I took a break from posting, along with my Recovery week(s). Here’s a quickie wrap-up from my last and final week of training for the IMT Des Moines Half Marathon.
Let’s list all the things I did during my Taper Madness:
So. Much. Laundry.
Meal Planning for an entire workweek
Made an extra treat for our workplace “tailgating” food day (these Buffalo Quinoa bites with a yogurt-gorgonzola dip — so good!)
Signed up for more races (haaaaaaaaaaa)
Week 12, though, was all about mentally and physically preparing myself for race day. Everything this week was an easy run, and I started all of my easy runs with 10-minutes of foam rolling. (Friday, was more like 8-ish minutes because I was just impatient to get my run over with… I KNOW, I KNOW.)
MONDAY
Rest Day — and my last call with my coach before the race. Though it was an easy week for running, she still gave me some work to do, to prepare mentally and help visualize my success at the race. One exercise that I really enjoyed was going back through my training spreadsheet and picking out every hard workout and good run. Despite an entire training cycle of high temps and humidity (and bitching and moaning), I had a lot of successes on my list.
TUESDAY
Easy Run + Strides = 2.4 miles
WEDNESDAY
Easy Run (forgot my Strides, whoops!) = 2.0 miles
THURSDAY
Rest
FRIDAY
Easy run + Strides = 2.2 miles
SATURDAY
Rest Day — and Expo!
SUNDAY
Race Day for the IMT Des Moines Half Marathon — read my Race Recap! = 13.3 miles
WEEKLY RUNS: 4
WEEKLY MILES: 19.9 miles
TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 217.26 miles
That’s a lot of miles! And that’s exactly why I took an ENTIRE week off of running immediately following the half.
Up next: While I do have several races coming up (including two half marathons), I’m not training specifically for any time goals. My Accountability Mondays will look a little different in November, as I attempt a 100-mile Challenge for the month; the rest of my training will be getting me stronger to jump into Marathon training at the beginning of next year.
Ready for half marathon #7! Definitely don’t need the long-sleeve.
SPOILER ALERT (which you already know, if you follow me on Instagram) I PR’d this race so hard – taking another two minutes off of my time from two weeks ago at the Heartland Half. That’s a FIVE MINUTE decrease of my half marathon time in one training cycle. This excites me so much! And I’m totally amped up to make my eventual 2-hour half goal a reality. Though I had a few low moments in the race (side stitches, foot pain in my left arch, stupid hill), I was able to mentally able to push through the crap.
Registration and Cost: After taxes and fees (and, I think, a Capital Striders discount), I paid $64.14 — hilariously, I registered a couple weeks before actually moving to Iowa (late February).
Expo and Packet Pick-Up: The Expo at Hy-Vee Hall was held over two days, and I went late Saturday afternoon. Bib pick-up was the same table as grabbing my race shirt (THANK YOU), and there was a clear bag provided with some “extras” (hooray, for samples of those tiny packages of anti-chafe and muscle creams). There were definitely more vendors than my last few races — a couple that I intended to visit and actually missed! I spent a little bit of time shopping, picking up the usual free race swag, and chatting with a few shoe brands. I picked myself up a new branded race hat, too.
Bag Check and ETC: There was a bag check (I don’t typically use bag check and didn’t for this race either) and a TON of Kybos at the start. Well done, there, Race Director.
Weather: Woke up at 5:45 am to temps already at 60 degrees and 100% humidity. The fog was also so dense, we could barely see the on-ramp to the highway on the way to the race.
Start Line: Well… there were TWO start lines — all lit up in bright lights screaming START, with accompanying strips for chip timing. Runners approached the first, started our watches, rounded the corner… and then there was a HUGE stopped mob. And then another set of brightly-lit start line signs.
So I can’t even begin to express my WTF that was all about.
Course: This is another Des Moines race that recently changed course due to construction. I have no reference to previous maps, but this year’s was an out-and-back starting from Cowles Commons, which looped from downtown and repeated several stretches. The half split off from the full very early in the race and the volunteers were YELLING which direction to take. No signs. And yep, there were several runners (wearing headphones) realizing this as they were already on the wrong path and retreating back.
