personalized coaching for distance runners
Week 5 of NJ Marathon training…
MON: rest
TUE: 7 tempo + yoga
WED: 6 speed
THU: rest
FRI: 8 easy
SAT: lazy rest (should have went to yoga)
SUN: 18 long (duh)
Total of 39 miles. Finally getting up there.
Heading to a power yoga class at RYAH tonight!
2/1/11
7 miles tempo
1:01
8:43 avg pace
Splits:
M1 – 10:00
M2 to M5 – 8:06
M6 to M7 – 9:30
…and I felt great the whole time. Exactly 3 months to the NJ Marathon 🙂
Let’s talk motivation. My motivation for writing this post came from Elizabeth Waterstraat. Her blog is awesome, she’s hysterical. Her post yesterday was called No Excuses. Please read it because it’s very good!
It’s no secret that I love running. Running has become as habitual as brushing my teeth and (almost) as enjoyable as ice cream. I love to push myself and my body. I like to set goals and work hard. I find it extremely rewarding.
I don’t find myself lacking motivation to run too often..mostly due to my slight running addiction 🙂 My motivation is most likely to wane post-marathon. Maybe it’s burn out or my mind’s way of telling me to take it easy. So that’s what I do and then I start to crave running all over again.
Some days it’s hard to get out the door. I think of it this way: you always feel better after a run. I have never regretted a run. Never. But I sure as hell regretted skipping a run.
Stop making excuses! Elizabeth’s post talks a lot about this. My favorite part of her post is “the excuse is always the easy way out…bucking up and getting the work done, that’s the hard stuff”.
Or, in the words of Nike, Just Do It.
1/26/11
7 miles tempo
1:01
8:43 avg pace
I retract what I said about the hourly forecast on weather.com being a runner’s best friend. It failed me big time this morning. I woke up happy to be able to fit in my 7 mile tempo outside before snowstorm #85 began this afternoon. I walked downstairs to put Hawk out and saw this…
It was actively snowing hard and continued through the afternoon. To say I was grumpy was an understatement. Since I have a treadmill in my basement, there was no escaping this tempo run. Thankfully, my DVR was stocked with good shows (if you consider True Life, Teen Mom 2, and I Survived to be quality TV. I do.).
The good ‘ol plan called for 5 miles at 8:24 pace with a 1 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down.
Splits:
M1 – 10:00 (I know, I was delaying the inevitable)
M2 – 8:29 (easing in)
M3 to M5 – 8:20
M6 – 8:06
M7 – 9:30
The tempo miles felt surprisingly easy. Not sure if it was the treadmill or the thrilling episode of True Life (or…the speed work paying off)?
Getting prepared for snowstorm #86. Tomorrow is a rest day but I hope to get some yoga in.
For some reason I am ridiculously tired today and have an insatiable appetite. I’m chalking it up to lingering fatigue from Saturday’s 17-miler. So I’m listening to my body and taking a rest day and hopefully I’ll feel more energetic for tomorrow’s speed work.
On the bright side, my legs felt great on Sunday (and still feel great today) so it looks like I dodged the DOMS!
Week 3 Recap
MON: 7 miles tempo
TUE: 75 min yoga
WED: rest
THU: 4 miles speed + 2 miles easy + 60 min yoga
FRI: rest
SAT: 17 miles long
SUN: 5 miles easy
Total mileage = 35 miles.
Off to catch up on Big Love and then bed!
1/17/11
7 miles tempo
1:00:54
8:42 avg pace
The plan called for 1 mile easy, 5 miles tempo at 8:45 pace, and 1 mile easy. I felt good again and went for it.
Splits:
1 mi easy: 9:21
5 mi tempo: 8:26, 8:17, 8:19, 8:25, 8:24
1 mi easy: 9:39
Yeah! It must have been all those Swedish Fish I ate last night 🙂
Week 2 Recap
Since I started training 1 week early, I modified this week’s schedule a bit…meaning I ditched the speed work.
MON: rest
TUE: 8 mi tempo
WED: 4 mi easy
THU: rest
FRI: 7 mi easy
SAT: 15 mi long
SUN: rest
A total of 34 miles. Seems I had a few too many rest days and no yoga (not even Yoga On Demand!). Hmm…that will be fixed this week. I all ready have my yoga plan mapped out so I don’t fall off the wagon again!
Today is a rest day but I wanted to recap my first week of training. Or so I thought it was my first week of training. Last night I realized I started training 1 week early! Oops…I guess 1 week early is better than 1 week late. I’m actually really happy this happened. Matt and I are going to San Francisco in February and my plan called for a 20-miler that weekend. A 20-miler on vacation is not a good time. But with an extra week of training I can use the added wiggle room to rearrange my longs run so that I’ll only need to do 13-15 miles in San Fran. Sweet 🙂
Week 1 Recap
MON: 5 mi speed work
TUE: 6 mi easy run + 20 min yoga
WED: rest
THU: 30 min yoga
FRI: 6 mi tempo run
SAT: rest
SUN: 13 mi long run
A total of 30 miles. Yikes, that’s low for my first week of marathon training! I’m trying to keep in mind that the mantra for this training cycle is quality over quantity.