Marathon Training Recap Week 14 and Esprit de She 10k

Posted by hellyontherun in 10k, Race, Running and tagged with 10K, Esprit de She, Long Run, Marathon Training, Race Recap, Running, Taper October 7, 2014

Taper, taper, bo baper, fee fi, fo faper…taaaaaper!!!!!

I’m in good spirits and let me tell you why…

I DID MY 20 MILER THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!

Remember, I cried about how I wasn’t going to be able to and that I was worried I’d have to do it 2 weeks out? Crisis averted.

So my husband’s away on business and I’ve been solo-parenting. This was why I wasn’t going to be able to squeeze it in. But, my mother-in-law pulled through and spent the weekend with us, thus allowing me to long run on Sunday. Yay!!!

And it wasn’t just about being able to do it, I was able to do it and be happy with the results. SUPER yay!!!

Yes, please direct your eyes to the last four miles. I finished so strong and that made me so freaking happy.

I started off with a slower pace than usual but I didn’t mind as I really wanted to last the entire way. The beginning pace was around the 10:45/mile range. That was about the first 7 miles.

Mile 10 I pulled a 10:10 from out of nowhere and then miles 13 on, my pace was steady around 10:30. Right where I wanted.

And I don’t know what the heck happened the last four miles lol! I might’ve wanted the run to be over with jajaja!!

So that was my long run 😀

The previous Thursday I ran the Esprit de She 10k. I had been looking forward to this race because it’s an all women’s race known for it’s awesome post-race festivities. But, because my husband was out of town, I wasn’t going to be able to partake in them 😦 It really did look like a lot of fun too as they had chili for post race yumminess and a bubbly bar (where you’d get a free wine cup/glass)!

Anyway, the race was a double 5k loop (boo!!!) on pavement with a brief stint on grass (boo!!!). It was also a short course with my watch stopping at 5.79 (boo!!!)

It was also a horribly run race on my part (super boo!!!)

One of the things I’ve been working on throughout this training are consistent splits and I’d been doing really good at getting them how I’d like, even sometimes negative splitting.

But holy shit, did I royally eff this one up.

First thing I did wrong? Thinking I could keep up with a girl in my run club. She’s someone who I’ve always “shadowed”, someone who is juuuust faster than me, enough that I can somewhat keep up with extra effort. (Although lately she’s been killing her training and is become almost impossible to shadow.)

Yeeeeah, so she pretty much blew me away.

The first mile beeped 7:3o-something and I was done after that. Talk about a perfect way of burning out.

My goal had been to maintain an 8:30 pace then entire way and hope to finish strong. What the hell was I thinking starting out so fast? I wasn’t thinking. Clearly.

I was able to hit 8:30 the next two miles but then the second 5k was just an inconsistent hot mess.

You ~~live~~ run and you learn.

On a super cool bright note, this was my high school BRF’s first 10k and she pulled out a 4th place overall finish! Badass status!

Prior to Thursday, I had run on Tuesday and Wednesday, 5 miles respectively

which brought my total mileage for last week (Monday-Sunday) to: 35.8

Soda count: I lost count 😦

–Anyone else excited it’s Oc-freaking-tober??!!

–How’s your running going? Who’s got fall races?

–P.S. Salt‘s back! ❤

Happy Blogiversary To Meeee!!!

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with 20 miler, Blogversary, Long Run, Marathon Training, Running October 1, 2014

WOW. I seriously cannot believe it’s been year! Talk about time flying!

September 30th last year I wrote a post letting the blog world know I was newbie. 🙂

It’s really all Salt‘s fault. We were chatting one day and she’d been blogging for a while (non-running related) and we both thought about how much we love talking about running–our conversations were mostly always about that. So then we thought about starting a blog. I was apprehensive, being completely new to blogging and having absolutely zero knowledge about what it entailed. But, Salt eased any fears and helped me get the party started. And here I am, still writing one year later!

I want to THANK YOU for following my journey. I still think no one reads what I write lol!!

Here’s of some of my fave posts ❤

Running Home

Who Inspires Me

My Sub 2 Hour 1/2 Marathon Recap

Random Things I Love

Crossing the Grand Canyon.. Twice

Anyway, I haven’t recapped last week’s training so….

Last Monday, I went for a treadmill run to shake off the previous Saturday’s awful long and I was back with my running club on Tuesday for another 5 mile run.

I had to work really hard for both of those runs but I felt like I needed to because my spirits were low from my failed long run a couple of days earlier.

