Tag: Training

Taking Directions

Disclaimer: I received a session with Ekiden Coaching 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’ve said numerous times that I tend to have knee jerk reactions to training plans. I turn into a 5 year old and say ” I don’t wanna”. Or a rebellious teenager- “you can’t make me!’. I’ve posted pictures of my training plans before and they are usually full of color and corrections and look like a 5 year old used them as a coloring book.

That said I’ve always wondered how I would respond to a coach. Would reporting to an actual person hold me accountable? Would I get out of my own way and actually commit to a program that could make me a better runner? I was curious but I figured the odds of me finding out were slim to none as most options I saw could break the bank. And my bank is pretty broken as it is. 😛

Enter Ekiden Coaching.

ekiden

When I was given the opportunity to try their coaching services, I jumped at it. What better chance to see how I would do? Ekiden is fairly new to the scene and founded by Peter Duyan with Head Coach Mario Fraioli. I checked out the website, looked at their backgrounds and read some articles in Competitor by Mario. I was excited to get started.

The process started with a very in depth questionnaire that asked about your running habits, preferences and quirks. It also asked about your nutrition level and if you had any injuries. Once it was submitted, I waited to be matched with my coach. Once I learned that I had Coach Jenny, we set up a time for a phone conversation to go more in depth about my running level and upcoming race plans. This was also when I had the realization that I had a lot of races in the coming weeks. Oops. Jenny also let me know I may have bit off a bigger bite than I should have. Yes, Coach. This was also proved true when I had to bail on the Run The Runways 5K. 😢

From there the coaching plan is uploaded to the Ekiden site on a weekly basis. The site links to Strava and for every completed workout, you get a blue dot. Missed workouts show a red dot. You are sent a weekly text on Sundays with a link to the week’s workouts. A daily text at 5PM told you the next days workout. You can communicate with your coach via text message or on the Ekiden site. Text messages are my jam, sweet!

So how did training go? I really liked it! Every workout was something that I could or should be able to physically do and it was very easy to understand. I didn’t have to do any math or fancy equations to know what I was supposed to do. I’ve had a good mix of easy running and speed work. The speed work was great (remember Float?). It pushed me out of my comfort zone just enough. I never would have planned a long run with a fast finish end of 6 miles but I came close to pulling it off! My left leg has been giving me fits but being honest, it hasn’t been happy since halfway through marathon training. That said, Coach Jenny has been a great resource with that- I can text her when it hurts and we can adjust the plan. It helps to talk it out with someone so I don’t just panic on my own. The accountability portion of having a coach is kind of awesome. I call myself Slacker for a reason so having someone check in with you is a great way to stay on track. Even a day when I was feeling super crappy and knew I couldn’t handle a run, I went home and did a few miles on the bike. I can say without a doubt that I would not have done that had I not had a coach and a training plan.

So would I do it all over again? I actually have a week or 2 left on my plan right now but I think I would do it again. Personal plans can be as low $49 a month and I think a 3 month plan would be a great fit for me next year- I may finally buckle down to train for a sub 2 half… or maybe a second marathon. 😛

I also have a discount for you- use code BibRave16 and get 1 month of free training when you purchase 3 months. Dang it, I could use that next year!

Looking for more information? Check out the Ekiden website or read these Pro’s reviews-

Christine
Angie

Have you ever worked with a coach?

Do you like training plans?

Week 43 Training Recap

Training for-

Paso Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

It’s the final countdown! Come on, sing it with me! Sorry, I think the lack of sleep is making me slap happy. 😛 I’m still not sleeping but I’m also tired of whining about it. It is what it is so I am trying to just find the shiny and keep moving on.

I actually ran all the miles planned this week and almost pulled off some of the paces. Who am I?!? I started off the week by taking some rest days. It’s how being told to rest by someone else takes some of guilt away. I think my brain needed that after the last few weeks.

Monday- Yoga What?!? I used an app on my phone and did a beginners workout just to try to loosen up and relax a little. I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before so I was dragging.

Tuesday- Rest This day was a Monday Redux. Seriously, it was rough at work. I was so glad I didn’t have to run.

Wednesday- 4 miles After a few days off, I was feeling nervous like I forgot how to run. As you can read here– the run was freakin’ awesome!

Thursday-3.5 miles Interval ouch. The workout called for 6×400 with warm up and cool down. Normally I love 400’s but I was so damn tired and I knew I would be chasing the sunset. I had an option of rest or a light jog between the 400’s and I chose the rest. Even with that, the intervals kicked my ass. My paces were 7:58, 7:53, 8:41, 8:25, 7:56, 8:33. Not sure what happened with that third one. I was whipped at the end. I could not have run another one if I tried. I was proud that I finished the work out but damn that was hard.

