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2015 Marathon Training – Week 2

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Week 2 brought much cooler temps and small glimpses of my old running self.  Taking training one day at a time is working wonders and I stop myself if I start thinking too far ahead.  Dare I say that I’m enjoying myself?!  Yes, that is the old marathon training Kristy speaking.  I hope she hangs around.

I wanted to mention where I’m getting some of the speed workouts and target times from.  Although I don’t agree with the philosophy of the book, Run Less, Run Faster has great no frills speed workouts with target times based on your goal finish time.  I’ve used these workouts in the past and had a lot of success.  I also want to keep my training simple – track, tempo, and GMP work.  Sometimes I completely alter the workout and sometimes I look at the target time and laugh (this usually happens during a track day).

Monday
AM workout 1:  8 miles easy
AM workout 2:  2.5 miles of hills + plyometrics

So workout 1 was at a super easy pace.  My Garmin died halfway through but I swear my pace was around 10:30.  I was pretty tired so I ran whatever I wanted.

A few weeks ago I started teaching a Run Strong class.  Think running (different workouts each week) + strength training (sometimes prehab-type stuff, sometimes good old squats and lunges).  I often run with the class and generally don’t “count” those miles.  Today was an exception.  2.5 miles of hills and then plyometrics.  I slept very good on Monday night!

Tuesday
7 miles with 5 miles at 8:23 (8:22, 8:23, 8:14, 8:06, 8:04)
prehab

Guilty as charged on this one.  This was supposed to be a GMP tempo (although GMP should be closer to 8:15-8:20).  I held back for the first 2 tempo miles – the pace felt really easy.  Then I just let it go.  Definitely not a smart move – GMP workouts are supposed to feel easy – but it felt damn good.

Wednesday
Rest (and Fiona’s newest trick)!

IMG_6330

Thursday
 6 miles with 4x800m @ 3:23 (3:27, 3:28, 3:32, 3:30)
prehab

This was one of those workout where I looked at the target time and laughed.  My raw speed is not there…yet.  I rallied hard for the last one – fueled by sheer frustration over the 3rd repeat.  I looked at my training log from Summer 2011 (the last time I did 800s with any consistency) and my times were 3:24-3:27ish.  So today wasn’t awful but there’s definitely room for improvement.

Friday
3 easy miles with Fiona in the BOB
arms

I leave the Garmin at home on these runs and take it very easy.

Saturday
15 miles (9:13 avg pace)

A really nice run!  I started with 10 miles of rolling hills and then a few miles on flat, gravel trails.  Perfect prep for the Via marathon.

IMG_6319

Sunday
 barre

I’m enjoying my Sunday barre days but my legs are shot the day after a long run.  It’s funny – I never realized how tired my legs are from running until I did barre.  Every time we begin the legs segment, I need to stop and rest.  Today was heavy on quad work and I wanted to cry.  See how attractive I make barre sound?!  I did lots of modifications today.

Overall mileage was 41.5 for the week which isn’t much different from week 1.  All those extras take time and I will gladly sacrifice a few miles for them.

 

Marathon Strategy

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4/27/11

4 miles easy

37:15

9:18 avg pace

I’m a total planner.  Insane planner.  I don’t think there is a spontaneous bone in my body.  It shouldn’t be a surprise that when it comes to the marathon I leave nothing to chance (well, nothing that I have control of…if only I could control the weather).  I’m not talking race logistics:  hotel, directions, parking…although I do enjoy planning that.  I’m talking strategy; how will you run the race?  What’s your plan?

I used to run marathons with no plan.  Kind of just go out there and see how I feel.  This is a great approach if you are a beginner (first marathon).  Your goal should be to enjoy yourself, soak it all in, and finish strong.  Once I started having a time goal in mind, I found that the more I planned and strategized, the better I did.

So what’s my plan for Sunday’s race?

