Marathon Training Week 8

Monday: Cross Training. I almost didn't do anything because I taught extra classes on Monday (I'm teaching preschool gymnastics classes) and I was really tired, but I convinced myself to do a quick 30 minutes of yoga. I have actually noticed a bit more flexibility since I started consistently doing yoga. Go figure.

Tuesday: 4 miles. I turned my watch display to distance, and ran by feel. It was a good run overall. 4.05 miles @ 9:17 pace.

Wednesday: 8 miles. This run was a lesson/reminder that food is fuel and if you try to run 8 miles without eating enough throughout the day, it won't go well. While my pace ended up being decent, I just felt like I was dragging the entire run. 8.11 miles @ 9:16 pace.

Thursday: 4 miles. Tom decided to run 5k, so we ran the first mile and a half together. There's something about having that second pair of shoes hitting the pavement that makes a run feel easier. I was feeling good and pushed the pace a bit on the way home (we both ran out and back). 4 miles @ 8:52 pace.

Friday: Rest day. Indeed. We went to a bar near our house to watch some preseason football. I had more beer than I should have and stayed up way later than I should have.

Saturday: 8 miles. I was thisclose to not running at all, but I got my new hydration pack and wanted to try it out before my 17 miler on Sunday. It was not a good run, but I felt better when I got home, and I was glad that I made myself get out the door. 4 miles @ 9:43 pace.

Sunday: 17 miles. I was up at 5 and out the door a little after 6. I was super impressed with myself. I'm not so good at getting out the door early in the morning. My new hydration pack worked out nicely, I like it a lot better than the waist belt - less bouncing! I somehow managed to run an even hillier course than last weekend, 1762 feet of elevation according to my watch. I'm hoping all these hills give me super powers. 17 miles @ 10:51 pace.

Miles this week: 37.16

17 Miles and A New Hydration Pack

Did you know that there is nothing on tv at 5 am? It's all infomercials. I was up early this morning to get my long run in before it got too hot out and had very limited tv options.

I started watching The Walking Dead until I realized that watching zombies before I went for a run outside in the mostly dark was probably not the best life choice. I found some I Love Lucy episodes to watch while I drank my coffee instead. It was super dark out, and I didn't want to start out in the total darkness. I had to look up when sunrise was going to be, and the sky had lightened up a bit by the time I was out the door.

I know I say this after every long run, but 17 miles is far you guys! I took my new hydration pack (it's a TETON Sports Trailrunner 2.0) for a spin, and I like it way better than my fuel belt that I have been running with. It's easier to take sips of water, and I don't feel the weight of the water as much as I do with the belt. The best part is that it was less than $24 from Amazon (depending on color choice).

I've given up on worrying about the pace of my long runs. I can't seem to find anywhere near the house that isn't insanely hilly. This week was even worse than last week - over 1700 feet of elevation. I can't help but walk on some of the steeper sections - it's usually faster to walk than to try to run up them, and walking is not good for my long run morale. I like to be able to keep my legs moving.

Every once in a while I get caught up in all the blogs and social media and start to feel like it's no big thing to wake up at 5am to run 17 miles. Doesn't everyone do that, and don't they do it faster than me?

No, they don't. And even if I'm not the fastest (I'm not), it's still a really cool and very hard thing I'm doing, no matter how run of the mill social media makes it seem.

I ran 17 miles today, and that's the most I've ever run at one time - how cool is that? :)


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Sriracha on Everything!

I don't have anything terribly exciting for you today, so instead you're getting a bit of a photo dump. We have major house projects in the works - there are architects and kitchen layout people involved. Right now though, it's a lot of waiting. Things will get extra crazy around here soon.

Buddy is still working on being outside by himself. Sometimes he's ok with it, and sometimes he acts like we're torturing him. He's still terrible at fetch.

My computer sucks. It spent about an hour and a half like this yesterday.

One day soon it will be replaced. You hear that computer? Replaced!

Buddy is still cute. And he still sleeps in strange ways.

This new sriracha seasoning is delicious. We have been putting it on just about everything lately. A little goes a long way, but it's really good.

I had some more of what I refer to as "energy pop rocks" from my RunnerBox. I have zero idea if it did anything because I definitely didn't eat enough this afternoon and I was dragging on my run. Mostly I think they're fun. And they make me want pop rocks.

This is how I keep my shoes right now - I only have a few running shoes...and ok, that's not even all of them. But some of them are trail shoes, and some are road shoes, and some I race in...

We're still not really unpacking since we're going to start work on the house soon. No point in unpacking just to box things up again to get them out of the construction zone.

In other exciting news: Tiny (one of my very best friends) is coming to visit in 3 weeks!

Marathon Training Week 7

These weeks keep flying by! Apparently there are less than 9 weeks until Steamtown - I've got a lot of running to do between now and then!

I messed with my plan a bit this week, since I missed last week's long run. This week was supposed to be a cut back week, but I clearly didn't need one.

Monday: Cross training. I did yoga again this week! I've really been liking my new yoga app, and it's getting me to do some extra stretching. I especially like that there are time options ranging from 5 minutes to 60 minutes. Handy little app.

Tuesday: 4 miles. This run was my breaking point with the heat. I just felt awful and realized how dumb it was for me to run in the heat when I didn't have to. In happier news, I actually did 15 minutes of yoga when I got home to stretch out. 4.01 miles @ 9:29 pace

Wednesday: 6 miles. I waited until it cooled off a bit before I went out for this run. I was feeling good, and pushed the pace a little bit. It felt good to go faster! Hit up some yoga when I got home again. I know stretching is good for me, I'm just really bad about it. 6.01 miles @ 8:44 pace

Thursday: 4 miles. Set my watch to distance and ran by feel for this run. I felt good! I was also pleasantly surprised by my pace when I got home. 4.01 miles @ 8:55 pace

Friday: Rest day. I honestly can't even remember what I did on Friday, but I know I didn't run. Gold star for my short term memory!

