BAA Plan Week 2 & #RWRunStreak

The BAA Plan Week 2 has come to a close and once again I finished all four prescribed workouts, albeit still too fast for my target paces.

Workout 1:  1-2 mi warm up, 8 x 1/4 mi at half marathon pace (7:00-7:15) with 90 seconds of jogging in between, 1-2 mi cool down

1 mi warm up @ 7:48
8 x 1/4 mi (5:58-6:40 each, recovery jogs at 7:30-8:20 each)
1.3 mi cool down @ 7:38

Workout 2: 3-4 mi easy run (8:15 - 8:50)

4 mi @ 7:31

Workout 3: 4-5 mi aerobic run (7:50-8:10)

5 mi @ 7:00

Workout 4: Long Run: 7-9 mi easy (8:15 - 8:50)

10 mi @ 7:46

Thanksgiving day also started the #RWRunStreak challenge.  RW stands for Runner's World (magazine) and the challenge is to run at least one mile every.single.day from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.  37 days of consecutive running.

This will be a challenge for me because I already feel that 4 days of running per week is a challenge to fit in so my plan is to do the BAA plan workouts on 4 of the days and run 1 mile the other 3 days of the week.  This will make it more doable for me mentally and physically.  Wish me luck!

BAA Plan Week 1

In order to increase the consistency of my running, one of the tactics I am trying is following a plan.  The Boston Athletic Association has a number of training plans for the marathon.  I picked the level one plan as it is built around 4 days of running/week, an optimal amount for me.  Week 1 kicked off 11/16 and I am proud to say that I nailed all four of the workouts.

One thing I really like about this plan is that it features fairly specific paces for each workout based on what your goal marathon finish time is.  I picked a marathon finish goal time of 3:15.  Yes that's pretty fast - and would be a big PR for me, but it is my "conditions are ideal, training was ideal" goal.  Based on that, here are my goal pace times:

Easy Run: 8:15 - 8:50
Aerobic Runs: 7:50-8:10
Marathon Pace Runs/Intervals; 7:25-7:35
Half Marathon Pace Runs/Intervals: 7:00-7:15
10K Pace Intervals: 6:40 - 6:55
5K Pace Intervals: 6:20-6:30

On that note, the paces seem so SLOW.  I'm sure I won't be saying that once the workouts ramp up, but the most difficult piece of week 1 was running much slower than I am used to, even for "fast" workouts.

Workout 1:  1-2 mi warm up, 8 x 1/4 mi at half marathon pace (7:00-7:15) with 90 seconds of jogging in between, 1-2 mi cool down

1.43 mi warm up @ 7:42
8 x 1/4 mi (6:12-6:29 each, recovery jogs at 7:50-8:05 each)
1.44 mi cool down @ 7:52

Workout 2: 3-4 mi easy run (8:15 - 8:50)

4 mi @ 7:49

Workout 3: 4-5 mi aerobic run (7:50-8:10)

5 mi @ 7:12

Workout 4: Long Run: 7-9 mi easy (8:15 - 8:50)

10 mi @ 7:44

Struggles

I haven't blogged much and as my last post indicated, my running has been a little all over the place.

1. I was/am trying hard to become a "morning runner".  Unfortunately, I seem to forgot that becoming a morning runner requires me to be a nighttime sleeper.  What does it mean to be a nighttime sleeper? First, I would have to go to bed earlier.  Most nights I am trying to get to bed between 9:30 and 10:00.  Even if I wasn't trying to get up by 5 to run, I am still really tired when my non-morning-run alarm goes off at 5:30.  SO.  I should be trying to go to bed earlier.  Given that the end of the day is the only time I have for myself, I have a hard time giving it up.

Second, I haven't really slept through the night in a while.  Sometimes it is one of my children that is waking me up.  Sometimes it is the mouse that lives in our attic, evading the trap we have sent.  Sometimes I have to pee.  Regardless of what wakes me up, I have tremendous difficulty getting back to sleep because my thoughts start wandering.  If I manage to fall back asleep, the alarm at 5:30 often gets snoozed until 6:15.  And then boy am I really late. 