I love Gray’s Lake, and since the fog was still hanging around at this point of the race, this was probably my favorite part — it looked as if the boat docks and pedestrian bridge were floating in air. That said, I’ve skated around Gray’s Lake, and the trails are small. Putting all of the half marathons on those trails before the crowd thins out was annoying. And despite there being SEVERAL signs for walkers to stay right, that didn’t happen (does it ever?). That stretch felt really crowded and chaotic.
To be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of the course overall. And that Capitol Hill at Mile 11 (it’s a mile-long climb) can go straight to hell. There were Kybos throughout the course, since we repeated a lot of stretches, and aid stations about every two miles or so.
Elevation map for the half marathon. Woof, Mile 11.
The finish chute also didn’t feel wide enough to really sprint forward — and I was weaving through people, following close behind a guy ahead who was attempting the same thing.
Running it in!
Fans and Experience: Fans were found throughout the course, and at several corners were out aiding the runners with extra water, ice cubes, Halloween candy, signs… and banging pots & pans.
THERE WAS BACON AT MILE 7. Yes, bacon.
The experience was incredible — and not at all overwhelming like I find other crowded “city” races to be. The bulk of the crowds lined up around Court Ave (and the usual start/finish line areas), and I found the experience a pretty great representation of the awesomeness of the Des Moines community.
Finish Line: Dudes. DUDES. There was SO. MUCH. FOOD. at the finish line. (And, like, a dozen massage tables… but FOOD.) There was pizza in the finish line chute (couldn’t have that, obvs) and additional food vendors in the athletes-only area in Cowles Commons. AND there were snack boxes provided for each finisher.
Finish Line snacks! (I brought my own gluten-free doughnuts)
I grabbed a chocolate milk and one of those snack boxes — which, surprisingly, I could have almost everything in there: corn chips, cheese dip, dried cranberries, trail mix; the fruit leather is undetermined. I also purchased a coffee from the Caribou tent.
Something else I loved were the various signs around the finishers park for photo ops (and directions to the beer, if you needed them).
After Party: There was an additional festival-slash-beer garden over by the Royal Mile, where you could trade in your free drink ticket. Hooray, for hard cider AND wine spritzers options! They also have everyone beads with the race logo and race-branded beer koozies. The band Aftershocks was playing the main stage, and the MC for the event was an absolute HOOT. Very, very fun after party event, and I’m glad that I decided to stick around for a bit.
Can’t decide what to drink!
Best Sign: “You think running is hard, try waking up early to hang signs.” Legit, laughed so hard. Close second was the “Run like *picture of Trump* is trying to grab your *picture of a cat*”
Random Bullshit: Um, no water was ready at the first aid station on the course. Poor girl looked to be working alone, and it was just an impossible situation for her.
Awesomesauce: I finished just ahead of the 1st place marathoner, so I got to see him get draped in his flag. I’m always in complete awe of someone who can finish double the distance in the same time as what I can do a half. It’s just incredible.
Chocolate Milk!
OVERALL The Great: Running by feel and getting a PR as result. The Good: Despite not really enjoying the course, this is an excellent race event that I would definitely do again! The Bad: WTF, two start lines?! The Ugly: 100% humidity in October.
Despite getting a PR (again! — are you tired of me yet?!), my pacing strategy didn’t get executed exactly to plan. But I’m still incredibly proud of the race I ran for other reasons — like, for instance, running a PR in 100% humidity and not.stopping.running. when I got to the big hill on the course and running a pretty consistent pace throughout (and not following pacers). Per my Garmin, the race went a bit over, but that’s TWO half marathons with no 11+ minute splits — that’s HUGE.
Week #11 of training was part of my “taper time.” And because the Taper Crazies get you when the mileage is down, there is a LOT of time for reflection (and apparently, meal planning, as I’ve been pinning and prepping up a storm for the week). To be honest, after I finished the Heartland Half Marathon, I felt like all the stress of running a PR race for Des Moines lift. Then I realized this week THAT I NOW HAVE TO BEAT THAT TIME. I know it still won’t be a 2-hour half, and my work is not done yet, but I am positively EXCITED to put all the good things that I’ve learned this training cycle to WORK. And it will be work.
