Training Week 12: Niagara Falls International Marathon

August 31, 2015 - Mel

Nothing like a good half marathon race to put your running spirits on overdrive! I had to force my brain (and my body) to rest on Monday.

MONDAY: LAUNDRY DAY! aka: Rest Day. Seriously though, I go through an ungodly amount of clothing in the summer.

TUESDAY: My plan called for a Fast Finish workout (4.5 easy and 1.5 moderately hard), but I was more in that mood where I wanted to see what my body could do. Surprisingly, I was able to sustain a fairly fast pace at Mile 3 (once I was warmed up). And though it was a cooler evening, the humidity still was pretty unbearable (hello, elbow sweat). Followed up with about 20 minutes of foam rolling.

5.10 miles, average 9:40/mi pace. Splits: 9:27 (1) / 10:02 (2) / 8:10 (3) / 10:45 (4) / 10:03 (5)

WEDNESDAY: run//yoga club night!

3.00 miles, average 10:10/mi pace. No splits. I struggled with this yoga session a lot and my hips were so tight. I frequently felt “stuck” in poses, especially warrior. My legs eventually gave up.

THURSDAY: Rest day. Originally planned to do the Elevation Challenge with True Runner, but other plans took priority.

FRIDAY: Rest day

SATURDAY: 14 miles!!! Yep, my furthest training run. I honestly cannot believe how great this run felt. AND I was out the door by 7:30am. The morning was so nice and cool, which is probably why I felt mostly normal again. I kept this training run intentionally slow because I knew it was going to be a long morning. First time that I listened to a podcast during a run, and synced up perfectly with the release of Nicole Antoinette’s new show Real Talk Radio.

14.00 miles, average 11:23/mi pace. Total time: 2:39:39.
Splits: 11:34 (1) / 11:17 (2) / 11:34 (3) / 11:08 (4) / 11:00 (5) / 10:57 (6) / 12:11 (7) / 10:47 (8) / 10:50 (9) / 11:39 (10) / 12:04 (11) / 11:11 (12) / 11:53 (13) / 11:29 (14)

I should mention that my legs felt *really* tight afterward, and I had to stop to stretch my IT band near the end of the run because my left knee was starting to go wonky on me. Not pain, but TIGHT. I also have my new favorite long run fuel in these Pamela’s lemon shortbread cookies. It may be wholly unconventional but those goos and gummies do absolutely ZERO for my hunger on long runs.

SUNDAY: Early in the morning, I took off for OMs in the Outfield at PNC Park. To be honest, I was underwhelmed by the experience despite feeling very excited before the event. I originally intended to do a separate review, but now that I feel very “meh” about the whole thing, I won’t. And I refuse to give in to FOMO again. I did think it was cool that Chelsea Collective got involved with OMS in the Outfield though — every participant got a free branded yoga mat.

Maybe I was just crabby about how janky my feet looked?

Total runs: 3
Total miles: 22.10 miles
Total training miles: 142.64 miles

Training Week 11: Niagara Falls International Marathon

August 24, 2015 - Mel

MONDAY: Finally got back to spinning class this week (on what is my usual rest day). I knew that I would have more than enough rest days this week. And I just really wanted to start the week off right.

TUESDAY: Went to the Chelsea Collective store preview party. See my post here!

WEDNESDAY: run//yoga club with another 3.01 miles (time: 29:54) and 75 minutes of hot, sweaty yoga. Still a little adapted because of my finger, but I definitely felt stronger than last week.

THURSDAY: Anticipated getting a post-work run in, but there was an office party that went longer into the workday. Meanwhile, I skipped drinking at the party so I could run, but then I was too tired by the time I got home at 7pm PLUS I still had to pack for my weekend trip. At least I got another day’s worth of walking in for my commute.

FRIDAY: Drove to Cleveland, and there was no time for anything but singing alone in the car. Hashtag, thanks Pitbull Sirius channel.

SATURDAY: I really didn’t want to run the day before the race. I did a 5K the day before Pittsburgh, and well… I didn’t want to do that again.

SUNDAY: Half Marathon Day! Read my recap here. 13.1 miles at an average 10:37 pace. This run felt great, and as I wrote in my recap, was 33 seconds faster than my Pittsburgh time. I only walked at two water spots (just long enough to drink and eat some beans). I probably could have even done the first few miles a little faster but I had a really great pace group. This feels good though and makes all this mileage madness worth it. A few seconds is progress, and interesting to see where I can make even more.

My breakfast was a little different than for my usual long runs too, which is interesting to note. No eggs (stupid room service).

