Five days

That's five full days that I've taken off from running if you count today.

Shin hurt the day after my 1.2 mile run/walk last Wednesday. I've been icing, stretching and wearing my compression socks hoping that it helps. I also have been massaging the calf muscle, the doctor I work for showed me some massage techniques to help the muscle so it's not so tight.

I actually took 4 full days off from working out too. I had a whopping 6 miles total mileage last week. Sad :(

Marathon training is supposed to start tomorrow with 8 miles. Yea that's not going to happen but I am going to attempt a run tomorrow. Somewhere between 3-5 miles.

Funny thing is when you can't run is when you want to run the most. Fingers crossed for no shin pain during or after the run and then I can modify my training plan from there to ease back into some mileage.

And here's a picture that has nothing to do with running but I just thought was cute...

My dogs Dash and Lilly...

Best Friends

Kinda changing my mind about the marathon

Look at the sweet medal I received in the mail earlier this week...



Love getting medals and I haven't raced yet this year :)
It was for running 2 Rock n Roll events last year. Seattle RnR marathon and Las Vegas RnR half.

So I didn't get around to posting a recap of my workout last week.
I ran 18 miles total. The best training day I had was last Friday. I had the day off so I went to the gym in the a.m. and  ran 1.1 miles on the treadmill and did about an hour of weights. Then later that morning went out for a 13.1 mile run! It definitely was an awesome way to start the weekend. But I noticed that I can't lay around the house for too long or it gets harder and harder for me to get out the door. So there was no running on Saturday and Sunday.

This week has started off slow. I have only ran 2 miles. I'm hoping to get to the gym after work and get a few more miles in and some do some strength training too. Which I have to say I am loving! I can feel myself getting stronger and starting to see more definition in my arms. I have mostly been focusing on my upper body but would like to start incorporating lower body too. I just have to find the time for it all.

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So I am having some second thoughts about the marathon. Do I still want to run one this spring. YES. My second thoughts are which one. The one I wanted to run is the Lake Lowell Marathon. The reason I am thinking about running a different one is cause there is only 14 people registered for this one. I'm sure more people will register as it gets closer but I doubt very many more. I just don't know if I want to run pretty much all 26.2 miles alone. Can I do it? Yes, the majority of all my training runs are alone especially the long runs. But I love running races to get that energy from other runners. Especially at the end of the race when all I want to do is stop or walk I focus on runners in front of me and try to "catch" them. I tell myself just keep running till you catch the one up ahead and pass them and so on till I get to the finish line.

The only other option for a local marathon is the Famous Idaho Potato Marathon which I ran last year. It's on May 19th so it's exactly 2 weeks after Lake Lowell. Last year there was around 200 - 250 people. I know the course well since most all my long runs are on it but I didn't like the heat from last year. Guess that means I need to finish faster to avoid it :)

So right now my thoughts are to switch down to the Lake Lowell half marathon and run the Famous Idaho Potato full marathon. But I haven't decided 100% yet.

Any thoughts are welcome...what would you do?

Weekly Review & a long run

I'm a little behind on last week review.

It wasn't my best week but still managed 24 miles and a good long run

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Rest

Wednesday - 5 mile run

Thursday - 1 mile run & Strength - Shoulders & Abs

Friday - 6 mile run

Saturday - 12 mile run

 Sunday - Rest

The thing about not following a training plan is I run which ever days I feel like it and usually just plan how many miles I want to run that day. Apparently I was a little more tired the first part of the week so sleeping in felt nice. Most of my workouts during the week have all been in the morning starting at around 6:30 am. It still isn't easy to wake up this early but I have noticed that once the alarm goes off once it takes me a while to try and fall back asleep so it's just better to get up and head to the gym. Because I have limited time in the mornings I didn't get another day of strength in either.

I'm still pretty happy with the 24 miles even if it isn't the 30 miles I put as my weekly goal. Maybe this was a "recovery" week :)
 Overall I'm just happy to be consistently running, building my base, and hitting my long runs.

Speaking of long runs I was really pleased with my 12 miler this past Saturday. My friend Tim posted on my Facebook about meeting up for a run. And I'm all for running with other people! The majority of my runs are always alone so it's nice to have someone to chat to help the miles go by faster.