Is this also where I tell you that I’ve signed up for another half marathon in November? In addition to the trail half that I’m doing in December? Because yay, RUNNING SEASON IS HERE!
MONDAY
Had a wonderful 60-minute sports massage — they had this amazing upgrade that included an IcyHot rub-down and hot towels wrapped around my legs. OMG, it felt so nice. And I made sure that I was on the schedule for October 17, too. 🙂
Otherwise, for the day after a half marathon, I was a little stiff in the morning (after sitting for a few hours), but it passed by the end of the day.
TUESDAY
Rest Day – and Drake & Future concert at night (keeping me up until after 1 am ?)
WEDNESDAY
Having 4 hours of sleep the previous night and somehow surviving my workday, I swapped my tempo run to Thursday and completed my easy run Wednesday night.
Easy run: 2.66 miles in 30 min
Splits: 11:11 / 11:16 / 11:20
THURSDAY
Tempo run — in between an easy one mile warm-up and cool-down — and these speedy miles were fun. My last speed workout of this training cycle, and I was really pumped.
Splits: 11:42 / 9:25 / 8:54 / 8:12 / 11:41
FRIDAY
Rest (forgot to foam roll, whomp)
SATURDAY
Woof, dead tired legs for my Saturday afternoon run — an easy 3 miles, ending with some Strides. The immediate post-run recovery felt really hard, and I was really out of breath for a while.
SUNDAY
My plan called for 6 miles at an increasing pace after 3 miles. I started later than I intended, and I got through 5.13 miles before I ran out of time before our morning plans. It was another rough start on the legs, but by the end I kept wanting to sprint. Man, I feel SO READY for this race!
Little late getting this week’s post out — especially as I was out WAY past my bedtime on Tuesday and still feeling like I’m catching up from traveling over the weekend. YAWN. Thankful for a recovery week!
TEN WEEKS went by so quickly. I’m two weeks away from my goal race, and prepared by… running another half marathon. Yep, I had a 14-miler on my schedule for the week, so I took a little road trip to run the Heartland Half Marathon in Omaha, Nebraska. I’ll admit, I had a lot of confusion up-front as to WHY have a 14-mile training run when you’re only running 13.1 — my half training in the past maxed out at 10 miles — but I trusted the plan and my coach and her reasons for making my life miserable. I also listened to my coach when she told me to take it easy on myself if I felt like the cumulative fatigue got to be too much (spoiler alert: it has).
On the schedule:
Two easy runs
One speed workout — Pick-ups!
A half marathon…
Err, I mean, a 14-mile long run
Strength + Core workouts
MONDAY
Rest Day and foam rolling!
TUESDAY
It’s still crazy to me that my mid-week easy runs are 50-minutes long. I mean, I’m crazy impressed with myself that I’m following through on what I used to consider an extraneous workout.
My easy run was followed up by a core workout: 4.3 miles at 11:12 average pace
WEDNESDAY
Pick-Ups! These are still one of my favorite speed workouts to do. Wednesday’s challenge was 2 minutes of speed, followed by 2 minutes of recovery jog (x6). On my pick-up days, I also do a 10-minute warm-up and cool down.
Total workout was about 4.3 miles. My fastest 2 minutes (the last sprint) was at an 8:42 pace.
THURSDAY
Supposed to do my strength workout tonight, but felt like I needed the day off (my coach said I could!) 😉
FRIDAY
Rest day – and packing for my run-cation.
SATURDAY
Easy 30-minute shakeout run in the morning — I woke up SO EARLY and didn’t have to — and totally didn’t feel like unpacking my Garmin from my suitcase, so I let the treadmill record my workout. Got in 2.55 miles at a 11:46 average pace (woooooooo, that felt slow).
SUNDAY
Ran the Heartland Half Marathon, since I was scheduled to aforementioned 14 miles (my +1 actually ended up being around .7) — read race recap! I had a really GREAT experience in Omaha, and I had a great race!
