Tag: marathon training

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?

San Francisco Marathon Training Week 9

Holy crap, I’m halfway there!

I’ve yet to decide if that is reassuring or reason enough for a panic attack. It could go either way, it just depends on the day. 😝

After week 8’s less than stellar showing I was really hoping for a better week. What I got was a learning week. And an injury scare. Then I finished it all up with a tough 10K.

Monday- 5 miles. I love seeing easy miles on the plan. However, I ran these too fast. I was about a minute under pace for the run. While it felt pretty good at the time, I wonder if this added to the issues that popped up later in the week. I also ran these miles in my Pureflow’s. I was thinking of wearing them for my race so I wanted put a few miles on them since I hadn’t worn them since the SLO half. My toes still feel squished but other that I remembered why I loved those shoes.

Tuesday- 1.25 mile w/u, 6 x 800, 1.25 mile c/d. Since I missed week 8’s speed workout due to a head cold, I decided to do it this week instead of jumping to the 1K repeats. 800’s are hard. The 600’s a few weeks ago had felt pretty comfortable, these did not, these were hard. I also had technical difficulties of the hilarious kind. I’ve been using the workout feature on my Garmin; I create the workout online and push it to my watch so I don’t have to try and track the intervals on my own. So I programmed in what I thought were 6 intervals of 800 with 400 meter recoveries. I felt like my first 400 m recovery was taking forever. I kept checking my watch but it kept saying 399.9. What? Come to realize that I had programmed my recovery at 400 MILES not meters. Oops!! So from then I just tried to ballpark when to hit the lap button to end each recovery. I underestimated each time, oops. My recoveries ended up being around .15.

My goal time for each 800 was 4:30-4:42. Actual times were- 4:28, 4:23, 6:38, 4:26, 4:24, 4:23. So yeah that 3rd 800? I had tried to see if I could fix the 400 mile recovery but not only failed, I had also started the run interval but not realized it. I think it would have been in the line with other ones though.

Wednesday- Rest My legs were feeling super sore. I wore compression socks to work and changed from boots to flats. That might not have been the best idea. I also had an appointment with my gastroenterologist and I have a shiny new elimination diet to start this week. During marathon training…yay? Also pizza night was a giant fail. Boo.

Thursday- ~~8 easy miles~~— 3.75 miles With a 10K race on Saturday, the plan was to swap my easy run and my tempo. My training plan advised against this as I was supposed to step up to 8 tempo miles this week but I really like this race. I still felt sore and tired so I headed to the river path to get in an easy 8. Ha! My legs hurt from the get go. My shins hurt, my ankles hurt, my arches felt off and my knees started to ache. I gave it 2 miles to see if it was all in my head and if I was going to be able to run it out. No dice. I called it at 2 and hobble ran/walked back to the car. It hurt. I went home and stretched, rolled and put on compression socks again. And tried really hard not to freak out. Thank you to Heather and Ashley for putting up with all of my whining text messages. 😂

Friday- Rest My legs were still super sore. I was beginning to question Saturday’s 10K.

Saturday- Bands on the Run 10K Could have gone better but I made it through it. More on that next post though. Why do beach races make my calves so sore?

Sunday- 15 miles- Rest My alarm was set for an early run but when it went off, I said no. I had started to feel the beginning of a headache Saturday night and tried to fight it off by sleeping with an ice pack. No luck, Sunday morning it was a full on migraine. I shut off the alarm and slept more hoping it would ease up and I could get some miles run in the afternoon. Unfortunately, all the afternoon saw was a 2 hour long nap. My head hurt so bad, I didn’t even complete this post in time to go up on Monday. Once again, I slept with an ice pack that night.

Hmmm, well 4 days is better than week 8 right? Unfortunately my overall mileage still hovered in the low 20’s. The leg pain kind of freaked me out and I am making an adjustment to my training plan going forward. I am swapping my Monday easy run for Wednesday’s rest day. I knew my training plan was intense for a Slacker like me, even with dropping Friday’s run from the get go. So now let’s see how I feel with 3 days in a row instead of 4. Cumulative fatigue is one thing, I am freaking tired. Plus, who knows how these dietary changes are going to go over? Fingers crossed! Hopefully, my legs will get me through the week. 😀

How was your week?

How many days can you comfortably run a row?

Who else raced this weekend?