Friday- Rest Oh crap, I think I broke myself. I was limping all day and my left knee and shin were pissed. I was kind of freaking out. I had 12 miles on the plan the next day, what do I do?!?! Does it really hurt or am I just being a baby? I have a mental block with 12 mile runs. Give me 11 or 13 or 15 and I look forward to them after marathon training, but 12? I hate them for some reason. Was I just whining? I texted Coach Jenny for her opinion and she agreed I should push my run back to Sunday and rest.

Saturday- Rest I attempted to catch up on sleep. Did I mention Thursday night was another 4 hours if I was lucky? Then I ran a few errands and read a book-Run!. I love reading Dean Karnazes’ books. Even if they make me think crazy thoughts. I signed up for my first marathon 2 months after reading Ultramarathon Man. What now?

Sunday- 12 miles Of course, when my alarm went off I was in the most comfortable moment of sleep that I had had all week. I hit snooze for 40 minutes before dragging myself out of bed for my run. My plan called for 6 miles @ 12:00, 5@ 9:30 and the last @ 9:00. My leg felt a little better but I was planning on taking it easy and keeping an eye on how it felt. I even had my mom on alert in case I needed a pick up.

I kept it nice and easy in the beginning and just focused on my leg. Mile 1 was super slow and I managed to keep the bridge mile at 10:00 which is fairly calm considering I usually bolt across it. At the halfway point I was actually right on pace and I felt ok so I tried to pick up the pace a bit. I couldn’t get to 9:30 though. Miles 7, 8, and 9 clocked in at 10:00. I was still pretty stoked about that though so I was hoping I could keep it up. Then I slammed right into a wall. Miles 10 and 11 were 11:18 and 10:57. Oops. I didn’t necessarily feel tired but I could not move any faster. I took so many walk breaks. I had already run more miles than I thought I was going to pull off so I decided not to stress about the pace. That said, I was so glad to see my watch hit 12. Success!

19.5 miles- an improvement over the last few weeks! Woo hoo! And now it’s on to race week #1! Eeek!

How was your week?

I whined a little didn’t I? Oops.

What are you reading?

Ear to Ear

You know how some runs leave you feeling run ragged and whiny but others can leave grinning maniacally as you run up the street scaring people? Yeah I had one of those.

My blog is called Slacker Runner for a reason. In fact it was almost called Part Time Runner. I know I don’t run as often or as many miles as other people. I love rest days, they just speak to me. But what I don’t say is that as much as they speak words of comfort to me, those words also come with guilt. I feel guilty every time I don’t run and it stresses me out. The cycle continues on and on and on.

So when Coach Jenny told me to take 2 days off early this week, a part of me freaked out. Monday and Tuesday as mental health days?!?! Life and work has been stressing me out and I feel like I haven’t slept properly in weeks. Sunday night saw maybe 3 hours of sleep, maybe. Had she not told me not to run, I would have tried to run after work on Monday. That probably would have been a horrible idea. So instead I followed directions and rested. A tiny amount of yoga on Monday and nothing on Tuesday. Turns out having a coach tell me to take the rest days took away most of the guilt. Who knew?!

When it came time to run on Wednesday I was nervous. I am not sure why, it’s not like I could have forgotten how. A 45 minute easy run was on the schedule so I ran in work town to enjoy as much daylight as possible.

Holy crap, people. It was awesome. That’s not to say it was easy because I know damn well I ran parts of it too fast. I ran without music and enjoyed the views. The weather seemed perfect for a run and I think I would have kept running if I hadn’t run out of daylight. Well, I also didn’t have water. People! I only took 3 walk breaks!!!! That is unreal for me these days. Post marathon, walk breaks have been my friend and my crutch. And the first walk break was only because I can’t run up the hill in the eucalyptus grove without face planting. However, I was so excited on Wednesday that I tried it. The slick ground put a pin in that real quick. 😛 The second one was due to a phone call that I couldn’t ignore. The third was because damn that hill is long.

Seriously, it was awesome. It was a run I needed mentally as I have 2 races looming on the horizon. I’m normally cussing running up that last hill instead I was smiling ear to ear. 😀😀

Have you had an ear to ear run?

How are you with rest days?

Happy Friday!!!!

Week 42 Training Recap

Training for-

Paso Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

I am not sure what happened last week. I am not sure if it was the lack of sleep catching up with me and I kind of felt like I was fighting some bug. I was feeling down but whatever it was, I fell off the motivation train. I kind of just wanted to hide in a dark hole and sleep. But life goes on right?

Monday- Rest Rest day!! And a day off, man that was nice. I was feeling a little sore form Sunday’s race so taking it easy was fine be me. Plus I had to take my dad to an appointment so I killed time in the best way-

Tuesday- 7 miles bike. I felt crappy all day, just sluggish and worn down. Sleep was rough which didn’t help. I had packed my running gear as my coach had me scheduled for 30-45 minute recovery run. By the end of work, I knew it wasn’t happening. I headed home and did a slow 7 miles on the bike instead.

