Monday, August 26, 2013

Motivational Monday

This is the start of a new training week for me. It's also a much tougher week than I have had on my schedule for marathon training. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. After a few workouts that were less than stellar or where I failed to reach the goal it makes staying motivated slightly tougher. BUT I am up for the challenge that faces me this week, both on the track and the mileage. I can do it.






So, to help keep me motivated I am going to remember my goal. The big goal, big picture as well as the small goals.
Big picture - marathon
The inset -  track workout

I know where I am going. I am going after that goal. I will succeed.

Do you have a goal for the week? Month? Year?
Share it with me so I can cheer you on!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

The Road to Indy - wks 7 & 8

Time is flying or at least in marathon training. In the last 2 weeks I've already done my 15 and 16 milers! Crazy but I am enjoying it and really look forward to race day. So, how exactly did the last 2 weeks go???

 Week 7 
Monday - 4.07 easy (38:42) w/striders. Had a sick kid at home so this was done solo in the middle of the day.
Tuesday - track day. 8 mile progression run. Goal was to start at 9:50 and get 10 seconds faster per mile.
9:44/9:41/9:17/9:26/9:11/9:13/9:00/9:14  Missed the goal but still a decent workout (in a downpour!).
Wednesday - 4.01 easy run (38:59) soupy outside even at 6am for this one! Went back to BeautyHunters bootcamp with the girls in the evening.
Thursday - rest
Friday - track day. 2up/8x200 hill repeats/2 down. Learning to LOVE hills!
 Saturday - 15 miles. 2:36 This run was painful. It was hot, it was slow and I never wanted to be done with a run so soon. Stomach issues arose (more on that soon) and I struggled from mile 4 to the finish.

Week 8 
Monday - 4 easy (actual 4.10/39:57) met the girls at 5am!
Tiesday - 1up/5 mi tempo/1 down - disaster morning! Stomach issues in mile 1 of warmup. Goal for tempo was 8:40-8:30 BUT I only managed 4 miles tempo around 8:53 overall pace.
Wednesday - 5 mi easy (46:38) went to WNRs Elite Chocolate Run! Fun run w/Angie and Kelly.
Thursday - Rest
Friday - track day - 2up/6x200 hill repeats/2 down Still LOVING hills!!
Saturday - 16 mi easy long run. (2:37) This run could not have gone better. Goal pace for long runs changed after some issues last week w/my stomach. So, coach said not to go faster than about a 10 min/mile.
9:58/9:48/9:55/10:03/9:52/9:57/9:37/9:48/10:00/9:53/9:42/9:44/9:49/9:43/9:36/9:34

First, let me go over the stomach stuff. Y'all know (if you've been here a while) that I have serious issues sometimes w/my gut. I FINALLY went to the dr. Hopefully things will be straightened out asap. I had some bad issues last week. Once last week (during my tempo run) I got sick and had gut rot in the 1 mile warmup. That has never happened but I dealt with things and moved on. My run wasn't stellar but I had a decent workout and logged all my miles for the day. After having issues again during my long run the same week I finally made a dr appointment. We have determined a plan of action.

When my coach put hills on my workouts for a few weeks in a row and told me that would be the case for a while I was first dreading those workouts BUT I love them now. Seriously, I was (probably am a little still) so weak at hills but these repeat workouts are helping me become stronger in that area.

I still want to tackle both my progression run and tempo again and meet those goals, but for now I am happy enough with how those two workouts went. I've had a chance to look back on them and while the goal wasn't met and situations happened I still managed to hit some great paces and log miles.

Long runs - that 15 miler was brutal. There is so much I could say but it was bad and I'm just thankful for great running friends. My 16 miler this past weekend was the opposite and I have never been happier to run 16 miles. From start to finish it was everything I could have hoped for. I know not every run will be bad, I know they won't all be great but I know that I am thankful for every time I am able to lace up and make my legs move.

37 miles logged week 7
38 miles logged week 8

Week 9 is so far going great! It's a down week for me as far as mileage goes. I will have a recap of that hopefully on Sunday, if not look for another 2 week recap next week.

How is YOUR training going??









Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The Road to Indy - weeks 5&6

I pretty much think that week 5 of marathon training is a blur. It may be because week 6 was awesome for me. I am really enjoying each training day. When I get my training schedule from my coach via email I get super excited but sometimes even nervous. Week 5 was a normal week and I had a few hiccups but when I opened the email with week 6 and 7 training in it I was giddy with excitement. I had new workouts on the schedule and while intimidating as first I grew excited to get the new workouts done.

Week 5 - total mileage 26 mi
Mon - easy 4 mi - I did 1 mi on the TM before going to BodyPump and the other 3 outside after.
Tues - track day! 6.31 mi - 2mi warm up /2x200s (:53/:48)/1x1 mi (7:55)/2x200s(:55/:52) Goal for this workout was :55 for 200s and 8-8:10 for the mile. I hit it. :) 2 mi cooldown
Weds - 4 mi easy
Thurs - rest
Fri - 4 mi easy
Sat - race day, total mileage was to be 10
5k didn't go as planned as per my recap. I only managed a total of 7 miles making me short for my total on the week but still had a good workout.



Week 6 - total mileage 36 mi
Mon - met the girls for my 4 easy mi early
Tues - track day! 7.5 mi total - 2 mi warmup/3x1 mi repeats (8:02/8:00/8:00)/2 mi cool down; goal was to hit repeats at 8:05-7:55. I had hoped to hit the lower end but since I was consistent I felt good about it.
Weds - 5 mi - met the girls early for a partially rainy easy 5 where I was almost hit by an SUV!
Thurs - rest
Fri- hill repeats! 2 mi warmup/6x200 hills/2 mi cool down (total mileage 5.6)
Sat - 14 miles! I love long run Saturday. Got 14 miles done in 2:14 and felt great.

I was so excited on Sunday when I looked back at the last two weeks. Even though I missed mileage and had a bad race in week 5 I was super excited about how all my runs went for week 6. I know I will have good/bad but my goal is to grow through the bad and still remain proud because of all the progress that  leads to the good. Makes sense!? 36 miles may seem like a lot to some but not much to others. For me it's a great number. It's my longest mileage week in a long time but won't be for long! I'm really happy with how much progress is being made and still really excited about being 6 weeks into marathon training.

This was after my long run on Saturday. I enjoyed a delicious breakfast with friends post run (cinnamon raisin french toast and bacon..yum!!!) and it almost made me forget about the nasty chaffing on my side! Ouch. Guess I forgot the BodyGlide there. It's crazy how happy one can be about getting up at 5am on a Saturday (and 4 a couple times through the week) to get training done!

Are you training for any big races? How's training going?