Wrapping up June first, I finally got back into a routine with my workouts — planning most sessions out from start-to-finish, being open to doing “quickie” ones instead of nothing at all, and maintaining the consistency that I lost months ago. I still have a few weeks left in the “off-season” before my half marathon training starts up again, and I’m feeling really excited with this momentum.
By the way, this image that I downloaded from my Gasparilla race photos (thanks to that 50% discount code) is EVERYTHING:
Quick wrap-up for June:Set up my Achievement Wall in my home gym, started setting weekly goals (even if not a 100% success), had my first race in Iowa (a pretty terrible half for me, but happy to get that out of the way!), and didn’t have to worry at all about tracking my mileage for the month. 😉
This week’s goals were mostly a flop again, but I feel good about the work that was done.
MONDAY: REST DAY
TUESDAY: I was in an INSANE mood after work, and hearing the song “Roxanne” on my drive home got me pumped to do some more burpees. At my former CrossFit gym in Pittsburgh, we were introduced to this burpee routine – dropping down every time you hear the name “Roxanne.” It’s a great addition to warm up, and dang if it doesn’t actually make me smile when I finish.
That was only *part* of my workout:
I warmed up with 3×5 reps of inch worms, mountain climbers and alternating single leg bounds (thanks again to Runner’s World for a great idea to add to my routine).
Jump rope for 2 minutes
Ran 2 miles at a 9:30 pace (followed by a cool down walk for 2 minutes)
Roxanne burpees (one day I’ll count them!)
Ladder plank holds to Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” (ha, the RAGE!) Workout 1 from the Strong & Fast movements from Runner’s World to “cool down”
And then some long stretches with my TheraBand
WEDNESDAY: My third golf lesson! Still working on corrections to my swing, but I’m definitely making more contact than I did when I first started.
THURSDAY: REST
FRIDAY: REST (dinner and drinks and fun at the golf club overruled my evening workout)
SATURDAY: BOO, RAIN! I was all set up to join the social run club at LifeTime in the morning before my massage, then it started raining at 6:30am, and… well, I’m not officially training for anything, so NO THANKS. This, unfortunately, blew up my goal this week to both run outside AND go out with a running group. Also, can you believe that there were NO afternoon classes to take after my massage? A 10:45 yoga class was it, and my 90-minute massage ended at 11:30. :-/ Alas, I went for my massage, and then sat around for most of the afternoon reading books, reading blogs, and planning out my vacation workouts.
In the evening, I did a 15-minute run on the treadmill with a 5-minute walk to warm up and a 3-minute walk to bring my heart rate back down – I’m loving the Parks courses that were recently added to iFit maps. Shout out to my girl (Pittsburgh City Girl, that is) Chelsea, I ran in Central Park!
Also, randomly, this was the first time that I tripped the breaker while on the treadmill. I, err, hope that doesn’t happen again because this is a new house. WTF?! While the boyfriend was resetting the breaker, I cranked out 20 burpees.
SUNDAY:
I have fallen trap to this “all or nothing” fallacy, where if, say, I have a mimosa in the morning, then I can’t do anything for the rest of the day (like, do my workout). It’s been a REALLY hard habit to break, to remind myself that I really only need 30 minutes and that having a drink at brunch does not negate the entire day. So sometimes that means doing your run at 9pm because you feel good and you’re awake — and dang it, you’re just sitting there watching the stupidest game shows on TV (now, sober). DO YOUR DANG THING.
Again, because I was in some kind of mood, I decided to do a speed test of my 5k PR pace (which is standing strong at 28:08 from last year). And I KILLED those three miles at a 8:56 pace. No joke, it was hard — but I need to be committed to do some of my runs at a harder pace or I will NEVER get faster. Like my cross country coach used to say about rewards: if you puke, you get a hamburger! Which I realize is really terrible advice for a 12-year-old.
Well, my burpees streak came to an end on Tuesday. I laid in bed that night thinking that I could quickly get in 20… but I was mentally and physically exhausted. My new job role has kind of sapped my energy as of late. And then over the weekend, I was playing with the cat on the floor, pushed myself up (think: regular ol’ pushup position) and felt my entire chest pop and tear (I know that I’m being hyperbolic, but definitely something got tweaked something awful). It was on fire for a couple hours afterward, too.