Third, running in the morning just doesn't FEEL the same as running at the end of the day.  Yes, it's nice to be done and have the full evening free.  But at the end of the day, when my body is tense as all hell, the run helps loosen that up.  And running in the morning isn't really preventing that from occurring in the first place.  Maybe I haven't given it enough data points to really make a sound judgment on that one, though.

I'm still going to attempt getting a morning run in.

2. I was in no man's land.  I don't have a training plan for right now and my next race isn't until January.  I have found that I do well when I have a plan to follow.  SO, i remedied that in a two pronged approach.  1) The training plans created for the Boston marathon start today! 2) I have asked a friend's coach husband for help with my marathon training plan, which likely will start post-Christmas.  My weeks from now until 4/18 will be more regimented!

Short and Sweet, Trick or Treat

It's October 30 already?

Where the hell did this month go?

Running has been absymal lately in terms of it hasn't been happening.

The End.

Getting PUMPED for the marathon

Deena Kastor broke the US Masters Marathon record today at the Chicago Marathon! Woot woot!

Having access to Oiselle team pages on Facebook and thus having marathon posts throughout my Facebook feed has really gotten me pumped to run another marathon...on an emotional level.  If I start to think about all those training workouts and miles I start to get less excited, I'll admit :)

This is very evident in my training log for the last week:  26.1 miles.  Holy Schnikey!  (Here is the part where I clue you into the fact that this is a lot for me.)  I EVEN GOT MY BUTT OUT OF BED ON TWO mornings to get workouts in before work!  I am going to make an effort to do this at least two days during the work week.  It does make me really tired (more so than if I ran at night), but it is nice not to feel rushed at night thinking "Hurry up - get kids to bed".   And while it is dark now in the mornings, it is dark at night when I run too - at least the mornings will lighten up with daylight savings time.

If I run before work, I have a short run - 30 minutes and some change.  I get up at 5, throw clothes on, get the run in and dive into the morning routine to get out the door by 6:45 so I can be to work by 7.  It's somewhat of a challenge but doable.  Once I have to stretch those runs out longer, I don't know if I can get up any earlier than 5.

I finished a yoga for runners seminar at our local yoga studio.  It was Ah-Maze-ING.  I am really sad that the instructor doesn't do regular classes.  She gave us some handouts to do a routine at home - but we all know how yoga at my house goes (pssst.  It doesn't).

Marathon training starts 12/28/15.  I don't have a plan selected yet...thinking about hiring out for that.  I may just use the same plan I used for the Wisconsin Marathon last May too.  I have 78 days to decide.

In the next 78 days...I have nothing.  I have not signed up for any races before 4/18/16.  I still am hoping to find a good 5K to give the sub 19 one more try.

That time I won a half-marathon!

1:33:23

MY NEW HALF-MARATHON PR BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know.  What the hell?!  All of that speedwork must be improving my long distance game, is all I can say.
(Part of me is like, if I can shave 2 minutes off my half marathon PR, can I please shave 20 seconds off the 5k?!? #ungrateful)

Backing up a bit, my Oiselle racing singlet arrived on Tuesday last week.  It was, as expected, too large (because I ordered a size large instead of a medium...dumb). The length was great, the width was not (#LongTorsoProblems).  I was going to attempt to take it in but I was nervous I would screw it up.  So on Thursday night, I decided to try running a few miles with it and see how it felt.  It was fine.  I mean, a little baggier than I would like, but I felt it would be fine to wear on Saturday.  (My mom has since given me some advice so I can still take it in.)

We left for Sheboygan Friday afternoon and got checked into our hotel room.  The kids were excited because the hotel had a water park in it AND my best friend was coming with her family too.  (She was running the 10K).  We went out to eat as a big group on Friday night and tucked into bed.

Unfortunately my 22 month old son kept up his new routine of waking up in the middle of the night, screaming MAMA!!!!!!!  The hubs and I aren't exactly firing on a full night's sleep lately.  And double suck that it's in a hotel room - so you really HAVE to get out of bed and get him to be quiet, for the neighbor's sake!  The hotel beds were not exactly comfortable so while I would like to say I went into it well rested, it was not the case.  On a postive note, I took advantage of the wake time to get more hydration in!

Race time was 8 AM.  We were up at 6:30 going to get breakfast.  Of course, I should have thought about breakfast, but I didn't so we were stuck eating gross expensive cereal from the hotel coffee shop.  I dug in my bag and came upon a Larabar so it wasn't all bad.