And now… it’s TAPER TIME!
WEEKLY RUNS: 4 WEEKLY MILES: 24.8 TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 181.56
I can’t believe that I’m 3 weeks away from race day of the Des Moines Half Marathon. I still have one (really long) long run before it’s Taper Time. Now is a great time to reflect on what has been going really, REALLY right this training (consistency, for starters) and really, REALLY wrong (ugh, the weather). I had a great conversation tonight with my coach, and I definitely feel stronger as a runner. I also love the accountability and growth that a partnership with a coach has brought me.
One area that I haven’t quite figured out this training cycle is my nutrition — I am literally all over the place in terms of eating habits and what fuels me on runs; some days things seem to click, and other days I feel like complete crap. I ran my 10-mile race on my usual breakfast and felt amazing — but that definitely was not my same experience doing my 12-miler run this week (though, I did run later in the afternoon). It’s all part of the practice, though (not perfect, but better).
My workouts got flipped around a little bit this week, since I needed to take my rest day on Thursday — date night! — my runs felt really good midweek, but I was TIRED for my strength workout by Friday, pumped up again by Saturday morning (I was up SUPER early) and then all motivation was lost again by Sunday.
WEEK AT A GLANCE:
2 easy runs
1 long run
1 tempo run
1 (marathon) yoga session
1 strength workout + 1 core workout
MONDAY
Rest Day and a good amount of foam rolling before bed.
TUESDAY
5 miles at an easy pace + core workout
54:47, 10:57 average pace
WEDNESDAY
Tempo run — 1 mile at slower-than-easy pace, then 3 miles at a 10k pace, followed by 1 mile at my easy pace. For my training this cycle, I’m learning all about finding my different effort levels — rather than running solely on pace. And this run was a lesson in finding some of those different gears. It was interesting to see how much effort I had left while I was running those 3 middle miles. I know that effort won’t always feel the same from day-to-day, but it aids in boosting my confidence when I get caught up in breathing heavy and sweating and feeling like I can’t maintain a pace… or feel like I’m doing to die.
Splits: 11:24 / 10:25 / 9:06 / 8:35 / 11:26
THURSDAY
Rest day
FRIDAY
Strength day – definitely felt weird to do strength on a Friday night, but I didn’t have any plans after work, so I just jumped right into it when I got home. I added jump rope as a warm-up to my regular strength workout a couple weeks ago to work on some flexibility, stability, and single-leg strength and balance. And I felt TIRED before the workout even started. It felt like I was doing the movements for the first time in weeks. This 30-something was in bed by 9pm ON A FRIDAY. #nowine
Something other than a treadmill pic. ?
SATURDAY
Woke up super early, so I could participate in the Namasday celebration at LifeTime in Des Moines: 108 sun salutations at sunrise, poolside, and in celebration of the fall equinox. It was a beautiful morning — they even had a ukulele player! — and the practice really helped me focus and find balance in a hectic week. For the first time ever, I found yoga to be meditative, and I did majority of the sets with my eyes closed.
Coming down from that peacefulness, I did my 30-minute easy run on the treadmill at LifeTime, ending with a few sets of strides. It was difficult to do my strides at the gym, as it was slow to increase speed; my treadmill at home is a lot more responsive.
32:40, 11:07 average pace
SUNDAY
The 12-mile run that I did NOT want to do. I woke up at 7am with a splitting headache (which is still lingering today), and a run just wasn’t how I wanted to start my day. So I pushed it to do later, after I felt like I finished laundry and some housekeeping. I battled myself at every mile — trying to talk myself out of doing the entire run. But I did the entire run. I feel tired and sore – I guess exactly how I should feel having run a 25-mile week! (I don’t often feel sore, so I’m chalking this one up to doing yoga on Saturday).
WHEW, what a week! There was a lot of tough work, but my spirits are super high. There are several small places where I can see opportunities to improve — and totally achievable, at that! — that it’s given me the gumption to keep working at this Big Goal. I even had a PR on my 10-mile race this week, which is always an enjoyable element in fueling motivation.
