Pre-Season Marathon Training: Week 1

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon Training, Running and tagged with Hanson's Marathon Method, Marathon Training, NYC Marathon, Pre-season, Running June 6, 2016

Well, you guys know that I decided to go with good ‘ol Hanson’s this time around for NYC Marathon and once I took a good look at the plan, I realized that was a whole lotta miles. I figured it would do me good to get going on getting used to running a lot. Like, a lot a lot.

Having taken a week off to recover from the Canyon, I went for my first official run last Sunday–exactly a week after my second day crossing.

Sunday, 5/29–3 miles easy, 9:27 avg

We were in my hometown visiting for the Memorial Day Weekend and I took advantage of being home by running the course for the yearly Turkey Trot. I hate this course. It’s my Eleanor, I guess you could say (who knows where’s that from??) For some reason, I can never do well at this race. Maybe it’s home court jitters, I don’t know, but I always struggle bus it. Anyway, whenever we’re home, I try and run this 5k so that I can somehow train my brain to beat it. It’s not even that hard. Ugh.

The mountain on top of my left shoulder is in Mexico and the mountain to the right of me is in Arizona 🙂

Monday, 5/30–4 miles easy, 9:45 avg

I finally was able to meet up with a sub group of a running group I’m in. They always meet on Mondays at 5 but I somehow can never make it. Since it was Memorial Day, my husband had the day off and I was able to go out for another easy run.

Tuesday, 5/31–4 miles tempo, 8:38 avg

I felt ready for a good run on Tuesday, just in time for our 100 degree weather. Yep, 100+ degrees out to say good-bye to May.

Ice pop at the end–necessary.

Splits–8:27, 8:42, 8:44, 8:43

I started out a bit too fast but I was please at the consistency for the remainder miles. It’s something I’ve been working on all year and I’m happy I’m getting better at it.

Wednesday, 6/1–Global Running Day 5k, 8:23 avg

Our run club had an informal 5k to celebrate this special day and oh my goodness gracious, was it effing hot out there. Another over 100 degree day.

Splits were awful–8:07, 8:22, 8:33

Last I checked, a 5k is 3.1 miles!! Bleh…lol

Thursday, 6/2–Rest Day

You should notice (and I’m making you if you hadn’t 😉 ), that I had done 4 days of straight running. This was done purposely as again, I’m training to get myself used to Hanson’s insanity of 6 days of running with no rest. I figured I’d start slow with 4 days straight, lol.

Friday, 6/3–4.23 easy miles, 9:14 avg

You know you guys wanna move here….

This was tough because I started off easy, saw the first mile split and was pleased, and then continued running easy, saw the second mile a little faster….then continued running easy and saw the third mile faster, and then figured what the heck, I’ve already made this into a mini progression run–might as well make the last mile a little faster.

Splits–9:41, 9:24, 9:12, 8:43

I think Hanson’s easy runs will be tough for me. A lot of the miles are supposed to be done easy and my prescribed easy pace is 9:40-10:20. It’s crazy to even say this, but my easy comfort zone right now is around the 9 minute mark. I’m going to have work a little to get to Hanson’s easy. But, I’m pretty positive that once I get going with the plan, the accumulated exhaustion will settle and then Hanson’s easy probably won’t feel so easy anymore, lol!

Saturday, 6/4–Rest Day

I thought I’d be able to squeeze a run in, but I had an 8 o’clock hair appointment and didn’t want to rush to it. So, I slept in 😀

Sunday, 6/5–Long Run 6 miles, 9:19 avg

My Moms Run This Town Chapter meets on Sundays, so I ran my long run with them. We had a new mom join and I ran my first two miles with her to keep her company–10:14, 9:59. She turned around then as she was only doing 4.

I continued on with another mom to finish my six–9:05, 8:51, 8:55, 8:48. This was a good run as it had been a while since I’d done any road run over a 5 miler (since April 23rd!!).

From Sunday to Sunday, I had a 24.6 mile week. Pretty good 🙂

–How was your running week? Do you “train for training”?

–How do you get yourself to run easy?

–What’s the temperature like where you’re at? Do you wanna move to Arizona?

Helly + Hanson’s = Marathon PR??

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Marathon Training, Running and tagged with Base Building, Hanson's Marathon Method, Marathon Training, Race Goals, Running May 4, 2016

Welp, I’m getting on the Hanson’s Marathon Method train.

After reading Colby‘s success (and BQ!) and Allison‘s craziness towards a sub 3:05 (which she got!) using Hanson’s, I’ve decided to drink the kool-aid.

I’ll be using Hanson’s Marathon Method for New York City Marathon.

Reading about this crazy training, I didn’t think this would be a plan that would work for me. It’s SIX days of running. SIX. As in, only one day off. Both Colby and Allison used this training plan holding down jobs and still nailed each run like the freaking awesome people they are. Me though? I was already struggling with work and kids and knew there was no way I’d find time to schedule in 6 runs. Not with my already 4:30 a.m. wake time.

