Week(end) Recap

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Running, Uncategorized and tagged with Fun Run, Humidity, Marathon Training, Marine Corps Marathon, Running, Weekend Recap July 7, 2014

I had written last week how I’d given myself a marathon training pre-season before I get down to business. Well, business has arrived and today is my first official day of training!! Woohoo!! I have 6 miles on the agenda and we’ll see how they go.

Last week was a busy week with preparation for the holiday on Friday (Independence Day here in the States) but I still managed to get quite a few runs in–

On Monday, my pre-season schedule had me running 4 miles, one warm-up, two tempo, and one cool down. Despite once again venturing out in 106 degree heat, it went far better than the previous Monday as my splits went like this:

Mile 1-9:21
Mile 2-8:44
Mile 3-8:41
Mile 4-8:53

The last cool down mile was a little too fast but I had begun Lebronning (cramping) and just wanted to get the run over with. I was happy to see that I was keeping my splits consistent again as it’s something I’ve been trying really hard to work on.

Tuesday according to my plan is a cross training day and I know this is where I might be cheating with Run Less, Run Faster. Tuesdays are group runs with my running group and I really like meeting up with them. It’ll be hard to give this day up to a day in the gym as I’d much rather hang out with them–I’m thinking if I did an easy-less than 4 miles-run followed up with the bike or something that it might work.

So the plan was to do some easy running but I ended up running and chatting with a girl who’s pretty fast. You can tell that I couldn’t keep up as my splits looked liked the hot mess that I was

Mile 1-9:06
Mile 2-9:17
Mile 3-9:27
Mile 4-9:47

Another what I was I thinking….

Wednesday was speed work at the track but like previous session, there wasn’t much speed happening. Unless you count me trying to eat my ice pop as fast as I could before it melted lol! Anyway, three miles done.

Cross training as planned for Thursday but because I knew I’d be running the following day for the holiday (Fridays are typically rest days) I made Thursday my day of rest.

Friday we were all up bright and early for a fun 5k with my run club. They had a splash mob-bish run planned so it was going to be some wet and wild fun!

Little did I know that the wet would really be sweat from the humidity going on that morning–holy cow!

This was at 6:50 in the morning!

The race itself was really fun as my running group always finds unique ways to make these get togethers interesting. We were told to arrive on time as the race would be chip timed and we needed to pick them up early before the race started.

My race chip 😀

We all do these in fun so it wasn’t a competitive 5k. I kept a decent pace (although difficult because I could really feel the humidity!) and finished in 28:45 (9:01/mile).

I had an 8 mile long run planned for Saturday and I was up at crazy 0’clock to get started. The humidity had carried over at at 5 in the morning and we were running in 82 degrees weather with 51% humidity. It was pretty awful and I could feel it the entire way. Luckily my plan’s long run pace was manageable and I stuck to it the entrée way: 8 miles (9:50/mile). I was actually really excited about this as I hadn’t run this far in a while (not counting the 27k trail run).

Working up some nice leg sweat.

Sunday was rest day with stretching and foam rolling.

Overall, a very productive week at just over 22 miles. I’m looking forward to the official first day of training today 🙂 16 weeks til Marine Corps Marathon!!

I’m Jesse Spano excited about this!!!

–How was your running week?

–Did you run/race this weekend?

–Get my Jesse Spano reference? 🙂

Marathon Training Pre-season

Posted by hellyontherun in Bloggers, Marathon, Running and tagged with Marathon Training, Pre-season, Run Less Run Faster, Runner Friends, Running, Training Plan June 30, 2014

Last week and this upcoming week are serving as pre-season to marathon training. A sort of trial period before I move on to the big leagues–aka: the official marathon training plan. I don’t know, this is how I work things in my head 🙂

Anyway, last Monday, my schedule had me running 6 miles, a warm up and cool down and 4 miles at medium tempo pace. But, ever since my 27k a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been nursing a sore right foot so I decided to take it easy and run a total of four miles, 1 warm up and 1 cool down with 2 miles at mid tempo pace.

That was the plan and I started out milking the warm-up going at a pace slower than I’d done in a long time. I was feeling the heat and was just having a case of the tired Mondays. After the first mile beeped, I picked it up knowing I “had” to make the next two miles at pace. While I increased my pace considerably from the warm up mile, I was still 20 seconds away from the tempo pace.

Same thing happened with mile two. I was at least glad that the middle two miles were close in pace and I milked the fourth cool down mile almost exactly as the first.

Mile 1- 10:26
Mile 2-9:07
Mile 3-8:54
Mile 4-10:27

At least I was consistent lol!

This is what I was dealing with at 7:22 p.m.

Tuesday was supposed to be a cross training day according to my Run Less, Run Faster plan but I decided that I could bend the rules considering it was still pre-season. So I ran. (You’re doing it wrong, Helly!) Whatever.

I met up with my run club for the Tuesday evening run but I knew before it even started that it wasn’t going to go well. It was so freaking hot!

6:05 p.m.

I wasn’t even thinking of going out fast, instead just focused on maintaing a decent pace. I was doing okay the first 3 miles (of five) but the last two I was just so light headed and weak from the heat; I had to slow down. I’m honestly surprised at how I kept myself from walking.

Mile 1-9:57
Mile 2-9:54
Mile 3-10:01
Mile 4-10:37
Mile 5-10:37
Average-10:13/mile

Again, at least I was consistent jaja!!

