monthly recaps

Vermont City Marathon: Training Week #12

- Mel

Disclaimer: I received a free entry to Vermont City Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to find and write race reviews!

vermont city marathon training blog traveling runner

March mileage, a hot-and-sweaty Texas run, and How to Spot a Traveling Runner

I looked back my training blogs from my first marathon at the same training week, and I am consistently in awe of how I was able to run that race. Though I do miss run-commuting from work! And check out that comment about gels. Maybe I need to buy those lemon shortbread cookies again?

I’m in that part of training where I’m reconsidering all my choices to do marathons. This week, my brain is going to unhappy places and I’m finding all the excuses to cancel the remainder of my race calendar for summer and go back to racing half marathons. Or something. I know this will pass, but it’s an awful negative loop.

Blame it on the Texas heat for my mood maybe.

But this reminds me that I need to find my mantra for this race. Because things are bound to get ugly.

MONDAY My usual rest day. I had a great call with my coach — who had just finished her own Ragnar relay. So I got to pick her brain A LOT in preparation of my first adventure. One piece of advice she gave was to GET OUT OF THE VAN and lay flat whenever possible. It ended up being the best advice.

TUESDAY An easy run day on the treadmill at home — starting with some foam rolling and ending with a set of Strides.

4 miles (plus an extra .4 for the Strides) / 49:22 / 11:06 average pace

WEDNESDAY Tempo Run! We’ve been having some really unpredictable weather in Iowa, so it was another treadmill day. I’m not made about it, but sometimes doing speed work can be difficult. Like, are you supposed to have negative splits in your middle fast miles?

5 miles / 53:02 / 10:36 average pace

Splits: 11:04, 10:25, 10:04, 9:48, 11:41

THURSDAY Traveling Day — off to Austin, Texas for Ragnar Luckenbach

FRIDAY First day of Ragnar! I don’t want to spoil the race recap too much, but my first leg was 7.6 miles. And it was hot.

SATURDAY Ragnar Day Two: I had two legs — 2.75 miles in the middle of the night (yay!) and another 6.85 miles in the afternoon (still hot!).

SUNDAY Since this was my first trip to Austin, we walked around and explored downtown, including some of the riverfront trail. I honestly felt really good, considering what I put my body through over the prior three days.

WEEKLY RUNS: 5 runs
WEEKLY MILES: 26.7 miles
TOTAL TRAINING MILES: 219.26 miles

I also had 104.1 total miles for March — my biggest mileage month ever. CRAZY!

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IMT Des Moines Half Marathon: Training Week #6

- Mel

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.

iowa running blogger summer humidity
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.

44:14, 4.02 miles
Splits: 11:17 / 11:06 / 10:54 / 10:45

iowa running blogger trail sidewalks end
Where the sidewalk ends… the hills begin.

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.

45:36, 4.41 miles
Splits: 10:05 / 10:18 / 10:13 / 10:39

FRIDAY
Rest Day – hung out a bit with some neighbors after work, and then turned into bed early for Saturday’s early morning race.

SATURDAY
Five-mile race — read my recap of the Madrid Milers Labor Day Run!

iowa running blogger chocolate milk race day
A successful race calls for TWO chocolate milks!

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!

Accountability Monday: IT’S JULY! — and June wrap-up

- Mel 1 Comment

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:

love running gasparilla race photos

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.

Goals for this week:

  • Do ONE new thing
  • TWO workouts while traveling
  • Run THREE times
  • FOUR workouts total
  • One FIVE-mile run

Training Week 17 — and (quickie) September Wrap-up

- Mel

This is it. The hard work is done, and I am officially in my taper (hashtag, taper madness). I’ll certainly do a reflection post on my training later on but right now? I’m exhausted.

taper_img

MONDAY Rest Day

TUESDAY Had a grad school open house after work, so another Rest Day (and I am seriously on, like, four snooze alarms in the morning now. Sigh). I realize that I need to bring a set of workout clothes, my yoga mat, and a pair of running shoes back to my office. At some point, I took everything home and never brought my workout gear back; there have been so many times that I’m sitting at work, stressed, and totally want NEED to run it out.

WEDNESDAY Again, plans after work, so another Rest Day (I realize that this is too many in one week, especially in days off in a row after the Akron Relay. Feeling disappointed in myself, my training, and super antsy about not making this more of a priority). So my Thursday run was rough…

THURSDAY 3.96 miles with some speed bursts — It was fun to play Dodge the Drunk as Steelers fans encroached upon the North Shore though. There are always those idiots who have no idea how to move over when you call your path to the left (or worse, those who step right in front of you). I’m not ashamed to say that I put my shoulder in a guy when he stepped in my way, and I refused to break stride.

But my body did not feel good. At all. My shins were bothering me, and I was super stiff with heavy legs and my foot felt like it was attached crooked (??). I guess I needed a better warm-up, since Miles 3 and 4 felt much better. Mentally though, I had to talk myself into that last mile. I did a lot of stretching when I was done.

Splits: 10:26 (1)/ 10:04 (2)/ 9:52 (3)/ 10:04 (4)

FRIDAY Sick day from work, so I needed to rest and work this out of my system. I guess I’m not surprised at this point that my body’s immunity is being tested.

SATURDAY I’m always nervous about running the day before a long run, so after my massage, I did a half hour of strength-based yoga for runners at home (since I missed my weekly yoga night on Wednesday) and did SO much stretching.

ETA: I nearly forgot! I went for a 60-minute sports massage in the morning. She helped me stretch, which felt amazing. I’ve been having a lot of tightness in my piriformis, and she spent a good bulk of the massage time on my legs and glutes. Next month, I’m doing a 90-minute FOR SURE.

SUNDAY Long run — 20 MILES (and the Penguins/Lemiuex 6.6k race). I was freaking out about this run, especially since I missed a 18-mile run in my training. I was allowing myself to get *as close as possible* to that 20. But once I was close to 18, I needed to keep running. And then needed to get past 19. Because my GPS wouldn’t connect at the start of the training run, I knew that I had to add about .75 to my total mileage.

If you want to know what kind of person I am: I needed to see 20 miles on my watch, so I kept running beyond my actual 20 just to get the pleasure of seeing that number. Those last three miles were slow and felt terrible BUT I RAN TWENTY FREAKING MILES. Actually, 20.76 (Total time: 3:37:39).

Splits: 10:02 (1)/ 10:14 (2)/ 10:14 (3)/ 10:01 (4)/ 11:01 (5)/ 13:30 (6)/ 9:09 (7)/ 9:35 (8)/ 9:42 (9)/ 14:20 (10)/ 10:38 (11)/ 10:28 (12)/ 10:10 (13)/ 10:36 (14)/ 10:21 (15)/ 10:52 (16)/ 11:04 (17)/ 11:35 (18)/ 11:58 (19)/ 11:45 (20)

Some of those splits are outliers because I forgot to pause my watch walking up to the start line of the 6.6k race (and, again, afterward when I finished and walked back to where I was meeting the group), and I obviously ran the race WAY TOO FAST. But… eh. I slowed WAY down on those last three miles by myself (and I was really starting to hurt everywhere). I need to trust that I can run the bulk of my race at an average 10:15 pace though, slowing to an 11:00 for that last portion. I think I can, I think I can… finish less than 5 hours?

And, yes — LOTS of stretching and moving around after this run! (And I ate, like, 8 meals.)

Total runs: 2
Total miles: 24.72 miles
Total training miles: 233.89 miles

SEPTEMBER NUMBERS
Total runs: 10
Total miles: 66.55 miles
Increase: 5.89 miles over August

July Recap: All the sweaty miles you can handle!

- 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.
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?