even though I felt like I was adjusting my stride to run where I was running. It was very crowded.
At the second mile mark, the pacer yelled out the split: 6:56. At this point, I decided that I could not run any more with this group. The stride adjustment was driving me bonkers so I went around them to the far outside. I saw a group of two women and one guy shortly up ahead. I caught up to them and could run comfortably.
[From here out, I am going to give you mile splits but I didn't know these during the race. These are my splits from my watch which I was able to see after I uploaded the run into Strava.]
The women were chatting up a storm. I liked them because they were discussing their pace splits at every mile so during the race, I could kind of realize where I was. I was doing math in my head by 7:00 miles - so I knew roughly where I was at every mile based on the overall time elapsed. As we were approaching mile 3, I knew that I wanted to be under 21 minutes. Mile 3 was another 6:56.
Miles 4-6
The next miles were easy. Just rolling along. The course and weather were beautiful. I took a cup of water at every aid station I came upon and just stayed with my pack of 3.
Mile 4: 6:55
Mile 5: 6:50
Mile 6: 6:51
Miles 7-9
At some point, we went under the train overpass. I don't know what mile this was at but the image is burned in my brain because it was like something in a movie. SO PRETTY. I was waving wildly at the spectators yelling at us from the train.
I still felt very calm and comfortable at the pace we were going. This was all going great with my plan to flow through the first half. I was still running with the 2 women and the guy. We had other people kind of come in and out of the group but I don't remember anyone else but the main 3 because I just stayed right behind them. At one point, I think it was around mile 8, I yelled out, "Oh my god you can smell pine trees." It was the freshest, cleanest scent ever. Nobody said anything. They just looked at me like I was insane, likely because up until that point, I did zero talking.
All along these miles, the road was tree lined and so very green. It was very foggy...there were sporadic views of the lake that were starting to occur and you could feel them before you could see them. The air temperature would drop and a very cold breeze from the lake would blow.
Mile 7: 6:56
Mile 8: 6:50
Mile 9: 6:52
Miles 10-12
I started to realize that I wanted to be around 4:16/km on my pace watch. I continued doing math using 7:00/mile as a guide and comparing my watch elapsed time to that benchmark. The overall time was under the benchmark so I knew I was running sub-7 miles, but I didn't know how far under I was. We had caught up to Erin, wearing a black Oiselle crop. She said, "This looks like a strong group" when we came upon her and she joined us for a while. I could not believe how easily she was talking.
Mile 10: 6:42
Mile 11: 6:52
Mile 12: 6:45
Mile 13
I remember getting to the halfway point and thinking, "That wasn't too bad." At this point, I was running with Oiselle Erin and one of the original women I was with in the pack. The two of them were chatting it up and I was just behind them, mute. I learned that the other woman was 26 and ran for South Dakota State. Erin was 43 and ran for Ohio State. She was talking so much....it was fun to listen to but I was still mute.
Mile 13: 6:35.
[My half marathon time was 1:30:14. When I got to the half point, I saw the clock by the mile marker at 1:30 and thought, "Looks like I am not breaking three today...but I am good with where I am at...try to stay ahead of the 3:05 pace group."]
Miles 14-16
Erin and I ended up by ourselves for a bit and she was still talking. She asked me what my PR was and I responded, "3:11" and she said, "Woah! You are definitely ahead of that right now, but as we know, anything can happen in a marathon." I was responding to her talking in one word phrases but not really talking, because I was starting to feel like I was working. She was running so effortlessly - it seriously helped to have her and I am grateful for the miles that I ran with her. At some point, she picked up the pace and I didn't trust myself to stay with her.
Mile 14: 6:33
Mile 15: 6:45
Mile 16: 6:40
Miles 17-20
At this point, I was on my own. South Dakota woman was with me for part of it but I saw her duck into a porta potty and then didn't see her again. I started thinking that I was going to pass Glensheen Mansion soon....but that came later than I was expecting. When I did pass it, I managed to mumble, "Stay Sexy, Don't Get Murdered" like I wanted to but I was hurting. Somewhere in this block I also threw my handheld water bottle away because it felt so heavy. I drank about half of it along the first half along with the waters I was grabbing. I think I ended up throwing a gel away as well. I was taking gels every 5 miles, beginning at mile 5. At mile 20, the thought of taking a gel made me nauseous so I skipped that one.
Mile 17: 6:43
Mile 18: 6:48
Mile 19: 6:43
Mile 20: 6:54
Miles 21-24
I don't remember a lot of this section. I remember passing the trolls lined up and thinking of my WI teammate Ali who told me about them and smiling. I remember passing the Oiselle cowbell corner who cheered for me (you could see some of my crop under my singlet). I remember a lot of people cheering for me yelling "Go Oiselle". I remember slapping two kids high fives after a water station. I remember inhaling more than one cup of water through my nose. I remember wanting to stop running. I remember some lady saying, "You're almost to the top of Lemon Drop Hill." At this point the arch of my left foot was throbbing with every step. I remember thinking that I was giving myself a foot injury.
Mile 21: 6:52
Mile 22: 6:52
Mile 23: 6:55
Mile 24: 6:51
Miles 24-Finish
Around Mile 24, I looked at the elapsed time on my watch (my KM paces were so varied that they weren't that helpful to me. Some kms were 4:06; some were 4:22) and realizing that I could maybe sub3 if I just kept going. I was hurting so so bad, my left foot was throbbing with every step, and I knew I looked terrible because everyone on the crowd was making comments about "Yeah girl - keep digging keep digging"...."that is grit"...."yeah - dig deep - you got this". I truly felt like everyone was cheering for me. I was mostly by myself, but still would pass people. One of the hallmarks of the Hanson plan that people talk about on the Facebook group is the craziness of passing people at the end and it's true. [I also have a bunch of the official race photos and I look TERRIBLE. I could be on a "Be Brave Get Ugly" shirt any day.] I saw the elapsed time at mile 25 and still thought I could do the sub 3 so I kept pushing. As I made my way around the corner to the finish, I could hear the announcer saying, "Can these people get a sub-3? Come on! You can do it - the sub-3 is yours" and then I saw the finish clock turn 3:00. I was sprinting as fast as I could and my bottom left foot was on fire. I crossed the finish and shut off my watch. My watch said 2:59:51 but I didn't really know what my official time was. I immediately felt woozy and crashed into some scaffolding when I felt a bear hug behind me, holding me up and then saw a wheelchair to my left. I said, "I really do not need a wheelchair" and they trusted me but told the person holding me to keep walking with me. She walk/held me through the finish chute and by the time I got to the t-shirts, I felt like I was ok. I started balling and turned around and gave her a huge hug to say thanks and she was so kind and said, "Oh you're welcome sweetie."
I continued going through the finish area in a daze, sobbing, but I did stop and let them take my photo because one of the things I am sad about from Boston 2016 is not letting anyone take my finish photo.
Then I heard "MAMA!!!!!". I knew it was my daughter's voice but couldn't see her. She kept yelling and finally I spotted them. My husband pointed me in a direction to meet them and I collected all my food, gear and sad down on a statue of a propeller and trying to stop crying. My family caught up to me and my husband said, "You did it!!!! Sub 3!!!!!" I looked up and said, "OMG I DID?!" and he had his phone out to the tracker which had my official chip time at 2:59:50. I immediately started crying again, which of course freaked my kids out. I still did not quite believe it though.
I was freezing so my husband created a changing area with the post-run blanket so I could change out of my shorts and into my tights from my gear bag. I changed into my flip flops. Then he took pics of me and made me ring the PR bell because he's awesome like that.
I said that I wanted to check my results in the "official results" tent because part of me still didn't believe that I got the sub-3. We headed over there and I got the official print out that I indeed had gotten it. More crying.
I turned on my phone, which was buried in my gear bag, and oh my goodness the text messages were awesome. My friend Bettina watched it online and posted this screen shot of the finish.
I checked Facebook and the Birdmachine CHI relay team had a whole thread tracking me. More crying.
Mile 24: 6:51
Mile 25: 6:47
Mile 26: 6:56
0.35 miles: 6:40
Second Half Marathon: 1:29:36. NEGATIVE SPLIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, I can't even.
I was legit in a daze during the last miles. Later on in the day, we drove past the course and my husband mentioned something about me running here and I said, "I don't think we ran here" and he looked at me like I was crazy. He showed me the whole route of the last miles and none of it looked familiar. Usually I also see/hear my family near the finish and I didn't see them at all. My husband showed me a video he took of me finishing and they were really loud. I also had to laugh at this video because in my head, I was sprinting and watching myself finish on video it looked more like a wandering drunken crawl to the finish. I know that I left it all out there though - which was my goal!!
Thank you Duluth.
