Category: Training

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 12

Seriously, that’s a long title. Oof.

How is it week 12 already? My little countdown app is telling me I only have 41 days to go. Holy crap!

I admit I struggled hard with motivation this week. Everything seemed hard. I thought my boss coming back from vacation would make things easier but I just felt fried. At one point on Friday, I had so many pots in the fire I couldn’t even tell which way was up. I was just waiting for one of them to blow up in my face. Which may still happen this week, who knows. All week long, I kind of just wanted to curl up in the corner and hide under a blanket.

This spilled into running. I had serious trouble getting myself to run on Monday and then Wednesday turned into a rest day too. Convinced myself that my shins needed more time anyways. Week 12 is not the time to be getting lazy but I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Monday- 3.5 miles My legs were feeling rough for this run. I haven’t run a Monday since I first hurt my shins. Taking the day off after my long run seemed to help but I knew I couldn’t run on Tuesday this week. I headed to the lake path and planned to take it nice and easy. Even slow running with walking intervals was rough. My shins protested. I called it when lap 3 put me back at my car. 3.5 miles was not a great way to start the week.

Tuesday- Rest A mandatory conference call had been scheduled for after normal work hours. This was why I had to move my run up to Monday.

Wednesday- Rest I had planned on running, even took my stuff to work. I tell myself I took the day off because my shins hurt. While that is partially accurate, I didn’t even take my gym bag out of the car in the morning. So yeah, I enjoyed pizza night instead.

Thursday- 7 miles Work was tiring and the last thing I wanted to do was run. I told myself to suck it up and change. I left work town and headed for the river path. Of course, right as I parked I suddenly felt like I needed to use the restroom. Of course- most of my routes have no bathrooms or water fountains. Whatever, I figured that would be a reason to keep the run short. I started out up the hill and just stuck to the run/ walk intervals. My legs were feeling ok so when I hit the turn around point I decided to go a little further. I made a left and headed up a street. I remember the street from my very first 10K years ago but I remembered it wrong. I thought it was flat but it was hillier than I recalled. Little rollers but they still felt like mountains. But it’s cool- I made some new friends-

On the way back, the wind had turned insane. It was pushing me backwards it was so strong, I felt like I was running in quicksand. That said, my running intervals were the fastest they’ve been since I got hurt so this run ended up being more like speed work.

Friday- Rest Work was insane. Straight up crazy. By the time I got off I was running out the door. But I didn’t have to close so yay!

Saturday- 9 miles The plan called for a 10 mile long run and 8 mile easy this weekend. I knew Sunday was going to be busy with family stuff so I was doubtful of getting a run in. With only a 10 mile long run planned, I got a little cocky- I mean what’s 10 miles? Stupid. I didn’t start my run until 8:30. Stupid. By mile 2 it was warm. NikeC was out for her run too and we started texted each other about how warm it was. I kept a comfortable pace until I hit the bridge. Even though I know it’s stupid, I still fly across the thing and then up past Walmart. Miles 4-5 saw a 9:14 and 9:44. Oops. So not long run pace for a person with wonky shins. I walked more of mile 6 than planned but still the pace was decent. Mile 7 saw a break- NikeC! Our routes crossed paths and I finally got to meet the cutest little guy ever.

We stopped and chatted for a bit before going on to finish our runs. Our chat meant I wasn’t going to be able to finish 10 but it was worth it. I was planning on ending my run at the high school and getting a ride from my mother. She’s having summer practices right now- and bonus- the school has water fountains and sometimes the bathrooms are open. Thing is her practice ended at 10:30. I picked up the pace and managed to get there right at 10:30. Those last 3 miles were most I’ve run without walk breaks in a month. Sweet!

4.5 miles walk– Knowing that Sunday was iffy, I had a second run of the day in the back of my mind. I headed out around 3 for some more miles. I wanted to run it like last week’s double but the week caught up with me so I walked it. I’m still counting it because let’s be real here- there will be walking in this marathon. I may as well get used to doing it on tired legs now instead of race day.

