Tag Archives: Marathon

Helloooo July!! Mid-Year Review

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with , , , , , , ,

It’s crazy to think half the year is gone! Is it me, or did it fly by??

I love new months. I know that we shouldn’t wait for a new month or a new week to start anything, that we should start whenever we have the urge or desire or want to, but there’s something about the beginning of a new month that gets me excited about what’s to come. Usually this is when I’m the most motivated.

I uploaded last night’s run (I somehow didn’t learn and went out again in 104 degree weather–106 according to my Garmin info) and looked at my total miles for the month. It was my lowest to date.

There’s nothing wrong with that and honestly I needed a low mileage month. Leading into marathon training, I purposefully wanted to lessen my mileage and rest the legs.

Looking at June’s miles made me want to look at the rest of the year. I had set a goal back in January to run 1000 miles in 2014–a goal that I didn’t care if I met or not but was interested to see how close I got.

Then I started looking at all I’ve done up to this point. I was busy!

Here’s January-June Mid Year Review:

January
Total Miles: 93.75

I ran my sub 2 hour goal half marathon this month and rocked it! I was also pretty deep into marathon training at this point.

February
Total Miles: 77.46

This month was taper month. I ran a great 10k where I placed in my age group and got my first double medal 🙂

March
Total Miles: 93.58

March Marathon Madness!!! My first marathon!!! Unforgettable. Hard. Life-changing.

I learned so much from my first. I love that I don’t have anything to compare it to yet–right now, it’s my best one 🙂 And you never really forget your first.

April
Total Miles: 85.3

Hello Europe!! I was still running pretty consistently here as I prepared for Rock n Roll Madrid, Spain. Another remarkable, unforgettable moment in my life. Traveling through Spain, Italy, and France with my husband was just the best ever.

This was also the month my brother, sister, and I ran our first race together–a family 5k 🙂 (I PR’d in the rain!)

May
Total Miles: 62.95

Oh this is the month I crossed the Grand Canyon twice, no big deal. 😀

June
Total Miles: 47.19

REST!!! You can tell from how busy I’ve been that I needed a good ‘ol month of rest. And even then I had to spice things up by doing my first trail race (and first night race)!

I can’t even explain how excited I am for the rest of the year. I have so much to look forward to (my son turns 1!) and am already so blessed. I’m especially glad I have this outlet where I can document my experiences–sometimes I go back and look at old posts, it’s like sifting through a memory album 🙂

Screenshot_2014-05-28-21-16-05-1 Thank you for being a part of my journey! Here’s to the rest of 2014!
–Do new months motivate you?

–How has your year been so far? Running and life-wise??

Marathon Training Preview–Run Less, Run Faster

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Running and tagged with , , , , , , ,

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.

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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?

Some Pretty Awesome News

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Running and tagged with , , , , , , ,

SO much has been happening this past year and it’s barely March! This week especially has been a busy one for me as we get ready for our trip to Ohio. When we come back, a lot of things are happening starting with prepping for our Europe trip and this

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and then when we come back from that, I have to really start preparing for this

Source

Source

and then when I come back from that, I’ll have about 5 weeks before I start training for THIS

Marine Corps Marathon here I come!!!

Marine Corps Marathon here I come!!!

I MADE IT!!! I know for a lot of people, their dream marathon is Boston and I’d love to do that someday too. But, I know that qualifying for that is a super long shot. For me, my dream marathon is this one, the Marine Corps Marathon. The People’s Race.

My dad was a Marine and even though he and I are not very close, this part of his life is what makes me proud of him.

I entered the lottery thinking I’d have to do it a few years before I’d get in. I didn’t think it would happen the first time! My husband knew. He knew the instant I told him I’d entered. He said, “You’ve signed up for so much this year and because of that, you’re going to get this too.” Jajaja! I seriously have been doing a lot lately. Needless to say, having made it into MCM means my race calendar is done for the year lol!

I have so much to look forward to, I just can’t even believe this year so far 🙂

Weekend Shopping:

It’s appropriately colored Marine Corps Red 🙂

–What is/was your dream race?

–What are you looking forward to this year?

The ENERGYbits giveaway is underway! Go here to enter and give these bits a shot 🙂