Thank you to every single person who told me to go for it. Thank you to everyone for your support. Thank you to my husband and kids who cheer me on every day. It takes a village!
Next goal - OTQ baby.
I posted a race review on bibrave.com - check it out here. Click here to see my UNOFFICIAL results posted on Athlinks! I can't wait for Athlinks to update my PR!
How do I even start to write about Grandma's Marathon?!
Let me first tell you how it ends. I ran a 2:59:50.
Sub 3.
Dream goal of 2018...achieved.
Ok. Now that that is out of the way, I'll tell you the long story. Well, what I remember of it anyways because quite honestly, I don't remember a lot about the last 3-4 miles of the race.
Thursday Afternoon
We left for Duluth Thursday after work so that we could break up the driving a bit. My husband and two kids were coming with me and if anyone has taken car trips with young kids, you know they can be brutal. Duluth is about six hours away from our house. We stopped for dinner at Buffalo Phil's train restaurant in Wisconsin Dells and I had a philly cheesesteak that did not agree with my stomach. We stopped for the night in Chippewa Falls, WI which was our goal. We promised the kids a swim when we got there and we were in bed by 10 PM, which is way later than my usual bedtime and I was little freaking out about that.
Friday
We were awake by 7 AM on Friday and slept well. We headed down for breakfast where I stuffed more carbs in my face and then went to do my 3 mile shakeout run while my husband took the kids swimming. We were truly in the middle of nowhere so I ran around the parking lot and on two small roads along cornfields in loops until I got 3 miles in. My legs felt good and springy.
I got back to the hotel and we showered, packed up and resumed driving. We arrived in Duluth around noon on Friday and went to our hotel. The hotel staff were all wearing green Grandma's Marathon t-shirts which made me very excited. They clearly had worked the marathon before and had organized everything around the marathon. Extra snacks, earlier breakfast, shuttles to the the start, allowing you to say when housekeeping could clean your room...these were all some of the benefits. Our room was not ready yet but they said they would call so we made the decision to go to the Expo.
The Expo was crowded, but my kids got plenty of free samples and I got my packet. I really wanted to be at the talk with Carrie Tollefson and Kara Goucher but I also did not want to deal with taking my family back to the expo with me later in the day. My husband said we had to eat at Grandma's restaurant so we went there for lunch. I had a chicken pot pie that was yummy.
After lunch we opted to go to the Duluth Children's Museum which was great because it was pouring rain (it rained most of Friday), the kids could run around and I didn't have to be on my feet.
We went to the Oiselle-organized dinner at 5 PM at Va Benne Cafe. Oiselle did a great job having a bunch of activities for runners during marathon weekend. I probably would have gone to many more of the activities if I hadn't had my family with me so I was glad we were able to go to the dinner. They had yummy pasta. I spent most of dinner trying to keep my kids entertained but chatted a bit with some other Volee. We ditched out early though because the kids were super antsy by the time dinner came. There was a cute ice cream shoppe near the restaurant that we went to afterwards and then we did a walk along the lake, even climbing down to test the waters of Lake Superior.
Everyone was good and tired by then so we headed back to our hotel. I organized my stuff for the next morning (race morning). The weather forecast all week was showing thunderstorms during the race and it was unchanged as of Friday night. I had brought a throw-away pair of shoes and socks as well as a jacket, tights and long-sleeve from my throwaway clothes pile at home. I had grabbed a poncho from the stash at the hotel and my plan was to wear all of that and keep my race clothes dry and change into my race shoes and socks at the last minute. I got my watch ready and it was blinking showing me there was an updated. I shrugged and clicked accept and the watch began updating.
I prepped my food as well. I brought my picky oats for race morning but didn't bring milk for them so I made them into overnight oats using chocolate milk that we were given at the race expo. I prepped my Gen UCan and some nuun in my handheld for on the course. I also had another throwaway water bottle with Beachbody energize - which was what i was using in the mornings before many of my workouts. I had gotten some Gatorade Endurance the week of the race in the mail that I was using a lot because I liked it but I was a little nervous to use it during the race since I hadn't had the opportunity to test it during a long run. (I'll be reviewing Gatorade Endurance soon on the blog!). I did drink a lot of Gatorade Endurance all day on Friday.
I was in bed by 8:30 PM on Friday night. My legs did not feel good. I was a little panicked that we had done too much on Friday (even though I felt like I was good about not using my legs much). My calves in particular felt really crampy and tight. I rolled them out before bed and prayed for the best.
Saturday - Race Day
I slept beautifully - until about 4:45 when I could hear others in the hotel moving around. I was fine with this because my alarm was set for 5 AM. I checked the weather and it was like a gift from God. All of the rain had disappeared from the forecast. WHAT?! Like when does that ever happen?!
I got dressed. I was wearing my Oiselle distance shorts (these are always my race day shorts) and crop. I had to wear my BibRave singlet as a condition for getting my marathon fee covered by them. Honestly, I was a little sad that I couldn't just wear my Oiselle crop but the singlet is a Rabbit tank, of which I have several and like so I knew it wasn't going to be an issue. I brought along both my Balega blister resist and Balega silver socks for the race in my gear check bag. I slapped on a temporary Oiselle tattoo on my bicep and started to braid my hair. It took me three tries to braid my hair because my arms were shaking so much.
I realized that my spray deodorant sample was actually NOT a deodorant - just an antiperspirant so I grabbed my husband's deodorant to wear for the race. I then ate my picky oats. I was not hungry so eating the oatmeal was a challenge but I ate it all. I grabbed my three hydration bottles and my pre-packed gear bag....and then my son woke up.
NOOOOOOOOO.
I laid with him a bit and then went to the bathroom. In that time, he had crawled in bed with my husband. I prayed that he would fall back asleep so that my husband wouldn't have to get up so early, gave everyone kisses and then left my hotel room.
The lobby was jumping with all the runners and then the shuttles came. I boarded the first one and we were off to the start!
It seemed to take forever to get to the start. Of course, all the while, you are thinking, "Oh wow. I have to run all of this back." We approached the starting area and then....kept going! All of us on the bus were looking at each other like, "What is going on?" Finally the bus driver stopped and said, "I think I missed the drop off so I'm just going to let you off here." Um...yes. Just what a bunch of marathoners want to do - walk extra before the race! The extra walk did let us see two deer though, which I took as a good omen since I was constantly running into deer during my training runs!
We got to the start and I got into the porta potty line when I see Jana from MN. I met Jana at the Icebreaker relays. She came over to say hi, and told me to run fast. After I used the bathroom, I saw some Oiselle singlets by the med tent and it turned out to be Kelly and Carrie from WI, whom I follow in Instagram. So I went over there and gave them big hugs. Carrie also used Hanson's and all of us were going for PRs. (Spoiler - all of us got PRs!). Carrie also told me to go for the sub-3. I changed into my race shoes and got my gear bag situated. It was 7:30 and I was getting nervous so I just headed for the corrals.
Once I got in the corral, I saw Amy from BibRave which was exciting as we had been following each other's training on Instagram as well. We took a pic and she also told me to go for the sub-3.
I ended up lining up at the 3:05 pace sign. I was surrounded by smelly guys. I mean, I just do not understand why guys have to be smelly BEFORE THEY EVEN RUN. I ditched my sweatshirt with a few minutes left. The air was cool. It was a great day to run a marathon. I got my watch ready to go, made sure my shoes were ready, and did my Kristina Power Pose.
The horn went off.
Here we go!!!
The Race
Miles 1-3
I started running in the big 3:05 pace herd, and immediately got boxed in by the smelly guys. I was not running my pace - it felt slow - so I looked down at my watch. Why the hell is the pace in the 4s?! I kept going with the guys and then my watch beeped. "Why is my watch beeping??"
OMG. It is showing me kilometers. It must have reset to defaults in the updates. NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!
After a brief panic, I decided to just stay with the 3:05 pace group for the first few miles.
At the mile mark, the pacer yelled out the split. 7:02. I didn't feel great...I definitely was still all nerves so I decided to stay with the group even though I felt like I was adjusting my stride to run where I was running. It was very crowded.
At the second mile mark, the pacer yelled out the split: 6:56. At this point, I decided that I could not run any more with this group. The stride adjustment was driving me bonkers so I went around them to the far outside. I saw a group of two women and one guy shortly up ahead. I caught up to them and could run comfortably.
[From here out, I am going to give you mile splits but I didn't know these during the race. These are my splits from my watch which I was able to see after I uploaded the run into Strava.]
The women were chatting up a storm. I liked them because they were discussing their pace splits at every mile so during the race, I could kind of realize where I was. I was doing math in my head by 7:00 miles - so I knew roughly where I was at every mile based on the overall time elapsed. As we were approaching mile 3, I knew that I wanted to be under 21 minutes. Mile 3 was another 6:56.
