Taper

...is here after my biggest training week ever: 80 miles with about 37 at or sub MP, including a 20 miler with 14@MP. I feel good!

This morning my thoughts are "elsewhere", so you'll have to deal with bullet point

#My legs feel fairly good, too. I had a massage on Thursday and it was encouraging to know that there are not trouble areas; she was able to release all the knots (small!). This was my first sports/deep tissue massage and loved it. It was amazing to see how she would find a knot, press on it hard, and then I would go from excruciating pain to relaxation as the knot got released. I am a believer!

#I decided to trust my plan and follow it without last minute modification. A 2 week taper worked for me in the past, and this is what I am doing. I tend to lose fitness quickly (and gain it quickly) so a longer taper would most likely not be good for me. There has also been some talk on competitor.com about shorter tapers being the "new trend" which reinforced my decision (coz I like to be part of the trend, ha!). On the other hand Paula Radcliff takes 3 days off before her marathons, so really this is all individual.

# I figured out my nutrition for the race: Pineapple Roctane and Vanilla, my stomach approved choices. Now I need to figure out my outfit!

# My big grant is in! Now, the waiting! Grr!

# I am feeling a bit sad to start the taper. Sure, it will be great to be able to go do a run that is shorter than 10 miles, but there is a discipline that training hard gives me, and a sense of accomplishment, which I am going to miss.

# Time to work on my mental game, catch up on old work and home projects, and plan my post marathon get away with Chris!

Almost there!

...to the TAPER, that is!

Another 74 mile week and I can feel my legs starting to rebel a bit. It's like they are screaming at me to rest them a bit. I will, I will, just one more week!

I recovered pretty well after my 24 miler, and Monday ran a 10 miler with 6 miles progression from MP to HM to 10K (7 average). Felt great! But then on Thursday when I had my next quality run, my legs were toast. It was very hot and humid (while Monday it was cool) and I had a hard time doing 4X10 @ HM pace (OK, I did them all at sub HM pace, mostly bc I like to push the pace at the end of each interval). My Garmin would not locate satellites, so I got tired of waiting and ran the first interval by feel. I had no idea what pace I was going. I am clueless without the Garmin (something to work on, I suppose). I am pretty sure the first 10 min where more like 10K pace, bc in the second interval (with Garmin), my legs turned over a little slower for a HM pace.

Saturday I ran again with Katie. Running with her has been so good for me. It is fun to chat and the miles go by quickly. Also, Katie is an awesome runner who has been pulling me along in the last 3 long runs. We were blessed with another hot and humid day (100% humidity at 7am, don't you love it?). The first 13 miles were great (7:40 average), but then my legs were done; I had no power, I could not push and my toes where just dropping onto the ground. I knew I would slow down, so I told Katie to run, that I will have to stop and stretch. She did not. Finally, at mile 17 she did for a bit (but then she came back!), and I put my headphones on. I realized that one problem with running with someone is that when things get hard, talking messes up with my breathing. Katie had no problem with this however, which again speaks to how great of a shape she is in (are you reading this Katie????). Also, I realized how much music helps me and also how when things get hard, I need to concentrate and go into my "special place" to deal with it. I ended up putting my headphones on, and dialing in toward the end, and managed to make it to the finish (taking advantage of all the red lights for short rests..what, they don't have those at the marathon?). I gave it my all, which was not much, for the last mile (7:20), for a 7:43 average. Happy with it. Thanks Katie!

So I am tired. I realized that I can be fairly inconsistent with my long runs. I've had some excellent ones and I had some hard ones (put pushed through and got them done, that's what matters, right, right???? My legs will get some rest (and pampering) soon. Now I have to decide if I am going to run 80 miles this last week before the 2 week taper, or cut back some of the mileage for a 3 week taper. Will let you know what I decide. Need to look over my old training logs and figure this out, as well as the type of taper that works for me!

Happy running!

Feeling confident!

Another marathon week in the books and I feel great. These past 2 weeks have done wonders for my confidence. Between my race last week and this Saturday's 24 miler....I am READY to kill it on October 16th!

Lets back off...

I was in rough shape after Sunday's race and honestly a bit worried. So I ran easy around and around this 1 mile loop close to my house, 8 miles on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I planned on running 12 with last 6 moderate progression. My Garmin died, legs did not feel good, so I decided to just run moderate by feel and finish strong, with no pressure for pace. On Thursday I had 13.5 miles with 10X1K @ 10k/HM pace. It was hot and these were hard. I ran them on the road because doing so many repeats on the track is annoying to me right now; I allowed myself to quit several times, and, of course, I did not. I managed to run sub HM pace, but I was toast after. I swam on Friday and it felt so good. Our town beach closed late August and my body misses my daily swims.

