Tag Archives: Training

Marathon Training Week 14 {Goofy Challenge}

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Monday- OFF
Tuesday- Recovery 6 miler. My legs were stiff and tired and it felt difficult to maintain an even pace (avg pace 8:13 min/mile)
Wednesday- General aerobic 14 miler. I think this was too much too soon post 21 miler (Sunday before). I finished and felt great but I felt exhausted all day and the rest of the week which could have been because I stayed up late the night before watching election coverage :) . (avg pace 8:00 min/mile)
Thursday- Recovery 6 miler. More stiff legs and tiredness. Also had some weird knee pain/clicking. (avg pace 8:15 min/mile).
Friday- Recovery 4 miler. Started to feel better and didn’t have any knee pain but took it super slow. (avg pace 8:27 min/mile)
Saturday- Shake out 6 miler. Felt good (minus the back pain) and after being cooped up in the apartment all morning I was ready to run. (avg pace 7:29 min/mile).
Sunday- 16 miler. My back was hurting a lot and my legs felt tired. I also think I bonked (dehydrated? not enough carbs?) and was not mentally into the run. I toughed it out and finished at a pace I was okay with considering the circumstances (avg pace 8:00 min/mile)

Total miles: 52

My pace was not what I wanted it to be this week but I’m guessing my body was warn out from the previous week of high mileage + speedy 21 miler. If that’s the case then I’m okay with it, slower > injured. This coming week is a cut back week and hopefully if my body is worn out the lower mileage will be beneficial and I’ll feel stronger the following week!

Marathon Training Week 13 {Goofy Challenge}

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Monday – OFF
Tuesday – 7 mile recovery run with 6 x 100 m strides on the treadmill. Warnings of gusting winds up to 50 mph and a closed lakefront led me indoors to the treadmill. I ran conservatively (didn’t want to relive that bizarre treadmill soreness) but managed to get in some sub-7 min/mile strides. Strides are not easy on a treadmill! (avg pace 8:08 min/mile).
Wednesday – 12 mile general aerobic run (avg pace 8:00 min/mile)
Thursday - 4 mile recovery run. I took it nice and easy and enjoyed the shorter run. (avg pace 8:33 min/mile)
Friday – 10 mile lactate threshold run with 6 miles at 15k-half marathon tempo pace. I was a little nervous about doing this type of run so close to my long run but I trusted my plan and went for it. My legs took a bit to warm up but then I hit my tempo miles at 7:24, 7:36, 7:20, 7:14, 7:29, & 7:32. This was a little conservative but smart considering my long run on Sunday. (avg pace 7:42 min/mile)
Saturday – Recovery 5 miler. I wanted to run fast but held back. I even stopped to take some pictures. (avg pace 8:09 min/mile)
Sunday – 21 mile long run. Again I was nervous because it seems early to throw a 20 miler into my training but I trusted the plan. I ate a rice cake with almond butter before heading out and then fueled with 1.5 gels (starting at 8 w/ 1/4 gel every 2 miles). I also carried my new fuel belt and had one bottle filled with water and another with strawberry lemonade NUUN. My legs felt tired from all of the walking on Saturday (my mom was in town) but I pushed through and once they loosened up I felt great. I even pushed the pace a bit. When my watch hit 20 miles I was still a decent distance from home and I felt great so I decided to run the last mile, I hope I feel so good during the Goofy Challenge! (avg pace 7:35 min/mile)

Total miles: 59

I hope you all had great training weeks as well :)

{Goofy Challenge} Mesocycle 2

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Today marks the start of the second mesocycle of my training for the Goofy Challenge. I discussed the five mesocycles of Advanced Marathoning when I first mentioned I was using the plan but to refresh a bit the first mesocycle focuses on increasing mileage to improve pure endurance, the second on improving lactate threshold, the third on race prep, the fourth on taper and the marathon, and the last on recovery.

The second mesocycle, lactate threshold + endurance, is five weeks long and includes one recovery week of 47 miles. The rest of the weeks vary between 52 and 58 miles which is definitely higher than most plans I’ve previously used. One of the most noticeable differences between the first mesocycle and the second is the increase in lactate threshold runs (tempo run sandwiched between 2-3 miles) and strides. While the first mesocycle only had one speed workout a week, mesocycle two includes two: one lactate threshold and one workout with strides. Similarly, this mesocyle features the first set of VO2 max intervals (600 m – 1,600 m at 5k pace). It should be exciting!

This morning I kicked off the second mesocycle with a 10 mile lactate threshold run with 5 miles at 15k to half marathon pace. It was oddly warm and humid out and I wore shorts and a short sleeved shirt. Isn’t it almost November? My run went well and I finished in 1:16:07 for a 7:35 min/mile pace. For the first time in awhile I was happy with my tempo miles (7:25, 7:21, 7:10, 7:15, 7:16), I felt good pushing the pace, and my legs didn’t feel like lead the last two miles (7:30, 7:50).

It was warm out there this morning so after a cold shower, I made a berry banana protein smoothie for breakfast. I couldn’t think of eating anything hot.

I also had a rice cake with Naturally Nutty pepita butter for some crunch. This definitely hit the spot!

Last night
Ian and I went grocery shopping last night (our fridge was bare!) and I decided to make fannetastic food’s quinoa taco salad for dinner. It was absolutely delicious. I’m so glad I made a ton of it!

I served mine with a dollop of veganaise and some mole hot sauce. I also bought some daiya cheese last week because it was on sale so I threw that in too. I decided that I don’t love it but I don’t hate it and I definitely think it’s better melty.