Miles 4-6
The next miles were easy. Just rolling along. The course and weather were beautiful. I took a cup of water at every aid station I came upon and just stayed with my pack of 3.
Mile 4: 6:55
Mile 5: 6:50
Mile 6: 6:51
Miles 7-9
At some point, we went under the train overpass. I don't know what mile this was at but the image is burned in my brain because it was like something in a movie. SO PRETTY. I was waving wildly at the spectators yelling at us from the train.
I still felt very calm and comfortable at the pace we were going. This was all going great with my plan to flow through the first half. I was still running with the 2 women and the guy. We had other people kind of come in and out of the group but I don't remember anyone else but the main 3 because I just stayed right behind them. At one point, I think it was around mile 8, I yelled out, "Oh my god you can smell pine trees." It was the freshest, cleanest scent ever. Nobody said anything. They just looked at me like I was insane, likely because up until that point, I did zero talking.
All along these miles, the road was tree lined and so very green. It was very foggy...there were sporadic views of the lake that were starting to occur and you could feel them before you could see them. The air temperature would drop and a very cold breeze from the lake would blow.
Mile 7: 6:56
Mile 8: 6:50
Mile 9: 6:52
Miles 10-12
I started to realize that I wanted to be around 4:16/km on my pace watch. I continued doing math using 7:00/mile as a guide and comparing my watch elapsed time to that benchmark. The overall time was under the benchmark so I knew I was running sub-7 miles, but I didn't know how far under I was. We had caught up to Erin, wearing a black Oiselle crop. She said, "This looks like a strong group" when we came upon her and she joined us for a while. I could not believe how easily she was talking.
Mile 10: 6:42
Mile 11: 6:52
Mile 12: 6:45
Mile 13
I remember getting to the halfway point and thinking, "That wasn't too bad." At this point, I was running with Oiselle Erin and one of the original women I was with in the pack. The two of them were chatting it up and I was just behind them, mute. I learned that the other woman was 26 and ran for South Dakota State. Erin was 43 and ran for Ohio State. She was talking so much....it was fun to listen to but I was still mute.
Mile 13: 6:35.
[My half marathon time was 1:30:14. When I got to the half point, I saw the clock by the mile marker at 1:30 and thought, "Looks like I am not breaking three today...but I am good with where I am at...try to stay ahead of the 3:05 pace group."]
Miles 14-16
Erin and I ended up by ourselves for a bit and she was still talking. She asked me what my PR was and I responded, "3:11" and she said, "Woah! You are definitely ahead of that right now, but as we know, anything can happen in a marathon." I was responding to her talking in one word phrases but not really talking, because I was starting to feel like I was working. She was running so effortlessly - it seriously helped to have her and I am grateful for the miles that I ran with her. At some point, she picked up the pace and I didn't trust myself to stay with her.
Mile 14: 6:33
Mile 15: 6:45
Mile 16: 6:40
Miles 17-20
At this point, I was on my own. South Dakota woman was with me for part of it but I saw her duck into a porta potty and then didn't see her again. I started thinking that I was going to pass Glensheen Mansion soon....but that came later than I was expecting. When I did pass it, I managed to mumble, "Stay Sexy, Don't Get Murdered" like I wanted to but I was hurting. Somewhere in this block I also threw my handheld water bottle away because it felt so heavy. I drank about half of it along the first half along with the waters I was grabbing. I think I ended up throwing a gel away as well. I was taking gels every 5 miles, beginning at mile 5. At mile 20, the thought of taking a gel made me nauseous so I skipped that one.
Mile 17: 6:43
Mile 18: 6:48
Mile 19: 6:43
Mile 20: 6:54
Miles 21-24
I don't remember a lot of this section. I remember passing the trolls lined up and thinking of my WI teammate Ali who told me about them and smiling. I remember passing the Oiselle cowbell corner who cheered for me (you could see some of my crop under my singlet). I remember a lot of people cheering for me yelling "Go Oiselle". I remember slapping two kids high fives after a water station. I remember inhaling more than one cup of water through my nose. I remember wanting to stop running. I remember some lady saying, "You're almost to the top of Lemon Drop Hill." At this point the arch of my left foot was throbbing with every step. I remember thinking that I was giving myself a foot injury.
Mile 21: 6:52
Mile 22: 6:52
Mile 23: 6:55
Mile 24: 6:51
Miles 24-Finish
Around Mile 24, I looked at the elapsed time on my watch (my KM paces were so varied that they weren't that helpful to me. Some kms were 4:06; some were 4:22) and realizing that I could maybe sub3 if I just kept going. I was hurting so so bad, my left foot was throbbing with every step, and I knew I looked terrible because everyone on the crowd was making comments about "Yeah girl - keep digging keep digging"...."that is grit"...."yeah - dig deep - you got this". I truly felt like everyone was cheering for me. I was mostly by myself, but still would pass people. One of the hallmarks of the Hanson plan that people talk about on the Facebook group is the craziness of passing people at the end and it's true. [I also have a bunch of the official race photos and I look TERRIBLE. I could be on a "Be Brave Get Ugly" shirt any day.] I saw the elapsed time at mile 25 and still thought I could do the sub 3 so I kept pushing. As I made my way around the corner to the finish, I could hear the announcer saying, "Can these people get a sub-3? Come on! You can do it - the sub-3 is yours" and then I saw the finish clock turn 3:00. I was sprinting as fast as I could and my bottom left foot was on fire. I crossed the finish and shut off my watch. My watch said 2:59:51 but I didn't really know what my official time was. I immediately felt woozy and crashed into some scaffolding when I felt a bear hug behind me, holding me up and then saw a wheelchair to my left. I said, "I really do not need a wheelchair" and they trusted me but told the person holding me to keep walking with me. She walk/held me through the finish chute and by the time I got to the t-shirts, I felt like I was ok. I started balling and turned around and gave her a huge hug to say thanks and she was so kind and said, "Oh you're welcome sweetie."
I continued going through the finish area in a daze, sobbing, but I did stop and let them take my photo because one of the things I am sad about from Boston 2016 is not letting anyone take my finish photo.
Then I heard "MAMA!!!!!". I knew it was my daughter's voice but couldn't see her. She kept yelling and finally I spotted them. My husband pointed me in a direction to meet them and I collected all my food, gear and sad down on a statue of a propeller and trying to stop crying. My family caught up to me and my husband said, "You did it!!!! Sub 3!!!!!" I looked up and said, "OMG I DID?!" and he had his phone out to the tracker which had my official chip time at 2:59:50. I immediately started crying again, which of course freaked my kids out. I still did not quite believe it though.
I was freezing so my husband created a changing area with the post-run blanket so I could change out of my shorts and into my tights from my gear bag. I changed into my flip flops. Then he took pics of me and made me ring the PR bell because he's awesome like that.
I said that I wanted to check my results in the "official results" tent because part of me still didn't believe that I got the sub-3. We headed over there and I got the official print out that I indeed had gotten it. More crying.
I turned on my phone, which was buried in my gear bag, and oh my goodness the text messages were awesome. My friend Bettina watched it online and posted this screen shot of the finish.
I checked Facebook and the Birdmachine CHI relay team had a whole thread tracking me. More crying.
Mile 24: 6:51
Mile 25: 6:47
Mile 26: 6:56
0.35 miles: 6:40
Second Half Marathon: 1:29:36. NEGATIVE SPLIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, I can't even.
I was legit in a daze during the last miles. Later on in the day, we drove past the course and my husband mentioned something about me running here and I said, "I don't think we ran here" and he looked at me like I was crazy. He showed me the whole route of the last miles and none of it looked familiar. Usually I also see/hear my family near the finish and I didn't see them at all. My husband showed me a video he took of me finishing and they were really loud. I also had to laugh at this video because in my head, I was sprinting and watching myself finish on video it looked more like a wandering drunken crawl to the finish. I know that I left it all out there though - which was my goal!!
Thank you Duluth.
Thank you to every single person who told me to go for it. Thank you to everyone for your support. Thank you to my husband and kids who cheer me on every day. It takes a village!
Next goal - OTQ baby.
I posted a race review on bibrave.com - check it out here. Click here to see my UNOFFICIAL results posted on Athlinks! I can't wait for Athlinks to update my PR!
Monday, April 2, 2018
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!
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.
Tuesday, March 27
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)
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)
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!
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
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!
Monday, March 19, 2018
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.
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!
The week ahead has my first speed and tempo runs so I will need to start getting some zzzs to keep up!
Monday, February 26, 2018
Grandma's Marathon Training Week 2
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 had a great week of running. I wrote in my training journal "RUN SIX DAYS". That was my goal - to only take one day off and I did it!
