F^3 Lake Half Marathon Training Week 5

Week of December 18-24

Monday Planned: Recovery run 5 miles
Monday Actual: Recovery run 5 miles. Through all the Christmas lights we go. I was shocked at how great I felt the day after a long run.

Tuesday Planned: LT 9 miles 38 minutes at LT
Tuesday Actual: Due to some wacko schedules this week, there was no time for Toni and I to do our tempo run together. And the thought of running 9 miles solo with LT paces was enough to make me want to skip. So I opted for 6 total. And it was awesome. I hit 4.3 ish for the tempo distance. Felt good to do a hard workout solo and nail it!

Wednesday Planned: Endurance 10 miles
Wednesday Actual: Endurance 8 miles. After looking at our schedule for the week, I decided that I really wanted to do a short recovery run on Sunday, so we shaved a couple of miles off of Wednesday night's run to make that happen. Which is good. I was getting sick of running during run #2 of 4 miles after yoga. Ugh.

Thursday Planned: Rest
Thursday Actual: Rest

Friday Planned: GA + Speed 5 miles 10x100
Friday Actual: I did not sleep Thursday night, so I skipped the coffee run. I regretted it all day. Womp.

Saturday Planned: Endurance 13 miles, increase effort last 3 miles @ LT pace
Saturday Actual: 13.1 miles for fun! Through the ice snow and -2 degree temps. Toni and I didn't run together, but we did run our long runs in the exact amount of time, down to a 13 second differential. We couldn't do this if we tried, honestly.

Sunday Planned: Recovery 3 miles 4x100
Sunday Actual: Recovery 5 miles in -9 degrees. Hit 1100+ miles for the year!

Total Mileage Planned: 40 Miles
Total Mileage Actual: 37.1 miles 

F^3 Lake Half Marathon Training Week 2

Week of November 27 - December 3

Monday Planned: LT 8 miles 20 minutes at LT, 4 min recovery, 16 minutes LT
Monday Actual: I was sick, so I had an unintended rest day.

Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic 5 miles
Tuesday Actual: General Aerobic 6 miles with Taylor Swift's new album to keep me company.

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 3 miles
Wednesday Actual: General Aerobic 4 miles at the group run. We dressed 100% identically 100% on accident.

Thursday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 7 miles 10x100 strides
Thursday Actual: LT 8 miles 20 minutes at LT, 4 min recovery, 16 minutes LT. So so so hard.

Friday Planned: Rest
Friday Actual: 4 Recovery Miles at the coffee run with Toni!

Saturday Planned: Rest
Saturday Actual: Rest

Sunday Planned: Endurance 12 miles, increase effort last 3 miles at LT pace
Sunday Actual: 12 miles, increased effort last 3 miles, but it was completely dark out so it was hard to see, thus harder to really speed up and not be afraid of falling.

Total Mileage Planned: 35 Miles
Total Mileage Actual: 34.2 miles

What I'm Loving Right Now: Believe Training Journal

Last fall, I ordered a Believe Training journal prior to starting marathon training (which just didn't ever start). It arrived the week of the Sioux Falls half marathon, and I have absolutely loved journaling in it for the past year. I've always tracked my training online, but that's typically time, distance, pace, what shoes worn. The journal allows me space to include how the run felt and anything else of note.



I also love using it to track my recovery practices. I would never log my core work, or foam rolling, epsom baths, massages, etc. But instead of having a big ol' REST written on a day, I enjoy writing down my recovery practices. It also helps remind me that on days off I can still do a lot to make my running stronger.

Prior to this year's Sioux Falls half, I went through the journal from start to finish (well almost, I made it until June before Kyle got bored and wanted attention) reviewing my goals, both short term and long term, and seeing how much my running has progressed over the last year was really inspiring. I have some BIG goals for running, some may say crazy or impossible, but having a big long-term goal makes it easier to put in the small work day-to-day. I know I'm still a couple of training cycles away from PR shape, and that would be really defeating to deal with if I wasn't working toward longer term goals.



To see my progress from one year of working really hard has been a lot of fun, and I can't wait to look back a year from now to see that continued progress.

I bought a new journal last winter, because I found the Compete one on sale, I picked up a couple of the other ones for gifts for running friends, and I just dug mine out, as I knew mine would be running out because I've been using it for a year. When I flipped to the end of my journal, I discovered that the very last entry day is October 1, the day of the Twin Cities 10 Mile.

That couldn't have worked out any better.

Maintenance Training Week 5

Week of June 19-25

Monday: My BRF was FINALLY back in town. So we met up for some warm up miles before the weekly Parks and Rec 5k race. We got in two miles, the 3.01 of the race (it's a short course) followed by the slowest one mile cool down in all of the land. It felt like a brick mile.

