Tag: marathon training

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 9

Week 9… how is that possible?

Yikes.

Last week was odd.   I had to cover another location for a few hours on Monday, and my tire pressure light was on.  Not cool when you’re driving all over the county and it’s raining.  Oh and I had all my tires checked, rotated balanced the previous week.  Grrrr.   I was supposed to have 2 vacation days due to a tennis trip but it was canceled due to projected rain so I canceled of those vacation days.   The weather was hard to get a handle on as no app or meteorologist could it get it right.  There were other things that added to a very scattered feeling week.    I still feel like I am forgetting something.

Oh and after getting my air checked on Monday, my tires were fine until Sunday when the damn light came on again.  There’s a stinkin’ nail in my tire.

The Plan-

week 9.PNG

Life-

Monday -Wednesday- No Running There should have been but there wasn’t and right now I can’t remember if any of the reasons were actually really good reasons for not running.  I know one day work ran really late but as for the others?

Thursday– The vacation day I gave back. Boo.

Friday- 6 miles  The vacation day I kept as a kind of mental health day.  I slept in and headed out for a run in the afternoon.   It looked clear on the weather app but it lied.  It rained off and on the whole run.   I wanted 7-8 miles but I was so damn cold I couldn’t. 6 rainy miles were good for me.

Saturday- 6 AM miles, 11 PM miles-17 miles total  Hit the snooze button a few too many times and I knew I was splitting my run but it wasn’t supposed to be like this.  It was supposed to be 13 AM and 4 PM.  However, again the weather app lied.

I headed out in the AM planning for 13 but my legs were feeling a little sluggish and my stomach was a little off in a weird way.    At mile 4, I rerouted and reversed my middle loop so I would hit the park with the bathrooms around mile 6 instead of mile 10.  All hell broke loose just after mile 5.  It started with a few drops of rain followed by a few more then the skies opened and just dumped buckets of rain and hail.   Girls running a track race down the street past me started screaming, I tried to run for cover as hail was bouncing off cars.   My shoes were drenched with moments as well as both pairs of socks.    I had a choice to make- try to push on or bail.  It was the shoes that decided it for me.  I don’t want a blister with only 8 weeks of training left.  I also knew I’d passed the high school a mile back and my mother had a tennis practice that she was probably canceling too.  I had a small window to hitch a ride.   I called her as I ran for cover under some solar panels dodging giant puddles.

After lunch and a short nap, I headed out to finish my run.  Oh good lord, my legs were not on board.  This was struggle bus from start to finish.  The sun was out but half the miles were in a flippin’ wind tunnel and the other half had zero air movement.  It was a slog.  Nothing hurt, my legs just didn’t want to work and my little break had let me figure out what was wrong with my stomach, a surprise visit of the hormone variety, so my stomach was still not right and I was feeling more fatigue than usual so I just let it ride.   I basically crawled 11 miles.  Ok, it wasn’t that bad it just felt like it.   But I finished it.

Sunday – 3.5 mile trails  Took my shakeout run to the rails.  Went for elevation gain over pace.   Which was my original thought process back when I created my training plan but considering this is week 9 and it’s the first time I got my butt up a mountain- oops.  Every time I’m out on the trails, I remember how much I love getting my shoes dirty.

26.59 miles for the week.   So now if I could just figure out how to get the beginning of the weeks on track. 😛

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 8

Or the one where I almost got mowed down by a car.

Even before that though, this week wasn’t going so well.   Between the less than helpful test results, a busy week at work, a sudden cold weather snap and a bout with the stomach flu, I watched a lot of Netflix.

Monday- Rest  I planned on running, I mean a day off from work meant a perfect day for running right?  Yet somehow, between cleaning my car, inside and out- it was so dirty, getting my tires rotated and balanced and then my doctor’s appointment to get my test results, I just never made the time.  Plus it was super windy and cold.

Tuesday- Rest I never take my running gear on the Tuesdays after 3 day weekends knowing that work is likely to be crazy busy.  Plus I knew we were down 2 people so I was calling it being prepared.  It actually wasn’t anywhere near what I thought so I probably could have brought my gear.

