Training Week March 3rd-March 9th

March 3rd: After a success end of the weekend running with my leg still tight but not worse!, I turned my attention to the totality of my training plan. I try my hardest to follow my plan, and I love to follow someone’s plans for me, but I’m struggling some with the work/life/run balance. But that’s why I pay a coach so we’re going to make some shifts to remove a long workout on Fridays and perhaps skip four days in a row and do it two days, rest, three. I hope this will bring more balance to everything.

March 4th: This was 6x1 mile alternating +10 / -10 seconds from marathon pace. It actually went fine, if not a big of a drag. I called it at 5 due to leg iffyness and time. With a treadmill the plus/minus is actually pretty easy although mine were 7 seconds because of how my tread works. The leg was still tight but I think we’re getting close to better.

March 5th: I decided, once again, to try and be a morning runner. This time I managed to get up before 4:45 and got in 6 miles. It went well too! Go figure. For me if I hit my REM cycle just righy, the early mornings aren’t that bad. It’s when something throws that off be it the the pup, food or if I have a drink or two, and then the struggle is Real, and I usually talk myself out of it (which then is funny because usually I’m not going back to sleep). This run felt really good and it didn’t wear me down for the rest of the day. So once more, I’m going to put these early mornings back on my radar.

March 7th: And just as quickly as I make myself a promise to try and get up in the morning workout m, I don’t do it. We did go out to eat last night, and I did have a drink so to be fair I was pretty sure that was going to be the case. Therefore, the work out was at the end of the day. This was 3 x 800, 400, 400. It went okay. I think I was fairly under a fueled today and on the treadmill, it was just one of those workouts where the speed wasn’t there and I couldn’t get my body to relax and turn over faster. So the reps were all at 7:19 which is entirely fine and pretty close to one of the acceptable paces sit by the coach, so I’m not too disappointed but a little bit.

I will say that I had a pretty rough day earlier this week at the office and it was one of those days where you just felt knocked down. That was another reason why I have tried to focus on regrouping a bit with a training plan because I never want training, and certainly not running, to feel like it is a chore or that it takes something away or out of me. The entire point of this is to add something into who I am.

March 8th: This was an easy 5 miles which I got myself outside for. It was a tad breezy, but overall not a bad gig and happy to be outside. I definitely listed to Forever by Mumford and Sons too much but man does that one hit right now.

March 9th: Long run day with 14 on deck. This one went so-so. The legs felt good and actually the hamstring seems to be over its little issue (knock on wood). It was mostly energy and tummy meh. I think I need to combo UCAN and Maureen but skip caffeinated gels as the UCAN alone seems to not quite have enough or perhaps, with the package, I don't get enough. For Eastern States, I'll bring enough so that I can alternate along with salt chews as back up for sodium. We shall see how that goes. But, overall, glad I got this one done and in the books.

The Days You Defend

I heard a song at the end of a Ted Lasso episode and it stuck with me so I downloaded it. I finally really listened to it on my run today and, ooof, it just hits the right now these days.

I know I've had you troubled,
And I know I've seared your mind.
But you know that I love you,
And that our loves not blind.

I'm sure my dreams lie with you,
But I've many more besides.
And if I can't see them through,
Our love will slowly die.

So if you doubt for the time that you're spending,
And if you doubt for the love in your heart.
Think of London and the girl you're returning,
And the days you defend will turn to gold.

So love with your eyes.
Love with your mind.
Love with your - dare I say forever.
Do it for yourself.
Do it for the girl.
Do it for your - dare I say forever.

Honestly, I don't know if I can write what I want about these lyrics and how it hits me right now. I just know that they are freeing to me and to my life so I want to share and save them here.

And look towards those golden days.

Training Week February 24th-March 2nd

February 24th: Typical rest day and this one comes with somer unfortunate right hamstring pain/tightness. Unsure if that's due to the foot pain or just a pretty heavy week last week.

February 25th: Hamstring is still not happy so instead of the speed session planned, I did an easy four. Disappointing, but I'm trying to remain positive. There's still time and best to be safe.

February 26th: Because of some scheduling later this week, I ran easy today. It should have been sometime like 6-7 miles to keep up on the week, but Hamstring (who now gets their name in caps) is still bothering me so I did an easy 5. This one came with some extra drama but I'm just going to keep that one close to the chest.

February 27th: Rested up again. Hamstring still annoyed, but making shifts for later in the week to try and get the most out of this week while keeping an eye on Hammy (now they have a nickname).

February 28th: Our pup had a rough night. We've been changing his food and he's had a few other issues, but tonight it was a 2am wake up to diarrhea and then a 4:40am wake-up to the same. After cleaning up at 4:40am I decided it was best to just get my run done. I did a little over 5 on the treadmill and am keeping an eye on Hammy who is not getting worse, but holding a bit steady in the tightness arena. In consulting with my coach, I'm going to try and have my long run with the missed tempo (6 miles). 