Finally, we were off to walk to the start.  I was going to try to start out with 7:30 miles and see how it went.  The gun went off, I started my watch, and we were off.

The race I did was not a large race - 179 half marathon entrants.  My friend was trying to get me to win it based on last year's times and I was laughing because while the winning times of previous year's races weren't out of reach, I felt they were based on my training level.  However, heading into a huge hill at mile 1, I was in 4th place (ladies).  Mile 1 was 7:00 on the dot.  I felt really good but also worried that if I kept this up, i would be dying at the end so I tried slowing down.  Mile 2 was 6:56.   Somewhere before Mile 3, I found myself in 2nd place.  I was going to try to keep the first place woman in my sights and see what happened.

The course was an out and back course.  As we got to the turnaround point, I was still in 2nd and the gap between the first place woman and I was about the same.  I still felt good and my miles were in low 7s (Mile 3 7:02, Mile 4 6:53, Mile 5 7:11, Mile 6 7:05.

After turning around, we of course were meeting all the runners and I was totally pumped up by all the people, women especially, who were cheering for me.  [The course was very quiet, but pretty, well marked and with ample water stations (every mile to 1.5 miles).]  I closed the gap and was running with first place by Mile 7: 7:06.   I felt good, but didn't want to pull ahead too early and lose it.  However, I am not used to running with people either so that was driving me crazy.  I decided to gamble and pull ahead.  Mile 8: 7:02.  I encouraged the woman to stay with me and wasn't sure if she did.

Now I was in no man's land.  Not really sure where she was behind me, and not wanting to turn around to check.  There was no one in sight ahead of me either.  Clearly it shows in my next miles:  Mile 9 7:11, Mile 10: 7:18, Mile 11 7:19.  I took a Gu near the 10 mile mark, anticipating the water stop.  Salted caramel goodness....Yum!

By Mile 11, I was like "I am going to win this thing no matter what."  I tried to hang on and got to Mile 12 in 7:14.  My legs were hurting but I also didn't want to lose!  I still had no idea if she was right behind me or what.  I had caught up to 2 guys and passed one of them.  As I rounded the corner to the finish, I was a few steps behind the other guy and I saw my best friend and my daughter and my BF yelled, "C'mon Ames - you can get that guy".  So I dug in and passed him  My last mile was 6:55.  Finished in 1:33:23.  4th place overall and 1st place woman and a new half marathon PR.  I WAS PUMPED! (2nd place woman finished in 1:36:27).

The great September racing calendar has come to an end.  3 races in a month.  It was a lot - my family is definitely tired of races.  "Why do we always have to go watch mom run?" was heard out of my 5 year old's mouth over the weekend.

Yet...I still think a 5K under 19 is achievable this year.  I'm considering another small one on 10/11.  Stay tuned!

Next up: Half Marathon

September has been CRAY CRAY.  It always is.  This is not a shock.

I am running a half marathon on Saturday.  What the hell was I thinking?  I have not exactly trained to run this thing, which makes me even more curious about how it will go.

I ran 10.28 miles on September 5.  I felt good during it.  My avg pace throughout was 7:25, so I am going to shoot for finishing in less than that which would be around 1:37.  This may be a bit ambitious.  I typed in my race prediction time from my recent 8K time and it was 1:29:45.  With my recent 5K time, it was 1:28:07.  That of course presumes one trains for the actual 13.1 mile distance!

The only other distance work was a 27 mile bike ride that my husband and I did on September 13, but that was not exactly pushing the pace.  Still, my legs were sore the next day!

I really like the half marathon and have said that I would love to train specifically for one and try to see how fast I could do it.  Unfortunately, most of my half marathon experience is more haphazard than that.  My half PR is 1:35:22, just shy of 7:17 pace.

I have commented before that I have felt like a slug lately, particularly while racing.  I definitely need to get back to a more consistent training plan (this summer has been ALL over the place) and incorporate some strength work.  Fall goals....before Boston Marathon training starts after the holidays!!! (I received my official acceptance email last Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

What I am REALLY hoping is that my Oiselle singlet gets here before Saturday's race! It shipped last week!