Frozen Fun [DPHM Week 6]

Oh my! What a week!

Monday: strength training
Tuesday: unplanned rest
Wednesday: 4.8
Thursday: 4.86
Friday: 1.32
Saturday: 6.0 + strength training
Sunday: 5.84

Total Miles: 22.82


Look! Two days of strength training; I am killing it! See also: my husband was gone for most of the week and I was so bored I resorted to going to the gym. Wednesday was my birthday run. 5 degrees F, 5 miles, 15 runner friends. No cake but I did have a celebratory glass of champagne. Champagne is definitely the way to go.


Thursday was epically cold. Frozen eyelashes and frost forming on my hat cold. I am so glad that I was able to meet up with three other runners from run club! I'm not sure how long I would have lasted on my own. The picture is only of three of us because our fourth runner decided to keep running!

-24 windchill. #badass

Friday wasn't really a planned run, but Mr. Shoe has been working on some awesome ideas for taking pictures during the Disney Princess Half Marathon and we needed to test our photography skills. Still a bit of a work in progress, but we got a couple of okay shots.

All miles were completed at an easy pace. No real hamstring issues this week; I kept my pace very easy on all of my runs. Sunday I was actually planning to try for 7 miles, but my stomach had other plans. It was probably for the best all things considered (after all, I did say I was going to keep all runs under 5 miles...oops).

2015 Race Calendar (ish)

I'm still in the process of setting up my race plans for 2015. Currently I am registered for two races:

• Disney Princess Half Marathon, February 22, 2015
• Grand Rapids Marathon, October 18, 2015

I know that I will do a couple of 5ks (Shanty 2 Shorts and Run 2 Save Our Youth), but these are very small races and registration information isn't available yet. I also want to do a half marathon that I will actually be racing and I am thinking about trying a 10 mile race.

So this is sort of what I am thinking. I'm also including how much time will be between races. Bold races will be goal races. All races will be ran all out, but goal races will have distance specific training leading up to race day.

• Disney Princess Half Marathon, February 22, 2015
• 11 weeks (10 after I get home from Florida)
• Shanty 2 Shorts 5k, May 9, 2015 (guessing the date)
• 5 weeks
• Run 2 Save Our Youth 5k, June 13, 2015 (another guess)
• 2 weeks
• Charlevoix Half Marathon, June 27, 2015
• 2 weeks
• Dart for Art 1 mile, July 13, 2015
• 6 weeks
• Crim 10 mile,  August 22, 2015
• 8 weeks
• Grand Rapids Marathon, October 18, 2015

All things considered, I think this is a pretty full schedule. Okay, I realize that everyone else is planning like 10+ races, but I prefer to focus on specific training plans and goal races. Racing that frequently just does not do it for me!

So following Disney Princess, I will take 8-10 weeks to train for a 5k. My long term 5k goal is to sub 20:00, but I know that is not a realistic goal for this year. I haven't done a 5k specific training plan since I did Couch to 5k a few years ago. I'm pretty excited to see how this race turns out!

After Shanty 2 Shorts, I will take 7 weeks to sharpen my half marathon paces/endurance. Ideally I'd like 8-10 weeks for a training plan, but I will just have to make do.

After the Charlevoix Half, I will start a 16 week marathon training program. Half way through, I will use the Crim to test my current fitness levels/adjust training paces. Crim is a goal race in that I will taper a bit leading up to it and plan to run it all out, but not necessarily a true goal race since I will not be doing any 10 mile specific training.

I'm working on some pseudo-goals for 2015 as well, but I'm going to save that for another post. 

Ice Ice Baby [DPHM Week 5]

My cut back week ended up being an even bigger cut back than anticipated. When I woke up on Saturday morning a solid layer of ice covered every surface. Hello, extra rest day!

With some stretching and foam rolling, I was able to run Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday without any further hamstring issues. So then I completely ignored my hamstring for two days and set out to run a nice 10 miler today. There was some minor discomfort in my hamstring after about 3-4 miles. At just shy of 6.5 miles the minor discomfort became a major pain and I was forced to walk the last half mile back to my apartment.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 2.3
Wednesday: 6
Thursday: 3.12
Friday: rest
Saturday: unplanned rest
Sunday: 6.4

Total Miles: 17.82

For Tuesday's run I hit the trails with my best friend for a very easy run. It was an excellent opportunity for me to test out my hamstring and spend some time catching up with my friend. It was cold, but at least it was free of snow and ice.

Wednesday I ran off road again, but this time it wasn't really on a trail even (out of town + fresh snow/ice = limited options). Just running through a field of fresh snow that was hiding some very uneven terrain. The 6 miles is an estimate since I was running for time (60 minutes) not distance. It was even colder than it was on Tuesday.

Frozen shoes.

Since the end of this week didn't really go as planned, I am going to continue to adjust my training schedule. I do not want to reach the point of pain with my hamstring again, so I am going to limit all of my runs to about 5 miles for the next week. I will also be foam rolling and stretching every day. I'll reassess in another week.

Based on all of the training adjustments I have been making I am so, so grateful that my next race is not a goal race!