Another week gone....one more to go...then taper

Another training week has gone by. I had a lot of worries about my foot, and used my Nikes instead of my Adidas in most of my runs, since they are roomier and also provide some ankle support (I discovered that although I have high arches, I tend to overpronate when my muscles get tired, and end up with sore ankles). They worked fine, swelling is completely gone, but I still think I need to chat with the Marathon Sports guys about going back to Asics and use them for the long runs. I am a bit nervous bc it is so close to marathon time, but at the same time I feel I have 4 more weeks to break them in.

The runs went smoothly. I managed to hold off on Monday and do the sprints at the goal pace or only slightly faster. However, I could not hold off for the tempo run, and ended up running to fast, while justifying this as "This could be a race, I have not done a race in a while, nothing wrong with doing a race". My legs were not happy after that... As such, for the Saturday run I took it really slow, ran with my friend Sue C around Charles River, and just enjoyed the nice weather. We had our fundraising concert in the afternoon (which was a success, and we raised over $1500) so we both wanted to be feeling well for that. However, I did push the pace a bit toward the end, and ran the last 2 miles @ 7:40, effortlessly.

Monday: Speed
T: 5.5. miles, with 3 1 mile intervals @ 7:00, 6:50, 6:46

Tuesday: 1.25 mile swim

Wednesday: Tempo
T: 11 miles, 10@ 7:50

Thursday: 20 miles bike

Friday: REST

Saturday: 15 miles @ 8:38, 13 @ 8:46, last 2 @ 7:40.

Sunday: 1.5 mile swim

Total: Run: 31.5; swim: 2.75; Bike: 20

Overall I am feeling well. However, I feel my cardiovascular system is ahead of my musculoskeletal system. My legs are heavy during runs, and I have more overall aches and pains. I assume the taper will take care of these. Next week's training will culminate with the last 20 miler, on the course, with the team. I am still unsure what pace to run at. Part of me is nervous about injury, but part of me feels that I took it easy during the long run this week, and so I should push and ran faster than 8:27 (which I did on my last 20 miler). At least I have an entire week to decide.

Happy running!

Week in review -training log 03/09 - 03/15

Another training week has gone bye. I have 2 more weeks before starting the taper. Although I have heard that runners often hate the tapering period, I am excited for it. I love running and training, but it can be a bit much on top of everything else going on, so a couple of low mileage weeks will be appreciated. Plus, although I stretch, strength train, eat well, ice, and roll, I still worry about injury.

Back to last week.

Monday: TEMPO
Called for 6 miles total, 5 @ 7:50.
Actual: 6 miles, 5@ 7:45
Slushy, cold, windy and overall not so pleasant run. But, it got done. At home I had a bit of a scare when I noticed my left foot was swollen like a balloon over the top of my foot. There was no pain, but still, a swollen foot 5 weeks before a marathon is a huge deal. I iced away the entire night....

Tuesday: SWIM
1.5 miles, uneventful
Foot continued to be swollen. I had a hard time putting shoes on in the morning. Still no pain. Iced the entire evening.

Wednesday: BIKE
20 miles. Foot still swollen.
I showed the foot to D., the head surgeon with whom I share an office (I have never mentioned this here but I do Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for pain in an orthopedic surgical practice...fitting, ha??). I was afraid I had a stress fracture, but he gave me a dream diagnoses - tenosynovities (inflammation of tendon) - likely bc I lace my running shoes too tight and I overpronate excessively when my feet get tired (although I have high arches and do not normally overpronate, so was fitted with neutral shoes). He gave me the OK to continue running and said swelling would go away on its own. Hurray! Iced away in the evening.

Thursday: SPEED
Awesome speed run. I did 1000 @ 6:36, 2000 @ 6:50, 1000m @ 6:40, 1000 @ 6:39 and some 2.5 miles warm up cool down. Foot felt great, though swollen. I just laced the running shoe looser than normal.

Friday: REST
At work I showed my foot to a Dutch fellow who made me stick my foot in the Xray machine and announced that "I see a hairline". My heart dropped. D took a look and reassured me that nothing was wrong, bones looked fine. Happiness!

Saturday: LONG RUN
Awesome 20 hilly miles @ 8:27.
My feet and ankles were sore the entire weekend. My toes hurt with every step because of the horrible blisters. But, I was super happy. It is interesting how I don't get muscle soreness after any of the runs, only my feet and toes suffer. Hopefully, they will get with the program soon.
And the swollen foot? Swelling was all gone by Saturday morning, and it has not returned since.