But here we go: Less than a month to race day!
WEEK AT A GLANCE:
Two easy runs
One speed workout (SPRINTS!)
One long run — coinciding with RACE DAY!
One core + one strength workout
Week in the life of half marathon training!
MONDAY
Rest day, and my biweekly call with my coach. I really needed a confidence boost, after too much negative self-talk. Receiving feedback and mental tips is one of the many amazing reasons to have a coach. She really helps me reign in and release this future-focused, all-or-nothing thinking. My old carry-over mantra from derby — “I can do anything for two minutes!” — has been revised to “I can do this right now.”
TUESDAY
Jump rope x 100 + strength workout (this workout always kicks my butt!)
WEDNESDAY
On the backside of my housing development, there’s a nice stretch of sidewalk to do some speedy sprints (is that redundant?). This week’s workout was HARD! But, fun hard. There were a couple walkers on the opposite side of the street trying to figure out my crazy, which just made me laugh more at myself.
That said, I found myself pooping out 40 seconds into every interval. My warm-up was 10 minutes (9:25 pace), followed by 1:1 sprints/recovery jog (spoiler alert: couldn’t even jog!) x 10. That madness ended with another 10-min cool down run (12:23 pace, whomp).
Zero energy to do my core workout after that, so I bumped it to after my Thursday easy run.
THURSDAY
Treadmill Thursday: 4.20 miles, 45:34
Splits: 10:36 / 10:56 / 11:12 / 10:49
Ended with Wednesday’s core workout. 😉
Treadmill Life (you need a good book!)
FRIDAY
REST Day (and Date Night). We went to members’ preview opening of the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Arts Center, followed by dinner at Eatery A.
SATURDAY
Back on my treadmill (the humidity is back, you guys) for an easy, SLOW 3-miler.
Splits: 12:09 / 11:56 / 11:41
SUNDAY
RACE DAY! And It. Was. AWESOME. Despite the humidity (OMG SERIOUSLY, WHERE IS FALL?!) making a comfortable 55 degrees feel 20 degrees warmer, I felt great for this 10-mile run.
I really focused on my coach’s prescribed “easy 7-mile run” mentality, which seemed to help! And I felt like I had the right amount of energy to increase my pace for the latter part of the race.
You know what was weird about this run? How good I felt on zero fuel. No GU or gluten-free figgies (though I had them both on me); no Gatorade on the course. I even packed a salt tab, too, JUST IN CASE. When I lined up for the start, that’s when I realized that I forgot to eat my pre-race GU. I just shrugged it off, thinking “I have two!” in case things went bad (read: I got SUPER hungry). I had my usual race morning breakfast (egg sandwich, holla!). And I only sipped water at the fuel stops (this race had stations at about every 2 miles). Totally, completely perplexing.
10 miles, 10:16 pace overall.
Anyways, I’ll have a race recap up soon!
WEEKLY RUNS: 4 WEEKLY MILEAGE: 21.2 miles TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 131.76 total miles!
I had another week that I cut out my second easy run. While I at least fit in a short circuit workout, the weekend was just too busy. All things considered, I only took one rest day from being active — AND I did something new! — so I am still happy with this training week. My chat with my coach this week really helped me think a little bit about my mental game and my ability to push a little harder. It’s there, but I can’t let self-doubt win.
My goal for the week: Stay in the moment.
WEEK AT A GLANCE:
One strength workout
One circuit workout
One easy run
One speed workout
One long run
And one fun hour of trail-skating!
Skating the trails!
MONDAY
My scheduled rest day in my training plan, but I went down to Gray’s Lake and skated the trail to downtown. A nice 5-ish mile loop on a very sweaty day! Having not been on my skates in six months, it felt really good. Though I forgot how much I had to carry with me when I skate alone!
TUESDAY
My weekly strength workout.
WEDNESDAY
Pick-ups scheduled, and I was in that headspace where I wanted to flip my speed and easy days. But once I got my 10-minute warm-up done, I wanted to do the speed work. Because I didn’t have my watch set up for that, I forgot to hit the lap button on each interval AND they weren’t exactly on the minute mark – but I got it done!