Saturday I had 24 miles easy on the schedule. I decided to set my Garmin to show only distance, and run the first 20 by feel, pushing the pace toward the end. Then, I planned to do 16X400m repeats at sub MP, with 30 sec recovery (Ryan Hall/Matt Dixon inspiration here). I started a little before 7am in 36 degree weather. I loved it. I started slow and comfortable and my legs felt good. I listen to music and really enjoyed myself. I looked at the pace (changed screens) @ 10 mile and saw 7:58, great (with an 8:38 first mile!). I kept running and ended up with 7:48 average for the 20 miles, last 4 miles sub MP, last mile 6:49. And feeling great! I started my 400ms and immediately my pace went down to low 6s. I immediately decided mile repeats sounded better, and ended up running 4X1mile with 1 min RI, at 6:55, 6:50, 6:50, 6:45 (last one on slight uphill and I won't lie, it was all out). Wow! Total average for the 24 7:37. Very happy! The rest of the day was spent driving to Storyland and running around with Petru (Chris went for a hike) for a few hours (surely ran at least 2.2 miles, to bring my total to 26.2 for the day). Nothing like going on rides for 2 days (we stayed overnight)...Petru is not 49 inches yet and he had to have an adult with him. Still, we had a ball! Sunday I ran 6 easy before the family got up, for a total of 71.5 miles for the week! Two more hard weeks before my 2 week taper. One more week before I turn my big work project in to Research Management. I don't know what am I going to do with myself when all is said and done:)

Nahant 30K race report

Since I only ran 76.5 miles last week (insert sarcasm here), I thought I would go and test myself in a little race close by. My plan actually called for a HM, but running a non PR HM right now would be bad for me mentally, so I figured a 30K at MP would be a better challenge. Plus, Nahant is supposed to be flat, right?

Nothing unusual about the race prep. My tennis obsessed mom and husband stayed up late to watch prerecorded games, while I went to bed around 10pm. I had a race plan: start slow, see if Pineapple and Vanilla GU make you nauseous, and eat a bigger breakfast than usual. Yes, about starting slow, I never really follow race plans...

The race was small but well organized. We started at 8:30 sharp and immediately I felt my legs very heavy. My calved were hurting. Red lights went on in my brain, but managed to take some deep breaths and tell myself that maybe my legs will warm up and start working for me. They did, at mile 4 or so..right where the hills started and never stopped until mile 17.5. There was no flat between these miles. They had long hills, steep hills, short hills, inclines, but no flat. Once my legs warmed up I actually liked the hills. Why, because for every uphill there is a downhill. And I would fly on the downhills, watching my pace drop into the high 6s. I liked seeing that pace. I even ran a 6:30 mile somewhere in there. I felt really good between mile 4 and 12, so I allowed myself to run several high 6 miles. At mile 12 I started to enter the hurt zone. At that point, I kept telling myself that I needed to make it to mile 16, and that was all that matters (26.2K). I also reminded myself that I had zero nausea, which made me happy!. I was just beginning to lose power in my legs. When this happens, it is easy for me to slow down unless I concentrate hard on the pace. I was also running way below MP average by this point, so I was happy with that. Once at mile 16, a .5 mile uphill almost killed me. My legs were jello. I kept thinking about mile 17.5 when the flat would return, and once there I managed to get back to my previous average pace. Final push but no sprint left in me and hurray, finish line and a "good job girl" from the RD.

So here is the thing. My Garmin had me running 18.35 @ 7:05 pace. But I am listed in the results as 2:09:35, 6:58 pace. I did not run 6:58 pace. I have also ran less miles than the 18.6, and the course if certified. I do not really care, since this is a funny distance, but it is a weird discrepancy. Who cares, I am happy! Oh, and 15 out of about 200 racers (with men) and 5th woman out of who knows how many. Happy!

Now I need to recover. I can barely walk! Happy training!

Doing work!

Work has been my main activity this past week in both my job and training. I have a big work deadline looming over my head and have been putting in lots of hours toward this project. Fingers crossed that it will work our for me, k?

Training has been work, too. I was completely trashed after my Monday 5X1000m (5:40 6:03 pace) and Wednesday's 9 miler with 5 @ 6:38. Every single bone, muscle and tendon hurt in my lower legs; you could have diagnosed me with R ITB, R plantar fasciitis, L foot tendon issue and nonspecific groin/pubic pain on the R side. Thursday's 10 miler with 8 moderate by feel and 2 @ MP-15secs was hard but after 5 miles my legs loosened up. Friday I was brand new and happy about it.

Today I met Katie for 22 miles on the course. Since mom is visiting and she stayed with Petru, Chris conveniently scheduled himself to play tennis with a friend close to the marathon course. He dropped me off, met his friend, and then picked me up.

The run was hard. My Garmin showed 7:44 at mile 4.4, and then proceeded to die. When I noticed I turned in on and the pace for the rest of the run (without the 4.4) was 7:47 on my Garmin. Katie's said 7:48 for the entire run, last mile 7:07. I had serious nausea after I took a Blueberry Roctane GU at mile 10, and it stayed with me for the rest of the run. I had some mental demons here, but Katie talked the entire time and that helped. Legs felt horrible around mile 13, but then I got a second wind after a short stop for water. Still, Katie totally pulled me through and did not go ahead even though she could have ran faster. The only miles over 8 that we ran were those immediately after I took that Roctane GU; everything else was high or mid 7s.

Super happy with the run. I will finish this week with 65 miles, which is pretty good. I think I will do my long runs on vanilla and pineapple GUs, like I have done so far for marathons, and hope I will be OK. A huge thank you to Katie for being such a rockstar! She always gets sick before her marathons - she BQed sick; I think she could easily run sub 3:20 if healthy! So excited for her!!!

Off for some mini golfing with the family!