I was not able to do any morning runs this week because we got so many days of rain, which combined with below freezing temps overnight made for icy mornings. This meant a lot of RACING home from work and trying to squeeze the run in before the bus came.
I also had a birthday this week. The big 3-7. No age group change for me.
Sunday, February 18
Plan Says: Off.
What I did: Ran! It has been a while since I ran on a Sunday, but it felt good.
5.15 miles, 39:49 (7:44 avg pace)
Monday, February 19
Plan Says: 3 miles easy
What I did: Off
Tuesday, February 20
Plan Says: Off
What I did: 4.25 miles on the treadmill after work. Unfortunately it was pouring rain so treadmill it was. 36:31 (8:35 avg pace)
Wednesday, February 21
Plan Says: easy 3 miles
What I did: Another run after work. I left a little early from work so I could get a few more minutes on my legs.
4.65 miles, 34:56 (7:31 avg pace)
Thursday, February 22
Plan Says: easy 3 miles
What I did: Another run after work.
5.0 miles, 38:45 (7:44 avg pace)
Friday, February 23
Plan Says: easy 3 miles
What I did: You guessed it - post-work run.
4 miles, 31:00 (7:44 avg pace)
Saturday, February 24
Plan says: easy 4 miles
What I did: 8 miles, 1:01:51 (7:44 avg pace)
It felt good to get back to a bit longer run on Saturday. My daughter is taking a life-skills/stage acting class on Saturday mornings, right in the middle of the morning. My kids also had big plans for breakfast in bed to celebrate my birthday so that meant no early morning run for me. Thankfully, the class is an hour long so my husband dropped my daughter and me off at the arts center and I ran while she was in class and the boys did the grocery shopping. I got a long-ish run in AND I didn't have to grocery shop. I don't know how I managed that win-win situation, but there it is. :)
Weekly Total
Plan says: 16 miles
What I did: 31.07 miles baby! YES. This is the first 30+ mile week I have had since October.
I had a great week of running. I wrote in my training journal "RUN SIX DAYS". That was my goal - to only take one day off and I did it!
I was not able to do any morning runs this week because we got so many days of rain, which combined with below freezing temps overnight made for icy mornings. This meant a lot of RACING home from work and trying to squeeze the run in before the bus came.
I also had a birthday this week. The big 3-7. No age group change for me.
Sunday, February 18
Plan Says: Off.
What I did: Ran! It has been a while since I ran on a Sunday, but it felt good.
5.15 miles, 39:49 (7:44 avg pace)
Monday, February 19
Plan Says: 3 miles easy
What I did: Off
Tuesday, February 20
Plan Says: Off
What I did: 4.25 miles on the treadmill after work. Unfortunately it was pouring rain so treadmill it was. 36:31 (8:35 avg pace)
Wednesday, February 21
Plan Says: easy 3 miles
What I did: Another run after work. I left a little early from work so I could get a few more minutes on my legs.
4.65 miles, 34:56 (7:31 avg pace)
Thursday, February 22
Plan Says: easy 3 miles
What I did: Another run after work.
5.0 miles, 38:45 (7:44 avg pace)
Friday, February 23
Plan Says: easy 3 miles
What I did: You guessed it - post-work run.
4 miles, 31:00 (7:44 avg pace)
Saturday, February 24
Plan says: easy 4 miles
What I did: 8 miles, 1:01:51 (7:44 avg pace)
It felt good to get back to a bit longer run on Saturday. My daughter is taking a life-skills/stage acting class on Saturday mornings, right in the middle of the morning. My kids also had big plans for breakfast in bed to celebrate my birthday so that meant no early morning run for me. Thankfully, the class is an hour long so my husband dropped my daughter and me off at the arts center and I ran while she was in class and the boys did the grocery shopping. I got a long-ish run in AND I didn't have to grocery shop. I don't know how I managed that win-win situation, but there it is. :)
Weekly Total
Plan says: 16 miles
What I did: 31.07 miles baby! YES. This is the first 30+ mile week I have had since October.
Monday, February 19, 2018
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
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
Sunday, May 14, 2017
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.
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.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Time to Taper
The work is done.
The hay is in the barn.
I had my last hard workout this morning. 10 mile tempo with mile warm up and cool down. From here on out, easy recovery miles are on the plan until the race in 10 days. The only way to describe how this feels is to tell you that I broke out in tears when I clicked the "stop" button on my watch when mile 10 of my tempo came through.
I did it.
I completed every hard workout prescribed on the Hansons Marathon Method beginner plan. A plan that made me want to throw up when I looked through the pages of it in the book I read earlier this year. A plan that often gets described as tough. Aggressive. A time-suck. (These are words taken from commenters on a FB running group I am in.)
"How the HELL am I going to run 6 days a week? How the HELL am I going to run up to 12 miles on work days? TWICE. Every week. For 17 weeks?!"
"There is no way I can run past 40 mile weeks. Just no way."
"I refuse to get up before 5 AM. I need my sleep."
These are all things that went through my head. Things I told myself. Things I wrote on this blog and told other people.
And.
I DID run 6 days a week. Every week (not last week!). For months.
I DID run 10-12 miles twice a week for 16 weeks on work days.
I DID run weekly mileage past 40. Past 45 miles/week. Past 50 miles/week.
I DID get up at 430 AM 2-3 days a week. For many. many. weeks.
I am writing this post because no matter what happens in that marathon, if it again is a total flop, I want to come back and read this and remind myself that all this work was pretty badass of me. I've had tough training plans before. Last year, the custom plan I had for Boston was no.joke. But I regret not taking time to appreciate all that work when I was doing it. So consider this post my ode to my training.
Also I need to mention this...and perhaps write a post about it...but this was not easy. I know that my Instagram photos probably paint a rosier picture about my running than the truth. "I don't know how you do it" is something that I have heard more than one time. This is how I did it - I gave up a lot of stuff to get all of this running done. Stuff that I enjoy. You can't run for 7+ hours a week for 4 months AND work full time AND have kids/family responsibilities without giving stuff up and making hard decisions...and getting crabby more often than you want to. This is a large part of why I only do one marathon a year. I also have a partner that takes on a lot more during this time to allow me to do this. And with that comes guilt from time to time.
I think appreciating all of this work honors those trade-offs and the time that others put in so that I could train.
I am proud of it and today, feel pretty badass.
Now --- TAPER TIME!
The hay is in the barn.
I had my last hard workout this morning. 10 mile tempo with mile warm up and cool down. From here on out, easy recovery miles are on the plan until the race in 10 days. The only way to describe how this feels is to tell you that I broke out in tears when I clicked the "stop" button on my watch when mile 10 of my tempo came through.
I did it.
I completed every hard workout prescribed on the Hansons Marathon Method beginner plan. A plan that made me want to throw up when I looked through the pages of it in the book I read earlier this year. A plan that often gets described as tough. Aggressive. A time-suck. (These are words taken from commenters on a FB running group I am in.)
"How the HELL am I going to run 6 days a week? How the HELL am I going to run up to 12 miles on work days? TWICE. Every week. For 17 weeks?!"
"There is no way I can run past 40 mile weeks. Just no way."
"I refuse to get up before 5 AM. I need my sleep."
These are all things that went through my head. Things I told myself. Things I wrote on this blog and told other people.
And.
I DID run 6 days a week. Every week (not last week!). For months.
I DID run 10-12 miles twice a week for 16 weeks on work days.
I DID run weekly mileage past 40. Past 45 miles/week. Past 50 miles/week.
I DID get up at 430 AM 2-3 days a week. For many. many. weeks.
I am writing this post because no matter what happens in that marathon, if it again is a total flop, I want to come back and read this and remind myself that all this work was pretty badass of me. I've had tough training plans before. Last year, the custom plan I had for Boston was no.joke. But I regret not taking time to appreciate all that work when I was doing it. So consider this post my ode to my training.
Also I need to mention this...and perhaps write a post about it...but this was not easy. I know that my Instagram photos probably paint a rosier picture about my running than the truth. "I don't know how you do it" is something that I have heard more than one time. This is how I did it - I gave up a lot of stuff to get all of this running done. Stuff that I enjoy. You can't run for 7+ hours a week for 4 months AND work full time AND have kids/family responsibilities without giving stuff up and making hard decisions...and getting crabby more often than you want to. This is a large part of why I only do one marathon a year. I also have a partner that takes on a lot more during this time to allow me to do this. And with that comes guilt from time to time.
I think appreciating all of this work honors those trade-offs and the time that others put in so that I could train.
I am proud of it and today, feel pretty badass.
Now --- TAPER TIME!