This is some 30-something realness for you: Getting injuries doing something completely unrelated to working out.
In any event, I continued with my overall consistency goal of running three times per week (hooray!). And here are the other weekly goals that I completely failed on (boo!): 108 Sun Salutations for Summer Solstice (I never had time to commit to a 4-hour marathon session yoga mala), take a new class (this was my rain plan for Saturday… and we ended up not getting any rain that day!), ride my bike over the weekend (uh… we opted for Sunday Lazy; except I did run before bed) and keep the burpees streak going (nope).
I’m really disappointed that I didn’t do my sun salutations because I really enjoyed the purpose and ritual that I got from doing them last year (also, OMG last year at this time I was in my marathon training!).
MONDAY: REST (dinner plans after work with boyfriend’s colleagues)
TUESDAY: I took my second golf lesson, which started off almost as terribly as the first. My instructor had to correct a few things with my swing and follow-through, and I was hitting a little better. But then she put a driver in my hand, and I just lost my focus to frustration.
WEDNESDAY: My weekly 15-minute run and hour of hot yoga combo at LifeTime. I didn’t really connect with the flow this week. Meh.
THURSDAY: REST
FRIDAY: The truth is, I wanted to work out in the morning because we had plans to go down to the Arts Festival after work, but… I just haven’t got to a point where I can function that early yet. REST (And some vodka lemonades. And a reminder to not schedule workouts yet for the morning because I won’t wake up.)
SATURDAY: I ran for 20 minutes, did 20 burpees, and then my Strong & Fast workout from Runner’s World that I typically do on Sundays. For this run, I did a little jaunt through Prague via my treadmill. I know that it’s been 10 years since I’ve been there IRL, but holy moly I don’t remember it being so hilly!
Later in the afternoon, we went to the driving range so I could practice what I learned in my lesson this week. Again, I am just overly frustrated and letting it get to me (but I did end with three really good shots with my driver, to end my practice!).
SUNDAY: I wasn’t going to let myself fail on ALL FIVE of my goals, so I ran 2 miles before bed to get my third run in for the week. I thought it would be best to take a day off from suspension training due to my chest tweak.
Goals for this week:
Keeping the consistency going: Run three times!
Take a new class (yes, recycling this one from last week). I’ll be at LifeTime for a massage on Saturday, so it just makes sense to take a class while I’m there.
Do you know that I’ve been running on my treadmill all this time? Well, this week, I’m taking one of my runs outside!
Adding to the above, I’m joining one of the local running groups for a social run!
Plan my vacation workouts! I’m going on a short road trip after the 4th, and I want to schedule my runs while I’m visiting two new cities: Know anyone that likes to run (or a run club) in Omaha or Kansas City?
The most important thing for me this week was spending a little time on planning out my workouts — and I really enjoyed the process. I made some goals for the week, too… which included some burpees:
Run three times — including going to check out a new run club. No mileage requirements; do one interval/speed workout. — Except for checking out a new run club, I did three runs with one as a speed workout. I still would like to join up with a local run group and start building my community there, especially when it comes time for half marathon training again.
Do my regular Wednesday session of yoga — CHECK!
Two sessions of TRX — I only got Sunday’s in, since my Friday workout plans changed a bit (see below)
BURPEES with every workout — CHECK! In fact, I did them EVERY DAY.
Get through our BIG bike ride on Saturday — We didn’t complete anything NEAR the 78 miles of the course, but we got through our first trail ride in Iowa!
A Tale of 4 WorkoutsMONDAY:
While today was really a REST day, I did my regular hip strengthening movements and 20 BURPEES before bed.
TUESDAY:
I planned for some deadlift reps (4 rounds x 12 reps; I used dumbbells) and a fun EMOM workout. The EMOM workouts, or “every minute on the minute,” workouts were popular in my CrossFit box, and a GREAT way to get in a high-intensity, quick workout. I started with a EMOM warm-up with 4 inch worms / 5 mountain climbers / 6 squats for 5 minutes total. Then I found a fun Odds & Evens EMOM online — in the odd minutes, you do 10 burpees; and in the even minutes, you do 10 overhead squats (again, I used dumbbells).
Cooling down, I stretched out my lower back by rolling backwards over my exercise ball (I think this feels really good after these types of workouts), and then some light yoga pose holds and twists to stretch everything else out.