Sunday: SWIM
1.25 miles

Total: Run: 31.5
Bike: 20
Swim: 2.75

Awesome long run

I had my 4th 20 miler scheduled for Saturday, and Sue M and I headed over to Wellesley to run the Boston marathon course from miles 13 to 23 and back. This meant doing the hills (mile 17 to 23) twice, and running up the downhill from miles 13 to 17. The weather was beautiful and the course was filled with runners. Our plan was to hold back for the beginning miles, and push toward the end. We started out at an 8:40 pace. The first 3 miles were tough for me, they are always tough. I feel sluggish and just not into the run. But after mile 3 I always feel better. And this was the case on Saturday as well. We chatted away the entire 1/2 way, with a few pauses when going up the hills, and we were shocked to see our pace at the 10 mile point: 8:24. Hurray. The second part of the run was much more difficult, particularly the last 4-5 miles, when we had a steady incline. Our pace slowed down a bit but we managed an overall pace of 8:27 for the 20 miles. No negative splits for this one, but I think it is pretty hard to run negative splits when you end the run on a steady incline. In any case, I was so happy. Aside from some some nasty blisters (I get them no matter what shoes I wear, how much Vaseline I put on them, etc, etc) I felt incredible the entire day!

So here is the progression of my paces for the 4 20 milers I have done so far.

1. 9:03
2. (this was 23 miles) 9:04
3. 8:35 (on the course)
4. 8:27 (on the course)

I have one more 20 miler in 2 weeks. This will be an organized run with the entire MGH team, on the course, starting at mile 6. I anticipate this run to be easier (less hilly) than the one I just completed. I am confused in terms of the pace I should go for. I know I can run faster than 8:27, but would this be risking injury? I guess I'll wait and see how I feel. In any case, I am determined to run negative splits, as this is my usual race strategy and also my plan for the marathon!
Hope everyone had a good running week!

Training log 03/02-03/08

This was a challenging week in terms of managing workouts, work, fundraising and family responsibilities. With a little luck (a work dinner that got cancelled) and lots of help from my awesome husband, I managed to fit all workouts in including a tough tempo on packed snow, a rushed speed intervals session that was more of a 4.5 mile run/race rather than interval training, and a hilly long run. This week reinforced the fact that I am going to stick to the FIRST program for all my future marathons. I have tons of admiration and respect for all of you out there who are logging 40, 50, 60+ miles/week. I have no idea how you do! More power to you!
Monday: 03/02
Called for speed work, but we had 12 inches or so of snow. Arlington did not get plowed. I could not get my car out and into the main road. Luckily it was not a heavy patient day and we had many cancellations, so I did research from home. No run, but I made it to the pool in the evening for 1.5 mile swim including .25 mile crawl - Yes, I have been reading and learning how to do the crawl and I am making progress.
Tuesday: 03/03
A work dinner got cancelled and I managed to squeeze in the 11 miler that included 10 miles at MP (8:23). It was tough, but I managed an 8:20 average pace.
Wednesday: 03/04
Bike + Movie; 20 miles. Very happy!
Thursday: 03/05
Crazy speed; managed to run all 6 1200 milers at ~ 6:46 pace.
Friday: 03/06 - REST
Much needed, much enjoyed
Saturday: 03/07 - LONG
Goal: 15 @ 8:47; Actual: 16.5; 1.5 warm up, cool down; 15 @ 8:30, with last 2 miles @ 8:11; this was a very hilly run, including the .7 m steep Belmont Hill. The run was hard. The rolling hills, which are many and steep, and came from mile 10-13, were particularly tough today, but I recovered nicely on the downhills and was able to push the pace thereafter as planned. We had gorgeous weather in Boston today, close to 70 degrees, and I felt so lucky to be out there with two good friends running, chatting, and taking in the sun.

At home, my boys were waiting in the car for me and we drove to the Y for a little swim (.75 mile) and water play. That turned out to do wanders for my legs. I swim breast stroke, and my legs get a nice stretch during the swim. I took the icebath thereafter and for some reason it was much less painful than I was used to. Legs feel great now!!!
Sunday: 03/08 -SWIM
1.5, uneventful.

Totals: Run: 33 miles
Swim: 3.75 miles
Bike: 20 miles
Overall my training is going really well. My legs do feel tired, though not sore. I am finally understanding the need to taper before a race. So far I have only ran 1/2 marathons and one 18 mile trail race, and so tapering was not an issue for me since I did not do any training for these races. I am very happy that so far I have not gotten injured; I think the crosstraining, core/strengthening work and icebaths, good nutrition/hydration, and using the roller have played a big part on this. Lets hope it will stay like this.