Start out slow
The best thing you could ever do is to start the marathon slowly (or any race really).  Doesn’t matter if you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced.  This works every time, trust me!  You should never go faster than your goal marathon pace (GMP) in these early miles.  In fact, I plan on going slower than GMP for the first 3 miles.  It’s tough, especially when everyone around you is flying by and you have so much nervous energy.  Conserve that energy because no matter how great of a race you are having, everything will start to hurt during those last few miles.  And all that energy you saved early on will come in handy.  It’s the difference between hitting the wall and just being uncomfortable during the last few miles.  I’ve hit the wall more times to mention and, believe me, being uncomfortable is way better.

I plan to mimic my 18 and 22-mile training runs.  Starting out with 9:00 pace and take it down from there.  Around Mile 13, I plan on picking up the pace.  Hopefully I can maintain that “pick-up” until the end.

Use a pace band
Pace bands:  either you love ’em or hate ’em (I happen to love ’em).  I’ve used them in every marathon, except for my first one.  I’ll only look at it maybe every 4-5 miles, just to ensure I’m on track.  My Garmin is what I really rely on to keep me on pace.  I don’t wear it on my wrist either.  I cut it out and tape it upside-down on my bib so all I have to do is look down.  I have a 3:45 and a 3:50 pace band for Sunday.

Pace bands have also come in handy during those not-so-stellar marathons.  Call me crazy but I like to know how far off I am from my goal time.  I told you I wasn’t sane.

So that’s my plan for Sunday…slow and steady wins the race and obsessively monitor my Garmin!

What are some of your race day strategies?  Do you use or like pace bands?

Week 15 Recap

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4/19/11

6 miles

52:00

8:40 avg pace

First things first, let’s talk about Boston!  Unbelievable, right?  Desiree Davila taking second place and missing first by a mere 2 seconds. Geoffrey Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever, 2:03:02, but it won’t be considered a world record since the Boston course is point-to-point and has a net downhill elevation.  So how fast was Mutai running?  Oh, you know, just your normal 4:30 pace!  I can’t even fathom that amount of speed for 26.2 miles!  Impressive finishes all around.

Kara Goucher came in 5th place with a 1-minute PR just 6 and a half months after having a baby.  Damn!  Check out the Runner’s World post-race interview and video here.

Onto today’s run.  I was supposed to hit the track for my last round of speed work and decided a marathon-paced run would be a better fit.  I just don’t see the point of tiring out my legs with 1000m repeats.  I’d rather practice my goal marathon pace (8:40); which I followed precisely 🙂

Week 15 Recap of NJ Marathon training:
MON:  7 miles easy
TUE:  5 miles speed + yoga
WED:  rest
THU:  rest
FRI:  5 miles tempo (fail!)
SAT:  rest
SUN:  12.5 miles (Penn Relays 20K)

Only 29.5 miles for the week.  I was hoping for 32 miles but Friday’s tempo just didn’t work out as planned.  The good news is my asthma is much better and I’ll still be on antibiotics for another week.  Yeah, no germs can catch me!

Penn Relays Distance Classic 20K Recap

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4/17/11

12.5 miles

1:46:10

8:30 avg pace

I used this race as a pseudo-marathon paced run.  I’ll explain the “pseudo” part later.  I didn’t want to go all out with my marathon just 2 weeks away.  This race is very odd but fun at the same time.  The last time I ran it was 2009.  Instead of boring you with a play-by-play of the race, I’ll just give you a few race highlights.

  • There were about 100 people running the 20K.  I swear.  It’s the smallest race I’ve ever done.  There’s no chip, no spectators, no pictures, and 2 water stops on the course.  Hard core.
  • The people that run this race are FAST.  I have never seen people go out so fast at the start of longish race.  I’m talking 5K pace.  I wanted my overall pace to be 8:30 (hence the pseudo part…my marathon pace is around 8:40) so I succeeded in that respect but I went about it all wrong.  I wanted to start out running 8:50 and then take it down from there; just like I’ve done on every training run and exactly what I plan on doing come marathon day.  Riiiight.  Since everyone took off like lightening, if I would have stuck to my 8:50 plan, I would have been at the back of the pack.  It’s crazy.  So my first mile was 8:23.  Boo.
  • My miles were pretty consistent after that but I much prefer starting out slow and picking it up during the last few miles.
  • The best part of the race is the stadium finish.  I LOVE a stadium finish!  You get to run the last 1/4 mile around Franklin Field, where the Penn Relays take place.  It’s incredible.
  • I’ll probably know my official results in about a week, if I can find them online.  Like I said, this is a super no frills race.  I’m pretty sure it’ll be 1:46:10 since I was at the front when the whole “ready, set, go” went down.
Here are some pics.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.
Early morning at Franklin Field
Franklin Field
This is where we entered the stadium for the "grand" finish!
Another pic of Franklin Field post-race with the sun shining.