WEDNESDAY:
My usual Wednesday ritual at LifeTime — run for 15 minutes on the treadmill (with a 5-minute walking warm-up and 2-minute walking cool down), followed by an hour of hot vinyasa flow. It was hotter OUTSIDE than it was inside for hot yoga. That’s intense, Iowa! Also, they switched instructors for Wednesday nights now, but I like the new instructor a lot. I felt really strong in this class (and sweaty) — and she taught us how to set up for side crow, WHICH I WAS ABLE TO DO ON BOTH SIDES! Holy crap, all someone had to do was show me the set-up.
After having my chocolate milk at home (my usual post-workout recovery), I got in another 20 burpees.
THURSDAY:
I intended to join a local social run for Saucony try-on night, but I hadn’t had a good night of sleep for the entire week. My body was too exhausted for a run, so I pushed it to Friday. My legs needed some foam rolling, so I spent about 10 minutes doing that (I know that I should be doing this with more regularity, but baby steps). AND: I did my 20 burpees before bed!
FRIDAY:
I ran for 3.5 miles on the treadmill, running a Pittsburgh street view map that I created on iFit that started at my old house (awwwww). This worked out almost too perfectly: It was my Pittsburgh CrossFit Buddy’s 56th birthday — and on birthdays, we do BURPEES! Maybe I should dub this workout my Pittsburgh WOD?
Afterwards, I stretched out with the resistance band from TheraBand that I received this week. I’ll be using this piece a LOT in my exercise routines!
SATURDAY:
We took off around 9am for the BACooN ride, and cleared almost 20 miles before the boyfriend crapped out from the heat and some numbness in his wrist. I was feeling pretty good — though it was hot. Finishing the full 78 miles definitely would’ve been a challenge, but I feel as though I could of at least made it to Linden (30 miles from the start in Waukee). It will be a fun challenge to see where our biking fitness levels take us in the next year. #goals
I also did 20 burpees before bed (trying to be really quiet because the boyfriend was already asleep, and I just kept cracking myself up; plus, I had a couple ciders that night).
SUNDAY:
Why change a good thing? I basically did the same as last Sunday’s workout: jump rope for warm-up, TRX for arms and shoulders, burpees (though only 20 this time), a speed workout on the treadmill (this time, I ran on The Strip in Las Vegas), my Strong & Fast workout from Runner’s World, and some yoga stretches to close it out. LOVE this workout!
For the speed workout, I did some fun ladder drills: run a minute, walk 30 seconds x 2, run two minutes, walk a minute x 2, run three minutes, walk a minute… you get the picture. I increased the run speed every 30 seconds until I felt like my legs would fly off. lol Overall, I got a great 20-minutes, and about 2 miles.
I definitely spent some time foam rolling my calves at night.
Hey, that’s a total of >> 206 << burpees for the week! Holy crap. Should I keep the streak going? I’m already 7 days in a row!
Goals for the week:
108 Sun Salutations for Summer Solstice (YEP!)
Run 3 times
Take a new class! I have a couple things in mind here. Stay tuned! 🙂
If I don’t have a plan, I won’t do what I’m supposed to — and having a plan means so much more than just adding all of my runs to my calendar and signing up for a class on MindBody (and, honestly, this applies the same for my personal life). WHY AM I DOING ANY OF THIS?!
What it means: Drafting a WHOLE workout to include the different warm-up exercises that I’ll be doing and for how long, what the focus of my run is (instead of just going out to accomplish a certain number of miles for the day), and planning out my cool-down and stretching routine.
An interesting thing happened: This process has made me much more attached to my workout and makes me feel TRULY accountable for my routine rather than showing up at the gym and not knowing what to do or plugging in my earbuds and tuning out on a slogging long run. It was a total mind-shift on my health and fitness. It may sound like a “no duh!” thing, but I’ve been exercising without purpose or focus for a while — it was really important to give more meaning to my healthy lifestyle and be more mindful of my decisions to do something and how I budget my time.
One of my goals for 2016 was to run a 2-hour half marathon, which I’ve decided to make happen this October at the IMT Des Moines half. To accomplish this, I will need discipline, speed and power, and a little help from my running community. My training officially starts in late July, so for now I’m focusing on my running base (mostly with consistency), my core, and overall body strength.