Sunday- rest Happy Father’s Day! I knew my mother and I had plans in SLO and then family dinner in the evening. I could have run in the morning but I was just so tired, I chose sleep instead. I still managed to get in 10,000 steps without running so that’s not too lazy. I also came home with some pretties-

So, 24 miles for the week. Could have been better, could have been worse. My shins were overly fussy in the beginning of the week but they calmed down by the end. I have big plans for this week so I am hoping they will continue to behave. Fingers crossed!! I also hope the motivation bus comes by again, I fear I will get sucked into the black hole that is binge watching Lost again and put off running. Oh and I have some awesome news share this week!

How was your week?

Bought any new gear lately?

What are you watching?

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 11

Another one bites the dust.

Anyone else just start singing that? Maybe it’s just me. 😛

While my week 11 did not see the start of the strength portion of Hansons, it did see my mileage go back up a little. Little victories, right? There are a few perks to running fewer days though. I suddenly have way less laundry to do on the weekends. Which also means fewer clothing items strewn everywhere while they air dry. Also I can wash my hair less, so that’s a win right?

Monday- Rest day It was a fairly busy day at work and it went a little late. Going straight home was kind of nice.

Tuesday- 6 miles Slow and steady, slow and steady. Outside of long runs, I’ve taken to run/ walk intervals. My walk intervals are always .25 mile and the run portion will vary from .25- .75 miles. It’s slow going but I am getting it done. The shin pain was minimal so I’m calling it a victory.

Wednesday- Rest– We were down 2 people at work so I sure felt like I was running around though.

Thursday-6 miles I had a work meeting in another town and about 3 hours in I started to feel super sick. The room was so hot and stuffy, I thought I was going to lose it. And this is coming from the person who runs her space heater everyday at work. I still felt crappy at the end of the day but I wanted to at least attempt to run. River path this time, so more concrete and baby elevation gains. More run/ walk intervals but my shins were still manageable. I was able to pick up the pace a bit on the downhill portions and things felt pretty good actually. I also saw a bunny or two at the end! 😃

Friday – Rest Another open to close and I was tired. While my shins felt ok, my calf muscles on both legs felt like they were seconds away from a massive charlie horse all day. I was supposed to run with Heather and Ashley the next morning but between being exhausted and my crazy calves, I texted and canceled. I knew I would push harder than I should if I ran with people. 😢

Saturday- Rest Oops. The weekend was supposed to be cooler so I planned for an afternoon run. It was nice not even setting an alarm that morning. I admit I slept until 10. No shame. I needed it. After lunch and a few errands, I was planning on heading out for a run. I started to feel super nauseated though. I waited to see if it would pass but eventually decided that Sunday’s long run was more important.

Sunday-16 miles -Run 1- 11.5, Run 2- 4.5 miles Not the way I planned it but got it done! Once again, I listened to the weather man when they said the weekend would be cooler. I started my long run at 9 shooting for 16 miles. 6 miles in, I was over heating and my form was trashed. My shins were holding up but I knew finishing 16 at that point would probably do more harm than good. The plan had been to meet my mom at the high school after my run and go to lunch. I texted her at mile 6 and let her know that was going to be sooner than planned. With a route change I hit the school at 11.5 miles. Good enough. I felt like ran most of it but my Garmin data shows more than a few dips where I walked.

We ate lunch, then I rested a bit before heading back out to finish my mileage. I was expecting to feel tired and have to concentrate on my form but I felt surprisingly good. My legs actually felt kind of peppy. I knew it was going to be slower due to the heat of the afternoon but I was fine with that. What I didn’t account for was some….ummm… uncomfortable chafing issues that had me taking more walking breaks than planned. I had changed everything I was wearing but my socks so I have no idea what was up with that. I hope it never happens again though because that was not cool. Sorry for the TMI.

Overall- 28 miles.

Not too bad. Better than the previous few weeks at least. Survival mode it is, which means my long runs have become the most important part of my weekly mileage. I do kind of miss the speed work though. #justkeeprunning

Dietary wise– my breakfasts, lunches and most of my snacks have been on point. Dinners have been a whole other ball game. Kind of a mess actually. Grrr. And why does everything have soy in it?! Some of my favorite Crystal Light flavors have soy in them. What the hell does lemonade need soy for?

This week will probably see fewer miles than last week if I stick to the way the long runs are scheduled on my plan. My boss is back though so hopefully things will calm down on the work front a little. Fingers crossed!

How has your week been?

Do you flavor your water with anything?

On the Marathon

Slight left turn here, my weekly recap will be up next post.