But hey, now I don’t have a job, lol! And I figure, now would be the perfect time to try this plan so I’m going for it.

Hanson’s calls for high mileage–40+ miles after week one. I had already planned to do some base marathon training to build up to Hanson’s higher mileage as I didn’t want to jump into the plan and go straight to 40 miles/week, something I’ve never done. And after doing a little more research, and reading Kristina’s blog post about it, I found that Hanson’s actually has 8 week base training plans that could help lead me into full blown marathon training; the plan starts next week and goes up to the start of official marathon training in July. I’ll be modifying the first couple of weeks because each week of the base plan is 40 miles (and I need to work myself up to that first). I was little bummed the plan itself didn’t do that going in, but it was easy for me to see where I could make adjustments.

Plus, there is an online Facebook group for people using Hanson’s plans where Luke Humphrey himself, the writer of the Hanson’s Marathon Method, has a very active presence. We’re able to ask specific questions and he, along with other Hanson’s plan veterans, offers up suggestions. I asked Luke about making modifications to the base training plan the first couple of weeks, and he totally agreed that it was a simple few changes to make it work.

In addition to the base training plan, I created an account on Final Surge, Luke’s site, which is a free training log website. (It seems to be similar to Training Peaks–which I’ve never used but have heard of.) One component of the site that is of interest is the Workout Intensity Calculator. This is where my quest for a PR comes in. You plug in your most recent 5k, 10k, or 1/2 time and it gives you a marathon finish estimate along with the paces you’d run your weekly runs.

Yes, you read that right. According to this little calculator, I could be aiming for a 3:45 marathon.

The other distances shown–the 5k and 10k–align pretty closely with my current PRs in those distances: 23:46, 49:29. I even plugged those in to see what marathon time it gave me, lol!

All said 3:45.

When I look at the paces for each run at that goal, they seem challenging yet doable. Long runs at 9:20-9:40, Tempo runs at 8:35, Strength runs at 8:25, and Easy runs between 10:20-9:40.

I have to choose a goal if I’m using Hanson’s Marathon Method. It’s just crazy to me to think that this could be it. A part of me wants to go conservative and shoot for a 4:15. It would still be a massive PR. Another part of me says go for the sub 4. And then a little, teeny voice in my brains whispers just go big.

–How do you determine your race goal/pace? I definitely consider the course. NYC is said to have some hills?? (is that true NYC veterans??) and it’s a destination marathon, so I think about all of that.

Here We Go Again!!! Phoenix Marathon Training Recap Week 1– Will Third Time Be The Charm?

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon Training, Phoenix Marathon, Running and tagged with Goals, Phoenix Marathon, Run Club, Runner of the Month, Running November 15, 2015

Welp!! I’m going for it!!

This will be my third time training for Phoenix Marathon–it was my first marathon a mere year and half ago (and my current PR), it was my first DNF this past February, and I’m hoping it will be my first sub 4:30 this go around.

That’s my goal and by golly, I’m gonna get it!

I’ve trained for two marathons with this being the target and both times I felt ready, feeling confident that 4:30 was in my reach. One ended with me getting halfway and in tears (my DNF), and the other ended with me not being able to run strong enough and finishing with frustration and anger (Chicago).

But both have left me stronger.

Having come off a Ragnar weekend, my first official week of Phoenix Marathon training had only 3 runs, two of which were very strong.

Tuesday, I met up with my run club for a 4 miler. It was my first run post Ragnar and I surprisingly felt strong. The first two miles were great but the last two were a little tougher as we had the wind against us–I still managed sub 9s for all 4 miles and that made me really happy 🙂

Wednesdays are track nights at my run club and I definitely felt tired from the previous day’s hard run. I wanted to go though because I was going to be officially crowned Runner of the Month!!

My Runner of the Month Question & Answer 🙂

I love my run club and there are sooo many awesome, amazing, deserving people that to have been selected made me feel super special. Our coach said I had trained really hard for Chicago and “killed it” and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness (mixed with anger) that I didn’t share that sentiment. But, I quickly hid those emotions and accepted my crown with pride.

And then I ran two easy miles with Runner Jenny. We opted for 4x800s instead of the 3 mile repeats coach had assigned.

I rested Thursday and Friday but met up with my run club buddies Saturday morning for our long run. All of us are running the inaugural USA Half Marathon in San Diego next weekend and wanted to get in 10.

The first 5 we stayed steady

and then we negative split the last 5 miles..

well, almost negative split..damn .3 seconds in mile 9!

It was a great run that was a perfect hard. We were able to chat most of the way which let me know I was working at it but not killing myself at those paces.

Which ended me with 16 total miles for the week! I’m not sure yet what plan I’m going with for Phoenix but it’ll be something. I like having a schedule telling me what to do, lol!

–How was your running week?

–Do you have a go-to training plan or one that you like more than others?

–How many races did you have to go through to reach a goal time? (Crossing my fingers third time is the charm! 🙂 )