And then when filling in my training plan spreadsheet, I realized that I forgot to do my core workout. Whoops!
All said and done, I completed just shy of 4 miles (3.93) in 43:00 minutes.
THURSDAY
Four miles easy run on the treadmill at 10:23 pace
Splits: 10:04 / 10:18 / 10:29 / 10:41
FRIDAY
Attended the Go Blog Social networking and happy hour events, as part of the fun conference weekend here in Des Moines. I’ll have a blog post up about the event this week! It was a very fun rest day. 😉
SATURDAY Krave Fitness Gym, a fitness center in West Des Moines and one of the partners of the Go Blog Social conference, held a workout in the morning before breakfast. It was circuit-based, with a focus on body strength workouts and core. I was really happy – as a fitness blogger and active person – to have the organizers schedule a workout as part of the conference.
I spent all day at the conference, and then went to my first Iowa-Iowa State party. I had another easy run on the calendar for Saturday, but just couldn’t fit it in.
A girl and her treadmill — 10 miles done!
SUNDAY
On Sundays, we do long runs!
Because I had exhausted all of my mental energy from socializing for two days straight and I was experiencing some digestive distress in the morning, I kept this one on the treadmill (sad cakes, as it was BEAUTIFUL weather). I was moving SLOOOOOWWWWW for an “easy” pace. My splits were pretty consistently in the 11:15-11:25 range (with one outlier at 11:45, woof).
The first of my back-to-back 10-miler weekends is complete, and I look forward to this weekend’s Capital Pursuit 10-miler Race!
WEEKLY RUNS: 3 WEEKLY MILES: 17.9 miles TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 110.56 miles — I hit the century mark!
Woahhhhhh, we’re half way there… halfway through half marathon training. The humidity finally broke this week, and I’m feeling recharged. I still have a LOT of work to do in order to meet my goal for the half, but I’m slowly (POOR WORD CHOICE, MEL!) meeting some of my paces.
Running in my new xx2i sunglasses that I won during #BibChat a couple weeks ago!
MONDAY
Rest Day — foam rolling routine before bed (and no, I still haven’t developed into a nightly habit).
TUESDAY
Strength Day! I focused on being really intentional with the workout, rather than rushing to complete it. I felt good and it was almost meditative (and I got to catch up on Bachelor in Paradise). I also worked on rolling my feet and calves before bed, since this is where I’ve been feeling some soreness lately.
WEDNESDAY
Took to the treadmill after work for my Easy Run — which seems like the first in a long while of getting negative splits. Each mile felt better than the last, and this is exactly the kind of confidence that I’ve been trying to build with these easy run days.
THURSDAY
This was one of those days where I needed to push myself out the door to run something. My plan called for 45 minutes, but I was going to try for at least 30 minutes. My leg foot, left shin and left knee all felt ugly tight and sore for the start (and loosened up after the first mile). I went in a new direction outside and kept hitting trail sidewalks that went nowhere. But, SURPRISE: I started getting into my run — eventually going right past my house and completed another 15 minutes around my development. Total highlight of this run (besides Doing the Work!): That dang humidity is GONE. Finally.
SUNDAY
Sooooo, taking this whole non-labor Labor Day stuff to heart, I took an extra rest day. I was considerably lazy for most of the day, but I’m not guilty of it one bit. I’m planning on trail skating today, which replaces my early week rest day on the training plan — I haven’t had my skates on for almost 6 months, though. This should be fun.
Looking ahead: trying not to freak out about the two weekends of 10-milers in a row (10-mile long run scheduled this weekend, and a 10-mile race next weekend). I’ve been here before; I can do this! This current cut-back week was much-needed for recharging my mental space, and I feel like it fulfilled its purpose of re-motivating me, while also allowing for some actual physical rest.