And also, just as REST has always been integral to my mental health and prevention of burnout, and given my awful Dam to Dam race last weekend, I took a week off to rest my body and mind. It was important to reflect on what went wrong and WHY. Well, Why #1 is that my training program was practically non-existent. There wasn’t one single week where I ran more than twice, and several weeks where I didn’t run (or workout) at all. Though I was a little surprised on how dehydrated I was on race day, especially with how conscious I am over my water intake and that I didn’t even have a drink the night before!
I sincerely want to follow through on a training program and be all “EFF YEAH, MEL!” Making the practice as important as the completion of the goal is my new purpose.
Anyway… SUNDAY I got my shit together and put together a great workout — and finally used my in-home TRX suspension trainer (and today I remember why I LOVE IT so much, woof!).
Warm-up: Jump rope for 3 minutes
Upper body strength: TRX arms and shoulders video workout, about a 20-minute workout
Cardio: A 15-min interval workout on the treadmill (a little over a mile in total)
Burpees (‘cuz burpees, baby!): 39 total, though I maxed out at 18 straight without stopping
Running strength/power: Strong & Fast Workout 1 from Runners World; 5 movements at 15 reps each/each side (took me around 15 minutes to complete)
Cool Down: Then some light yoga stretching to cool down
Working out at home in my matchy-matchy Fabletics.
It felt like the perfect workout. And it felt REALLY good to plan it out and make it happen.
Goals for this week:
Run three times — including going to check out a new run club. No mileage requirements; do one interval/speed workout.
Do my regular Wednesday session of yoga.
Two sessions of TRX (I’ll likely do a similar workout to Sunday’s).
BURPEES with every workout! (I wonder if I can do them every day? HA!)
Get through our BIG bike ride on Saturday! (EEEK!)
Thanks to a late push (no thanks to you, motivation) to train for this half marathon, I had zero goals aside from finishing in one piece. BUT aforementioned last-minute motivation or not has really helped propel my health and fitness goals and to get excited about some upcoming events — including the planning of my GOAL RACE in the Fall. More on that in another post.
Dam to Dam was my FIRST race in Iowa, and my fifth half marathon overall — and my fourth state! My PR for the half was back in February at Gasparilla… but with our big move in March, my desire to run really flat-lined. I was happy to at least get a 10-miler in (which went a lot better than I anticipated — and on the treadmill, no less. WHO AM I?!)
Two years ago, Dam to Dam changed course to a half marathon. The race still has remnants of its old school past, which is something that usually irritates me, but I actually kind of dug its small race charm (though 9000 entrants is certainly not “small”): there was no bag drop, no PERSON drop off at the start line (you had to take a bus), the emails were in all text (one that I received promised a lot of fun race day info but contained no images or links), and no real time tracking. Even the chip on the bib was MONSTROUS, considering the chip tech that exists in road racing.
And I guess, considering my not following my training plan, the race went about how I expected.
Flat Mel! (My race day uniform at this point.)
Registration and Cost: Registration was online via GetMeRegistered and cost $43.69 total (after some fees) — pretty great price for a half marathon! Dam to Dam has both a half marathon and 5K option, and the Half is limited to only 9,000. The first 5,000 runners get a $40 entry fee (I got in on this deal! WOOT!), $45 for the next 2,000 runners (5001-7000) and $50 entry for the last 2,000 runners. I sincerely couldn’t imagine this race adding any more runners to its registration, and I hope it never does!
Packet Pick-Up and Expo: Packet pick-up was downtown at the Veteran’s Auditorium / Convention Center the day before the race, so I had a double commute to drive into downtown from where I work. Thankfully, they were open until 8! Because there isn’t a lot of traffic in Des Moines (double WOOT!), I was able to find street parking; total time to park, pick up my bib and swag and peruse the FREE FOOD BUFFET was less less than the 42 minutes that I put on my meter.
I’m not sure if I missed a larger section of the Expo, but didn’t really explore beyond packet pick-up. Picking up bibs was by race number (which they posted the day before); t-shirts were a few tables down from there. The volunteers were REALLY encouraging me to enjoy myself with some free food. And I guess there was beer too!