Wednesday- Rest  I felt off, kind of moody, odd.  I brought my gym bag into the building to change but just wasn’t feeling it.  I couldn’t figure out why.

Thursday- Sick Ok, maybe that was it.  I didn’t even make it through the full day at work.  I was spending more time running to the bathroom than I was working.  Sorry, TMI.  So instead of running I spent most of the day resting in my chair and binging Netflix.  Hello, 100.

Friday- Rest I made it to work but was still feeling off, at this point was just hoping I would get in my weekend runs like planned.

Saturday- 7 miles I started the morning by filling in as a coach for the JV boys tennis team for an away match.  Yeah, that was interesting.  I had 4 boys show up, the opposing team had 19.   The opposing team was locked out f their own courts so they were literally climbing fences to get us tennis balls.  😛

I headed out for my run late in the afternoon.  After having so many unplanned days off in a row, I admit I was a little concerned how things would go.  However it was a pretty good run.  I was feeling decent so I decided to throw in some hills.  Apparently not enough because at the end of 7 miles I had only hit 600 ft in elevation gain.

Sunday- 15 miles Longest run since last marathon training cycle.   My side was hurting in the morning so I slept a little longer and headed out for my run in the afternoon.   I had a route planned and I was planning on taking it slow and easy considering it had been a rough week.  The first 1/3 felt pretty good but I told myself not to celebrate yet as I still had a long way to go.  The second third was also the warmest section and I slowed a bit as well as had a stand-off with an off leash dog.  I am not sure who was more alarmed by who.

Things went south around mile 10.  I was crossing the street to get to the park with the bathrooms.  I checked all 3 ways (T intersection) for oncoming traffic, I had reflective gear and I was paying attention.  I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT!  Yet 2/3 of the way across the street, this blue car came flying out of nowhere speeding towards me, blew through the stop sign, the cross walk and squealed it’s tires out into oncoming traffic.  WTF?! I was seriously close enough to the car to touch it.

Here’s where I reacted wrong.  After avoiding getting mowed down by the crazy, oblivious driver I looked around wondering if anyone else had seen that while cursing and yelling out loud.  Before remembering I was still in the cross walk and therefore still in street.  Move, stupid!

I had 5 more intersections and stop lights to get through on the busy side of town before I was back in the neighborhoods and side streets I run all the time.   Once I was in calmer streets it was like all the adrenaline left my body and everything cramped and my brain caught up to me about the near miss.   The last mile or so home were kind of rough but I could tell it was more emotional than mileage driven if that makes sense.

22 miles for the week.  The weekend rescued the week but things were a little rough this week.  That said, I am ok with the mileage that I did pull off.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 7

Oh boy was I in a funk last week. I was cranky and moody and just kind of blah.

I kind of crawled into a hole and became an antisocial whiner.  Which is probably better than inflicting my crankiness on all of you but either way it wasn’t a great week.  The odd thing was that I didn’t have a solid reason for the crankiness, I just was in a funk and had to ride it out.    I was hoping I could run out some of that moodiness but that didn’t exactly happen during the week either.  Dude, someone give me a pizza.

I had an ultrasound and chest x-ray on Wednesday to see if that can help figure what is going on with the weird side pain I’ve been having.  Now to wait for the results.

Monday- Rest  I wanted to run but I also thought it might be best to my legs a rest after the weekend of running.    The only thing that’s keeping me from freaking out about my lower mileage this training cycle is that I am stacking my longest runs on Saturdays and Sundays, which outside of my Hanson’s attempt last marathon training cycle is not something I do.   I also haven’t been doing my PT exercises as they aggravate the side/flank pain so I figured rest would be best.

Tuesday- Rest  Should have run but the sudden drop in temp and the 20+ mph winds turned me into a big baby.    Where the hell did that come from?  The funk was also beginning to settle in.

