marathon training

2015 Marathon Training – Weeks 6 & 7

July 18, 2015 by Kristy 1 Comment

A quick recap of weeks 6 and 7…since I just finished up week 8!

WEEK 6

Monday
8 miles with 5×800 (goal 7:20 pace/3:40) with 400 recovery: 3:40, 3:45, 3:37, 3:37, 3:39

It’s been so long I don’t remember anything remarkable about this run, except that the 3:45 pissed me off.

Tuesday
AM: 4 easy miles (no Garmin)
1/2 hour barre
PM: 2 easy miles at run club (no Garmin)

Wednesday
7 easy miles with strides (no Garmin)

Thursday
Rest! And we spent the day in Wildwood, NJ! It rained most of the day but cleared up long enough to hit the boards. Fiona’s first boardwalk and ride experience – she loved it!

Friday
10 miles with 6 miles at GMP (8:30-8:40): 8:29, 8:22, 8:46, 8:25, 8:21, 8:36

Oh, I remember this run! I got a Garmin 220 the end of last year and (for the most part) love it. But recently the GPS keeps getting “stuck” and won’t budge. The 8:22 and 8:45 splits are not accurate. My Garmin was stuck on 8:22 so I slowed down. It never budged. Then because I slowed down it went to 8:45 and never budged…even though I sped up. So frustrating. I never had GPS issues with my 305.

Saturday
16 miles at 9:20 average pace

I took in 500 calories – 300 calories of Tailwind and 200 calories of Shot Bloks.

Sunday
6 recovery miles at 10:05 average pace

An easy run along Forbidden Drive.

53 miles total for week 6.

WEEK 7
This was the week where Mother Nature got me big time. Four consecutive days of dew points in the low 70s and I was toast! I won’t bother you with a day-by-day recap – there was a lot of cursing and just general frustration.

Monday to Thursday
Each day was oppressively humid. I would start out each run with the intention of doing some sort of speed work but failed miserably each time and switched to easy running.

30 miles of easy running – done and done!

Friday
Rest! And more shore fun (we went to my parents’ house).

sprinkler fun

Saturday
18 miles: 6 miles WU, 6 miles at GMP (8:30-8:40), 6 miles CD

GMP miles:
8:35
8:49 – hill
8:36
8:31
9:06 – big uphill. I maintained GMP effort and was pretty pleased since I generally run this mile with this hill in 9:35.
8:32

Finally, some redemption! I have to be honest though…those last 6 miles post-GMP were rough! But the silver lining is that the GMP miles felt great.

I took in 700 calories – 400 from Tailwind and 300 from Shot Bloks.

Sunday
7 recovery miles at 10:00 average pace.

55 miles total for week 7.

Noticeably absent? Prehab and strength training. It’s been a busy few weeks and, while that’s not a good excuse, it’s always the first to go. I didn’t do so well during week 8 either (hangs head in shame)!

2015 Marathon Training – Weeks 4 & 5

June 29, 2015 by Kristy 1 Comment

Moving right along…weeks 4 and 5 flew by in the blink of an eye. 5 weeks down, 11 to go.

WEEK 4 – I don’t recall much about this week other than unrelenting humidity on Monday and Tuesday.

Monday
8 miles ~~tempo~~ easy (9:46 avg pace)
pre-hab

Good lord. 91% humidity and I tried to do a GMP tempo run. It was awful. After 2 miles of GMP(ish) pace, I switched to easy running.

Tuesday
4.5 miles ladder workout (1600, 1200, 800, 400) with run club

I was all over the place for this run. I was trying to get my own workout in, coach, and we had a little snafu with the track. I think I even cut my recovery short for one of the repeats. The result was a positive split: 1600 (7:25), 1200 (7:42), 800 (8:18!), and 400 (8:00!). Oh, it was humid too 🙂 No more coaching and getting my workout in at the same time!

Wednesday
4.5 miles easy (10:00 avg pace)

Thursday
8 miles with 5 miles at 8:00 pace (8:07, 8:04, 8:03, 8:01, 7:53)
pre-hab
1 hour yoga

Not too shabby! I was pretty pleased with this workout. It made up for my positive splits on Tuesday night!

Friday
Rest. I love rest days.

Saturday
20 miles (9:17 avg pace)

I fueled with Tailwind for the second week in a row and supplemented with some Shot Bloks. I promise a review of Tailwind soon but so far, so good.

