Marathon Training Week 11

Oh, hey! I have been very busy spending all my time hanging out with Tiny this week. We picked her up at the airport on Wednesday, and I've barely touched my computer since she got here. There has been a nice balance of relaxing and visiting at the house, and playing tourist around the area and down in NYC.

I managed to have a pretty successful week of running (I did skip one run) and finally hit that notorious distance of 20 miles.

Monday: Cross Training. Monday feels like such a long time ago, but my training log insists that I did an hour of yoga on Monday.

Tuesday: 5 miles. It was super humid out, but I was much less sore from my (short) long run than I was last week, which was nice. 5 miles @ 9:41

Wednesday: 8 miles. I woke up early to get this run in before work. It was cooler, but still humid out. I had a serious negative split and came up a little short on mileage because I was running out of time and had to book it back to the house. 7.46 miles @ 9:23

Thursday: 5 miles. I was very busy visiting with Tiny, and it was also ridiculously hot out, so Thursday ended up being a rest day. And an eat saltwater taffy day, because Tiny brought some from Oregon.

Friday: Rest Day. Squeezed in Thursday's 5 miler on Friday. I didn't write any notes about this run in my training log, so apparently it was pretty uneventful! We also did a little hiking around on our property. 5.03 miles @ 8:52

Saturday: 5 miles. This run didn't happen. We took the train down to the city to take Tiny to some touristy places. We had lunch at Katz's deli, rode the Staten Island Ferry so she could see the Statue of Liberty, and made a quick stop at Central Park. We walked all over the place, and were pretty much on our feet all day. Totally what you're supposed to do the day before a long run, right?

Sunday: 20 miles. I turned my alarm off in my sleep. I never even heard it. I woke up to the coffee maker beeping. It was still mostly dark out, and it was actually almost cold. I managed to get out the door at 7 and began chipping away at the miles. I mentally broke it into two 10 milers: 10 miles out, 10 miles back.

I actually felt pretty good for most of my run. I was better about taking in fuel than I have been, and had my audiobook (The Pillars of the Earth) to entertain me. The last couple of miles were a little warmer than I would have liked, since I started a bit later than usual, but I did it! And holy cow, the elevation!

20 miles @ 10:29!

Miles this week: 37.5

Let The Chaos Commence!

We got our building permit yesterday! 

That means this house full o boxes is about to become a crazy construction zone! Work is starting next week sometime, and should take about 2 weeks...for this part of the project. We have several different phases of construction that are going to happen.

The first project is the addition! The part of the house on the left in this picture (which is the back of the house) is going up and will be the same height as the rest of the house. The addition is going to have our master bedroom, two bathrooms, and some normal stairs up to the attic.

Right now the attic stairs are ridiculously shallow and just a tad bit better than climbing up a ladder. They're also red with pink walls.

For reference, my heels are up against the riser here.

I spent some time vacuuming dead ladybugs up in the attic today so we can actually use it to store some things during the construction. Our attic is where all ladybugs on earth go to die. It was disturbing.

Buddy has no idea what's coming.

And on top of everything else, I'm ridiculously excited, because Tiny is going to be here TOMORROW!

We have been friends since the first week of college and I haven't seen her since our road trip took us through Oregon back in 2013!

Possibly 2007?

That's too long.

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

Sometimes, Running Means Being Uncomfortable

My Fitbit and I are taking some time apart. Ok, so the battery died the last time we were at the lake house, and I didn't have my charger with me. And then I just never bothered to charge it when we got home.

Let's be honest, I'm marathon training, I really don't need to worry about if I'm getting enough activity during the day.

I got a new RunnerBox (I subscribe on my own) the other day - it was so jam-packed that it didn't all fit in the box!

They always have a good quote inside.

And holy cow  - check out all these goodies!

I haven't broken into anything yet, though I did give the little massager (is it just me or does it look like a sheriff's star?) a test run.

Buddy was in charge of cleaning out a peanut butter jar for me.

I think it's safe to say he enjoyed himself!

His tongue doesn't quite reach all the way to the bottom, despite his best efforts.

Tom built a fire pit on Friday.

Naturally we had to try it out.

I've had a few easy 5 milers this week that have gotten progressively faster as my body has recovered from last weekend's long run. Today's run was supposed to be an 8 mile goal pace run. I was actually a little nervous about this run because my pace has not been where I want it to be lately.

I was in the middle of putting this run off until this evening when I decided to just get it done. This was after I had 3 cups of coffee and 2 english muffins. I downed a GU right before I headed out the door just for good measure. Apparently, stuffing myself was the way to go, because my run went surprisingly well.

The mantra for the run was "get comfortable with being uncomfortable." The marathon isn't going to be easy, but that's part of the challenge of running it!

I wanted to hit around a 9:00 pace for my 8 miles, and I ended up running an 8:52 average! I really needed a great run like this for a confidence boost, and I was really excited when I got home.

I have a "short" 13 miles on the plan for tomorrow - I'm kind of a big fan of this cutback week.