Wednesday was speed work at the track but my husband had a late day at work so I took it to the gym where I did a 3.5 mile interval run finishing at an average 9:43/mile pace (def no speed work there!). It was a nice, relaxing run and doing the intervals helped pass the time on the treadmill. I don’t mind running on the ‘mill and with temps how they’ve been I think I’ll probably be on it more this summer.

Thursday was a cross training day so back to the gym I went and I hopped on the bike for a 10 mile ride. I loved sweating and the feeling of having just had a good workout. It puts me in such a good mood!

Friday was a rest day but I did squeeze in an ab video 🙂

Saturday was my first crazy o’clock run of the summer. My alarm went off at 4:30 and by 4:45 I was out the door for my “long” run with my run club. My pre-season plan had me going 6 so that’s what I went out with the intention of doing.

I could definitely feel the difference in temperatures running at 5 in the morning versus at 6-7 in the evening. It was a cool 77 and it felt SO great.

I hooked up with a friend who runs at a pace I like. She was going 8 and I figured I’d stick with her until it was time for me to make my return. We chatted and went along and before I knew it, I was at mile 3 ready to head back. I debated sticking with her since I felt so good but decided to be conservative and think about my foot so I said good-bye and turned back.

I was glad I did this. Normally, I would’ve kept on going because a.) I felt so good and was going at a good pace and b.) I had great company but I reminded myself that I had a long training season ahead of me. I think that I’ve matured in this way since last/first marathon..

Mile 1- 9:23 Mile 4-9:14
Mile 2- 9:25 Mile 5-9:16
Mile 3- 9:27 Mile 6-9:07
Average-9:18/mile

Again, I was really happy to see consistency. I felt like my splits were always all over the place last marathon attempt and I wanted to really work on them this time around. I was also very pleased to see the second half of the run be faster than the first half.

Sunday on my plan has a rest day/optional cross train and yesterday I chose the former. I wanted badly to meet up with my buddy Jeremy who was hosting a Run Tweet Eat social on the trails but my foot was super achy and I decided to rest it (and sleep in). Of course I saw all of their fun pics on Instagram and Facebook and wished I’d gone lol! Oh well, next time 🙂

Overall, it was a great week– 18.5 miles run and 10 miles on the track. I did an okay job with sticking to the training plan and like that I have next week to continue testing it out. After that, it’s game time!

–Did you have race this weekend?

–How was your running week last week?

–Are you good at keeping a consistent pace? (My splits are finally looking sorta normal!)

P.S. If you’re also training for a fall race or will start soon, check out my sole sister Salt’s Fall Race Training Directory for training friends!

Marathon Training Preview–Run Less, Run Faster

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Running and tagged with Decision Making, Marathon, Marathon Training, Pro/Con List, Run Less Run Faster, Runner's World, Running, Training Plan June 23, 2014

Choosing a training plan for the Marine Corps Marathon this October took me some time. I used a Higdon plan for my last (first) marathon and I liked it but was curious and decided to explore what else was out there. I kept hearing a lot about Run Less, Run Faster.

So I bought the book to see what it was all about and much of it intrigued me. Enough to use it as my plan? At first no, but after thinking long and hard, and researching other plans, I have decided to try RLRF out. Here’s my Pro/Con list that I made in coming to this decision.

PRO
* 3/2 system. The plan has you only running three days which is definitely an appeal to me since I’ll be returning to work in the fall.

CON
*However, the plan insists on 2 cross training days so it’s really not like you’re only running 3 days and then doing nothing the rest of the week. I’ll still be very busy 5 out of 7 days (as I would be with any plan).

PRO
*It’s very structured. This is a plus for me because I like being told what to do when it comes to plans–if a plan says I need to do it then I just do it. The three days of running are structured so that you run one tempo run, one speed work day, and one long run each with specific paces (that vary each week).

CON
*It’s very structured. I’m worried this might take some fun out of running. There will be no “easy” days (a major goal of this system is to eliminate “junk” miles) so each run will be very intense.

PRO
*It’s very tailored to your goal time. I’m not a big numbers girl so this took me a while to “get” but the way you figure out what paces to run your 3 days is by determining your 5k time. That time lays out the foundation for what will ultimately become the plan for your marathon goal. (I did not choose my 5k PR time because that would result in a ridiculously, unrealistic marathon goal.)

CON
*I’m worried that because the plan is very goal oriented, I’ll become super disappointed if I’m not able to maintain the paces needed in training to reach my goal.

PRO
*When I reached out to running friends who had tried RLRF, all of them had good things to say about it.

CON
*When I googled RLRF Reviews, yeah, not so much lol!

OTHER NOTES:
*As I compared this plan to others I’d reviewed, I noted that the total mileage was very close to the total mileage of other plans. So even though I would be running “less”, it’s less in the sense of days per week.

*It’s a 16 week plan. Higdon’s is 18 and I believe Hanson’s is 18 as well. RLRF would have me starting two weeks from today but I’ve decided to add a two week ease-into-training period testing out the paces.

*They have two marathon plans–one for novices and one for experienced runners. I’m going with the former as it has one 20 mile long run. The latter has 3 (no, thank you).

*The book has a section for post workout stretches that I really like. I”m looking forward to incorporating them in my training.

Ultimately, I’m very curious to see how this plan works for me. I’m always up for trying something new and different and at the same time, if I’m not feeling it, I’m totally okay with re-evaluating the game plan.

We’ll see how it goes! Cheers to the beginning of marathon training!! 😀

–Have you heard of/tried Run Less, Run Faster?

–Do you put a lot of time in to creating a training plan? (Was my pro/con list overkill? lol!)

–What are important factors for you in choosing a training plan?