Monday, May 8, 2017
Cellcom Green Bay Marathon Training: Week 16 Recap
To call last week a "busy" week, would be an understatement. I am not saying this in a way to brag "Oh, I'm SOOOOOOO busy" but just stating the facts:
1. The hubs was out of town for 3 days on business,
2. It was teacher appreciation week for both kids (read: lots of baking/cooking/purchasing to be done),
3. A friend had a baby shower, and
4. My brother got married!
I ended up using some PPL on Friday afternoon to finish up place cards for the wedding and get my run in. I also used up my "get out of jail free" card on the plan. When I started this plan, I shifted every workout one day earlier because it was going to be easier for me to do the longest runs on Saturdays versus Sundays for the bulk of the 18 weeks plan. The plan finishes on a Sunday with the marathon. So in moving everything up a day, I was going to have an extra day off plan. It ended up being a godsend for Saturday, the day of the wedding. Now for the remaining two weeks, I will be doing the workout on the original days prescribed.
Here's the detailed recap:
Monday May 1
Plan Says: 1 mile warm up, 4 x 1.5 mile repeats (pace: 7:05), 800 recovery, 1 mile cool down
What I Do: Hello 4:30 AM alarm. It was not raining, but not dry. I felt decent during this which I was happy about after feeling like such a slug last week.
1 mile warm up: 8:33
1.5 miles, 10:13 (6:48 pace) / 0.5 miles recovery, 4:28 (8:53 pace)
1.5 miles, 10:00 (6:40 pace) / 0.5 miles recovery, 4:25 (8:49 pace)
1.5 miles, 10:08 (6:45 pace) / 0.5 mile recovery, 4:21 (8:41 pace)
1.5 miles, 10:00 (6:40 pace)
1.5 miles cool down, 12:43 (8:27 pace)
Total: 10 miles
Tuesday May 2
Plan Says: 0 miles
What I Do: I had to flip flop Tuesday and Thursday as my husband was out of town on a business trip Wednesday - Friday this week and I would be solo parenting. I was up at 5 to do 5 easy miles.
5 miles, 42:18 (8:16 avg pace)
Wednesday May 3
Plan Says: 1 mile warm up, 10 miles tempo (pace: 7:15), 1 mile cool down
What I Do: I had to get up at 4 to get this done because my husband needed to leave at 6 AM sharp. I already wrote about the fall that occurred on this run.
1 mile warm up: 8:25
10 miles tempo: 1:12:39 (7:15 avg pace on the nose!)
1.05 mile cool down: 8:29
Thursday May 4
Plan Says: 5 miles easy
What I Do: 0 miles.
Friday May 5
Plan Says: 8 miles easy
What I Do: 8 miles easy in the afternoon sun. I was happy that I got this in prior to wedding festivities kicking off. My hip and knee felt fine, my shoulder was a little tender but that didn't affect my run.
8 miles, 1:01:18 (7:40 avg pace)
Saturday May 6
Plan Says: 10 miles, 7:54 pace
What I Do: I knew this run wouldn't happen, but JUST IN CASE everything went perfectly, I brought running clothes along to my mom's house (where we stayed Friday night). Unfortunately, a late bedtime + a son that didn't sleep more than 20 minutes at a time + having to be at the salon at 8 AM did not equal getting this done. Get out of jail free card - USED. :)
Sunday May 7
Old Plan Says: 7 miles easy
What I Do: Saturday's workout became Sunday's. Unfortunately while taking my dress off the night before I noticed that the left side of my torso (on my rib cage) felt strained. Thus, every left step of this run was uncomfortable and post-run was pretty terrible. Hoping some advil + Epsom salt bath helps.
10 miles, 1:17:47 (7:46 avg)
Weekly Mileage
Plan says: 52 miles
What I did: 45.12 miles
Sleep Data
I lost 3 days of data because of being out of town for my brother's wedding and Wi-fi issues. This is probably good because I don't even know if I would want to see the sleep data for Friday night!
Average amount of sleep: 7.3 hours
Average sleep score: 79
60% deep sleep, 36% medium, 3% light.
Podcasts
I listened to Carrie Tollefson interview Shalane Flanagan, Emma Coburn and Tina Muir as well as Real Talk Radio Nicole Antoinette interview Angela Dumlao.
Less than two weeks until race day!
1. The hubs was out of town for 3 days on business,
2. It was teacher appreciation week for both kids (read: lots of baking/cooking/purchasing to be done),
3. A friend had a baby shower, and
4. My brother got married!
I ended up using some PPL on Friday afternoon to finish up place cards for the wedding and get my run in. I also used up my "get out of jail free" card on the plan. When I started this plan, I shifted every workout one day earlier because it was going to be easier for me to do the longest runs on Saturdays versus Sundays for the bulk of the 18 weeks plan. The plan finishes on a Sunday with the marathon. So in moving everything up a day, I was going to have an extra day off plan. It ended up being a godsend for Saturday, the day of the wedding. Now for the remaining two weeks, I will be doing the workout on the original days prescribed.
Here's the detailed recap:
Monday May 1
Plan Says: 1 mile warm up, 4 x 1.5 mile repeats (pace: 7:05), 800 recovery, 1 mile cool down
What I Do: Hello 4:30 AM alarm. It was not raining, but not dry. I felt decent during this which I was happy about after feeling like such a slug last week.
1 mile warm up: 8:33
1.5 miles, 10:13 (6:48 pace) / 0.5 miles recovery, 4:28 (8:53 pace)
1.5 miles, 10:00 (6:40 pace) / 0.5 miles recovery, 4:25 (8:49 pace)
1.5 miles, 10:08 (6:45 pace) / 0.5 mile recovery, 4:21 (8:41 pace)
1.5 miles, 10:00 (6:40 pace)
1.5 miles cool down, 12:43 (8:27 pace)
Total: 10 miles
Tuesday May 2
Plan Says: 0 miles
What I Do: I had to flip flop Tuesday and Thursday as my husband was out of town on a business trip Wednesday - Friday this week and I would be solo parenting. I was up at 5 to do 5 easy miles.
5 miles, 42:18 (8:16 avg pace)
Wednesday May 3
Plan Says: 1 mile warm up, 10 miles tempo (pace: 7:15), 1 mile cool down
What I Do: I had to get up at 4 to get this done because my husband needed to leave at 6 AM sharp. I already wrote about the fall that occurred on this run.
1 mile warm up: 8:25
10 miles tempo: 1:12:39 (7:15 avg pace on the nose!)
1.05 mile cool down: 8:29
Thursday May 4
Plan Says: 5 miles easy
What I Do: 0 miles.
Friday May 5
Plan Says: 8 miles easy
What I Do: 8 miles easy in the afternoon sun. I was happy that I got this in prior to wedding festivities kicking off. My hip and knee felt fine, my shoulder was a little tender but that didn't affect my run.
8 miles, 1:01:18 (7:40 avg pace)
Saturday May 6
Plan Says: 10 miles, 7:54 pace
What I Do: I knew this run wouldn't happen, but JUST IN CASE everything went perfectly, I brought running clothes along to my mom's house (where we stayed Friday night). Unfortunately, a late bedtime + a son that didn't sleep more than 20 minutes at a time + having to be at the salon at 8 AM did not equal getting this done. Get out of jail free card - USED. :)
Sunday May 7
Old Plan Says: 7 miles easy
What I Do: Saturday's workout became Sunday's. Unfortunately while taking my dress off the night before I noticed that the left side of my torso (on my rib cage) felt strained. Thus, every left step of this run was uncomfortable and post-run was pretty terrible. Hoping some advil + Epsom salt bath helps.
10 miles, 1:17:47 (7:46 avg)
Weekly Mileage
Plan says: 52 miles
What I did: 45.12 miles
Sleep Data
I lost 3 days of data because of being out of town for my brother's wedding and Wi-fi issues. This is probably good because I don't even know if I would want to see the sleep data for Friday night!
Average amount of sleep: 7.3 hours
Average sleep score: 79
60% deep sleep, 36% medium, 3% light.
Podcasts
I listened to Carrie Tollefson interview Shalane Flanagan, Emma Coburn and Tina Muir as well as Real Talk Radio Nicole Antoinette interview Angela Dumlao.
Less than two weeks until race day!
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Cellcom Green Bay Marathon Training: Week 15 Recap
This was going to be the longest mileage week of the plan- I bumped up tempo runs to 10 miles and had my last 16 mile run. The week was rougher than usual for me. With the exception of Monday, most of my runs felt difficult and I was tired all week, despite getting more sleep than I have been getting. By today, I felt like all virus had left my body.