Free Swag: Brooks t-shirt and socks! First time that I’ve received socks as part of my swag bag — and they’re hot pink, so YAY!
Bag Check and Transportation: As I mentioned above, there was NO bag check for this race (on Facebook, the organizers posted about an unofficial and unsecured bag drop location downtown, but my day didn’t start there). I had to be dropped off at Valley West Mall in West Des Moines around 5:30 a.m. to catch a school bus that took us up to Saylorville. It seemed very organized, and once the bus filled up, the doors closed and the next bus pulled up. I did hear that at other locations, later in the pick-up window, it got a little messy and delayed. But I live by the mantra: BE EARLY! (especially when it’s your first time, and you have no clue what to expect).
I do get car sick, so I was honestly really nervous about taking a bus up (by myself, no less). But I did OK.
Start Line: The bus ride took, like, 20 minutes (if that), so I stopped into the Kybo (Iowan for port-a-john) — there were at least 100, if not more. And then I sat around for another hour. As the start time approached, all the runners make their way to the bridge over the Saylorville Dam (Dam #1!).
Walking out to the bridge!
It was a BEAUTIFUL view, and you could see the downtown skyline in the distance where we would finish.
Downtown Des Moines in the background — 13 miles away!
I didn’t see any official pacers, but there were sections posted with expected finish time. And then the swarm of people started moving after the gun went off and the timing mat for the start was kind of a surprise for those of us in the back of the pack.
Weather: UGH. Remind me why I sign up for summer races? I, thankfully but sadly, ditched my long-sleeve shirt. It was chilly enough to wear it sitting around pre-race, so I’m happy that I brought it. I wore it in so many races, so was sad to let it go. BUT OMG, a tank top and shorts was too much to wear within the first two miles. By the end of the race, it felt like 80 degrees and I could not keep my body cool. This was something of a disaster for me, as I felt thirsty constantly and probably drank too much water (despite properly hydrating the week before the race). And then by mid-race, I was legit feeling sick. By Mile 11, I had to stop running because my chest hurt and I was seeing spots, and I sincerely was freaking out about passing out on the course.
At least my allergies weren’t bad! #smallwins
Course: Saylorville Dam was the start, and the course almost immediately went into open roads and cornfields — so very Iowa! The course followed the path of the Des Moines River, though we didn’t see much of the waterway during the race. Portions of the race went through neighborhoods, others on bike trails; at one point we were running through the woods and over a wood plank bridge. The best was the approach downtown, coming past the Botanical Gardens and up the Principal River Walk over the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge. We have a pretty cool pedestrian bridge.
Miles 6-7 were no joke!
Also around that incline in elevation was Morningstar Hill, lined with American flags honoring all the Iowan soldiers lost in the line of duty since the first Dam to Dam on June 15, 1980. That’s always a somber experience in a race.
I really enjoyed the variety of scenery on this course. Also, there were staggered water stops, not specifically at every mile, but enough to be sufficient; there were maybe 3 stops with Powerade. Kybos were scattered throughout the course as well. There were sponges at one stop, but they were gone by the time we got there, which was a HUGE bummer because SO HOT. At this point, I was just dumping cups of water over my head and down my back. I missed the ice cubes too, as we were approaching downtown.
Fans and Experience: As you’ve probably gleaned from my past recaps, I have problems with large race crowds; this one didn’t feel overwhelming at all. At various spots throughout the course, there was live music and DJs; in the neighborhoods, there were more people cheering on their tree lawns. Cyclists were out cheering us on at the trail crossings, too. There were a couple of nearly-drunk guys at one of the bike outposts and one of them offered us doughnuts… TORTURE. Most of the “fans” were lined up near the finish line and in downtown.
Finish Line: I didn’t specifically hear my name, but the announcer was calling in all the finishers, which I always think is super cool. The finish chute opens up into Western Gateway Park — there were so many runners with their shoes off and sitting in the water fountains. There was free beer (Coors Light and Smirnoff Ice, blech). Would have been nice if there was some kind of cider. #glutenfreeproblems I heard there was chocolate milk, but I didn’t see it (thankfully, the boyfriend brought me some).
And then the sprinkler system went off in the park near where they were doing finish line photos and OMG you could only laugh because it was definitely not on purpose.
A strained smile at the finish line. More happy about my chocolate milk.