I said I would never run a marathon. Never had any desire to. Vehemently shot it down every time someone asked me. Thing is, it’s not even the marathon itself that deterred me. I mean I am the queen of stupid stubbornness, I figured I could drag myself through one if I had to. It wouldn’t be fun, wouldn’t be pretty, would take 10 hours, likely break me and turn me off from running forever. Like I said, queen of stupid, I totally realize I was underestimating the thing.

What scared me was the training. Who in their right mind signs up for marathon training? The mere idea of a 4 hour long run at the ass crack of dawn on a weekend morning almost gave me hives. I mean have you looked at some of those training plans? Who has time for all that? Don’t they realize I have Netflix to watch?! Doubt’s a nasty companion no matter hard you deny hearing it.

I am a self proclaimed slacker, laziness is my strong suit. Just ask my mother. I’d never stuck to a training plan for a half, how the hell would I stick one for a full marathon? Throw in long work days and a commute and it seemed even more unlikely and I was fine that. Until I wasn’t.

The hunt for a training plan began. It’s easy to get lost in the sheer number of them available. Some looked scary, some looked doable. How do you know what to choose? How do you know which one works for you? For me, a person who loves sleeping in on the weekends. For me, someone can find the simplest excuse to skip a run? For me- who still feels like a poser sometimes? There was one that kept jumping out at me…but it was for serious runners, not slackers like me. That would be crazy. But then I read the book and it didn’t help prevent the crazy. I’ve never shared what training plan I am using because I know all you real runners would think I lost my damn mind.

So yeah, Hansons. You know the one all about cumulative fatigue and hitting paces and no super crazy long runs? I can hear the “WTH’s” now. I blame Colby. And then Allison. ☺ Anyways, I read it cover to cover and then parts again. I stuck stickie tabs all over it. Suddenly the crazy seemed doable. The beginner plan looked like a chance I could take. So I took pen to paper and mapped everything out on calendar pages. April to race day. Then I only looked at each month at a time. April- nailed that. May- I knew this was where things got intense so I made an adjustment- I dropped Friday’s run. So, I guess this is technically no longer Hanson’s. I Slacker-ized it. But 5 days a week with 2 planned speed/ strength workouts was still such a huge step for me, I figured I would be sufficiently fatigued. 😛 My hope for June was to add in that 6th day.

Then I got hurt. And it wasn’t the mileage that did it. I only missed 4 runs in May and 3 didn’t happen until after I jacked up my shins. I think I figured out what did me in- I ended an easy Monday 5 miler with some butt kicks and high knees. Why? No real reason other than I watched a video on running form over the weekend. People- if it’s not breaking you- don’t mess with your form during training! After Tuesday’s 800 repeats, I did some more high knees and butt kicks. By Wednesday I could barely walk. That Thursday’s attempt at a tempo was laughable. Everything since then has been some odd combination of the Just Finish version of Hanson’s and rest. And I am pissed.

I was actually doing it- I was following a training plan. Yes, it was kicking my ass but in a good way. Tempo’s were growing on me and I was so stinkin’ proud that I was following through. That is what this marathon training has taught me. Doubt can shut it’s ugly trap.

There’s this tv show that I watch and there’s a character on it who says something like this-

” the souffle is not the souffle- the souffle is the recipe”

Which is finally making sense to me. The marathon is not the prize- training for it is. If I can train for a marathon and actually follow through with something, well, then I can do anything. At least that’s what it feels like.

Who knows what the next 48 days will bring? Not me, but until then I am going to #justkeeprunning.

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 10

I have a hashtag for this week – #stupidshins

So yeah, another low mileage week in the books. You know if I was just running I would be pumped at 3 20+ mile weeks in a row, I mean my monthly average was in the 60’s so 3 weeks of 20+ would have been awesome. But for marathon training? I’m trying not to freak out over here. I am trying really hard to #findtheshiny here. So here we go.

Monday- Rest After Saturday’s race and Sunday’s migraine enforced rest, I considered running. I didn’t as I really wanted to switch my Monday running with Wednesday’s rest day. I think 3 days in a row will be much more manageable than the 4 I had on the schedule in May. With the day off of work and no running on the plan, I have to say it was kind of nice. My legs felt pretty good too, so I was optimistic for a good week.