Wednesday- 6 miles Rest Yeah, I can’t really pinpoint what happened here. I felt better but not 100%; I was tired but what else is new? My family invited me to dinner and the tri tip was calling? Whatever it was, it won and I did not run.

Thursday- 5 miles The plan was to run 3 miles a little faster than goal half marathon pace plus warm up and cool down. I was still in a funk and had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen. I did try though. I worked a partial day and headed to the river path to attempt it. Yeah, it went about as well as I expected. I could not get my legs into gear. My splits for the speed work were 9:43, 10:35, 9:32. Ha! Not even close to a sub 9. But I ran though, right?

Friday- Rest Pretty typical Friday. Work was work and I admit I caved and picked up a pizza on the way home. Well, I ordered one but Domino’s messed it up so they gave me 2. 2?! That doesn’t help the waistline. 🍕😛

Saturday- Rest I worked in the morning and enjoyed a white knuckle drive home as everyone in CA forgot how to drive in the rain. It didn’t help that the fog was so dense, you could barely see a car length in front of you. Throw in the steep drop on both sides of the highway and that was fun. I meant to be productive in the afternoon but beyond laundry and posting my Bibrave review of City to the Sea, I really wasn’t.

Sunday- 8.1 miles– I wanted 10. I could not make myself get out bed any sooner. The day called for rain and I wanted to run in the only dry part of the morning. I love the rain but figured if I was still fighting something, running in the rain wasn’t going to help. I also had to run in the morning as my family had plans in the afternoon- my little brother turned 30!!! Man, I feel old.

Anyways, back to the run. It was kind of all over the place. Kind of like the weather. First it was cold, then it was super windy, then it turned unbelievably muggy and hot before starting all over again. Every half mile was a new adventure. Kind of like my pace. Mile 4 was a 9:30- oops! There were times when I felt like I was running tall, had awesome form and could go forever. Then there times when I felt hunched over and tired, panting like a dog. Can I blame the weather changes? Whatever it was, I was glad to be done.

So to recap- 13 miles run and 7 biked. I did get a long-ish run in so that’s a plus. I’ve done some thinking about how how my next races will be run but I will save that for another post. My hope is get in a solid week of training going forward. And to sleep more. Oh- I did receive my essential oils- after a battle, the post office lost them- so I have been trying those and will share thoughts soon. It’s only been a few days so I am still on the fence. 😛

How was your week?

Would the lure of food keep your from running?

How’s your weather? Has fall really arrived?

Week 41 Training Recap

Training for:

City to the Sea 13.1 ✅
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

I wish I could I could be all sunshine and daisy’s about last week but I can’t. I am looking really hard for the shiny because I know it’s there somewhere. It has to be.

Work has been stressful, we are still down an employee and haven’t been able to replace them yet. Also, the shift back to being an hourly employee is affecting me more than I thought it would but I’ll keep trucking along.

My sleep is still crap. I used to be the type person who while being a night owl, once asleep I was dead to the world. Seriously, you could throw things at me and I would sleep through it. I would fall asleep in one position and stay that way all night. Lately I can’t fall asleep and when I do I wake up repeatedly and I toss and turn. Toss and turn to the point that my quilt and top sheet are usually on the floor in the morning. 😞 This weekend I went shopping for new pillows and I’ve ordered some essential oils to see if they help. Fingers crossed!

Loss. I was somehow lucky enough to get this far in life without having to deal with loss often. This year has been different and last week was more bad news. I really need to work on being less of stress eater.

Monday- 2 miles This was supposed to be a rest day but with all weekend off due to my stupid leg, I wanted get in a few test miles. We got out of work late so by the time I made to home town I was racing the dying daylight. 2 miles is what I was able to fit in. I was a little achy but nothing hurt more than that.

Tuesday- Rest. Something came up and I didn’t get off work until almost 7. I didn’t even attempt to run that day.

Wednesday- Rest 2 days off in a row seemed like a good idea. Plus it fit perfectly in my training plan from Ekiden Coaching. 😛

Thursday- 3.5 miles Another chance to test the leg and see if I would be racing this weekend. The plan called for 5 x400 but I knew I wasn’t getting up to 5k pace. I stuck to the 400’s but kept them around a 9:30 pace and walked the recoveries. My calves were super tight per usual and I stopped at one point to completely re-lace both Hoka’s but other than that it was ok. I realized that I will be on the treadmill much sooner than I would like though. It is getting dark so fast!

seawinner

Friday- Rough day. But I did win my entry in City to Sea from a Facebook contest so there’s that right?! Thank you to everyone I badgered into voting for me! I registered for Sunday’s race on Friday morning.

Saturday- Rest day. Went to SLO for packet pickup and wandered around doing some shopping. Shopping and food make great distractions from life right? The race shirt was tiny, like Stitch size tiny.

Sunday- City to the Sea 13.1 To be continued…😛
How was your week?

Have any sleeping tips for me?