Saturday: Rest day. Nope. I added this run since I didn't need a cut back week. I waited until too late in the morning and I really should have just waited until evening, but I didn't. It was hot by the time I got home, and I wasn't happy. 6.01 miles @ 9:26 pace

Sunday: 13 miles. I decided to run last week's 15 miles instead of 13. I was up bright and early and actually managed to get myself out the door by 7:20, which is impressive for me. Mornings and I are still not friends. I ran in an area that I have only driven before, and I never realized how hilly it was. Seriously, look at the elevation:

I'm not crazy about the pace, but given the hills I'm ok with it.

I just sat down in the front yard when I got home. It seemed as good a place as any.

I'm definitely feeling the hills this evening, but at least I feel like I'm back on track with my training plan. I may pick a different route for my long run next weekend. 15.02 miles @ 11:03 pace

Miles this week: 35.06

Killed It.

Check it out: I did yoga again today, and I waited to run until it was a reasonable temperature out. 

I absolutely killed my run today! 

Go figure. 

I didn't look at my pace at all, though I did check the time every few miles. I was pushing myself a bit because I was feeling good (for the first time in a few weeks), and I was pleasantly surprised by my 8:44 average pace. Check out my splits! 

1. 9:42

2. 8:54

3. 8:57

4. 8:46

5. 8:18

6. 7:45

I was pretty happy when I got home.

Buddy helped me stretch.

And then he took over my yoga mat. I'm not sure what pose he was going for, but I think his form could use a little work.

Since I pushed a little harder than I probably should have on my run, I spent some quality time with my new socks. Hopefully they will keep my legs from hating me tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!

Just Plain Stupid

The downstairs bathroom confuses Buddy. If you go in there, he's pretty sure you have left the house. He patrols upstairs and checks all the rooms to try to figure out where you've gone. The upstairs bathroom he understands, and if the shower is on, he knows someone is in there, so he'll hang out at the top of the stairs or in the office to wait for you to come out.

Buddy is extra fancy right now with his new pirate bandana from the kennel where he stayed while we were at the lake house.

I came home to fun mail the other day - a pair of Pro Compression Marathon socks that I won off of Sally's blog. She also has an adorable dog, so if you need more cute dog pictures in your life, you should definitely check her blog out HERE.

I think my body glide is officially dead. It's been limping along for a while, and I should probably track some down one of these days.

I finally hit my breaking point on running in the heat today. I made a promise to my body that I would stop trying to run in the middle of the day on hot days. It's not intentional, it's just when I like to run. I hate waking up early, and when I try to run later in the day, I tend to skip it. But these last few weeks have shown me that I need to suck it up, listen to my body, and run a little smarter. Trying to push through the heat is just plain stupid.

So, at least on super hot days, I'm going to either run early, or late. It's going to happen.

Probably.

Buddy helped me with some yoga after my run today. Looking cute is helpful, right? He's really good at it.

Marathon Training Week 6

This week was a tough one. I wasn't good about managing my time, it was hot, and we went up to the lake house. I was actually feeling like I fell off the training plan because I didn't get my long run in, but when I actually look over my training log, I hit every other goal for the week. One missed run isn't going to wreck my training.

Monday: Cross training. I did an hour of yoga with my new yoga app. It's called Yoga Studio, and while I feel like the instructor voice is a little too breathy for my taste, I really like the app so far. The beginner level poses are actually things I can do (there's nothing like an impossibly difficult pose to make me instantly stop doing yoga) and they're really well explained too.

Tuesday: 4 miles. Tuesday is when the well pump died and we didn't have any water. It was a late run, hot and humid. I also wanted to go home pretty much the whole time. I wouldn't have gone out at all, but Tom had a run as part of his workout and we started out together. 4 miles @ 9:48 pace.

Wednesday: 7 miles. I really should have woken up early and run before work, but I didn't. Instead, I ran in the heat and walked up a lot of the hills. It was the hottest day of the year (so far) and I have no one to blame but myself for this run. 7.01 miles @ 10:39 pace.

Thursday: 4 miles. We were planning to leave right after work to head to the lake house, so I actually woke up early to run. And then I tried to convince Tom that I should go back to sleep. He had 5k to run for his workout, so he convinced me to lace up and hit the road. 4.02 miles @ 9:24 pace.

Representing Rivertown Runners on the boat dock

Friday: Rest day. I had major plans to get my runs in while we were at the lake house. I was planning on shifting things around and taking my rest day on Sunday. It didn't quite work out as planned. Friday I worked my way through a disturbing number of bugs (I don't even want to talk about it) and polished off 7.18 miles at 9:40 pace.

Saturday: 7 miles. Saturday ended up being a relaxing day at the lake house. We spent some time out on the boat and lounging/reading by the dock. Not a bad way to spend a day!

Sunday: 15 miles. This just didn't happen. It's a 6 hour drive from the lake house back to our house, and I had some things I wanted to get done once we got back. While missing my long run for the week makes me feel like a bit of a failure for the week, I realize that one missed run isn't going to make that big of a difference in the long run.

I'm short on miles for the week, but I'm putting it behind me and ready to take on my next week of training. I'm hoping the heat will cut me some slack and I'll be able to pick up the pace a little bit. It would be good for my mental health.

Miles this week: 22.21