Marathon Training Week 14

I just realized I never posted this - oops!

I was less than faithful to my training plan this week. We were up to the lake house until the middle of the week and after getting my second 20 miler in, I was just not feeling very motivated.

Monday - Cross Training

I took a rest day after running 20 on Sunday. We went out on the boat and generally relaxed.

Tuesday - 5 miles 

I was really tired for some reason, so I finished a book rather than going for a run. I also did a little stand up paddle boarding in the afternoon.

I'm not sorry.

Wednesday - 6 miles

We were on the road home most of the day, and a run just didn't happen. The dogs were pretty excited to come home from the place we board them. Then they promptly passed out.

Thursday - 5 miles

I decided since I had missed a couple of runs that I would turn this run into a bit of a tempo run. It felt pretty good and I managed an 8:43 minute mile. I also did 30 minutes of yoga when I got home.

5.03 miles @ 9:32 pace

Friday - Rest day

Oh you know I have those down!

Saturday - 6 miles

The humidity was back full-force for my morning run with the Rivertown Runners. This whole run was just blah. One of the people I usually run with wasn't feeling it either, and we took the shorter way back to our cars. It was just one of those days.

5.28 miles @ 9:57 pace

Sunday - 12 miles

The humidity was a little better for this run, and I generally felt pretty good.

12.01 miles @ 11:07 pace

Weekly Mileage - 22.32

I don't feel too badly about this week of training. Yes, my mileage was a little lower than it was supposed to be, but it was a good mental break. This training plan is a long one, and I think I needed a little extra step back.

I have one more big week of running before I start tapering!

Unbalanced

I went and got a massage today. There was a good deal through Groupon the other day and I figured it couldn't hurt what with my random injury. And, really, I'm not one to turn down a massage.

Apparently the right side of my hip was higher than the left, which might be causing some of my issues. Hopefully that means I'll be back out on the road again soon.

I sat down yesterday and sorted out my training plan for Steamtown this fall. I had been debating getting a coach for this training cycle, but decided to see how things go on my own. Mostly because I know myself and my tendency to not listen well when people tell me what to do - even if I'm asking them for their help.

I'm going to use the Hal Higdon Intermediate 2 plan this year. I used Intermediate 1 last year and it worked out really well.

There's nothing more fun than harassing Buddy by taking pictures of him.

Silly dog.

Marathon Training Week 12

This week was a bit of a mess, training-wise. Construction started on the house, we had record temperatures, and honestly, my motivation kind of dropped this week. I'm hoping to hit reset next week. It's the last tough week before the taper, and then I will apparently be running a marathon...

Monday: Cross Training. Does playing/swimming around in a friend's pool count? Because that's all I did on Monday. I also ate a lot, because that's what happens every time we go to their house.

Tuesday: 5 miles. Tuesday was the first day of construction on the house, it was also so hot that we broke records. I did not run. I did move a bunch of furniture out of the living room and tried to avoid going outside.

Wednesday: 5 miles. It was still really hot on Wednesday, and I was not organized enough to wake up early to run. Tom and I ended up doing a quick run in the evening up to the park near our house and back. It was still hot, but we figured it was better than nothing. 2.17 miles @ 9:20

Thursday: 5 miles. This run started out very whiny and grumpy. Right as I hit my halfway/turnaround point, it started absolutely pouring. I love running in the rain, and the second half of my run was not only much happier, it was much faster too! 5.04 miles @ 8:54

Friday: Rest day. I debated adding a run on Friday to make up for the rest of the week, but I knew I had a half on Sunday, so I ended up just taking the rest day.

Saturday: 8 miles. Holy procrastination, I did not want to run. At. All. I put this run off for way too long, and decided to cut it a little short so I didn't go into my half on completely exhausted legs. And ok, I also wanted to be done by noon because I had college football to watch. Priorities. I hated everything about this run, and felt like I was running through water. 5.03 @ 9:36

Sunday: 12 miles. I honestly don't even feel strongly enough to write a full recap about this race. I ran the Putnam County Fall Classic this morning. It's a little small-town race (so small there were only 4 porta-potties!), but it was really well organized, and one of the only races I've run lately that started on time. The course was really pretty, but a lot hillier than I expected it to be.

I started out feeling pretty good. I was cruising along, not even really pushing and knocking out miles between 8:26 and 9:08 pace until around mile 7. The sun came out and I hit a serious hill. I may as well have been running in sand. Everything felt hard, and my right hip started hurting. I walked through water stations, and up some hills. I make it sound really awful, and it felt pretty awful, but my slowest mile was only 10:39, so it's not like I was really dragging.

I managed a bit of a sprint at the end because a woman decided to try to pass me on the last downhill, and I was not in the mood to be passed. She didn't pass me.