April was a good month. I logged 224.18 miles! That makes it my highest mileage month ever, a 125% increase over April 2016 and 110% increase over April 2015. Neither of these are the most fair comparisons given that my marathon in 2016 was mid-April and my marathon in 2015 was first week of May, but I'll still take it :)
Here is my recap of the last week:
Monday April 24
Plan says: 1 mi warm up, 3 x 2 mi at 7:05 pace, 800 recovery between sets, 1 mi cool down
What I did: For the second morning in a row, my alarm did not go off. I have been having problems with my Sense alarm not syncing to our wireless so I thought that was the issue. Because of this, I did not do my workout in the morning. This was probably a blessing in disguise on many fronts. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep so I chugged some children's Benedryl, simply because my eyes were SO ITCHY. I opted to wear my glasses instead of contacts all day to see if that would help. I have been taking a daily Claritin for about 3 weeks now, in anticipation of seasonal allergies. (Pollen and me do not mix well.) I had to leave work early to get this done before my daughter arrived on the school bus at 4 PM. Thus, temps were in the low 70s when I did this workout and it was SUNNY. I was glad to have the opportunity for some practice in the heat. (For reference, had I done this at 4:30am as intended, it would have been 35 degrees out.)
I ran out of the neighborhood, as I run enough neighborhood loops that when it is daylight, I get out of Dodge!
1 mile warm up: 8:03
2 miles, 13:24 (6:41 avg pace)
0.5 miles, 4:23 (8:47 avg pace)
2 miles, 13:10 (6:34 avg pace)
0.5 miles, 4:19 (8:33 avg pace)
2 miles, 13:27 (6:43 avg pace)
1.1 miles cool down: (9:36, 8:42 avg pace)
Total 9.1 miles
So those were way faster than they were supposed to be. I had to do this same workout two weeks ago and was curious how the times compared. Two weeks ago, my two mile repeats were:
13:42
13:43
13:49
I will say that 2 weeks ago, I did these as neighborhood loops and our neighborhood is fairly hilly. The 2 mile repeats today were pancake flat. I am still experimenting with gels so after the 2nd 2-miler, I took a Huma Gel. This did not upset my stomach in any way but the texture was kind of weird due to the chia seeds so I don't know that I will be investing in those. Also, full disclaimer, the third two miler almost did me in...I stopped twice. It was almost into the wind the entire way (the first two were in to the wind for only one mile) and I was pooped.
Tuesday April 25
Plan says: Off
What I Did: 0 miles, nothing else. My brother gets married in a week and a half and I volunteered to do the place cards so I spent my night working on those.
Wednesday April 26
Plan says: 1 mi warm up, 10 miles tempo (7:15 pace), 1 mi cool down
What I Did: First, I solved my alarm clock issue...or so I thought. I had been setting my alarms for PM times instead of AM. DUH! My alarm went off right at 430 so I must have been in a deep sleep. It was a struggle to get out of bed. It was supposed to be thunder-storming according to my weather app but it didn't sound like it. Despite this, I was THIS close to abandoning ship. But I didn't. I got out of bed and got dressed.
Once outside, it was warm and humid. I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. I opted to NOT do a warm up because I wanted to get in as many tempo miles as I could before it started raining figuring every tempo mile that I could get done outside and NOT on a treadmill would be awesome.
My first mile was 7:30ish and then I overcompensated with the second mile at 6:57. My legs were really tired. I switched over to the pace view of my watch to try to more consistently arrive at 7:15. I had to stop several times to blow snot rockets and clear my throat because although I am feeling a bit better, I still have all the drainage plus I have been neti potting. I took off my shirt at mile 5 and stopped to grab my water bottle and take a gel - Strawberry Banana Gu, which tasted and felt great. I again started running and felt that I had FINALLY gotten into a good rhythm. I looked down at my watch to check pace when I realized that I had never restarted my watch.
I almost lost it. I again stopped and had to give myself a pep talk to not quit. I retraced my route to try to figure out how much mileage I had lost and estimated that I had lost somewhere between 0.5 and 0.6 miles on the "official" Garmin log. I decided that I was going to stop my tempo run at 9.5 on my Garmin since that would be my 10 mile count. It was finally light outside so I could ditch my sweaty grimy knucklelights and go. Mile 6 came in at 8:05. I ended up finishing this feeling ok. There was a lot of "your next mile will be better" talk going on. My last four miles were consistent - 6:46, 6:52, 6:55, 6:50. I did a 2 mile cool down and raced back inside to get to work.
10 miles tempo, 9.5 recorded on my Garmin in 1:07:25 (7:05 avg pace)
2.1 miles cool down, 16:45 (7:58)
I was really really tired all day and opted to go to bed by 8 PM.
Thursday April 27
Plan says: 6 miles easy
What I Did: AGAIN, my alarm did not go off. Overnight, my Sense alarm lost connectivity to our Wi-Fi. ARGH. Not only did I not have an alarm, I did not have any sleep data from Wednesday night, which was going to be a pretty decent night given my early bedtime. ARGH.
So now I had to figure out when I could get this done. I was not going to be able to leave too early from work because a) I already used that card earlier this week; and b) I had a meeting. I got home, changed, and decided to run as far as I could before the bus came and I would have to tack on the missed mileage to Friday's run.
This run felt like a slog. I was still really tired. Still having a lot of throat mucus and snot. I ended up getting 4.55 miles in. 35:33 (7:49 avg pace). I again shot for an earlier bedtime and set TWO alarms.
Friday April 28
Plan says: 6 miles easy
What I Did: The day I set two alarms is of course the day I don't need any. My son woke up at 4:44 AM (I set my alarm for 4:50). I got him back to bed and then my Sense alarm went off, but again, no sleep data recorded because there was some issue with the sensor on my pillow. ARGH.
It was 30 degrees out. I pulled on all the winter running stuff and got outside. Once again, it was a slogfest. My legs felt so heavy and tired. Still lots of throat mucus and snot. Thankfully I could go as slow as I wanted and was able to finish 7.61 miles which took care of the 1.5 miles I missed the day before.
7.61 miles, 1:04:00 (8:25 avg pace)
Saturday April 29
Plan says: 16 miles, long (7:54 pace)
My mother-in-law invited me to a luncheon on Saturday, so I was going to be gone 10-2:30. I opted to get this done right away in the morning since I got lucky and it wasn't raining, although cold. I was back in tights, long sleeve, jacket, ear warmer and gloves. I was pretty tired because we went out the night before with some of Nate's colleagues so my bedtime was late. Again, no sleep data. I chugged some Gen U-Can before leaving. I had forgotten to re-stock my gels so I was going to be using blocks for fuel, which I don't really love.
I started out and again felt really tired and like my legs were not firing. Finally, around mile 5, things started to click and I felt pretty good. I hit a bunch of wind on my return but still was going faster than goal pace for many of these miles, with the exception of the first 4. One mile was super fast - 7:14 - and I had to rein it in from that one. The blocks worked okay but I still don't love how they get stuck in your teeth.
16 miles, 2:01:02 (7:34 pace)
7:48 / 7:54 / 7:47 / 8:00 / 7:30 / 7:25 / 7:28 / 7:23 / 7:23 / 7:30 / 7:14 / 7:28 / 7:30 / 7:31 / 7:44 / 7:26
I made a stop at our local running store in the afternoon and got a bunch of the strawberry banana Gu so I would be set for May.
I felt pretty dehydrated all day so I chugged a lot of Nuun before I went to bed.
Sunday April 30
Plan says: 5 miles easy
What I Did: Yay! I think my sleep system is back on track. Or, at least I logged some sleep data for Saturday night. I woke up and my weather app said it wasn't raining so I got dressed, got my son going with breakfast, and went outside. It was lightly raining, and I probably could have stuck it out, but I was not in the mood so I changed and jumped on the treadmill. I was lucky that even though it rained the majority of days in April, today was the first 'mill day for me!
WOW. It was slow. I just had to gut this one out.
5 miles, 45:44 (9:09 avg pace)
Lucky for me, my aunt is a massage therapist and came to our house and set up her massage table and gave me a 90+ minute massage! It felt great. She said my legs were strong and felt very well balanced, which I took as a compliment. Great way to recover from a tough week!
Weekly Mileage:
Plan Says: 54
What I Did: 54.4
Sleep Data
I only logged sleep data for 4 of the 7 days.
Avg amount of sleep: 7.7 hours
Avg sleep score: 82
51% deep, 47% medium, 2% light
I am bummed that the 3 nights of missed data were three good nights of sleep. I'm sure I really averaged over 8 hours this week.
Podcasts
I listened to the rest of the Real Talk Radio with Nicole Antoinette interview with Kelly Roberts, Erin Taylor and Dr. Stephanie Howe Violett.