March 1st: Well, first spicy long run of this block and it was a success. Hammy is still there and still letting me know they aren't 100% happy with marathon training. But again, it's not getting worse so I'm going to keep trying it out. This long run was 8 miles normal, 6 miles at MP (8:00), 2 normal. I hit the tempo pretty solidly, with an 8:02 average. Miles fluxed a bit more than I would like, but I'm trying the spicy long run for the first time. The last two were a bit slower than the first 8 but I didn't fall too much apart. I took 3.5 gels and the Maurten was the one that seemed to settle the least well so I may try a full UCAN contingent next time. I am still terrible with fluid so I really need to try and step that up because the post-run nausea is telling me that I'm missing that aspect pretty solidly.

March 2nd: I'm a little low on the hopeful miles this week, but followed the advice of 4-6 miles so I, of course, did 5. Hammy was maybe a little more upset, but I did put some all natural muscle relaxant on it for all that may do. I'm going to try and be a bit more focused on my use of the compression pants and theragun to try and make everything go relaxed.

Next week is a bit of a dial back, although that will actually have my miles be about what they were this week and, after that, it's Eastern States with the first 20 miler of this build. Or, for now, that's the plan. I'm more than happy to consider shifting to a half if Hammy or something else decides to pop up. 

Training Week February 17th-February 23rd

February 17th: As always starting my week with the rest week. After the long run on the treadmill, I didn’t feel quite as beat up as I thought I was going to and since I had that day off from work, it was a nice way to ease into the week.

February 18th: The work out today was the Michigan which I called a mini Michigan because it was a little less miles then when I did it later block last year. The plan was 1 mile at half marathon, 800 meters at 10k/5k, 1 miles half marathon, 2 x 400 meter at 10k/5k and 1 mile at half marathon with two minutes rest between everything. I have to say all in all it seem to go very well. The half marathon paces felt pretty controlled and were fairly consistent at 7:41. I felt that I could push it a little bit but because on the tread of the paces differ by so many seconds, I held it steady, not wanting to run out of steam. The 800 and 400s were a bit quicker then last week and I liked the turnover and didn’t feel like I was chasing the belt. Overall, I was very happy with this one and they gave me some confidence going forward.

February 19th: I hoped to do either my 7 or 4 mile run today but after my haircut it just didn’t seem to fit in with ease so just another rest day. 👍🏻

February 20th: I moved my schedule around because I was cooking tonight, and I also got home a little bit later so I just did 4 miles which was set for Saturday. My feet are super blistered up right now and my pinky toes are killing me, but all in all the run felt pretty solid. It just one of those runs where everything moved with relative ease. I’m pushing my paces of a easy run by just a little bit, but still lower than what I used to do.

February 21st: Because the past two weeks have been going a little bit better in terms of my training, I’m actually excited for speed work. It seems like my coach is upping the intensity a bit, although the paces are about the same. Either way, I’m really trying to approach each proposed workout with the mind set that it is going to be fun. Plus I’m choosing to do this! It is, of course, much easier to have that frame of mind before you go through entire workday. I got home from work at about the normal time and because my husband was working, I didn’t have to worry about any other thing other than running. The proposed plan was 1.5 warm up and cool down and then 4 x 1.5 miles at strength pace which for me as a 7:51. I realized as soon as I started and thought about the intervals, it was going to be a mentally challenging one. Something about 1.5 miles sounds long. I definitely play all the mind games during each one, moving paces, making splits, doing body checks, making deals with myself, etc. Each time I went through an interval I embraced the 400 meters and worked to get the heart rate down and brain Re-set. And, you know what, I got it done, I did all four, and I was actually very impressed with myself. I am wicked tired today which is Saturday and so I’m probably only going to do 4-5 miles at a very easy pace to flush out the legs. Tomorrow I have 14 miles on deck. I’m trying to also keep the excitement and looking forward attitude for long runs as well.

February 22nd: I didn’t have a good sleep, probably too close to the workout for the body to recovery plus the dog was a pain so I woke up tired and even though it’s a weekend day, I just didn’t have the planned seven in me so did four. Not the end of the world and certainly what was correct for my body

February 23rd: Prior to the long run, I figured I’d set some goals. First, I’d like to take in four gels. Second, I want to finish a handheld. These two goals kind of stink as it’s all stomach based but that’s got to be trained too! We’ll see how this goes.

February 23rd continued: To be fair, I am writing this on March 2nd so I'm playing some memory games and looking at Strava. There was some ice still on the ground so I had a few small walks and also forgot to restart my watch. Full distance was around 14.3 I think. I took three gels which all settled okay but only about 5-8 ounces of water. Everything felt fine except during the last 1-2 miles when my right upper foot really started to hurt. Perhaps against better judgment I finished. 