I was really mad/disappointed after I finished, but I think a lot of it was the weather. My heart rate was really high the entire race, so I think the heat/humidity hurt me more than I realized at the time. Now it's time to get back into training mode for my last pre-taper week.

13.1 miles @ 9:29

Miles this week: 25.34

Marathon Training Week 10

I'm a pretty big fan of cutback weeks. I hit my mileage this week, and had a couple of good runs.

Even though my pace hasn't been where I want it to be (I'm still blaming summer weather and the hills around here), some of the hills that I run all the time haven't felt as steep lately. I'm not saying that the hills aren't tough, but I feel like I'm finally feeling stronger.

Monday: Cross training. My lazy yoga game is still going strong. One hour of yoga, followed by some headstand practice where I didn't fall right and tweaked my neck. It was better after a few days, but it definitely put a damper on some of my runs.

Tuesday: 5 miles. My neck was sore from my yoga wipe out and my legs were sore from my long run. I mostly just wanted to stop the entire time. 5 miles @ 10:04

Wednesday: 5 miles. I felt way better for this run. My neck and legs felt a lot better, and it was a little cooler out. I'm so ready for fall to get here. 5.06 miles @ 9:21

Thursday: 5 miles. Remember when I was insanely tired last week? I made it until later in the week this time, but it caught up to me again. I may have actually napped for a little while this time. Tom insists that I was asleep at one point, but I didn't feel like I did.

Friday: Rest day. I decided to get Thursday's run in on Friday. It didn't feel amazing, but it was faster than earlier in the week. There was a noticeable difference as the soreness from my long run subsided. 5.03 miles @ 9:10

Saturday: 8 mile pace run. This run made me a little nervous. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hit a goal pace (9:00) since I haven't been very speedy lately. It ended up being a really good run, and a nice boost of confidence. 8 miles @ 8:52

Sunday: 13 miles. You know you're marathon training when you say, "I only have 13 miles today." Only. I guess it's all relative! This run definitely felt short compared to last weekend's 18 miles, It was a pretty uneventful run overall, though I could have done without the humidity. 13 miles @ 10:18

Miles this week: 36.09

I didn't run today

I was exhausted from the minute my alarm went off this morning. And I'm not talking the normal level of tired that I feel when my alarm goes off, this was a crazy, extreme level of tired.

I even tried to nap this afternoon (it didn't work), which I never do unless I'm sick.

The thing is, I'm not sick, but I have been bad about going to bed at a reasonable hour. And, oh yeah, I'm training for a marathon, so maybe I should be better about getting a decent amount of sleep.

It feels really weird to take an unplanned rest day when I'm not injured, but I decided it was better to miss a 5 mile easy run than to risk missing a more important run later in the week. Wasn't that responsible of me?

So now I'm off to eat some Chinese food and get myself to bed early.

I'll just leave this here.

Race Sign Up and Running Again!

I was amazingly lazy on Sunday. We had freezing rain pretty much all day long, and I spent most of my day researching races, reading blogs and watching tv.

Freezing rain is dumb.

Buddy was terrified while Tom cooked dinner, so I threw his blanket on him. He stayed like this for about an hour.

He has such a rough life.

The result of all my race research is that I'm now officially signed up for 3 half marathons!

West Point Half Marathon - March 29th
Rhinebeck Hudson Valley Half Marathon - May 16th
Walkway Half Marathon - June 13th

The Rhinebeck and Walkway races are new, it's the first year for both of them. I think I have run more races in their first year than I have run established races. I have never been signed up for more than one half marathon at a time, it's weird for me to be planning my entire year of racing at once.

I'm almost 100% decided on a marathon, but registration doesn't open up for most fall marathons until April, so we'll see if I'm still stuck on the same one come April.

I ran today!

I haven't run since my painful, aborted tempo run last Thursday. My ankle has been feeling a lot better, and I took it slow. I did a legitimate warmup (which I don't always do) and stopped to stretch (and do some mountain climbers for the #NoExcuses challenge) every mile. I ended up running 3.13 miles in 30 minutes. I'm just happy that I got to run!

And yes, I iced after I was finished.

Hopefully this means I can get back to my training plan this week.

Buddy did as much adventuring as his leash would allow this afternoon. I think he was just happy the temperature was above freezing.

Do you plan your race schedule for the year all at once or do you like to play it by ear?

I was smart for once

I'm really grumpy.

I woke up kind of grumpy, but I was making progress up until my run. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but I only made it through my warmup and the first mile at tempo. My ankle, which was feeling tight and a little off earlier this week decided that it definitely does not want to run.