Wednesday- 2 miles  This was supposed to be 4.  I mentally needed 4 because I was just super cranky for no reason at all.  I changed and headed out after work and immediately felt like a vice was wrapped around my left leg right above the knee.  Grrrr.  By a mile in, it hadn’t loosened up at all and actually felt tighter so I turned around and headed back for the car.   That was not the head clearing run I was hoping for and now I had another reason to be moody.

Thursday- Rest The day before had kind of scared me.  Should I run or shouldn’t I?

Friday- Rest Overslept, was running late but made it to work on time.  My side/flank was hurting more than it had all week so that wasn’t cool.

Saturday- 6.2 miles I headed out late in the afternoon for 6-7 miles hoping that my leg and my side would cooperate.  Surprisingly they both did.  My leg felt tight in the beginning but loosened up fairly quickly.    The temp was pretty perfect and I was feeling pretty good and I ended up negative splitting the run.  If I hadn’t waited so long I may have tried to turn this into my long run but I ran into dusk and I had no lights and very little reflective gear with me.

I could tell that my hips and back really needed help though so I decided to try my PT exercises that night.

Sunday-13.1 miles  Maybe it was the PT, maybe it was something else, but my side hurt the most it has in weeks.  I pushed my run back into the afternoon.  My plan called for 15 but I knew I was going to be slow and I was doubting I would even clear 6.  I started out and kept to my run/walk intervals figuring that was the best idea for this run.   Mentally, I wanted to quit at mile 2 but there was no physical reason to so I just kept trucking on.   I had to make a bathroom stop around mile 8, seriously, an aside to my city- what the hell?!?!!   I would imagine prisons have better bathrooms!  There is one park that has open bathrooms and they are creepy and disgusting, I even used the ones at the front of the park instead of the back this time and they are still gross.  But hey at least the stalls had doors this time!

Once leaving the bathrooms, I decided it was time for music and turned on my headphones.  However even with the added motivation, I knew I wasn’t going to hit 15.  Between the slower pace, the bathroom break, the stop lights and the pause to take off my outer layer then stash it, almost getting hit by a car not looking when they turned right, I’d been out there almost 3 hours!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much non-moving time on my Garmin before.  😛   I called it at 13.1.  Far better than I thought I was going to get.

21.36 miles for the week.  Pretty similar to last week and at least my long run went up.   I really need to work on building back up the weekly miles again.

How was your week?

Big Sur Marathon Training-Week 6

This week was the week that I couldn’t lie to myself anymore.

I’ve been having some side pain off and on for the past month or so and just kept  adjusting my running and life around it.  Finally the pain and tiredness were too much to ignore or joke about so I went to the doctor.  He called it flank pain and is checking my kidneys.  Yes, I can still run for now- just slowly and I need to listen to what my body is saying to me.  But it made for an interesting week.

The plan-

week 6

Life-

Monday- Rest So, I wore a new shirt to week.  Apparently my wardrobe has gotten kind of tired because EVERY single coworker noticed and commented.   I’m not sure that’s a good thing.  😒

Tuesday- 3.45 miles I headed out right after work to take advantage of as much light as I could.  It was a slower but still decent run.   I ran into a woman at the halfway point who was looking for the owner of some dropped money.  And a pretty decent amount at that.  Good people do exist!!!   I finished at 3.45 because I wasn’t willing to run back and forth in front of the police station anymore.

Wednesday- Nope.  Woke up, admitted I had a problem and made a doctor’s appointment for that same day.  Lot of lab work ordered and a couple of other tests.

Thursday- Rest  I had all my lab work done in the morning but I had still taken my gym bag in a naive optimistic hope I would run after work.  However, I hurt more than could be ignored so I just went home.  And of course- that’s the day we left work the earliest in weeks.

Friday –Rest Typical Friday but I actually left the building!  Ok, it was only for 15 minutes and it was just to pick up the lunch we ordered but it still counts.

Saturday- 6.5 miles Mornings aren’t my friend right now pain level wise so I set out for my run in the late afternoon.  I had been hopeful I could do my long run but I seriously underestimated the temp- 75* and overestimated how I was feeling.  I was overdressed and I realized soon that trying to push further would do more harm than good so this turned into my “easy” run.   Except it felt damn hard.

