Marathon Training Recap Week 9

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with Goals, Long Run, Marathon Training, Personal Record, Running January 13, 2014

It’s crazy that I’m well into my marathon training and that it’s getting closer! Interestingly, I’m not nervous about it at all! Maybe that will change as it gets even closer.

This past week was absolutely great training wise. My body feels strong and my legs feel good. Here’s a recap on what the last week looked like:

Sunday, January 5th: This was a cross training day after my 12 mile run the day before. I logged in 10 miles on the bike. I’ve been finding that this is a great recovery workout for my long runs. I also iced and foam rolled as I was just a little sore from my long run.

Monday, January 6th: Rest day (but I still did some ab work at home)

Tuesday, January 7th: Usually, this is when I do a treadmill run but my run club meets in the evenings and my husband got home early enough for me to make it out with them. I was glad!! I did a 10k wanting to run it at my goal 1/2 marathon pace. And I did it!

Wednesday, January 8th: This was speed day at the track. I really wanted to continue challenging myself so I pushed myself this workout. There are members of my run club of various abilities and there’s one girl in particular that I’ve always admired for being speedy. She was near me when I started and I found myself next to her throughout most of the speed work drill! I decided that I’d try and stay as close to her as I could and really give myself a workout. The results were awesome!!

Thursday, January 9th: Another cross training day. I logged in 12 miles on the bike and also did some hip and glute work at the gym.

Friday, January 10th: This was a rest day and I milked it. After three days of hard work, I wanted to give myself a good rest day for my anticipated LONGEST RUN OF MY LIFE the following day.

Saturday, January 11th: THE LONGEST RUN OF MY LIFE. I had a plan of going out at 30-45 seconds over my goal marathon pace of 10:00/mile. I always like to stick with people with lights (it’s really dark out when we start) and the runners closest to me were planning on sticking to a 9-10 minute pace. Eeek! I figured I stick it out until the sun started to rise.

Well, 6 miles in I figured I might as well continue. The pace felt good, the conversation was interesting, and I was getting myself in a zone.

At 10 miles I started to feel a little fatigued. I had fueled at the 6 mile mark and decided I’d sneak in another little something. It was at this point we met up with some other girls. They were keeping a 9-9:30 pace and were going 20 miles. What?!?

But I was more than halfway done and figured I’d just keep going to where it would be time for me to turn around. I kept up with them and at 12 miles turned around to run the 3 miles back to my gym. As soon as I left them, I knew I’d slow down. I didn’t want to given that I had maintained a good pace the whole way, but it felt natural to slow down a bit so I did. As I reached mile 14, I saw I was close to finishing under 2:30 so I picked up my pace so I can finish at an even 2:30. It required me to go faster than any other mile I had run, but I like finishing strong and still had some energy left somewhere in me to be able to do it lol.

And then I was done… whew….

I was thrilled that I was able to run this length at my goal marathon pace and not feel like absolute death after. I mean, don’t get me wrong, my legs were complete jelly at the end, but I somehow expected to feel way worse having run for 2+ hours straight. I think this is the training part that has really helped my endurance. I still made sure to ice as soon as I got home and eat something–yes, I was very much looking forward to that! I also stretched and my husband was kind enough to give me a massage later in the evening.

This was such an awesome running week. I’m so happy with how everything has been going and I’m SO happy my legs feel good.

This next week I’ll be doing a mini taper for my 1/2 on Sunday. I have quite a few jitters that I hope to release in a post later this week 🙂

How was your running week last week? Are you training for something?

Marathon Training Week 8 Recap–Halfway There!

Posted by hellyontherun in 5k, Running and tagged with Marathon Training, Personal Record, Rest, Running January 5, 2014

I can’t believe I’m halfway there! In less than two months I’m going to attempt my first marathon!

You bet I’m going to tell the world I ran a marathon! : )

Saying I’m nervous is an understatement.

I’m nervous because I haven’t stuck to the training plan as much as I’d like. I’ve significantly dropped my mileage the last two weeks to help with my shin injury and even though I would have liked to have continued with the plan’s mileage, I do feel like my shin has been muuuuch better with extra rest. My doctor had said to lessen mileage up to the 1/2 marathon happening in two weeks and then reassess. I like that plan. Hopefully, I can slowly increase again to finish the training strong.

Sunday, December 29th: Cross-train day, 10 bike miles. One slow streak mile.

Monday, December 30th: One slow streak mile. Blogilates video-Abs on Fire

Tuesday, December 31st: One slow streak mile.

