taper madness

IMT Des Moines Half Marathon: Training Week #12 (Race Week) and Recovery

- Mel

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.

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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.

Weekly Therapy: RTYI

- Mel

the week:
I’ve felt rushed, tense, and scattered all week. I’ve felt burned out by city life. I’ve been mostly unmotivated to work out. Not enough hours in the day to do everything on my list. Not enough days in the week to catch up. Craving to slow down and feel some sense of peace… but apparently not this week.

weekend:
Checking out for the weekend. Bye, Felicia. See above.

Although I’ll admit that I am super-bummed to be missing the Harvest Moon race this weekend. This 5K has been my regular race each year (or more closely: my annual fitness test), even when I wasn’t training at all. There’s also a 10-mile race as part of the fun.

52 books in 52 weeks:
#33: In the Unlikely Event by by Judy Blume – I haven’t read a good bit of fiction in SO LONG. And I absolutely loved this book. True to form, upon reaching the last 100 pages, I couldn’t put it down.

That said, I’m still 6 books behind schedule for this year’s goal. Since I’m shutting down over the weekend, I’ll definitely finish another 1-2. But I’m definitely feeling some stress at being able to catch up (for what it’s worth: at least, I’m still enjoying reading outside of school materials every day, very much).

seven things, seven days:
1. So, they’re filming a Ewan McGregor movie literally right outside my door this week; however, don’t let that hype fool you — it’s wholly disruptive and annoying. Thankfully, night two of filming was a lot quieter.
2. It’s on my 30s Life List to bike the GAP Trail — now revised as a “luxe” cycling trip.
3. Speaking of my 30-something bucket list, I have a LOT of stuff to cross off in less than two years!
4. Relevant: WHY you should taper {via Runners World}
5. Also relevant: How to stop skipping your workouts FOR GOOD (or, at least, for today) {via MyFitnessPal blog}
6. The psychology behind FOMO {via Slate}
7. MORE RELEVANCE: What happens to your body during a marathon. Pretty interesting video!

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.

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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

Weekly Therapy: Running, running. And running, running.

- Mel

the week:
I hit my 30-day countdown point for my marathon training. I also got my first marathon reminder email this week. So… EEEEEEEEEK.

weekend:
This weekend I’m running the Akron Marathon Relay with a few friends. It’s my first relay, and I’m running leg 3 (the leg with the “hill”), which is 5.5 miles (I also need to run 18 total miles for my long run this week). I’m already experiencing a good amount of anxiety about the race because relay-ing seems so complicated because of its many moving (ahem, running) parts. And how the heck do I get to my starting point? Do I *have* to line up at 7 a.m. with everyone else?

If you’re in Pittsburgh, the Great Race (aka: the Great Big Clusterfuck) is happening on Sunday.

52 books in 52 weeks:
I happened to start two different 400-page books this week, so I’m not finishing anything soon (but both stories are SO GOOD). One is a work of fiction, which I haven’t included in my reading for a while.

seven things, seven days:
1. I started two applications for grad programs, and I have two open houses on my calendar. Highly motivated to start graduate school in early 2016.
2. My new on-site, day-to-day manager is two floors below my current office (no clue if that will eventually change), so I’m getting a lot of stairs in.
3. Reality TV is one of my guilty pleasures, and no matter how much Bachelor in Paradise annoyed me, I still watched and rolled my eyes incessantly. Read: Misattribution in Paradise {via Science of Relationships}
4. Speaking of TV, how do you feel about the season openers of Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder? Me: MEH.
5. How to be mentally tough: lessons from sports psychologists {via Today}
6. What’s the source of success in sports? A great listen from NPR.
7. Not there yet, but almost time to taper (and 11 fears you experience while tapering for a marathon). {via Women’s Running} I legit nearly cried from fear when I read this article.

Weekly Therapy: Taper Madness?

- Mel

the week:
To-do notes EVERYWHERE have been saving my sanity this week. I’m finding myself being overwhelmed very easily right now and scheduling my days down to the hour. Taper madness, perhaps?

weekend:
MY BEST FRIEND IS COMING IN FOR HER BABY SHOWER! Imma be snuggling up to baby belly this weekend. And drinking some fine ass tea (and fake-eating crumpets) during her party.

If you’re in Pittsburgh, tonight is the quarterly Gallery Crawl and PDP Night Market downtown.

seven things, seven days:
1. La Bayadere was the most beautiful ballet that I’ve ever seen. I was moved to tears in Act III. Bravo, Pittsburgh Ballet.
2. I rearranged my attic because I need an office space and there is no better way to procrastinate on homework than moving furniture around by yourself!
3. Return of Run/Yoga Club together and on Wednesday evenings at Urban Elements!
4. Kind of freaking out about not getting an email confirmation from Pittsburgh Marathon peeps. While I can look my bib number up online and pick up with my ID, I feel… left out.
5. And my apologies that I can’t really spend the time that I want on this post today…
6. This seemed appropriate for the week: Self-affirmations may calm jitters and boost performance.
7. And what IS the right dose of exercise, btw? {via NYT blog}