Total runs: 2
Total miles: 16.11 miles
Total training miles: 120.54 miles

By the end of next week (and in next Monday’s post), I can officially say that I have run the furthest that I ever have, with a 14-mile long run on the schedule for my weekend. Here’s hoping for some crisp Fall-like weather, eh?

Training Week 10: Niagara Falls International Marathon

August 17, 2015 - Mel

So since I broke my finger, I intentionally took a couple days off because of the immense swelling. But by Wednesday I felt my body was ready to do some running and yoga and get back into my routine (and get over my crankiness). My finger is still super bruised and gross though.

MONDAY: Scheduled Rest Day

TUESDAY: Supposed to be a Fast Finish day, but rested (and hated everything and everyone and OH MY THE CRANK).

WEDNESDAY: run//yoga club with lululemon from Urban Elements. Our group run started off with a nice gift from lululemon — a pair of their running socks to try out. That’s super exciting (and they’re purple)! They fit very similar to the Champion socks that I swear by, but my feet felt a little sweatier in them. I’ll test out over a few more short runs before claiming them as a new option.

We did 3.07 miles at a 10:00 average pace. We kept it slower than normal because of a new runner to the group. New people means the club continues (you should join us). Plus, the weather felt nice! Like, THERE’S HOPE FOR US ALL.

I was able to modify my yoga a bit too, so as to not further injure my finger. 75 minutes of hot flow, as per usual (but without any difficult inversions or floating).

THURSDAY: Rest. Was invited over to a friend’s for a little patio fun, which was necessary.

FRIDAY: Supposed to be a Fartlek day. *sigh*

SATURDAY: Had enough of rest days, and went out for a 5-mile run at average 9:38 pace. Today was supposed to be cross-training, but I needed to run. And it felt awesome. I followed it up with some plank holds and GOOD stretching.

SUNDAY: Functional Fitness 101, aka: moving furniture. It was too dang hot and I wimped out of my run (again). I keep telling myself that we are less than a month away to the onset of Fall temperatures (sweet baby Jesus, hurry). I know that I need to work on my resilience and my motivation, but 94 degrees plus humidity means NOPE. So I spent an entire day cleaning out my attic and organizing.

This was a day that all I had to do was put on my run outfit, and I probably would have gone out. But I became so preoccupied in getting this space organized. (At least, it’s no longer an excuse, right?)

I’m starting to feel bad about missing my runs. Seriously though, I know that I cannot continue this behavior and be able to run a full marathon. I will chuck this up to a fake taper learned behavior for my half marathon next weekend, and then I need to get super serious about my training. I MEAN IT.

Total runs: 2
Total miles: 8.08 miles
Total training miles: 104.43 miles FINALLY over that century mark!

Fun fact: I’m just about equal to the total training miles that I had for the Pittsburgh Half (granted, that was at 14 weeks of training). It’s still probably far too few miles, but I had a pretty good half in May and I hope this spells good for Cleveland next weekend.

Training Week 9: Niagara Falls International Marathon

August 10, 2015 - Mel

I knew going into this week that I would be pressed and stressed for time (probably a self-affirming limited belief as well). Do I accumulate any points this week for driving over the bridge that I’ll be running over for this marathon? How about any for breaking a finger?

(Seriously.)

MONDAY: The usual rest day (but maybe it shouldn’t have been…)

TUESDAY: Had tickets to Kinky Boots after work, and couldn’t wake up any earlier in the morning despite three alarms and one set to System of a Down.

WEDNESDAY: Drove to Toronto, crossed over on the Peace Bridge. Got super giddy about running this race!

THURSDAY: I completed a treadmill run at our AirBnB apartment complex — oh, this is a hilarious one! So, the touch screen on the stupid treadmill in the gym was not working, and it wasn’t until well into my warm up that I realized that I was running IN KILOMETERS. Meanwhile, I had no wifi access (or international plan), so I couldn’t easily Google “how many miles are in a kilometer?” Obviously, I knew my 5K breakdown, so I just estimated from there. But what a hilarious adventure. (I’m quite fast in Canada!)

4.34 miles (or 7 kilometers) which included a six-minute warm-up and .4km walking cool down.

FRIDAY: Rest, convention and finish up final papers and assignments.

SATURDAY: FINALS DUE! Last day (for me) for convention. I wasted a couple hours celebrating the end of school too BECAUSE.

SUNDAY: Drive home from Canada. I was hoping to run IN Toronto in the morning, but decided to just get on the road early and back home to the cats. And then I slipped up the steps in my house while carrying a water bottle and Fig Newtons, and… well, I now have a chip fracture in my left pinky finger and I’m splinted for a few weeks.