Back to Life

I was looking at this blog on my phone and, when I re-started it earlier this year, I hid all the old posts. Not real reason why, they once were live, other than the fact that I consistently try to restart and to find a new beginning. As if one day I'll find the perfect start. But that's not how life goes and, if anything, the perfection in my running is the consistency. My blogging, for what that may be, is only the smallest snapshot of my running. I have written logs, lost logs and mental logs all over the place. And, what matters most, is that I've kept showing up no matter if it was blogged or not.

This year started off not the best in terms of the training. The first two weeks went fine but then things took a dive with travel and sicknesses. It took a while, really probably up to yesterday, to feel like I hadn't lost everything in the block (which is still so young but May will be here before you know it). So, when I was publishing my training from last week, I thought, just share all the past that you've created here. 

Training Week February 10th-16th

February 10th: Despite having no mileage really this weekend, I still kept today as a rest day. I’m starting to feel better in terms of the cold and so I’m hoping that I’m starting to finally get back on track and will be able to get into the training plan as scheduled soon.

February 11th: Today’s plan was 3 x 2 minutes two minutes one minute with one minute rest between at a 5K 10K pace. As I am still trying to be smart about my come back )don’t call to come back!) I kept with the pick ups, but did it only at 8:34 per minute pace. It didn’t feel that hard which was nice and it really shouldn’t feel that hard but you never know. I’m hoping to move things around with my coach this week, but still hit all of the goals for this week which is a little bit less than the original plan, but coming off of the last two weeks I’ve had I’m going to roll with it.

February 12th: Rest day! I do hope to get to a cross training day one day a week on the rest day, but I’m still being cautious about this return to the training block.

February 13th: I had today off for some house stuff so I knew I wanted to get my run in probably around lunchtime and thankfully that worked out with the plumber is leaving just before noon. On the schedule was 8 miles which included 1.5 mile warm up and cool down and 5 miles at marathon pace. I already planned to cut the warm up and cool down to 1 mile because 1.5 miles just sounded like too much. And I was aiming for the 5 miles at 8:00. Guess what? I did it! It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought and so far I’m still feeling okay. It was a nice ego boost to not feel like I have lost all time with the past three weeks. I’m proud of this and not as pessimistic as I was before. It’s a long road still, but here’s hoping that I am somewhat back on the track.

February 14th: I was supposed to run four but didn’t want to wake up early and we had dinner plans so this was an unplanned rest day.

February 15th: To make up some lost miles I went a little rogue doing a Peloton class (650th run with a shoutout) and actually followed the cues so this was faster and harder then scheduled but it was fun.

February 16th: We have some weather so I knew going into this weekend I was going to long run n the tread. On deck was 12 miles which I hit tread wise and 13.1 in my watch so the truth is likely closer to the 12. I actually didn’t feel terrible and managed two UCANs in stomach prep which is always an adventure. I’ll be happy to get outside one day but I’m not going to press in bad weather.

All in all I’m happy with how this week turned out with me finally feeling like I’m in a place to focus on my training plan. We’ll see how long this last as everyone is still sick and February and March’s weather tries anyone patience, but here we go.

Training Week February 3rd-9th

February 3rd: And we’re back! Over a week traveling and in Patagonia and home again. Patagonia was absolutely beautiful but, in terms of fitness, the polar opposite. I was able to do a few hike, including one that was ten miles, but then I got hit with a norovirus which made eating and physical movement hard. I’m not overly sad that I missed anything because it was actually relaxing once the nausea passed.

February 4th: And now we’re back again to some running. Easy four on the tread. Felt overall okay and nothing fancy.

February 5th: Rest day which was good due to some outside factors and the fact I think I’m getting sick.

February 6th: I’m still feeling so-so energy wise and, although this won’t be true for much longer, have some time before the hard work so I’m taking it easy. Today was planned for 6 miles with some 200 pickups but I did an easy 4 miles. My hope, with coach’s okay, is an easy run tomorrow, long run (10-12 miles Saturday) and tempo Sunday. This is all of my body can support that work. I also need to get MUCH better at food intake during the day as I’m under eating for sure.

February 7th: Well this training block is starting off with a very small bang. After Patagonia and noro, now I have a URI that is just sapping my energy. It doesn’t help that I’m right back to it at work. Today was planned 4 miles, I got in 3. I’m writing this post on February 8th which was supposed to be 12 miles and is now zero. My hope is to get 5-7 tomorrow and then just get this whole block regrouped.

February 8th: I did three miles today and that felt like enough. This is very frustrating but I’m trying to remember it’s very early in the block and to keep positive.