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!

Cautiously optimistic

If you read this blog you know I have been struggling with my long runs. No, they have not been bad, yes, one of them has been great, but overall they did not feel as smooth as my speed and tempo runs. I know I am built for shorter distances, both mentally and physically. I can put up with a lot of hurt for a short amount of time. I get intimidated by long distances. I have strong muscles which are now popping out from my legs when I walk or run. I do not have the zero body fat like fast marathoners (I am not complaining here, I like what I have!).

Yet I am one who perseveres. I do believe that hard work makes runs easier, even the long runs. And today I've got a bit of a reward.

The run went like this: 9 miles steady @ MP, 1 mile easy, 4 miles with 5X3 min @ MP-10/25secs, 3 min easy; 3 miles @ MP +5secs. It was very humid this morning, and the initial plan was not to run this fast. But I felt good, and, even though I had a challenging week of training (some 800ms on Monday, a 12 miler with 6 miles @ MP-10 on Wednesday, 1 tempo with 3X10min @ HM/10K pace on Thursday, and an easy runs with hill sprints on Tuesday), the overall mileage has been lower, so I trusted that my body could handle the run. Was it easy? No. Was is hard at the end? Yes. Did it help that I had a small window of time to get the run done? Yes. But the point is, I ran hard long. My body does not feel trashed right now. I convinced myself that I could handle the run, when, at mile 2 of the first 9 miles, I remembered how I hit the wall several weeks ago when I started the run too fast, at a pace that was much slower than today's.

So I am feeling cautiously optimistic about my marathon. There is still work to be done, but I see things coming together even for this unnatural wanna be marathoner!

Grinding it!

I finished another 70+miles, and am excited for a few weeks of fewer miles. I am hoping that with the decrease in mileage I am going to be able to bring the quality up. My 2 key quality runs, the 20X400m and 2X10 min @ HM/10K went great. However, the rest of the miles were easy and my legs did not allow me to add some MP miles to the 15 moderately long mid week run.

I ran my first 22 miler this Saturday. We camped on the Cape and I ended up running on the Cape Canal on super flat terrain. It was a hot and humid morning even @ 6am when I got started (cooked my oatmeal and bought a Starbucks from a store over 20 miles away the night before - the only store around was a Dunkin Donuts and I can't drink their coffee). I ran strong for 15 miles (7:49) and then I melted. My Garmin kept losing its Satellite which gave me an excuse to turn it off around mile 15.5, which lowered the pressure for me a bit and allowed me to finish the run (I did slow down and took a few breaks for water but the pace was not terrible, maybe mid 8s?). Aerobically I felt fine but my legs and mostly calves hurt a ton. I think it is harder for me to run on 100% flat. Back at the camp the boys were waiting to go mini golfing - a little boy is now obsessed with it - and I spent another 2 hours on my feet walking the course. By the time that was done I was starving (a banana with peanut butter after 22 miles is not enough) and ready to jump into the freezing ocean. I was the only person swimming and by the time I got out my arms were numb. But, my legs felt super fresh this morning, nothing like after last weekend, and the easy 8 miles felt great. Post swim I amazed my husband with the amount of food I consumed: almost an entire cantaloupe, a salad with chicken, a yogurt and a fruit popsicle.

I am SO ready for next week! Less mileage, more pace miles, more intensity but not pushing below 5K pace anymore as there is too little gain for the amount of leg damage as far as the marathon is concerned. Less than 8 weeks 'till Baystate! Bring it!

I get knocked down....

...but I get up again, you never gonna keep me down!

That was the theme of my 20X400meters today!

I normally run easy on Tuesday because it is the hardest workday for me. However, since I killed my legs on Saturday, I needed 2 easy days to recover. Hence, track today!

I have not gone to the track in a long time. I have been running all my speed intervals on the road, using my Garmin, as our track gets very hot in the summer, and there is no shade. However, I knew that I needed the track for the 400ms.

I got there around 4:30pm, super happy for cooler temps. Some dudes were playing lacrosse in the infield, a couple of girls were running on the grass, a couple of mom were walking on the slow lanes. I felt ready to tackle the workout.

The plan was to run the first 10 @ 10K pace, then rest, and then run the last 10 @ 5K pace. Except if you know me, you know I am greedy and I never manage to run the pace I am supposed to. This was no exception.

First 10, 1 min RI in between
1:34 (6:10) - slowed myself down
1:34 - do not run faster
1:30 (6:00) - this is easy! Had to slow down to avoid getting hit by a lacrosse ball!
1:28 (5:55) - sub 6, I like this.
1:27 (5:54) - this is getting a little hard
1:29 (6:04) -you can't slow down now! Had to slow down to avoid getting hit my a lacrosse ball!
1:30 - this is getting harder
1:26 - almost done
1:27 - almost done
1:28 - DONE

I decided to jog 400 easy for recovery between sets. As I strolled around, I suddenly felt a sharp pain and got knocked down to the ground. Mind you, I am not a little person. I have muscles, I am strong, I am fairly tall. The darn lacrosse ball got me in my pelvis. I honestly thought I broke my pelvis, this is how sharp the pain was. Luckily, I am fine, and only have a massive bruise over there (and no, you will no see it!). I seriously think those guys did this on purpose. Either that, or getting almost hit 2 times and hit once makes for some weird coincidences!

Pumped with extra adrenaline, I commenced my second set:
1:30
1:27
1:26
1:24
1:25
1:18 (5:25)
1:25
1:25
1:25
1:16 (5:20)

V happy with this run. V pleased with my legs. They are back!

Back home Chris was pissed about the lacrosse guys, and was about to go over there, which made me smile bc he is the nicest, least aggressive person I know. But he was pissed. I am amazed that I was so civil with them (even after they called me ma'am!). I guess I was too concerned with whether I would be able to complete my workout.

So the morale of the story! The track is a dangerous place for me (brings out my addiction to speed) and for my pelvis!