The thing is, I don't remember doing anything to it. The best I can figure is I might have twisted it at some point on Monday or Tuesday. I noticed it was a little off after my run on Tuesday, but it was nothing to cause concern. Today on my run there was definite pain.

For once in my running life, I was smart, and stopped. I'm giving it a couple of days off and hopefully it will feel better. At least it's happening now, and not closer to my next race.

In happier news: I made brownies today!

I kind of made them up and can probably never duplicate them, but they're really good. They are dark chocolate brownies with a peanut butter cream cheese swirl type thing and mini chocolate chips (for good measure).

I sliced a million brussel sprouts without cutting myself on the mandoline I got Tom for his birthday. That's because I wore the gloves that he is too cool for.

Dinner tonight is going to be those brussels with bacon, roasted butternut squash and pork chops. Now I just have to stop myself from eating ALL the brownies so I will still want dinner! :)

Are you a recipe follower or do you prefer the trial and error method?

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Lounging and Cleaning

This is what a lot of Saturday afternoon looked like:

Buddy's a good cuddler for lazy afternoons. Or anytime really.

Today was a rest day for me. My training plan for the West Point Half starts on Monday, so I'd like to start off with some well-rested legs. Plus, rest days are good for you :)

There's something exciting about the start of a new training plan. I like thinking about all the miles I'm going to run. Looking at training plans is always fun, and they make me feel like I'm getting the necessary work done to have a successful race day.

This morning we cleaned the house so someone could come look at it - now we just need someone to make an offer! I always say it, but it's nice when the house is clean.

After the showing we did some serious lounging (Tom and Buddy napped, I still can't nap - I just lay there). Dinner was BLTs with chips and guacamole, and now we're thinking about going watch a movie in the basement.

That's our thrilling weekend, aren't you jealous of our glamorous life? ;)

Race Sign Up, Strength Training and Crab

I took my rest day on Sunday very seriously. Mostly unintentionally.

I was ridiculously tired from not sleeping well on Friday and waking up early on Saturday to run, so I ended up sleeping in. Really sleeping in.

Ok, I woke up at 10:58.

The day mostly consisted of catching up on blogs and digging through boxes in the basement for all of my workout dvds - I did manage to do some laundry though!

And we watched Divergent. It was cute - Hunger Games is better though.

I also signed up for my first race of the year - the West Point Half Marathon at the end of March. It's hilly. Crazy hilly. One of my weekend running buddies ran it last year and is running it again this year, so we are now planning to harass convince some our other weekend runners to join us.

Good thing I got my new training journal in the mail over the weekend!

Today I reinforced the knowledge that while I can run for hours, I have really minimal muscle strength when it comes to anything else.

I did a Jillian Michaels dvd and wanted to die for about half of it. I guess that means I should do it more than once a year.

She's so mean.

You should definitely be jealous of our dinner tonight. For Christmas, my mom sent us a big box of fish and some king crab.

Merry Christmas to us!

Buddy's had an exhausting day of napping. It's a rough life.

Do you do any workout videos?

Are you a cardio addict or are you good about strength training?

Weirdly excited to run on the treadmill

Yesterday was a rest day, and I take my rest days very seriously (mostly).

I spent a lot of time slogging through that packet of paperwork - I'm finally done - and Tom and I talked houses. The house we have looked at a few times pretty much needs an entire kitchen, so we were looking at appliances and how much it would cost to make it a kitchen we would be really excited about.

Turns out we have expensive taste.

Buddy takes the sunshine very seriously.

I was weirdly excited to run on my treadmill today. Don't get me wrong, I like running outside sometimes, but since my challenge had to be outside, I didn't really want to do it.

Five happy, sweaty miles done - at 8:45 pace! I was pretty excited about how good I felt running at that speed, running faster is finally getting easier! :)

Gilmore Girls kept me company, as usual. I'm addicted.

And I'm trying something new for dinner.

That's pork loin with apples, onions and honey. I found the recipe HERE. I mostly followed it.

I haven't done much cooking in the slow cooker, so we'll see how it turns out.

Post Race Recovery

Happy Wednesday!

My mom and I spent most of yesterday playing with a 12 month old. There are worse ways to spend your day.

Buddy was pouting because Tom was hanging out with a friend in the city.

I haven't even attempted a run yet. On Monday, Mom and I took Buddy for a long walk, but otherwise I have been taking it easy.

How long do you take off after a race? It really varies for me, mostly depending on how sore I am, and how long the race is. I have seen recommendations to rest anywhere from 5-13 days after a half. Generally, I take a few days completely off, and then hold off on any tough workouts for close to two weeks. I've even been trying to stretch and foam roll this time around.

I definitely pushed myself on Sunday, so I still have some pretty sore muscles. Plus, having my mom here is a good excuse to take it easy for a few extra days. :)