Sunday
3 miles recovery with Fiona (Garmin-less)

It was Father’s Day so I brought Fiona along with me to give Matt some time alone. My favorite picture from that day (although Hawk doesn’t look too happy)…

Week 4 mileage = 48

WEEK 5 – I had a come-to-Jesus moment about my GMP this week. Initially I was aiming for 8:20 as my GMP. It’s just not realistic for me right now based on my current fitness. I want to set myself up for success in the Fall and, although this is a bitter (bitter) pill to swallow, my GMP is looking more like 8:30-8:40 pace. Which means PRing in the Fall isn’t likely.

Monday
barre

Did a 45-minute barre blast class which was the perfect amount of shaking and burning.

Tuesday
6 miles easy (Garmin-less)
pre-hab

I was supposed to do another 2-3 miles in the PM but run club was cancelled due to severe storms that rolled through.

Wednesday
8 miles with 4 x 1600 (7:40, 7:36, 7:39, 7:20)

I think the last repeat is a total outlier. It felt the same, effort-wise, as the others so I doubt it was truly 7:20 pace. My legs were heavy – residual soreness from the 20-miler? Or just week 5-shit’s-getting-real fatigue?

Thursday
5 miles easy with Fiona (Garmin-less)
pre-hab

I can assure you this was around 11:00 average pace.

Friday
8 miles with 5 miles at GMP (8:28, 8:18, 8:22, 8:24, 8:25)
pre-hab

You probably can’t tell but I was shooting for 8:20 pace here. This was the come-to-Jesus moment. This felt hard (humidity was also 88%). I wasn’t very kind to myself either. In fact, I was an asshole. Instead of running myself into the ground with unrealistic workouts (and, subsequently, setting myself up for a big, fat bonk on race day), I should instead recognize where I am right now, embrace it, and run with it (literally).

Saturday
13 miles with miles 6 & 7 at GMP (8:30, 8:34), mile 8 easy, miles 9 & 10 at GMP (8:26, 8:30)

This was so-so. Mentally, I wasn’t into it. Physically, it was 91% humidity. (I know, I know. Complaining about the humidity is pointless. It’s summer…I get it. But I feel it’s noteworthy on some days.)

Sunday
Rest!

Week 5 mileage = 40 (cut back week)

2015 Marathon Training – Week 3

June 17, 2015 by Kristy 1 Comment

Matt traveled for work this week so my goals were to be flexible but aim to get all the miles in and squeeze in a few days of pre-hab.

Monday
9 miles with 4×1600 at 10K effort (7:39, 7:40, 7:35, 7:31)

Matt didn’t travel until Monday night and I knew there would be lots of BOB-running in my future so I had to knock out a speed workout. Mondays are generally 8 to 9 easy miles because of Saturday’s long run and Sunday’s barre class so I figured this would be interesting to say the least. I was pleasantly surprised at how well my legs held out! They were trashed for the rest of the day but this workout was encouraging.

Tuesday
rest with pre-hab

Definitely needed a rest day…

Wednesday & Thursday
6 miles and then 5 miles (Garmin-free) with the BOB
pre-hab on both days

Nothing much to report about these runs other than very. slow. running.

Friday
more rest and Matt came home!

Saturday
17 miles (9:43 avg pace)

Today was day 2 of a 5-day stretch of unrelenting humidity. I was running by 6:15AM and, overall, it wasn’t so bad. I used Tailwind for the first time on this run – I’m going to do a detailed review in another post – and loved it. I definitely think it contributed to me feeling so well in these conditions. My only goals were to cover 17 miles and feel good for the rest of the day (check! check!). In order to do that I had to take it slow.

Sunday
8 miles recovery (10:07 pace)

No barre today since there was a sub (I really like my instructor) and I needed to get another run in.

It was a pretty boring week training-wise – 45 miles total – with only 1 speed workout. I just couldn’t fit a tempo run in unless I hit the treadmill. I thought about it but I just can’t bring myself to run on it in June!

2015 Marathon Training – Week 2

June 10, 2015 by Kristy 1 Comment

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)!

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.

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.

2015 Marathon Training – Week 1

June 1, 2015 by Kristy 2 Comments

Someone told me that May is on record to be Philly’s second hottest May. Ever. I haven’t done any fact checking to see if he’s right but it sure feels like it. We went from really cold to really hot in an instant. Which makes acclimating to the heat a real bitch. It was a wring-the-sweat-outta-your-shorts kinda week.

Monday
9 miles total with 3 x 1600m at 10K effort with 800m recovery (7:42, 7:44, 7:32)
pre-hab

I like doing speed work by effort, rather than pace, for 2 reasons: (1) if it’s hot and humid it’s impossible to maintain your 5K/10K pace from the cool, crisp Fall. Why set yourself up for failure? Instead, stick with effort and you’ll still get the full training benefit. And (2) I don’t know what my current 5K or 10K pace is 🙂 It was a little humid on this run so I kept the effort to 10K. The last repeat felt amazing, for some reason. I was not pushing it and was really surprised by the time.