WEEKLY RUNS: 3 WEEKLY MILES: 14.1 miles TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 92.66 miles
TOTAL MILES FOR AUGUST: 69.88 miles
Real talk: The month that I ran my marathon last year, I ran a total of 73.89 miles, which included the marathon itself AND my 20-miler training run (which, HOW?!). August of 2015, I ran a total of 60.66 miles while training for a full marathon (there were a couple weeks where I only ran once a week!). My commitment to my training mileage has increased exponentially from over a year ago. But I’m still a little dumbfounded over how little training I did to run a full!
Whoooo boy, do I feel tired this week. I knew that traveling would take some energy out of me, but I feel like I’m FOR REAL half marathon training (as opposed to faking half marathon training, I guess. HA!) That said, I feel like I’m oscillating between GOOD RUN DAY! YAY! and Whomp, Bad Day in my consecutive runs. I feel like I still have no grasp on what I’m doing for speed workouts despite doing the work (and usually feeling miserably slow and ineffective), and I’m struggling with any kind of awareness of what my race pace should be. I’ve said that I want to run a 2-hour half — I honestly don’t know if the Des Moines Half Marathon will be the goal race that I want it to be.
Alas, I have a couple races coming up in the next few weeks of my training schedule to practice, which I’m excited about (I’m also excited about having a nice little recovery and mileage cutback this week because TIRED): The Madrid Miler Labor Day Run (there’s a 2-mile, 5-mile and 15-mile series; next year, I definitely want to do the 15!) — I’m excited about running the High Trestle bridge and I guess there are some serious hills on this route; and the Capital Pursuit 10-miler here in Des Moines is on September 18.
WEEK AT A GLANCE:
One strength workout
Two core workouts
Two easy runs – one by time, one by mileage
One tempo interval run
One long progression run
Working on that summer running tan. HA!
MONDAY
The perfect rest day, after flying back in Sunday night and returning to Hell Week at work. Lordy, I was gloriously in bed by 8pm.
TUESDAY
Strength workout and WHEW, did this workout take more out of me than I expected! I’m trying to be more aware that I needed to allow myself a little recovery time from the harried travel over 4 days and the time zone change. I did some foam rolling before bed, and I intend to make it part of my future training weeks to do just 5 minutes with my regular nighttime routine. I mean, if I can wake up at 6am for weekend runs now, I can give myself 5 minutes of additional torture in the evenings, right?
WEDNESDAY
Tempo interval workout that felt really hard and really slow. UGH.
1-mi warm-up: 11:08 pace
10:47 / 11:13
10:54 / 11:24
10:47 / 11:12
1-mi cool down: 11:23 pace
5.19 miles
THURSDAY
I want to bottle up the feeling of my legs from this day and pull from it any time the struggle bus hits me. This run felt great! And I almost considered waiting until Friday to do it since it was late. But I got done around 8pm and I’m happy with how the run felt – like it was super easy mentally and physically, and my legs were light. And, I dunno, like I was running fast for once.
Splits: 9:26 / 9:07 / 9:27 / 9:34
4.02 miles
FRIDAY
REST! (And trying not to drink ALL the wine while I moved around my living room furniture.)
SATURDAY
I was ticked at my Garmin, as I updated this workout before leaving for my run and synced my watch. The updated version didn’t sync. I guess I should’ve just created a new workout. Technology sometimes, man.
So, instead of doing the 35-minute run + strides that I was supposed to, I did a 30-minute run, strides, then another 5-minute run. It was supposed to be my second core workout of the week, too, and I had zero energy left. That’s what I get for waiting to do this run in the evening, after doing errands all afternoon. Still trying to shrug it off, but I felt like total crap afterward — and it’s lingered still, and I think affected me even on Sunday.
SUNDAY
I don’t think I’ve had any success with my progression runs yet — and this week’s was no different. I woke up early to do this run and was SO HAPPY about the 67 degree temps… until I realized the humidity was 95%. Again, I couldn’t finish the whole progression run.
If I felt like I had no energy left on Saturday, my tank ran empty on Sunday. Empty, nearly broken down on the side of the road, flagging down a truck driver. EMPTY. (I didn’t do that, of course, but something instinctively in me told me to change course and run towards home). It also took a long time for me to feel like I was cooled down (even after jolting myself with a cold shower). It seems like all the runners the world over on Instagram had similar weather suffering this weekend, so I guess I’m in good company.