Speed work was Wednesday and I made myself puuush:

The workout was 2×800, 1×1600, and 2×800. It was actually somewhat fun as the high school marching band was practicing the entire time. Made for a great distraction 🙂

Thursdays are supposed to be cross training days and I’ve been REEEALLLY bad about getting it done. So yeah, I didn’t do anything 😦

Friday, rest day.

Okay, so Saturday is where my dilemma begins:

I’m unable to to do my big 20 miler this weekend (3 weeks out and what’s on my training schedule) so I asked my coach if I should attempt it 4 weeks out or 2. Two worries me because I would’t have a lot of taper time and 4 worried me because it seemed, to me, a lot of time.

But I went with 4 weeks.

I set my alarm for 4 a.m. to be out in the streets by 4:30. But at around 1 in the morning, thunder, lightning and rain woke me up. There was no way I was going out in that alone if it continued. So I decided to start an hour later, at 5:30 when the rest of my run club started. I figured at least I wouldn’t be alone for most of my run even though it might get warm later on.

I pulled up to the parking lot, got off, and put my water pack on. Except I’d forgotten my phone! Ugh!!! I didn’t want to be out for 3+ hours without any means to contact my husband in case of an emergency.

So I decided to run 10 and then 10 later that evening. Of course this made me super anxious and I could feel the stress affecting me as I ran.

When I got home, my husband met me with more stressful news. My daughter had a high temperature. The rest of the day was spent making her as comfortable as possible and trying to reduce the fever. By the time evening came, I was so exhausted. It was still raining outside so running outdoors was not an option. I sludged my way to the gym and 5 miles into my treadmill, I ended up calling it quits. A big DNF.

Needless to say, this potentially not getting in a 20 miler has me really freaking out. I’m left with doing it 2 weeks before the marathon or not at all. (My longest run this training is 16 miles)

What would you do?

Total miles for the week: 28.11
Soda count: 1 can, 2 20oz

Marathon Training Recap Week 13

Posted by hellyontherun in Family, Running and tagged with Inspiration, Marathon Training, Running, Struggles September 22, 2014

I’m on that roller coaster again.

It’s like I have a good week and then a bad week and then a worse week then an okay week then…

Ugh, last week was bad. I was coming off a great week and hoping that it would carry over. But, it didn’t.

I’m blaming no one but myself. I haven’t been following my plan as closely as I should. Even though I know that leniency is okay and life prevents you from following a schedule to a tee, there should still be some consistency. And there hasn’t been with this training. Totally. My. Fault.

I didn’t start my week until Wednesday at the track. Coming off a 3 days of nothingness, I didn’t have high expectations but still fared pretty well.

The next day, Thursday, I joined my run club for an Adventure Run at our local RoadRunner Sports shop. It was way harder than it should’ve been…

That beer stayed full. I couldn’t even drink it.

And then the Worst Run of Marathon Training Award goes to…… Saturday!!!

It was absolutely awful. My legs felt so heavy and I was just tired.

To be honest with you, that’s how I’ve felt this entire training. Tired. I think I severely underestimated the commitment it takes training for a marathon, being a mom, and working full time. Holy shit, I’m tired.

This run sucked even more because a girl from my run club is pacing a race soon and wanted to maintain a 9:30ish/mile for 13.1. I told her I’d be her guinea and I completely effed things up for her. I felt so bad and she of course was super nice and told me that we all have those days. I honestly was surprised I had even offered because I usually don’t like running long runs with others. I’m always so worried I’m messing up their pace and that anxiety messes up mine and it’s just overall bad news bears. Why I had offered to be her running buddy, I don’t know, but I feel horrible that I ruined her training run.

Anyway, while I was running/slogging, I told her that I was hoping the reason I was doing so bad was because my extra energy was being sent to my sister who was running HER FIRST MARATHON that very morning.

I’ve written about my sister before and how inspirational she is to me; she is the reason I run in the first place.

About 10 years ago, her running career took an abrupt break though, when we were in a pretty terrible car accident, one that left her with little feeling in the left side of her body due to three broken vertebrae.

Yet, after months of therapy she regained enough strength to walk again and months after that, run! She’ll never be able to be the runner she was before but she doesn’t let that stop her from doing what she loves.

She finished her marathon on Saturday in 4 hours and 58 minutes! Killing her goal of finishing under 5! When I got off the phone with her, any woe-is-me feelings about my run that morning vanished. I was so freaking happy for my sister–all that mattered was that she had accomplished a life long goal and accomplished it like a total badass.

That was my week and here’s hoping 14 is my lucky number! One more month for MCM!

ETA:
Total mileage–19.22
Soda count–2 Big Gulps, 2 cans

–How was your running last week? Did you race this weekend?

–Do you have someone that inspires you?