Tuesday
AM: 7 miles easy (9:25 avg pace)
PM: 3 miles easy (8:50 avg pace)
pre-hab

I usually do two-a-days on Tuesdays. I coach a track workout on Tuesday nights – sometimes I do the workout and sometimes I just stick to an easy run. When you’re coaching or teaching, that’s your focus. Not getting your own workout in. And, come 6:30PM, I’m pretty spent! So I like to add in some extra miles in the morning. My PM run was a little fast – that’s not my standard easy run pace. I got caught up in part of the workout (suicide fartleks!).

Wednesday
Rest day and zoo day!

lions, tigers, and bears

Thursday
AM: 8 miles total with 2 miles at 7:35 (7:40, 7:34)
PM: 1 hour yoga
prehab

Not much to say about this run other than the humidity was creeping up. My shorts were sticking like glue after mile 1. Ick.

Yoga! This was amazing! It’s been way too long since I took yoga and this class was just what I needed. A nice flow class – outdoors (!) – taught by my yogi (and runner) friend Katie. Seriously – how amazing is this view?!

Friday
strength train

I was short on time (Fiona didn’t nap very long) and was feeling a bit run down, so I kept it short and sweet. A few walking lunges, squats, a barre ab video, and some arm exercises. My arms were sore on Saturday so I definitely did enough!

Saturday
13 miles (9:37 avg pace)

Sneaky humidity. It was one of those runs where it felt OK in the beginning and then you get smacked in the face later on. I ran an out-and-back and stopped at the halfway point to text a client and could barely keep my iPhone dry – the sweat was pouring off me. The run back to my car was brutal. I was depleted. I should have kept the pace a lot slower on the way out but instead positive splitted my way back to the car. I was glad to reach 13 miles and be done.

Sunday
1 hour barre

Barre kicked my butt! In all good ways though. I know I say this all the time but barre is the best strength training for runners. I modify most of the leg work since there is always lingering fatigue from running.

Week 1 done! Total weekly mileage was 40 which isn’t much different than pre-marathon training. The intensity was there so I’m fine with it. I’m just hoping for a break in the humidity or acclimation to occur ASAP!

Truth

May 13, 2015 by Kristy 6 Comments

I’m #keepingitreal today.

This week and next week are “pre-marathon” training weeks. The only goal of these 2 weeks are to add some speed work back in and acclimate (reacquaint?) myself to higher intensity workouts. After that I’m doing a traditional 16-week plan.

I should be excited. I’m always excited to begin training for a marathon.

I’m scared instead. Add in anxious and doubtful too.

My last marathon was December 2012. Ages ago. Pre-Fiona and during the best Fall racing season I ever had. I look at my training log from 2012 with my mouth wide open. I really did all that?

So, in no particular order, these are my scared, anxious, and doubtful concerns:

And now I have a kid
Yes, lots of people with children train and run marathons (i.e., most of my clients). Totally doable. I’m more worried about being tired all the time. I’m already tired with regular training and running around after Fiona. I don’t want to be a zombie. Not really looking for a magic answer here other than suck it up. Everyone does it. And everyone is tired. Right?

MAF training – the land of happy, low intensity
MAF training was awesome. I build a solid base and got faster. And before MAF training, I spent all of 2014 base building. My base is built. The foundation is solid. But I’ve become very comfortable with low intensity training. Other than a few half marathons last year, I’ve spent very little time in the pain cave. I fear the pain cave. (If I can think of any drawbacks to MAF training, this would be it.)

How should I go about this?
Obviously, I want to PR at the Via Marathon (September) or Monster Mash Marathon (October). That’s the goal. But without a recent half marathon time, I’m kinda lost on an exact goal time. (My PR is 3:41.)

The only thing I figured out so far is how I want to approach marathon training. I mentioned using a (modified) Pfitz plan but decided against it. What I need is the exact opposite of what I have been doing. No more base building. Instead, it’s track work and tempos. Every week. Simple and uncomplicated (but tough). It worked wonderfully for me in the past. And I’m really hoping that layering in these speed workouts on top of a solid base brings me to that PR. If nothing else, I’ll spend time in the pain cave and build some mental toughness. Gulp.

Or maybe I should shut down all this thinking and analyzing and Just Do It?!

Fiona enjoys the track…with snacks, of course.