Training lately

I never actually got around to posting a training recap last week, so this week you get two full weeks of running to read about. Consider this my gift to you (try to contain you excitement).

Monday 6/29
Rest day

Tuesday 6/30
Distance: 1.5
Pace: SLOW (not timed but super, super easy)
Supplemental: Strength

Wednesday 7/1
Distance: 5.07
Pace: 9:35

Thursday 7/2
Distance: 10.11
Pace: 9:07

Friday 7/3
rest

Saturday 7/4
Distance: 5.33
Pace: 9:07

Sunday 7/5
Distance 13.5
Pace: 9:59

Total: 35.51 miles

Overall I am really happy with how this week went. I never quite know what to expect following a race, in terms of soreness, etc, but this week I was really surprised with how quickly I recovered. The only small issue I had this week was that Sunday's run was meant to be 16 miles, not 13.5. After an incredibly busy independence day (running, atv-ing, boating) I decided to sleep in on Sunday. It was super hot and sunny, which was miserable for running but made the lake I was running next to incredibly enticing. I bailed after 13.5 miles in favor of going swimming.

Monday 7/6
Supplemental: 2 mile walk

I don't think I've mentioned it, but during Saturday's ATV adventure I got stuck in the mud, twice. Which meant a lot of pulling/pushing/lifting to get my quad out. My back was killing on Monday so I thought it best to skip strength training. I did spend some quality time with my heating pad which seemed to relax the angry muscles.

Tuesday 7/7
unscheduled rest day

Wednesday 7/8
Distance: 10.27
Pace: 3 miles easy, 5 miles at 15k-half pace (7:41), 2.27 miles easy

Thursday 7/9
Distance: 11.02
Pace: 9:23

Friday 7/10
rest day

Saturday 7/11

Distance: 7.07 + 8 strides
Pace: 9:33

Sunday 7/12
Distance: 18.35
Pace: 9:39

Total: 46.71 miles

My schedule for the week called for 10 miles on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, and 11 on Thursday. Even though I took Tuesday off, I didn't want to miss one of my longer runs for the week. I decided that my skipped run should be made up on Wednesday. I chose not to make up the 4 miles from Wednesday. I kind of thought that 10 miles followed by 11 miles was going to be the most difficult part of the week, but it was definitely the 18 miler that was the worst.

During the final four miles of my long run I could tell that I was getting very tired, very quickly. I thought that the breaks for traffic signals would be a nice chance to rest, but instead they just threw off my rhythm and made it harder to start running again. Miles 16 and 17 in particular were quite rough as the starting and stopping brought on a round of side stitches. This was kind of a blessing in disguise since I was able to try some of the side stitch strategies that I've been reading about. Better to work on this in training than on race day!

Somehow I managed to make it through all 18 miles. Even though I was ready to quit around mile 16, I knew that if I kept running I would be home quicker than if I stopped running, got out my phone, called my husband and waited for him to come pick me up. So that was my motivation to keep running. Since I am still 14 weeks out from my marathon, I am not too worried about struggling through an 18 mile run. Though it does highlight my general lack of endurance (compared to speed). At least I have plenty of time to work on it!

Happy 100!

This is my 100th post! Hooray!!

At the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy, I'd like to take a quick moment thank everyone who reads and/or comments on my blog. Reading your kind words and encouragement always puts a smile on my face. Whether is has been congratulatory comments after a good race or words of encouragement and reassurance after a poor performance, I am incredibly grateful to have your support.

This check in is coming a bit late because I have been having a weird week. I spent a long weekend in northern Michigan for 4th of July. Traffic is usually super bad on holiday weekends, so my husband and I left later at night and didn't get home until 10pm. Since I am up at 5:45 am for work, 10pm is usually after my bedtime. Monday was just a sleepy blur.

Busy holiday weekend of ATV-ing, running, and hanging out at the lake.

And then Tuesday. Oh yikes. Tuesday was just not my day. Nothing terrible actually happened, just a lot of little annoyances that built up and managed to ruin my day. On Monday I got Chipotle for lunch and tucked half a burrito bowl into the work fridge for Tuesday's lunch. Tuesday morning, when I went to stick a coconut water in the fridge, my Chipotle was gone. Who eats someone else's partially eaten food? So gross! And now I didn't have a lunch. So angry!

But then I was supposed to have a meeting with bagels available, so I figured I would just get a bagel for lunch. Except we the meeting didn't have bagels. At this point I knew I would either need to face the rain and leave work for lunch or try to find something a the coffee shop in the library. I settled on grabbing a bagel from the coffee shop. Except the coffee shop was completely out of bagels and I didn't have time to run anywhere else because I had another meeting starting in 15 minutes.

Finally, an hour later I was able to walk to Jimmy John's for lunch. On my walk back to work the light rain turned into torrential downpour. I had my umbrella, but everything from mid-thigh down got completely soaked. So I spent the last 2 hours at work in soaking wet pants and shoes. Not comfortable at all.

I took Tuesday off from running and blogging because all I wanted to do was curl up with a book and disappear for a few hours. There also might have been a glass of wine involved. And pizza and a movie with my husband. Overall not a bad night at all, but it does leave me wondering if I'll be able to make up my missed run this week.

2015 Halfway Check In

Can you believe that 2015 is half over? I thought that this would be a good time to check in with my 2015 goals. This is where I would link back to that post that I made in January about my 2015 resolutions/goals/dreams. Or at least, I would if I had made one of those posts.

In 2014 I made some huge running related goals and I ended up not reaching any of them. Sub 1:45 half marathon? No. Run first marathon? More no. Run 1000 miles? Even more no. I finished the year feeling like a disappointment and I decided I did not want to feel like that again in 2015. So for 2015 my goal is simply:   

Run more and don't get injured.

I can happily say that I am perfectly on track! While my injury prevention work has not always been perfect, I have made it through the first 6 months without any issues. I'd like to think that I have started to figure out when I can push through the pain and when I need to take an extra rest day, but maybe I've just gotten lucky this year.

In terms of running more, in the first half of 2014 I ran 376.01 miles (that .01 is super important, lol). So far this year I have logged 675.83 miles! Almost an 80% increase in mileage! I know that sounds like a ridiculous increase, but the winter of 2014 was so terrible that I hardly ran at all. I also missed almost an entire month due to a non-running injury.

Of course I have still set some more granular goals along the way this year. I wanted a PR in the 5k (victory!). I still am chasing that sub 1:45 half marathon (maybe later this year? next year?). And I definitely plan on running my first marathon this year (no injuries, pleaseandthankyou!). But instead of getting really hung up on the details, I have been trying (trying, I'm not perfect!) to focus on the big picture. I know that if I put in the work my times will continue to improve. Maybe not as quickly or consistently as I want, but they should keep improving.

All smiles after Charlevoix, but in my head I am demanding a do over!

What goals did you set for 2015? What progress have you made towards your goals?