After Party: BBQ brunch at Jethro’s. And heck yeah, I wore my medal inside!
Bonus: A mutual friend online connected me to someone on Instagram who was also running the race, and SHE FOUND ME AT THE START LINE! And we were planning the same pace! We were able to run most of the race together, too — and I never had to put in my earbuds (though, I will not let my $42 purchase on iTunes the night before the race be wasted).
Extra bonus for you beer lovers out there: Besides the beer at the finish line, at 400 meters from the finish line you approach Exile Brewing, and volunteers there are giving out beer samples on the course. I was almost desperate enough to take one. lol (But OH GOD the smell of warm beer on this hot day and already feeling sick made want to hurl.)
Random Bullshit: I realized post-race that something bit me on my inner thigh, and I have a rash on the inside of both of my legs. We ran through the woods in one portion, and I’m so stupid fearful of ticks (I don’t know if it was a tick but that’s where my mind goes). So, that’s something that I have to keep an eye on.
Best Sign: Run Now, Poop Later.
OVERALL The Great: It’s always awesome making new running friends, and having someone to enjoy the experience with. The Good: My first race in Iowa! The Bad: My training overall for this race was not so great, so I’m not surprised how poorly I did. Despite this, I pretty much assumed that I would finish in about 2:30. The Ugly: THE HEAT. The end of this race was an awful slog. I couldn’t even muster enough energy as the finish line was approaching; 12-minute runs-walks for the last two miles. SIGH.
Jumping back into my half marathon training schedule. I’ve decided to use Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 program again for this race. Again, of course, is used loosely, as I have *yet* to follow a prescribed training program (and I’m already a few weeks behind). Be that as it may, I’m determined to make this training better than in the past.
The Dam to Dam Half Marathon in Des Moines is on Saturday, June 4, so only 9 weeks away! I typically structure my training program for Sunday races, but ultimately decided to maintain a Monday-Sunday training schedule and keep my accountability posts in line with that.
This week of the program calls for one cross-training workout, two 3-mile runs, a 4-mile run and a 6-mile long run. Since I’m “easing” back into this, I opted to do a walk for my first training day in place of one of the 3-mile runs.
MONDAY: 2-mile walk around my neighborhood. I was mostly curious how many miles that I could get in my development before getting bored and to get a look around the entire sub, and looks like I can probably do 3-4 miles before I start getting sick of seeing the same houses. I have access to trails nearby, but there’s one stretch of road without sidewalks to get to them that could be challenging. I was happy to get out and moving on such a beautiful day though!
I followed up my walk with some core work on my exercise ball and push-ups in my HOME GYM (So excite! It will soon have a treadmill, too!).
TUESDAY: Rest Day
WEDNESDAY: One hour of yoga at Life Time Fitness (they call it Yoga Roots; warm but not hot). I took advantage of the class with a free day pass, and the facility here is super nice. There are a few different levels of yoga classes, too, but I opted with a beginner’s session to get acclimated to any changes in flow and poses (and there were a few that tripped me up). I hadn’t had a regular room temperature class in a while either!
THURSDAY: RUN 3 miles (actually 2.96, dammit!) — I started off WAY too fast and like I was ready to anger-run, but I was able to reel it in after hearing my time at my 1 mile mark from my MapMyRun app. I mean, I WANT to run faster, but I also need to be able to sustain a pace. Unsurprisingly, I was bored with my neighborhood after 2 miles and circled around my block like a crazy, lost person to finish it up. I will definitely need to change things up!
I posted this to Instagram, and you wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t track it:
Yes, a 3-mile neighborhood route in Iowa is hillier than my same-distance neighborhood route in Pittsburgh. I was surprised, too!
[splits: 8:46/9:18/9:18 // average: 9:07]
I followed up my miles with another quickie push-up workout. By the way, I’m still doing my hip strengthening movements every day! Also, also: I officially joined Life Time fitness, so I see more classes AND social run group in my future.
FRIDAY: I ended getting super bogged down with work stuff and worked a little longer to get ahead of next week’s hot mess of a schedule. I felt super stressed for most of the afternoon, but by the time I started slowing up and relaxing, I was ready for my WINE.
SATURDAY: Rest Day. Today was our day to explore downtown Des Moines! And I can’t wait to share everything that we did.