Tuesday- 3.5 miles I had 3 potential goals for this run- move my Thursday run of an 8 mile tempo up as it was projected to be over 100º. If I wasn’t feeling up to that, then the planned intervals of 4 x1200, if not that then a good 7-8 miles. None of that happened.

Right from the get-go, something felt off. Then it just plain hurt. I ran 1 lap of the lake and changed my shoes. That didn’t help. I ran- walked- hobbled another 2 laps. I also sat on a rock and stared at the lake a bit. Tried telling myself that all the pain was in my head but it wasn’t. Grrr. Home for some RICE.

Wednesday- Rest So much for running on Wednesdays. My shins hurt, my ankle hurt so I rested. I also started alternating between heels and flats throughout the day at work.

Thursday- 3.5 miles Oddly, I kind of missed my tempo. Who knew? I ran/ walked a slow 3.5 miles. My shins were not happy but it didn’t feel like pain just severe achiness. It was also very hot, so that helped keep things nice and easy.

Friday- Rest Work was super busy though, so I felt a little ragged. My boss in on vacation for a few weeks so that means Friday’s are an open to close kind of thing for me.

Saturday- 13.1 miles- The weekend was predicted to be a hot one so I forced myself to get up early. It wasn’t early enough. 😓 I set out for my long run and planned to take it nice and slow and walk whenever I felt more than twinge from my shins. Surprisingly, I felt ok so I kept running. I reassessed how I felt at each point where I could make the run shorter or add a little mileage. I only felt one odd twinge but it passed quickly.

What I hadn’t planned well for was the heat. I started at 7:30! It warmed up faster than I planned. There were a few sections where I felt like I was running on the surface of the sun- those were mostly walked. I also realized by mile 6 that I was going to run out of water. I had a 24 oz handheld but it wasn’t enough. I just told myself I had to get to mile 9 and I could run into the AM-PM. Except that was actually mile 10. Oops. My head felt like it was swollen and too big for my hat and the humidity had jumped drastically. From mile 8.5 to 10, I just kept chanting AM-PM, AM-PM – I had about an ounce of water left. I ran in and bought a Gatorade and a water. I poured the Gatorade into my water bottle and carried the extra water bottle. I was a two-fisted drinker for the last few miles. I will never run long without my debit card again.

I knew I was going to be slow due to my shins so when I finished in 2:30, I was actually pretty stoked. If it hadn’t been so hot, I would have shaved a couple minutes off and that’s actually pretty spot on my long run pace.

Sunday- Rest While my legs feel ok, there is one hot spot on my shin that I don’t like. After a mental argument with myself, I chose to rest. It’s not what I want to do but isn’t the saying that under trained is better than injured?

Crap, that only adds up to 20 miles. Why did I think it was more? Grrr. But I had a good long run, so that’s shiny right?

Looking to this week, I am going to listen to my legs and go from there. Speed work is off the schedule for now but I do hope to see the miles go back up. I am only 8 weeks out now and that is kind of scary. I really need to find more hills too or San Francisco is going to eat me for breakfast. 😛

How was your week? Anyone race?

Do you run with money?

How’s your weather?

May Mileage

Holy crap.

So yeah that happened. For the first time in 5ish years of running, I cleared 100 miles in a month. I used to chase that goal so hard and fall so short every time. Until this month. Thank you marathon training. The part that freaks me out is that I missed 4 runs over the month- 2 easy, 1 speed work and last weekend’s long run. That would have been another 35+ miles. Say what?!?

There were a few races too-

SLO Marathon 13.1
Bands on the Run 10K

The month started with a bang and ended with a whimper. I won’t lie; I am tired. I need to work on getting more sleep. Or better sleep, but both are easier said than done. Any tips? May also brought me some gnarly shin pain. My speed work has screeched to a halt since last week’s intervals and I am trying not to freak out about it. Lots of RICE going on around here. I would like to run 13 miles this weekend- even though the training plan only calls for a 10 mile long run- but right now I wonder if either is likely.

My first run of May was a half marathon, my last was a whimpering 3.5. I am choosing to look at the shiny of all those miles I ran and try not to think too much about my shins. My original plan for June includes a 20 miler, my current training plan says no. I am still hoping for it though. I would also like to get back to running the tempos- oddly enough, I missed it this week. Who would have thought? #stupidshins

How was your May?

Any plans for June?