Total runs: 1 (yuck!)
Total miles: 4.34 miles
Total training miles: 96.35 miles

This is the first week of my training that I missed my Sunday run. Last week I did one more mile than I should have, and next week is a drop-back week, so I know that I’ll be fine. But a broken finger is definitely not the injury that I anticipated experiencing during my training program! I’ll be taking a couple days off, and hopefully Wednesday I’ll be good again for run//yoga club (adapted for the yoga part, naturally).

Training Week 8: Niagara Falls International Marathon

August 4, 2015 - Mel

Week 8 was an OK training week! I know that this upcoming week is going to be hit-or-miss what with traveling and finals. I also realized that my scheduled 5K is on SATURDAY (not Sunday), and I have my final presentation an hour later, so I’ll probably be too stressed to run it. *sigh* In any event, I look forward to taking some run-selfies in Toronto this week. (God, I hope it’s not 80+ degrees!)

MONDAY: Rest Day

TUESDAY: I experienced technical difficulties in between my MapMyRun and my Garmin. My stupid watch wouldn’t connect to GPS (again!) downtown, so I ran around for a half mile or so to the Point in hopes of connecting. I did the reverse loop from the Point over the Ft. Pitt Bridge and over through the South Side trail, back up Smithfield and through downtown again. MMR also logged me doing a 4-minute mile swim over the Allegheny again, so… I guess I’m going to start pausing my workout when I run around the Convention Center.

Anyways, one app tracked me at 6.06 miles, the other at 4.5; I split the difference and figured I ran somewhere around 5 miles.

lululemon running tank pink — Sweating it out in my awesome new lululemon top — a gift from my run club buddy for my 5K PR. *love* (see also: cat photo bomb)

WEDNESDAY: Weekly workout with run//yoga club — 3.2 hot, slow, and sweaty miles and 75 minutes of hot and sweaty (and not slow) yoga, with an added emphasis on heart openers. This was probably my favorite practice so far with Megan at Urban Elements.

THURSDAY: Extra rest day (since I had to work a 12-hour day, oof)

FRIDAY: Liberty Mile! And yep, only that one mile. Once again, no connectivity with my Garmin, so I had NO pacing function. Recap of this race to post this week!

SATURDAY: I was really getting that urge to run again today, but I decided that resting for Sunday’s long run was more important. I did get a massage in the morning, which was overdue and much-needed.

SUNDAY: ~~Run 9 miles~~ Kind of run 10.01 miles. Admittedly, this was a TOUGH run. I waited until late afternoon, where the heat index was still somewhere in the mid-80s and felt like my shoes were melting on the pavement. I took several walk breaks, and went out too far on the South Side trail. And, well, by the time I was downtown, I was still a mile away from home. I kind of run-walked that last bit only because I was going to pass out if I stopped (and I seriously contemplated calling the boyfriend to come get me).

Total runs: 4
Total weekly miles: 19.21
Total training miles: 92.01

July Recap: All the sweaty miles you can handle!

August 2, 2015 - Mel

I’m less than 85 days away from my first full marathon, and still mildly freaking out about it — but in good, productive ways. I am in my last week of school too, so I look forward to being able to only focus on training for a while (and not that I have to sometimes skip/balance workouts with homework or advising sessions).

running downtown pittsburgh convention center — That point of my run where my GPS can never find me. Also the coolest (literally) place to run in downtown in July.

JULY STATS
Total miles for July: 57.12 — an increase from June, which had 36.08 total miles.
Total runs: 14

My longest run of the month was 8.04 miles on July 16 (in hot, sweaty Cleveland).
The month ended with my shortest (but most fun!) with the Liberty Mile.

I only missed one of my weekly run//yoga club sessions, and I met up twice with Steel City Road Runners Club this month. I didn’t miss ANY of my Sunday long runs. Hooray!

I PR’d my 5K time at 28:08!

White board goals: lots of shrugging and accountability.

Upcoming for August: LOTS OF MILES
I’ve got two races scheduled: a 5K in Toronto on August 9 (Ray’s Race, aka: the running of the psychologists) and the Cleveland Rock Hall Half Marathon on August 23.

If I ONLY run my long runs each week (which, that would be dumb!), then I’ll be at 54 miles for the month, so my August total miles should totally rock the socks off of that July total.

Although, I anticipate August being MUCH sweatier.

Legs, are you ready?

Training Week 7: Niagara Falls International

July 27, 2015 - Mel

No long lead-ins from me this week. I just reached 22 pages on my Capstone paper, so I’m all word-ed out.