SUNDAY: Holy, random 80-degree day! Instinctively, I planned a good day to run outside. Today’s plan called for 6 miles, and since the boyfriend went to the golf course, this was a great day for me to get out and explore another route. But mentally and physically I just could not complete 6 miles — I barely cleared 3 (2.94). IT SUCKS. I feel as if I’m starting completely over in my running ability, and I’m completely frustrated! Maybe I can just chuck this one off to the heat or because I waited for too late in the afternoon or because I was basically doing resistance training due to the wind or [leave your excuse here]. UGH. Honestly, I’m really bummed because how did I just do a big challenge race a little over a month ago and be completely deflated and done by 3 miles now?!
[splits: 9:18/10:38/9:47 // average: 10:02]
TOTAL CROSS-TRAINING WORKOUTS: 1 walk and 1 yoga
TOTAL RUNS: 2
TOTAL MILES: 5.90
I fell completely off the rails on my marathon training for Pittsburgh. Because of the move, I haven’t been able to find my workout vibe — and I haven’t run ONCE in two weeks (ie: since moving here). I’ve only had a handful of at-home workouts in general. Prior to moving, I was already a couple weeks behind in my training program due to feeling burned out after Gasparilla (read my recaps here and here). I thought that I’d be able to make it up after a couple weeks of rest. But I know that’s impossible now.
Regretfully, I’ve decided to pull out of running the Pittsburgh full, and I likely won’t return for the half either (but the latter is mostly for personal things that may force some travel elsewhere). I’m disappointed, especially because it was another opportunity to visit Pittsburgh and run with my friends there. My former neighbors had graciously offered for me to stay in their homes for me to save the expense of a hotel, too, but I’m now burned out on traveling as well.
Moving on: I’m signed up the Dam to Dam Half Marathon in June, here in Des Moines. I’ll also be looking ahead to the Des Moines Half Marathon in October — which I’d like to be my goal race (*2-hour half*). There’s still a chance that I may look into the I-35 Challenge depending on how my training goes and/or if the challenge sells out. Surely, there will be other races to fill in the blanks, but that’s where I’m currently sitting in my training. I am undecided if I’ll attempt another full in 2016, so for now I just need to focus on the half distance and the work that goes into that training.
This felt like a GREAT training week! The week off for recovery really helped mentally. I’ve also been doing daily hip and glute strengthening workouts – it’s a set of four movements that takes less than five minutes (and I do while I’m brushing my teeth because I am the consummate multi-tasker). And I couldn’t have believed that something so simple would make me sore! But while I finally committed and followed-through on a 3-run training week, my mileage fell short of my training plans.
MONDAY: [walked to work] Hour spin class at the Y. I love this weekly class as much as I value my run-yoga group. I definitely intend to keep up this habit after moving.
TUESDAY: I joined SCRR for their group run on Tuesday night. I intended to run 5 miles, but it ended up being a Track Tuesday-focused workout. I definitely don’t do enough (read: any) speedwork this training cycle, so it was a fun break from just slogging through another base mileage run. Of course this would be a night when I would forget my watch, so I have only an estimate from MapMyRun about my 400 splits. I definitely appreciated the coaching in regards to speed and breathing.
Started with a slow mile warm-up, followed by 4×400 sprints. We totaled 3.70 miles. Splits: 10:43/6:23 (???!!!)/7:46/10:57. So, yeah… that’s madness!
And I think that I found a new way to get past some of the training burnout that I’ve been feeling (despite not really having a successful training mesocycle before Gasparilla).
WEDNESDAY: run//yoga//run//club — I’m going to miss this group so much when I move! And for REAL, I’m going to see if I can start a similar meet-up in Des Moines. I like the mid-week habit, and it was the first time that I felt like I found my “tribe” in the running community. *tear*
We changed course tonight (as did the weather), running into downtown, through/around the Point and back over the pedestrian bridge into the north shore. We finished around 3 miles (nobody tracked until the last mile, so I based off previous runs and maps) and at the end we were running a a sub 9-minute pace. So, WOOOOO!
Followed up the run with 75 minutes of yoga. It felt good. Really, really good.
THURSDAY: Rest Day – and dinner with friends!