April was a good month. I logged 224.18 miles! That makes it my highest mileage month ever, a 125% increase over April 2016 and 110% increase over April 2015. Neither of these are the most fair comparisons given that my marathon in 2016 was mid-April and my marathon in 2015 was first week of May, but I'll still take it :)
Here is my recap of the last week:
Monday April 24
Plan says: 1 mi warm up, 3 x 2 mi at 7:05 pace, 800 recovery between sets, 1 mi cool down
What I did: For the second morning in a row, my alarm did not go off. I have been having problems with my Sense alarm not syncing to our wireless so I thought that was the issue. Because of this, I did not do my workout in the morning. This was probably a blessing in disguise on many fronts. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep so I chugged some children's Benedryl, simply because my eyes were SO ITCHY. I opted to wear my glasses instead of contacts all day to see if that would help. I have been taking a daily Claritin for about 3 weeks now, in anticipation of seasonal allergies. (Pollen and me do not mix well.) I had to leave work early to get this done before my daughter arrived on the school bus at 4 PM. Thus, temps were in the low 70s when I did this workout and it was SUNNY. I was glad to have the opportunity for some practice in the heat. (For reference, had I done this at 4:30am as intended, it would have been 35 degrees out.)
I ran out of the neighborhood, as I run enough neighborhood loops that when it is daylight, I get out of Dodge!
1 mile warm up: 8:03
2 miles, 13:24 (6:41 avg pace)
0.5 miles, 4:23 (8:47 avg pace)
2 miles, 13:10 (6:34 avg pace)
0.5 miles, 4:19 (8:33 avg pace)
2 miles, 13:27 (6:43 avg pace)
1.1 miles cool down: (9:36, 8:42 avg pace)
Total 9.1 miles
So those were way faster than they were supposed to be. I had to do this same workout two weeks ago and was curious how the times compared. Two weeks ago, my two mile repeats were:
13:42
13:43
13:49
I will say that 2 weeks ago, I did these as neighborhood loops and our neighborhood is fairly hilly. The 2 mile repeats today were pancake flat. I am still experimenting with gels so after the 2nd 2-miler, I took a Huma Gel. This did not upset my stomach in any way but the texture was kind of weird due to the chia seeds so I don't know that I will be investing in those. Also, full disclaimer, the third two miler almost did me in...I stopped twice. It was almost into the wind the entire way (the first two were in to the wind for only one mile) and I was pooped.
Tuesday April 25
Plan says: Off
What I Did: 0 miles, nothing else. My brother gets married in a week and a half and I volunteered to do the place cards so I spent my night working on those.
Wednesday April 26
Plan says: 1 mi warm up, 10 miles tempo (7:15 pace), 1 mi cool down
What I Did: First, I solved my alarm clock issue...or so I thought. I had been setting my alarms for PM times instead of AM. DUH! My alarm went off right at 430 so I must have been in a deep sleep. It was a struggle to get out of bed. It was supposed to be thunder-storming according to my weather app but it didn't sound like it. Despite this, I was THIS close to abandoning ship. But I didn't. I got out of bed and got dressed.
Once outside, it was warm and humid. I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. I opted to NOT do a warm up because I wanted to get in as many tempo miles as I could before it started raining figuring every tempo mile that I could get done outside and NOT on a treadmill would be awesome.
My first mile was 7:30ish and then I overcompensated with the second mile at 6:57. My legs were really tired. I switched over to the pace view of my watch to try to more consistently arrive at 7:15. I had to stop several times to blow snot rockets and clear my throat because although I am feeling a bit better, I still have all the drainage plus I have been neti potting. I took off my shirt at mile 5 and stopped to grab my water bottle and take a gel - Strawberry Banana Gu, which tasted and felt great. I again started running and felt that I had FINALLY gotten into a good rhythm. I looked down at my watch to check pace when I realized that I had never restarted my watch.
I almost lost it. I again stopped and had to give myself a pep talk to not quit. I retraced my route to try to figure out how much mileage I had lost and estimated that I had lost somewhere between 0.5 and 0.6 miles on the "official" Garmin log. I decided that I was going to stop my tempo run at 9.5 on my Garmin since that would be my 10 mile count. It was finally light outside so I could ditch my sweaty grimy knucklelights and go. Mile 6 came in at 8:05. I ended up finishing this feeling ok. There was a lot of "your next mile will be better" talk going on. My last four miles were consistent - 6:46, 6:52, 6:55, 6:50. I did a 2 mile cool down and raced back inside to get to work.
10 miles tempo, 9.5 recorded on my Garmin in 1:07:25 (7:05 avg pace)
2.1 miles cool down, 16:45 (7:58)
I was really really tired all day and opted to go to bed by 8 PM.
Thursday April 27
Plan says: 6 miles easy
What I Did: AGAIN, my alarm did not go off. Overnight, my Sense alarm lost connectivity to our Wi-Fi. ARGH. Not only did I not have an alarm, I did not have any sleep data from Wednesday night, which was going to be a pretty decent night given my early bedtime. ARGH.
So now I had to figure out when I could get this done. I was not going to be able to leave too early from work because a) I already used that card earlier this week; and b) I had a meeting. I got home, changed, and decided to run as far as I could before the bus came and I would have to tack on the missed mileage to Friday's run.
This run felt like a slog. I was still really tired. Still having a lot of throat mucus and snot. I ended up getting 4.55 miles in. 35:33 (7:49 avg pace). I again shot for an earlier bedtime and set TWO alarms.
Friday April 28
Plan says: 6 miles easy
What I Did: The day I set two alarms is of course the day I don't need any. My son woke up at 4:44 AM (I set my alarm for 4:50). I got him back to bed and then my Sense alarm went off, but again, no sleep data recorded because there was some issue with the sensor on my pillow. ARGH.
It was 30 degrees out. I pulled on all the winter running stuff and got outside. Once again, it was a slogfest. My legs felt so heavy and tired. Still lots of throat mucus and snot. Thankfully I could go as slow as I wanted and was able to finish 7.61 miles which took care of the 1.5 miles I missed the day before.
7.61 miles, 1:04:00 (8:25 avg pace)
Saturday April 29
Plan says: 16 miles, long (7:54 pace)
My mother-in-law invited me to a luncheon on Saturday, so I was going to be gone 10-2:30. I opted to get this done right away in the morning since I got lucky and it wasn't raining, although cold. I was back in tights, long sleeve, jacket, ear warmer and gloves. I was pretty tired because we went out the night before with some of Nate's colleagues so my bedtime was late. Again, no sleep data. I chugged some Gen U-Can before leaving. I had forgotten to re-stock my gels so I was going to be using blocks for fuel, which I don't really love.
I started out and again felt really tired and like my legs were not firing. Finally, around mile 5, things started to click and I felt pretty good. I hit a bunch of wind on my return but still was going faster than goal pace for many of these miles, with the exception of the first 4. One mile was super fast - 7:14 - and I had to rein it in from that one. The blocks worked okay but I still don't love how they get stuck in your teeth.
16 miles, 2:01:02 (7:34 pace)
7:48 / 7:54 / 7:47 / 8:00 / 7:30 / 7:25 / 7:28 / 7:23 / 7:23 / 7:30 / 7:14 / 7:28 / 7:30 / 7:31 / 7:44 / 7:26
I made a stop at our local running store in the afternoon and got a bunch of the strawberry banana Gu so I would be set for May.
I felt pretty dehydrated all day so I chugged a lot of Nuun before I went to bed.
Sunday April 30
Plan says: 5 miles easy
What I Did: Yay! I think my sleep system is back on track. Or, at least I logged some sleep data for Saturday night. I woke up and my weather app said it wasn't raining so I got dressed, got my son going with breakfast, and went outside. It was lightly raining, and I probably could have stuck it out, but I was not in the mood so I changed and jumped on the treadmill. I was lucky that even though it rained the majority of days in April, today was the first 'mill day for me!
WOW. It was slow. I just had to gut this one out.
5 miles, 45:44 (9:09 avg pace)
Lucky for me, my aunt is a massage therapist and came to our house and set up her massage table and gave me a 90+ minute massage! It felt great. She said my legs were strong and felt very well balanced, which I took as a compliment. Great way to recover from a tough week!
Weekly Mileage:
Plan Says: 54
What I Did: 54.4
Sleep Data
I only logged sleep data for 4 of the 7 days.
Avg amount of sleep: 7.7 hours
Avg sleep score: 82
51% deep, 47% medium, 2% light
I am bummed that the 3 nights of missed data were three good nights of sleep. I'm sure I really averaged over 8 hours this week.
Podcasts
I listened to the rest of the Real Talk Radio with Nicole Antoinette interview with Kelly Roberts, Erin Taylor and Dr. Stephanie Howe Violett.