How has your running been lately? Are you training for anything?

Who Needs an Oven?

Our neighbor gave us an enormous zucchini squash yesterday.

I shredded the entire thing (by hand) and it took forever. Part of it became really delicious zucchini fritters/pancakes that we ate with dinner last night, and the rest was destined to become zucchini bread.

Now, right now you may be thinking, "But don't you not have an oven?" You would be right. We don't have an oven right now, but we are creative. Tom wrapped a couple of bricks with foil, and put a cookie sheet on top of them on the grill. After the "oven" was preheated, we put the loaf pans on top of the cookie sheet and kept an eye on the temperature.

And you know what? It totally worked!

There's something about Tuesdays that make me really not want to go out and run. Mondays I have off from running and then when Tuesday rolls around and I'm still a little sore from my long run, and I could very easily just not run. I can always run tomorrow, right?

I did manage to drag myself out the door around 5:30 (pm, for sure!) for 5 miles. I am definitely not fully recovered from the hills of my long run, and it was still pretty hot out, so I was slower than I wanted to be. I'm still considering it a win since I didn't want to run at all and wanted to quit early, but I didn't.

Do you have any creative cooking stories?

Marathon Training Week 9

Sometimes it's nice to remember that training plans aren't set in stone, and that it isn't the end of the world to miss a workout. Sometimes it's even a good idea to take an extra rest day.

I'm not thrilled with my paces from this week, but I keep reminding myself that I'm running further than I ever have before. It isn't really likely that I can increase both speed and distance at the same time.

Everything I have read says that you shouldn't have a time goal for a first marathon, that your only goal should be to enjoy it and finish strong. Of course, that is my A goal, but you know I can't help but think about what time I would like to finish by.

So, how did this week go? It started off a little sore, but ended strong. Check it out (the bold is what my training plan called for):

Monday: Cross Training. I was really sore (especially my quads) and tired from my long run on Sunday. An hour of yoga helped stretch things out and kept me from laying on the couch and letting everything seize up.

Tuesday: 5 miles. Tuesday was a day of complete physical exhaustion. I didn't get to bed at a reasonable time on Monday, and I was still trying to play catch up from the early wake up call and long run on Sunday. I attempted to nap and went to bed early.

Wednesday: 8 miles. The extra rest day and my new shoes helped me feel good and I may have pushed it a little harder than I should have. I ran by feel, but definitely stressed out my quads on the hills. 8.04 miles @ 9:21 pace.

Thursday: 5 miles. I made myself go slow for this run. Hurting my quads even more didn't seem like the best plan. Felt pretty good (if slow) and did 20 minutes of yoga when I got home. 5.04 miles @ 10:04 pace.

Friday: Rest day. I debated making up Tuesday's skipped miles, but decided I was better off going into the weekend well rested. A little yoga probably wouldn't have hurt, but I didn't even do that.

Saturday: 8 miles. This run just felt slow. The pace wasn't terrible, but no matter how hard I pushed, the pace just wouldn't improve. The knowledge that I had 18 miles on the plan for Sunday stopped me from doing anything stupid, so I just trudged my way along. A quick 10 minutes of yoga when I got home and some headstand practice went a lot better than my run. 8.03 miles @ 9:49 pace.

Sunday: 18 miles. I was up at 5am and out the door a little after 6 with my hydration pack stuffed with gels, my sunglasses, my iPod and my phone. I felt strong for this whole run (except for mile 17 for some reason). While I won't be shouting my pace from the rooftops (just on the internet), I've never run 18 miles before, so that's impressive on its own! 18 miles @ 10:52 pace.

Miles this week: 39.11

Next week is a cutback week, so I'm looking forward to having a little more time to recover and get ready for my first 20 miler, which is coming up in a couple weeks.

Running Math and Headstands

Long run days are all about me whining. 5am is early! 18 miles is far! I'm so hungry!

I was up dark and early for my 18 miler today. The morning started off as most mornings do: with coffee and an english muffin. It was actually a little cooler out, but check out that humidity!

.

I felt good for most of this run, and I was pretty sure that it was flatter than the areas I have been running lately. As an added bonus, I ran near a park/campground and had bathroom access. It's the little things. 

I took a couple of Huma gels (mangoes and strawberries) and a GU (strawberry kiwi - not my favorite) with me in my hydration pack, and I really liked the Huma gels - they weren't that sickly sweet that some gels have. I don't usually take fuel all at once, I take small amounts over the course of a mile or so.

Due to running math (which is almost always wrong), I had to run past the house to hit my mileage. Then I didn't turn back when I should have, so I walked a half a mile after I made it to 18 miles.

I did my usual collapse on the floor/ground when I got home.

And I learned that the area I ran was decidedly not flat.

I sat out in the yard with Buddy for a bit while I cooled down.

This wasn't today, but I've been paying upside down a lot lately. I'm trying to get a bit of a backbend going, but it's harder than all those yogis on instagram make it look! ;)

Is it hilly or flat where you live?