7.4 miles (supposed to do 8 miles; supposed to be progression… EHHHHH I TRIED).
And then I spent the rest of my afternoon embarrassing myself on the golf course! lol
Any of the cumulative fatigue that I felt lingering last week (if that is even possible after three weeks of half marathon training) felt like it lifted this week. I was hitting some faster paces, managing to get outside for a couple runs AND waking my tired ass up for TWO early runs over the weekend. I was traveling Thursday through Sunday, and I didn’t miss a single workout!
Look at me, eating hills (thanks, Pittsburgh!) AND goals for breakfast.
Week at a glance:
Five states, four flights, a two-hour road trip and an 8-mile run! LOL
Four total runs – two easy, one long, one speed workout
One core workout
One strength training day
I didn’t foam roll as much as I do when I’m at home (since I was traveling), but I did pack my RAD roller in my suitcase to get in a little bit of trigger point therapy and continue some work on my calves.
MONDAY
Rest Day is the Best Day!
TUESDAY
Strength workout
WEDNESDAY
I talked to my coach about flipping my Wednesday and Thursday workouts, only because after traveling, I KNEW I would be setting myself up for failure if I had to do speed work. So, Wednesday was another fun pick-ups workout (I seriously love doing these!). I did 4 sets of 2-minute alternating fast pace and my moderate pace, then another 3 sets of 1-minute alternating sprinting pace and a slower pace.
I guess that I was supposed to do my core workout too, but I totally missed it on my spreadsheet. WHOOPS! (I ended up doing it after my Thursday easy run at the hotel).
4.4 miles
THURSDAY
It’s weird that my mid-week easy runs are up to 4 miles now. I never really paid attention to the importance of doing these extra easy runs in my previous training plans (or, I paid attention and thought that I didn’t need them). But I honestly kind of find them mentally refreshing.
We stayed at the new Hilton downtown, which has a really impressive workout space — with a great view of Lake Erie and downtown!
Treadmill with a view!
4.0 miles
FRIDAY
REST! We were in Cleveland, so we ate gloriously and had a little fun date night out.
SATURDAY
If 9am is wrong… well, yeah, it’s wrong. It was humid AF. Cleveland promised me a cool 70-degree morning, and I got another 85 degree humid run. I had a few total newbie runner fails on this run (despite “being” a runner for almost two years): I didn’t have auto-pause turned on on my new Garmin watch (what?!) and I wanted to take a few touristy pictures, since I WAS in my hometown, I intentionally paused my runs at several points. Welp, sure enough, I forgot to UNpause my watch and this was a timed run. Darn it. It also happened on that big climb from the lakefront into downtown. So, I didn’t get to capture that spectacular awfulness.
But I captured this awesome selfie!
Because I had my watch set to my workout to do Strides at the end, I ended up running closer to 40 minutes instead of 30. Yeah, and then I had to do those strides. It’s amazing how 20 seconds can seem like an eternity when your legs feel like lead. Definitely didn’t feel the greatness as I did during my mid-week runs, but I was having fun (believe it or not). I didn’t use my headphones on this run either!
Sightseeing while running – one of my favorite things to do when traveling!
Sundays are my long run days, so I pre-planned to have a couple friends meet me in downtown Pittsburgh to do my EARLY 8 miles at a slower pace. We started in kinda humid temperatures, anticipating a storm — which sprinkled on us a few times during the run. But it felt amazing! By the end of the run, the temperature cooled and it was breezy, and I almost felt like myself again (though, really really tired and hungry… oh wait, yeah. That’s me!) I had to be REALLY intentional about slowing down because I kept falling behind and have the tendency to “catch up” to the group. I loved being back in the city where I spent the last six years of my life and running through my old stomping grounds. I cried more during this visit than I expected to.
No crying over Chocolate Milk though! Fueled by Turner’s, when in Pittsburgh.
8.01 miles / 11:20 avg pace
WEEKLY RUNS: 4 WEEKLY MILES: 19.3 miles TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 58.35 miles