I also signed up for the Mount Washington Road Race lottery - only 7 miles, only one hill, along with my friends M and J, and I hope we'll get in. I love hill training and running with these gals is going to be a blast. Something else to get excited about!

Hope everyone had a great running week. The weather in the Northeast has been incredible! Lets hope for a few more days like these.

Don't do what I do

Thursday - Speed Work

1. Instead of 10-20 minutes warm up, run .5 miles @ 8:30

2. Instead of running 3 sets of 2X1200, with 2 min between each of the 2 1200, and 4 minutes between sets, run the 6 1200 with only max 10 seconds in between.

3. Run each interval 5-10 seconds faster than goal pace (5-5:05 instead of 5:10).

3. Instead of 10 minutes cool down, run 1 mile @ 8:00.


Consequences:

1. Tasting your lunch again, only 1/2 digested this time. Swearing off turkey sandwiches for a while.

2. Feeling like your legs are melting.

3. Hating every minute of each interval.

4. Not getting any of the "glow" and "post run happiness" that you normally experience during speed work.

Disclaimer:
I thought rushing like this would be better than skipping the speed work this week. I got stuck at work too late, and then had to bring mom to the airport for an international flight. Mom gets nervous about these things. In retrospect, I think doing only the 4 out of the 6 intervals, and doing them the right way would have been much better. Live and learn...

Tempo runs are hard

I had an 11 mile run scheduled today, 1 mile easy and 10 miles @ marathon pace. I am using the training paces for a 3:40 marathon time, which makes the MP 8:23, even though I am planning to run at least 1/2 race no faster than 8:35 (which would put me at an 3:44:50 finish time, good enough for a BQ). I ace the speed drills and the long runs. In fact, I am ahead of the schedule with these, and always run them faster than I am supposed to, without feeling completely drained and exhausted. However, the tempo runs are much harder for me. Today in particular I struggled. My eyes were glued to the Garmin checking the mileage and the pace. Today I could not get into the groove. What's really interesting is that on Saturday I ran the last 10 miles of my 20 miler on hills @ 8:23 pace, and today I struggled to run 10 flat miles (OK, slight incline for the last 5) at 8:20. How could this be? I had 2 full days of recovery, my legs felt good, I took a gel and electrolytes during the run... I can only think of a couple of reasons: 1) I ran on snow, which, although nice for my feet and knees, potentially made running more difficult, 2) It was 12 degrees and windy (my water bottle froze), and 3) the adrenaline of running on the Boston Marathon course may have made me speedier on Saturday. Regardless, it's a bit disappointing to struggle with running 10 miles @8:20, when, even before starting my training for Boston I was running 10 miles @8:00 with no problem...I have another 11 mile tempo run scheduled in 2 weeks, same pace and I am curious how it is going to feel. Nonetheless, I think a tough run was in order as I believe during these tough runs one builds the physical and mental strength which are going to be much needed after mile 20.

Training log 2/23 - 3/1

This week was a great training week! I had the best long run so far - best pace, best weather, new course! Motivation is back on and strong! I am not sure whether I am pushing too hard - I ran all my key workouts was faster than I had planned to. Is that something new? Not reallY:)


Monday: SPEED
Goal: 1 mile easy, 1 mile @ 7:02, 2 miles @ 7:12, 2X800m @ 6:46.
Actual: 1 mile @ 6:50, 2@ 6:40, 800@ 6:46, 800@ 6:33.

Tuesday: 1.5 m SWIM

Wednesday: 20m BIKE

Thursday: TEMPO

Goal: 1 mile easy, 4 miles @ 7:40, 1 mile easy
Actual: 1 mile @ 8:15, 4 miles@ 7:30, 1 mile @ 9:00

Friday: REST

Saturday: LONG
Goal: 20 miles @ 8:53
Actual: 20 miles @ 8:35; first 10@ 8:48, last 10@ 8:23.
Course: last 10 miles of the Boston marathon course X2.


Sunday: 1.5 SWIM


Total: Run: 33 miles
Bike: 20 miles
Swim: 3 miles

This week I also managed to do core work and leg strengthening exercises two times, so I am happy about that. I have to decide whether I should keep pushing the pace during the long runs, or I should only work on maintaining the 8:35 pace, and perhaps try to go faster during the marathon. I know I could go much faster - I have 2 more 20 milers - but am I risking injury?

I also need to figure out whether my Garmin is recording pace and mileage accurately. On Saturday's run we had 3 Garmins showing different mileage and different paces. This makes me very nervous because I am going to count on my Garmin to show the correct mileage and pace during the marathon.

We have a snowstorm planned for tonight and tomorrow....and I have speedwork tomorrow. Might be the first day in a while when I may not be looking forward to a Monday:)