After dinner we caught up on our DVR and watched Walking Dead and Pitbulls and Parolees (anyone watch that?). We even caught a little bit of the debate and the Lions/Bears game. It was so nice to relax after a busy (but fun!) weekend.

What training plans have you tried? How do you relax after a busy weekend?

What’s Your Motivation?

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I’m curious to know, what’s your motivation to run/swim/bike/workout? As much as I love running, there are definitely days when I wake up at 5 am and wonder why I’m waking up so early– is a run really worth it? Similarly, on the rare days that I leave a workout for after work I’m usually not exactly in the mood to run. Those days, the only thing that gets me out the door is knowing how much better I’ll feel afterwards.

However, once I get outside and get moving I feel amazing. If it’s an AM run, I shake off my grogginess and just let myself run. If it’s a PM run, I run off any stress and frustrations that arose during the day. Sometimes I even get to see something beautiful like the sun rising over Lake Michigan.

I never regret a workout.

I thought about motivation quite a bit while running this morning and I believe there are three things that motivate me to get out of bed and run in the AM.

(1) Routine. I’ve run in the morning almost every morning for the past 6 years. At first it was tricky and there were days I slept through workouts or rescheduled them for later in the day but after quite some time I’ve realized that my workouts are best in the mornings. Now when I wake up I do the exact same thing every morning –> grab my phone, check the weather, pick out running outfit & get dressed, put on socks/shoes/Garmin, eat something (unless it’s a fasting run– more on this another time), grab iPod and key, go run. It’s easy now because it’s routine but it didn’t used to be!

(2) Grogginess. I still can’t say I’ve gotten used to waking up super early to run. There are days that all I want to do is curl up in bed and fall back asleep. Fortunately for me, my grogginess allows me to fall right back on my established routine. Honestly, it would take me too long (and it would be too mentally challenging at 5 am) for me to debate whether or not I should go run on a particular morning. It is much easier for me to just get my butt out of bed and fall into the above routine.

(3) My second alarm clock. Every morning my alarm goes off and wakes up both Sonic and me. I grab my phone and get back in bed to check the weather when all of a sudden Sonic will appear out of nowhere ready to play. The mornings that I do try to go back to sleep, Sonic will start bringing me toys, shoes, the drain (seriously), my iPod shuffle (mom it’s time to workout), or whatever else he can find. It’s honestly so cute that I can’t get mad and end up waking up anyway.

What motivates you to workout? How do you get yourself moving?

Last night I made an awesome dinner. I mixed up some tuna salad using 1 can of tuna, 1.5 T sweet and spicy honey mustard, .5 T vegenaise, and relish and then ate it with cucumbers in swiss chard leaves like lettuce wraps. I actually took a picture but when my memory card told me there was no more room this morning, I deleted all of my pictures without even thinking. Annoying! I’ll just have to make the chard wraps again sometime to have digital proof!

Anyway, I’m off to get ready for the day- I have less than 100 pages left of Gone Girl and I’m hoping to read a bit before work. Happy Tuesday!

Marathon Training Week 7 {Goofy Challenge}

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This post has to be a quick one because Ian and I are heading out in a little bit but I wanted to recap this past week and the glorious weather! How amazing is to run in the 40′s and 50′s after sweltering through the summer? I’m actually starting to like Chicago again.

Here are this week’s runs:

Monday- OFF

Tuesday- 8 mile run with 10 x 200 m strides. This day was not my day for running. It had rained the evening before and it was cold in the morning. I ran the 3.5 miles to the track only to find it was too slick to do my strides. The track was also unlit and I did not want to slip and fall. I thought about skipping the strides entirely but decided to run around the outside of the track on the sidewalks instead. It worked out but my legs felt like lead. I averaged an 8:16.

Wednesday- Recovery 4 miler and I treated it like one averaging an 8:30 min/mile.

Thursday- General aerobic 10 miler. I felt speedy so I went with it. Look at those [almost] negative splits from mile 3 on. I love it.

Friday- I was supposed to cross-train but my back/shoulders were really hurting from a 10 minute barre workout I had done on Wednesday and I decided that both swimming and ellipticaling were going to bug my back. I ended up running a nice and easy 4 miles instead averaging an 8:05 min/mile.

Saturday- I had a recovery 5 miler on the books but the cold weather really made me want to run. I tried to take it nice and easy but ended up running too fast. My watch malfunctioned and saying I ran a 5:55 min/mile for the first mile but assuming that’s incorrect, I averaged around a 7:40 min/mile.

Sunday- Today I headed out for 13 miles with 8 miles at race pace. My goal was to run the first 5 around an 8:00 min/mile and then the last 8 at 7:50. My legs felt heavy starting out so I was nervous that I woudn’t be able to make my splits but by mile 4 I had already increased my pace to above MP. I managed to keep my pace in the 7:30′s for the majority of the 8 miles which really surprised me– that’s where some of my tempo miles have been! It makes me wonder if I should decrease my goal MP to around 7:45 or 7:40 but I’m going to see how I do over the next few weeks. There is a chance that I was over trained for this week’s mileage and once I hit the 50 mile-weeks my pace will drop back down.

Total weekly mileage: 44 running

Before my long run today I tried something different and had a rice cake with sunflower butter and chia seeds as opposed to millet/brown rice bread. The brown rice bread has been sitting a little bit too heavy and the rice cake made a big difference. Looks like I found my new pre-run meal.

After my run, I refueled with an interesting Cocoa-Bean Smoothie + granola + a few spoonfuls of nut butter.

I actually really liked it and couldn’t taste the beans at all. I think next time I’d add some cinnamon to give it a little more of a Mexican chocolate taste!

Anyway I’m off, we have a busy day ahead of us. Happy Sunday!