The Last 22

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4/9/11

22 miles

3:10:44

8:40 avg pace <– that’s 5 sec/mile BELOW my goal marathon pace!

Heeeellllloooo, taper!  I welcome you with open arms!  If you’re thinking why the hell would I run below GMP, see here.  I hadn’t planned on it actually, just wanted to run close to GMP and end on a good note.

Instead of boring you with 22 split times, I’ll include some random thoughts about today’s run.  Please note I’m on a crazy endorphin high right now so I hope this makes sense.

  • I definitely think a 3:50 is within my reach.
  • I treated this run like race day.  I started out running 9:00 pace and gradually decreased the pace from there.
  • I felt really good at Mile 13 so I picked up the pace and wondered how long I could hold it for.  I made it to Mile 22 🙂
  • I was tired at the end but still had gas in the tank.
  • I definitely improved my mental game this training cycle….mind over matter means more to me than you can even imagine!
  • I thought about Boston a lot during this run.  For Boston 2012, I will be 35 years old…meaning (for 2012 ONLY) I could qualify with a 3:45.  Could it be a possibility?  What if…?  I didn’t train to BQ in May but it’s very tempting to have it so close within my reach.  At least temporarily.  Once 2013 comes, it’s back to 3:40.
  • I loved every second of this run.  I hope after 3 weeks of taper I can repeat this come May 1.

I came home and immediately devoured chocolate milk and foam rolled.

Woo hoo! Sorry for the gross close-up of my arm.
Hawk helps me foam roll. I'm only 5'5", not the giant this picture makes me out to be.
Super attractive

I want to give a huge shout out to my sister-in-law, Desiree, who ran her first 5K today!!!  She totally rocked it, like I knew she would, and I think she’s been bitten by the running bug!

 

 

 

 

The Final Stretch of the Monster Month

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4/5/11

8 miles tempo

1:11

8:52 avg pace

1 mile warm-up
6 miles at GMP (8:45 pace):  8:44, 8:43, 8:34, 8:32, 8:46, 8:45
1 mile cool-down

I still have some residual soreness from Sunday’s race 🙁

Proof that the hourly forecast on weather.com is worthless:  it was warm and a little humid when I started running.  It started to drizzle, which I didn’t mind.  I love running in the rain and it was actually refreshing.  Then it started pouring, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees, and the wind was smacking me relentlessly in the face.  Waaaah!

This week is my last big training week before the taper.  I’m trying to rally hard since in my mind I just ran a race and race = an easy week of training afterwards.  This will be my highest mileage week of this cycle – 43 miles – which still isn’t much compared to my previous training plans.  I also have a 22-miler on schedule for Saturday.  I really want to do well in that run since (for me at least) it sets the tone for my marathon.

Week 13 recap of NJ Marathon training:
MON:  6 easy
TUE:  15 long
WED:  rest
THU:  7 easy
FRI:  yoga
SAT:  rest
SUN:  10 mile race

A total of 38 miles for the week.  I’m glad I was able to get in most of my key workouts and still manage a PR in a tune-up race.

Here are some pictures from Sunday’s race (sorry they are so small, I tried to make them as big as possible).  I want to preface these pictures by saying that 99.9% of the time, I HATE my race pics.  I always look like I’m speed walking and I have a miserable look on my face.  With that being said…

The best one of the bunch
This was taken pre-race. I don't normally stand like that, I was freezing!
How is it possible for both of my feet to be on the ground? I also appear to be in agony, while the guy next to me is having a blast.

Does anyone like race day photos?  I always think they are so unflattering!