FRIDAY: Rest Day – last day of work and going away party
SATURDAY: Another Rest Day – tbh, I’ve felt like I’ve been in a hangover fog for two days and really needed another rest day to sit around in my pajamas and purge my house of 8000 magazines. But I haven’t yet skipped my daily hip and glute workouts!
SUNDAY: One thing that I hadn’t yet accomplished in Pittsburgh that I always wanted to do, was the run up McArdle Parkway to Mount Washington. So… I did it Sunday afternoon. Starting and ending in my neighborhood in the North Side, I completed 8.01 miles at average 10:13 pace.
My paces for going uphill impressed me! And yes, the views from the top were amazing. Unfortunately, that familiar knee trouble came with me downhill and started getting really intense during mile 7 (hence, my pace), which is why I didn’t do the 10-12 that I intended to do.
Gonna miss that view though!
TOTAL CROSS-TRAINING WORKOUTS: 2 (1 hour of spinning; 1 hot yoga session) TOTAL RUNS: 3 LONGEST RUN: 8.01 miles TOTAL WEEKLY MILES: 14.71 miles TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 125.75 miles
This past week, however, was my recovery week… so I did nothing! I did have to walk to work several times though, so that was good to keep my joints moving. So, instead of writing out my workouts for the week (because there were none!), I’m going to talk about my recovery.
Recovery: Resting your tired feet in the cool sand of Siesta Key is optional.
2. Compression sleeves: I had a conversation about compression gear recently with another runner friend (re: whether they actually work or not). VIM + VIGR sent me a pair of compression calf sleeves a few months ago to test out (no monies exchanged for testing or review, but I got a free pair). For recovery, these have helped my tired calves immensely. After my long runs, I put on my calf sleeves and prop my legs up for a good hour (or longer, if I nap, which… likely). I used them in the hotel room after the first day of Gasparilla, too, and I felt really fresh for Day 2. It might all be psychosomatic, but at the very least, this post-training regimen forces me to relax.
3. Massage: Sadly, I couldn’t get into my usual massage therapist this week (and OMG I have to find a new massage place in Des Moines!), but a massage after a long race is KEY to my body feeling back to normal. I get really tight IT bands, calves and quads like a lot of runners, which she works out perfectly; she also spends a few minutes helping me stretch those areas that I can’t get by myself. Because I didn’t have a massage this week, I definitely feel more “lead-legged” than usual. I probably should have scheduled one down in Florida. Sigh, 20/20.
4. Trigger-point therapy: I am guilty of not doing my foam rolling as much as I should (I’m a work in progress!), but I use several apparatuses to release tight and knotted muscles after big races or long runs: my RAD roller, a lacrosse ball, and two different foam rollers. I use this Foam Rolling app for guidance. I love the RAD roller especially, as I can easily toss it in my suitcase for traveling.
5. Hot tub: I don’t own a hot tub, but if I’m traveling for a race, I make sure to book a hotel that has one. We had access to a hot tub at the parent’s condo development — and sitting in one the day after the race, even for just 10 minutes, is just MAGICAL for relieving tired, sore legs.
Week #12 in this training cycle was also Race Week! I’m currently in a recovery week.
Whew, this was not my strongest mesocycle and I felt immensely under-trained. But strangely, my body is striking back like I’m over-training. Because of my knee concerns, I decided to cut all my final training runs before race day. This has been a similar taper cycle to my last couple races, but unfortunately, this time around the pain didn’t go away for the race.
:-/
Quick glance at the week – I’ll be doing separate Gasparilla race reviews in upcoming posts.
MONDAY: An hour of spinning at the Y
TUESDAY: Rest Day
WEDNESDAY: Upper body and core workout from Runner’s World (at home)
THURSDAY: Rest Day – packing for Gasparilla AHHHHHHH!
FRIDAY: Travel to Florida Day! Expo and packet pick-up
SATURDAY: Gasparilla Day #1 – 15k and 5k
SUNDAY: Gasparilla Day #2 – half marathon and 8k
TOTAL CROSS-TRAINING WORKOUTS: 2 (1 hour of spinning; 1 upper body/core strength workout) TOTAL RUNS: 4 LONGEST RUN: Half marathon (and an 8k soon after) TOTAL WEEKLY MILES: 30.4 miles TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 111.04 miles (I’ll now be rolling my mileage into my full marathon training)