Wednesday, January 1st: Commitment Day 5k! Recap here : )

Thursday, January 2nd: Rest Day

Friday, January 3rd: Blogilates videos-Victoria’s Secret Abs and Butt on Fire

Saturday, January 4th: 12 miles at marathon goal pace. I set out on this run to try and complete at my goal pace of 10:00/mile. I amazingly felt really good the entire way until….I got lost! At mile 11, I reached an unfamiliar point in my route and stopped to try and familiarize myself with my the surroundings. I saw I was in downtown of the city! Luckily, I saw a woman walking by and asked what the nearest major crossroad was. I recognized it and realized I was about 2 miles away–not too bad since I had one mile left of my scheduled 12 miles. I started running and then heard the 11 mile beep: 11:08. What?! I had been consistent with my 10 min pace and was bummed that I didn’t stop my watch when I asked for directions. I decided that I was going to book it to make sure my average pace was 10. So yeah, my last mile was 8:34 lol!

Total Weekly Mileage: 17.89 miles

Next week I’m hoping to slowly get more mileage in leading up to my 1/2 marathon January 19th.

–How was your fitness week?

–Have you signed up for a race this year?

Commitment Day 5k Recap

Posted by hellyontherun in 5k, Race, Running and tagged with 5k, Challenge, Family, New Year, Personal Record, Race, Running January 2, 2014

I have to start by saying that I’m officially not a fan of 5Ks. Holy cow do they take a lot out of me!

I was looking forward to this race for a couple of reasons. One, I don’t run many 5Ks so this was an opportunity to get the under 25min I’d been shooting for and I also really wanted to run a New Year’s race.

The start time was 10:30 a.m. but I had to get there earlier than usual because I completely forgot to pick up my bib the day I was supposed to. So, to beat the crowd and get good parking, I arrived at 9. Yeah, I was way early. I got my bib and then walked back to my car to drop off the swag we were given (I do like the shirt!). I noticed on the bib there was a space for us to write “Our Commitment” for 2014. I thought this was so cool and I grabbed a pen and jotted, Challenge Myself. That’s what I want to do this year.

I hung out in my car for a bit since it was cold out (for Arizona) and when I saw 9:45 I started walking to the start line.

There was a big crowd and this was an untimed race so I knew people would be all over the place as far as speed went. I decided that even though I wasn’t the fastest out there, I’d scoot myself closer to the front so I wouldn’t have to doge around too many people.

The national anthem was sung and then a countdown was started. At one, a bullhorn sounded and we were off!

I started running and made sure my watch was at its pace setting. I prefer looking at my pace rather than time/distance.

Once I felt settled in, I glanced down to check out my pace and saw 6:40. I was so confused; that couldn’t be right. I clicked to return to time/distance then clicked to return to pace thinking maybe I had it on a wrong setting. No, it still read 6:40. I stopped looking at my watch and started concentrating on running but was bummed that I must have pressed something to mess up the watch.

I knew we were approaching the first mile because I had studied the map the night before, and soon enough my watch beeped the first mile done. 7:25. WHAAT??!!??

I was in shock seeing that time displayed and realized my watch wasn’t broken, I was really going that fast! I couldn’t believe it. I decided heck, since I was feeling good, I might as well shoot for somewhere in the sevens for each mile.

Mile two-7:42.

I seriously was running in complete disbelief. I knew I was well on my way to getting that sub 25 and told myself to just kill it and get the best time I could since I was already here.

I turned the corner and heard my name shouted out. Who was that? I’m always in such a zone when I run but my name is pretty unique so when I heard it, I turned my head at the direction it came from. It was my husband! I was excited to see him there with my kids and I told myself to go, go, go! The faster I finished, the faster I’d see them.

I could see the finish line in the distance and mustered whatever energy I had left to pick up speed and finish strong. I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch before almost collapsing on the event volunteer leading runners towards the water/food table.

I looked at my watch and saw 22:05. NO. WAY. I looked at the distance and saw 2.87 miles. Wah waaah…it was a short 5k course : ( I was a little bummed because I wanted an official 3.1 for my PR 5k. (ETA: A fellow runner friend said she re-mapped the course and got 3.05 miles. Not sure what the actual distance was, but that made me feel a little better) I told myself that even had it been a full 3.1, I would have definitely, without a doubt, gotten a sub 25. Plus, my average pace was 7:41. 7:41!!!

My husband found me and I showed him my time. He’s my biggest fan and supporter so he knew how much I wanted a sub 25. He had the same look I had when he saw 22:05 and 7:41 avg/mile : )

I walked around to cool off. Reaching my goal and seeing that number makes me so happy and proud of the hard work I’ve been putting in lately. I did what I said I wanted to do and that was challenge myself. I’m excited to continue doing that this year.

My favorite cheerleader

–Did you run a race yesterday?

–How was your New Year’s?