I took my hand held filled with nuun and my awesome Gu chomps I got for xmas from this BRF with awesome little messages.

I also took my new Brooks Vapor Gloves that I won in a contest in December but had just received in the mail. Sadly they are too big :( They are a small and I should have got an extra small. There was just too much space at the tips of the fingers that kept bothering me.

I didn't take any pictures with Tim but he's made an appearance a few times on here at other races we have been at.

He is pretty speedy and usually places at most of the races so I was nervous I would slow him down. He is more a short distance runner, he is aiming for a sub 19 min 5k this spring, I think his current PR is 19:30 or somewhere around there. But he wants to run his first marathon this year so is trying to build up his long runs again. I know he was just running a pace that was comfortable for me. We were averaging about 9:30 pace for the first 5 miles then progressively were picking up the pace and averaged 9:16 pace for the next 5 miles. The last two miles he said he was going to test his speed so was going to run ahead. I said ok and my goal was just to keep him in my sights. Figured it was good training to pick up the pace on tired legs. He got out of my sight for a little bit on a turn but I ended up running the last two miles in 8:36 & 8:38. I definitely have some work to do in the speed department but I'm not stressing over it.

Plenty of time to improve and marathon training starts in exactly 2 weeks from today so there will be more purpose to the runs I do each week which will help with my speed and endurance.

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Thanks so much for everyone input on my long run days from my last post. I think I will go ahead and keep them on Sunday. If I need to juggle them as the training progresses I will do that.

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I managed to run 75.22 miles for the month of January. Pretty good considering my December mileage was 44 miles.

I think I'm ready to start marathon training. I'm pretty nervous cause this schedule is more demanding. But I think it will help me with some future races. I will post my plan in a few days!

 

 

Was January a good month for you?

 

Are you training or will you be training for a race soon?

18 miles powered by B.S.

*First, thank you guys for you're comments on my previous post about pacing. It's probably something I just need to continue to experiment with and see what works for me.

Yesterday I woke up early to make sure I had enough time to get my 18 miles in and not have to rush through them. The morning was beautiful. The grass was sparkling from the frost on it and the air was clean and refreshing. The sun was shining which felt great after the rain we had the day before.

I set out for an out and back with my fuel belt filled with water and tri-berry nuun (my new fav must have on my long runs).

My goal was to stay around a 9:20-30 pace for the first half of the run then speed up to around a 9 min mile for the last half.

I averaged about a 9:21 pace for the first 9 miles. This pace felt good and like I could have finished the entire 18 miles feeling good.

I speed up for the last half and my splits were:
8:49
9:20 (had to slow down cause I had to use the restroom and knew there was one coming up soon)
8:49
8:48
8:41
8:42
8:43
9:00 (stopped for a little bit to take a pic of the giraffe)
8:09

My legs started feeling fatigued at mile 15 but it's actually what I wanted to feel as weird as that might sound. I wanted to challenge my muscles and feel the fatigue they would feel towards the last few miles of a marathon. I also pushed it the last mile so I could finish strong. It was hard to give it that kick at the end but I pushed through it and imagined myself at the end of my marathon with the finish line in sight. I looked down at my garmin and saw it under an 8 min pace a few times which gave me a boost.

Finish time was 2:43:29   9:04 min/mi pace.

Overall I felt challenged, but it felt great that I could actually sustain a pace under 9 min with my legs feeling fatigued. Now could I do that for another 8.2 miles? Right now probably not. But I do think I could hold a pace somewhere between 9:00-9:30.
This week is a step back week with a long run of 13 miles. I'll take that one at an easy, comfortable pace cause I have a 20 miler the weekend after!

Here's a pic of the giraffe I saw.

There's something yummy on the tree I must eat it.

The last few miles of this run were powered by Britney Spears' new song - Till The World Ends.
Don't judge me I like to run to her music :)  I think I played it about 4 times during miles 14 and 15 when my pace sped up and again the last mile of my run. That song makes me want to dance! I think I was bobbing my head and trying not to throw my hands up in the air. But I was singing out loud a little :)