MONDAY: My usual weekly resty rest day.

TUESDAY: Ran 3.02 miles (10:15 avg pace); should have done 5, but I just wasn’t feeling it.

WEDNESDAY: Rest; completely crapped out after being in a seminar all day. Skipped my weekly run//yoga club, and I’m bummed about that.

THURSDAY: MOAR REST! I had to prepare for my weekly Capstone session with my advisor.

FRIDAY: Rest; again, what a weird week — we had our departmental retreat, so my schedule was just all out-of-sorts. I could have run after work, but… I opted for napping in my hammock. Oops.

yogafest pittsburgh park outside — Ommmmmm

SATURDAY: YogaFest — I did three sessions: two hour-long flow classes (the first was at 7:30am — yay, me!) and a pure barre intro class in between. The barre class one was so… weird. And not at all what I expected. But doing three classes five hours really tired me out, and made me feel less bad about taking so many rest days this week. Also, I freakin’ woke up at 6am — with a massive headache, but STILL. Considering my sunburn from just the morning, I’m glad that I went early.

Side note: I feel like Whirl YogaFest always has THE BEST vendors. Like, I got to eat a gluten-free scone for breakfast (thank you immensely, Chateau Cafe). Soergel’s is always there too, with the perfect snacks. And I come home with a bag full of awesome free swag. I also always purchase at least two new tops every year. But please bring back Marty’s Market and their scrambled eggs?

SUNDAY: Ran 6.14 miles, which also (randomly) included a Flash 5K with SCRR to coincide with this summer’s last Open Streets PGH (sad face). The Open Streets events have given me the motivation to wake up early and do training runs with the SCRR group; I didn’t recognize anybody and wasn’t feeling very social (or awake) though, so I just ran by myself. But it’s part of my monthly goals, to run more regularly with them. I had already ran a mile to the meeting point and didn’t find out about the Flash 5K until I arrived, but decided why not? (I mean, aside from being totally exhausted and unable to run another two miles). Well, I was exhausted, and part of that fourth mile was power walking, but I did my six.

In complete random turn of events, realized that I beat my 5K PR time by 7 seconds. So I have a new PR: 28:08! Certainly wasn’t expecting that as part of my training week, but I’ll take it!

Total runs: 2
Total weekly miles: 9.16 (this week was another drop-back week in the training program)
Total training miles: 72.80 miles

Training Week 6: Niagara Falls International Marathon

July 20, 2015 - Mel

This week doesn’t deserve any gold stars. While it’s not something often-talked about in runner’s circles, my motivation and energy takes a nose dive when I’m premenstrual. BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR US, LADIES! I wish, probably like most women, that my cycle would coordinate with my training schedule (especially in my drop-back weeks), but that isn’t reality.

Pun intended: I just gotta flow with it.

My goal was to get all four of my runs in, but when Friday came-and-went (had to drive to Cleveland), I knew that wasn’t going to happen. My second intent was to at least increase my mileage from last week, which… ehhhhh.

MONDAY: Rest Day

TUESDAY: ~~Cross-training~~ NOPE.

WEDNESDAY: Ran 4 miles with run//yoga club — at a 9:30 pace (seriously). And then 75 minutes of yoga. Admittedly, it was a tough practice after that warm run.

THURSDAY: Rest Day

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: Rest Day (but for serious, I walked all over Cleveland today, so I don’t feel too terrible about skipping another cross-training day).

SUNDAY: Ran 8 miles. It was already 90-some degrees at 9am in Cleveland. Regardless of the ridiculous amounts of sweat (omg even my super-old sports bra ran color onto my white tank because of it), this was a fun run around the city. Tackled two bridges, saw three sport stadiums, and ran through four different neighborhoods and through my old college campus — which has changed something amazing since ten years ago. My amphipod handheld water bottle only took me 5 miles before I had to buy another bottle at Starbucks (did I mention: HOT?).

Weekly Runs: 2
Weekly Miles: 12.04 miles (that’s not an increase from last week, unfortunately)
Total Training Miles: 63.64 miles

Training Week 5: Niagara Falls International Marathon

July 13, 2015 - Mel

With my workouts this weekend, let me just say how awesome it is that the boyfriend can drive me to work this morning. WOOF, my legs. I will enjoy my Monday rest day to the fullest.

My training week called for four days of running — with one fast finish workout and a Fartlek (which… what?) and two cross-training days (which, two-a-days are my BFF). I was also back to my increasing-weekly long run on Sunday. My home TRX system was delivered this week, so I’m excited to start those workouts (buuuuut probably not until next week, since I’m traveling this weekend).