Sunday- 12 miles  Once again a rough morning- except this was more due a surprising visit of the female variety than the other problem.   I can ignore lots of pains, tough out probably too many things, but for some reason cramps knock me flat.  I curled into a ball and tried to sleep it off.    Once again, I headed out in the afternoon but this time the temps were much nicer.

I am not a fan of 12 miles but it just seemed like the smarter thing to run this week.   I also knew that if anything changed in my side, I was calling it quits wherever I was.   That said, I was really hoping I could pull off the 12.  I tried to stick to my run/ walk intervals and just take it easy for all the miles.   Except I somehow managed to PR 2 Strava segments.   Apparently I hit a sub 8 pace.  Well, crap.  Luckily it was only 1/2 a mile.  I have mentioned that I hate the bridge, right?   So, I took it easy every other mile.  I felt surprisingly ok throughout the entire.  The only trouble came when I realized I screwed up my math and my route was going to be short.  Grrr. So I added a hill.

21.98 miles for the week, and yes if I had known how close I was to 22, I would run another couple hundred yards.  Double grrrr.

More tests this week and more riding the line between taking it easy but not fully falling off the track too.

How was your week?

Add the Lime to the Coconut

Disclaimer: I was given Detach Coconut+ to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

I would like to say that my hydration game is strong but if I am being honest it’s been a little lacking lately.  That’s not a good thing heading into marathon training.  Combine that with my tendency to run my long runs/ races fasted and I was open to suggestions.

However between my already picky taste buds and extremely temperamental stomach, trying new things doesn’t always goes so well.  😯 My concern with Detach did start with the taste- I am not the biggest fan of coconut water.  However, this is my year of trying to push my boundaries (that post will go up someday) so I figured why not try it?

The bottles are an adorable, little 12oz size and I was pleasantly surprised by the taste.  It’s called Ellie-Ade– named for creator’s wife as he created the drink as a way to ensure that she was properly hydrated throughout her work outs.  You can barely taste the coconut flavor and instead it’s a very subtle lemony-lime flavor.  More lime, I think.  Whatever it is, I like it… and that’s coming from the person who drinks water, coffee and Diet Coke.  Kind of bland over here.  😛

Ok, the healthy details-

  • Beta-alanine commonly found in trace amounts of legumes, seaweed has been shown to improve the muscles energy production at intensity and in some studies improving 800m times by ~10s for 1 time use and ~15s after cumulative use.
  • Citrulline commonly found in melons is a known vasodilator, improving Nitric Oxide levels in the body.  This opens up your blood vessels and improves blood flow.
  • Theanine – commonly found in many teas especially white and green teas. Theanine is also known as a neurotropic as it impacts feelings of positivity and focus.
  • All of this with only 60 calories per bottle and NO “fake” sweeteners which leave a nasty after taste.
  • Last but not least light refreshing citrus flavor that you will love!
  • Instructions: Best to take 1 bottle 30m before workout and 1 bottle during exercise. Can be mixed with other drinks as well.

Now, I was sick while testing this and my stomach was having one of it’s flare periods -yay me- so I actually only drank it before one run.  Everything was making me sick.  So instead, I had it post run or in my daily lunch smoothie.  That one run went well but then I got nervous when I started to get sick.   You know, as I type this I realize I was never sick after drinking it even if I had been sick during the run or before lunch.   Ok, maybe I should have written this sooner or paid more attention over the last few weeks.  Excuse me, I need to go order another case to test my new theory.

Oh and this may have been my lunch one day when I was sick.  #balance

One thing I loved is that even when I felt a headache coming on post long run, a bottle of Detach would knock it out.  Thank you very much, Detach.   😊

Detach Coconut+ is available at their website or Amazon.

How do you hydrate? 

Do you like coconut water?

For other thoughts on Detach, check out-

Amy— Meridith— Corey—Lindsey