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Cellcom Green Bay Marathon Training: Week 14 Recap
Weeks that challenge you make you stronger, right? The challenging part of this week was being sick. I am still not 100% - this sore throat is NO joke, complete with the ITCHIEST eyes - but was able to complete the mileage due to reallocating missed mileage from mid-week across my remaining runs. This strategy worked well - I increased my Friday run by a mile and my weekend runs by 2 miles. ONE MONTH FROM TODAY IT IS GO TIME! AHHHHH! I am getting really excited, especially after watching Boston and London!
Monday Apr 17
Plan Says: 2 x 3 mile at 7:05/mile pace with 1 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down and 1 mile recovery between splits.
1 mile warm up, 8:21
Saturday Apr 22
12 miles, 1:25:36 (7:08 avg pace)
What I did: My goal was to do 9 miles, again to make up for the miles lost on Thursday. I set out after waking up at our normal 6 AM and it was a gorgeous morning. I was comfortable temperature-wise in tights and a long sleeve. I hit play on the podcast and just ran. This was a bit difficult to get into - my legs were definitely tired from Saturday - but my goal was just keep moving forward. Goal accomplished.
Weekly Total
Monday Apr 17
Plan Says: 2 x 3 mile at 7:05/mile pace with 1 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down and 1 mile recovery between splits.
What I did: I have been using my Sense sleep system alarm which wakes you up at the most optimal time in your sleep cycle within 30 minutes of your alarm time. This sometimes means that it wakes me up much earlier than my alarm. This morning was one of those instances. My 4:30AM alarm became 4:09AM. I didn't realize this until I had dressed and was about to put my contacts in. THAT is officially the earliest I have gotten up to run.
1 mile warm up: 8:38
3 miles, 20:36 (6:51 avg pace) (Mile splits: 6:57, 6:45, 6:52)
1 mile recovery: 8:28
3 miles, 20:30 (6:49 avg pace) (Mile splits: 6:48, 6:51, 6:49)
1.05 mile cool down, 9:11 (8:44 avg pace)
Total: 9.08 miles
I felt SO GOOD during this. SO GOOD. And check out those recovery miles?! I have figured out how to relax a bit :)
Tuesday Apr 18
Plan Says: Off
What I did: 0 miles. I attended a sports nutrition seminar at a local running store (Performance Running Outfitters) led by Annie Weiss. It was a great seminar. My favorite part was getting to taste the Honey Stinger waffles, which are amazing, as well as other gels. We were sent home with a free goodie bag, which, of course, I also loved.
Wednesday Apr 19
Plan Says: 9 mile tempo run at 7:15 pace, with 1 mile warm up and cool down.
What I did: I needed to be at the office by 7 AM at the latest to catch a bus to Madison for our annual Advocacy Day event. Another 430 alarm. I ran a warm up mile (yay me!) and then headed into the tempo. I struggled through this. My legs felt heavy which I kept reminding myself that they were supposed to feel heavy, as that is how Hansons Marathon Method works. They also may have felt extra tired because I was running FAST.
1 mile warm up, 8:21
9 miles, 1:02:41 (6:58 avg pace)
Mile splits: 7:16 / 7:06 / 7:07 / 6:52 / 6:48 / 6:54 / 6:50 / 6:53 / 6:55
1 mile, 8:10
This was the 3rd and final 9 mile tempo. Next week, I bump up to 10 mile tempos for 3 weeks. Here are my 9 mile tempos:
1:04:10
1:03:53
1:02:41
This was the 3rd and final 9 mile tempo. Next week, I bump up to 10 mile tempos for 3 weeks. Here are my 9 mile tempos:
1:04:10
1:03:53
1:02:41
Progressively getting faster? I'll take it!
Unfortunately as the day progressed, I was not feeling well. I initially thought my allergies were just really bad and that being out of the office + hard morning workout + early wakeup time was making me extra tired. I got home, ate dinner with my family and went to bed at 7:30. No joke.
Unfortunately as the day progressed, I was not feeling well. I initially thought my allergies were just really bad and that being out of the office + hard morning workout + early wakeup time was making me extra tired. I got home, ate dinner with my family and went to bed at 7:30. No joke.
Thursday Apr 20
Plan Says: easy 5 miles
What I did: My alarm went off at 5, or so my app says it did. I have no recollection of turning it off. My husband's alarm went off at 6AM and I felt like I had been hit by a bus. Really sore throat, swollen glands and body aches. YAY! I spent the day in bed, opting for an epsom salt bath mid-afternoon. By the time dinner rolled around, I could at least be mobile but again went to bed early - 8 PM.
0 miles.
0 miles.
Friday Apr 21
Plan Says: easy 8 miles
What I did: I set my alarm for 430 hoping that I would feel good enough to get some miles in. It was definitely hard to pull myself from bed, but it was a great improvement from the morning before. My goal was to at least get 5 miles in as I thought I would just shift all workouts one day. The first two miles were no joke. I ALMOST abandoned ship but then felt like I got in a rhythm. My watch beeped 5 miles, and then I felt like I could do one more mile. At some point after 6.5 miles, I switched my plan in my head opting to try to do the workout I was supposed to do for the day - 8 miles - and if I could squeeze a little more in, then maybe I could reallocate Thursday's 5 missed miles across all of my easy-paced runs this weekend. I ended up with 9 miles. They were slow, but they are done.
9 miles, 1:14:46 (8:18 avg pace)
Saturday Apr 22
Plan Says: 10 miles at long run pace - 7:54 for me
What I did: We had planned to participate in our city's Earth Day event all morning so my alarm was set for 5 AM to get this done beforehand. I was still zonked and my throat was raw so I turned off my alarm. This gave me a chance to run in sun and heat again as it was 60 degrees by the time I got out in the early afternoon.
I ran by feel - easy and relaxed. It turns out that today easy and relaxed was still faster than the 7:54 pace I should have been running. I also wanted to do 12 instead of 10 to make up for some of the miles lost on Thursday. I tried a different gel from my goody bag halfway through this run and had zero problems so maybe the PowerBar gels are for me? For the last two miles, I finished my podcast and switched to music and let it rip. Maybe not smart but felt good to fly.
I ran by feel - easy and relaxed. It turns out that today easy and relaxed was still faster than the 7:54 pace I should have been running. I also wanted to do 12 instead of 10 to make up for some of the miles lost on Thursday. I tried a different gel from my goody bag halfway through this run and had zero problems so maybe the PowerBar gels are for me? For the last two miles, I finished my podcast and switched to music and let it rip. Maybe not smart but felt good to fly.
12 miles, 1:25:36 (7:08 avg pace)
Mile splits: 7:10 / 7:28 / 7:33 / 7:29 / 7:08 / 7:10 / 7:14 / 7:21 / 7:13 / 7:03 / 6:25 / 6:20
Sunday Apr 23
Plan says: Easy 7 miles
What I did: My goal was to do 9 miles, again to make up for the miles lost on Thursday. I set out after waking up at our normal 6 AM and it was a gorgeous morning. I was comfortable temperature-wise in tights and a long sleeve. I hit play on the podcast and just ran. This was a bit difficult to get into - my legs were definitely tired from Saturday - but my goal was just keep moving forward. Goal accomplished.
9miles, 1:13:24 (8:08 avg pace)
Weekly Total
Plan says: 50 miles
What I did: 50.09 miles
Sleep
My sleep was decent this week. I started the week low (6.5 hours) but ended high due to being sick (Wednesday night alone I logged 10.5 hours of sleep!). My sense system does not account for naps, which basically Thursday was one long in/out nap in my bed. Still I was able to log a bit more sleep than last week which is good.
Avg nightly sleep duration this week: 7.8 hours (8.1 during week, 7.2 during weekend)
Avg sleep score: 79 (out of 100)
Sleep depth percentages: 60% deep, 35% medium, 5% light
Podcasts I Listened to On the Run
I tried two new-to-me podcasts this week - C Tolle Run and Real Talk Radio with Nicole Antoinette.
1.C Tolle Run. I listened to her interview with Kara Goucher and the interview with Kate Grace, two running idols of mine. And...Kate Grace responded with emojis to my Instagram post. #DayMade
2. Real Talk Radio. I started listening to Nicole Antoinette interview Kelly Roberts. It is a good interview and it definitely helped me through my Sunday run. I am looking forward to finishing it and diving into some of the other interviews.
1.C Tolle Run. I listened to her interview with Kara Goucher and the interview with Kate Grace, two running idols of mine. And...Kate Grace responded with emojis to my Instagram post. #DayMade
2. Real Talk Radio. I started listening to Nicole Antoinette interview Kelly Roberts. It is a good interview and it definitely helped me through my Sunday run. I am looking forward to finishing it and diving into some of the other interviews.
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