Highlights of the week: 7-mile long run and CrossFit

MONDAY: Day of REST

TUESDAY: 4.03 miles at average 10:11/mi pace. I made sure to stretch a lot today after this run.

WEDNESDAY: 3.04 miles with run//yoga club at average 9:29/mi pace, followed by 75 minutes of hot yoga. This was an awesome class tonight too!

THURSDAY: Today was supposed to be my cross-training day, but I got enough of that from yoga the previous night.

FRIDAY: REST. Today was supposed to be my Fartlek training day with 4 miles easy and some hard 15 second bursts. I was already anticipating a tough CrossFit class the following morning, and of course we ended up doing sprints! #nailedit

SATURDAY: Run 1.45 miles to CrossFit. Today’s workout felt like TWO workouts (I don’t know if I was quite ready for this kind of return to CF). Warm up with some kettlebell swings and single-arm snatches, then 4 rounds of 8 box jumps/8 burpees/40 jump ropes (that was just the warm-up!). The WOD itself was a 20-minute AMRAP: 5 pull-ups, 5 knees-to-elbow (I did my first set of these toes-to-bar), 8 thrusters, 8 cleans, 3 flights of stairs, then road sprints. I intended to run home, but nah, I was good with walking it off — especially since I tweaked something in my glute during sprints (thankfully, while it still feels strained, it didn’t prevent me from my long run on Sunday).

SUNDAY: Run 7.01 miles at a (miserable) average 11:00/mi pace. I felt OK, but definitely felt like I was slogging through these miles again. I took a few 30-second walk breaks throughout the training run too. One of these days I’ll wake up early enough to get ahead of this humidity, but today wasn’t that day. And amidst all the crazy homework I had due, I’m happy that I mustered the energy to pull myself away from my computer for a little while.

Weekly Runs: 4
Weekly Miles: 15.53 miles (that’s a 3.41 increase from last week! woo-hoo!)
Total Training Miles: 51.60 miles

Training Week 4: Niagara Falls International Marathon

July 6, 2015 - Mel

The most important WIN from this week is that I did all four of my scheduled runs. They weren’t fast or pretty and one was a mile short, but I went out there (in this humidity, ugh) and did it.

MONDAY: Active rest day: foam rolled with a new app, called simply Foam Rolling, that targets areas for runners. The app is great! There are instructional videos, sport specific “exercises” and timers for each release. Today I also had a few bonus miles by walking to/from work.

TUESDAY: Run 2.06 miles at 9:06/mi pace (yay?) The plan was for three, but there was a heavy thundering in the air that provoked me to run straight home. I followed up with some upper body work with weights at home. Also, walked to/from work today.

saucony shoes run club pittsburgh — Saucony Party!

WEDNESDAY: Lunchtime restorative yoga for an hour, then run//yoga//run club at Urban Elements after work. We did 3.06 miles at 9:47/mi pace and 75 minutes of hot yoga. I didn’t feel strong today at ALL and found myself not being able to keep up in the flow much, which was disappointing, but… meh. The instructor did a LOT of core-based movements too. I also walked to/from work/yoga studio today.

THURSDAY: Rest day; walked to the hair salon from work which is a little bit further than my normal walk home (boyfriend was nice and dropped me off before he went to golf for the morning).

FRIDAY: NO WORK, NO EXERCISE. FREAK OUT ABOUT FINISHING PROSPECTUS. [repeat] I have no excuses for not running, other than I was just plain tired and decided to listen to my body. I moved this run to Saturday morning.

SATURDAY: Ran 3 miles at 9:43/mi pace and then did some core work at home.

SUNDAY: This week dropped back into a foundation week, so no “long” run today (I move up to 7 miles next weekend!). I completed 4 miles at an average 10:44/mi pace — another hot and muggy day AND IS IT OVER YET. I scheduled a 90-minute massage for the afternoon, and let me tell you: BEST. DECISION. EVER. Not only has my shoulder felt messed up all week (yay, sleeping injury!), but when he got to my feet, I was in 7 minutes of pure heaven.

I’ve probably talked about this here before, but getting a monthly massage is part of keeping my body healthy and I consider it my physical therapy. Admittedly, I don’t stretch as much as I should, so I get deep tissue or sports-specific massages and it REALLY helps my muscles relax.

Weekly Runs: 4
Weekly Miles: 12.12 miles
Total Training Miles: 36.07 miles
*Walking miles from commute not included in mile totals

Heartland Transplant

marathon training