There was a large group of SFWR at the race. YAY!

Tuesday: I got to the group run early to get in a leisurely 3 mile shake out run. It was finally cooler temps and my body was loving it! I did two miles of walk/run with the group before a 30 minute yin yoga class. Yay stretching.

Wednesday: I did a sweltering 3 miles with Toni at the group run. I texted her earlier in the week that maybe we could do a speedier/tempo-like run on Wednesday. And then some storms rolled through and it was 93 degrees with a million percent humdity. So a slow slog it was. Followed by some yoga.

Thursday: I went back and forth about a trail run or a rest day, finally opting at the last minute for a rest day. I had run 4 days in a row, so I thought I'd be smart and treat my body to an epsom bath instead of a run.

Friday: 60 minutes of POWER. I had planned to do 3 miles afterward but I jacked up my back pretty severely during POWER. And it got worse and worse throughout the day. By far the worst back pain I've ever had. I took an epsom bath immediately after POWER, took ibuprofen, used my myofascial release balls on my low back to release some of the tension, and I was still dyyyyying. Luckily my friend was able to get me in for an emergency massage right after work, which helped. An any icy hot back patch immediately after I got home. Ahhhh.

Saturday: I was still in pretty rough shape Saturday morning but had to teach yoga, so I modified class a bit so that my body could demo most of it as necessary. The yoga helped loosen up my back, but I was still a ways from normal.

Sunday: My back was still pretty tight, so I took another day off from running. Womp. I took a 60 minute slow flow yoga class followed by a 75 minute restorative yoga class.

Total Mileage: 14 miles.

Maintenance Training Week 3

Week of June 5-11

Monday: I took a rest day. It was my mom's birthday and a million degrees out so Kyle and I went out to dinner to celebrate her, and then spent time together after spending the weekend apart.

Tuesday: Tuesday morning I LED my very first group run! Wahoo. The new yoga and cycling studio that just opened in town wanted to add a run and flow so I was super excited to take the lead on it. I had originally planned to get there super early to run 2-3 miles before but I wanted to make sure I knew how to set up my music with their sound system and figure out how to lock up while someone was there to show me! I did two miles with two of my friends and one of their pups. For future Tuesdays I hope to get there early to get in 5 miles total.

After the run we did a 30 minute yoga class. You know what's hard? Teaching a 30 minute yoga class! Sixty minutes never seems like enough time so 30 minutes was almost impossible!!

Wednesday: My BRF surprised me by coming home a day early to come yoga and the group run. Naturally we were dressed identically without any pre-planning other than, on Wednesdays we wear pink. The miles flew by and it made me realize I missed her even more than I originally thought! We did 3 miles followed by 60 minutes of HOT deck yoga. So warm. There's a reason I don't practice heated yoga. Woof.

Thursday: I had planned to do an awesome yoga class with a well-renown yogi/doctor and then I was going to do a trail run/walk/hike to get in some miles for the week, and then by the time work was over, I just wanted to go home and go to bed. I went to bed at 8pm. :/

Friday: I was up bright and early for the return of POWER. 60 minutes of lifting and dynamic moves later I was ready to start the rest of my day. Man I love power.

Saturday: Thanks to the heat wave I had zero desire to get out and run. Originally I was going to do a 10k/5k, but decided early on in the week that record heat probably wasn't the best time for me to race. Then I was going to volunteer for the race but I was still exhausted from the pug being sick earlier in the week.

Sunday: I convinced Kyle to head out for a bike ride with me, it was so roasty toasty I was thankful I had a reason to skip my run. We biked 20 miles and have the sore butts to prove it!

Total Mileage: 5 miles running, 20 miles biking

Training Book: Running Science

I absolutely love reading books about running and training. Anytime I'm excited about something, I have to read, read, read as much as I can to learn everything I can about the topic. I've been reading running and training books for years and years, but I'm always excited to add something new to the bookshelf.


Running Science is the newest one I've picked up as it was referenced in the last book I read. I'm excited to tear my way through it, but it is a pretty decent sized book, so we'll see.

What are your favorite running related books?

Summary from Goodreads:

More than 50 years ago, New Zealand's Arthur Lydiard started using terms like base training, periodization, and peaking. His U.S. counterpart, Bill Bowerman, brought Lydiard's term for what until then had been called roadwork, or jogging, to the States. Soon after, the 1970s running boom started, spurred by exercise-advocating research from the growing fields of exercise science and sports medicine and from enthusiasts such as Jim Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running. One of Bowerman's former runners at the University of Oregon, Phil Knight, saw to it that those millions of new runners had swoosh-adorning footwear designed specifically for their sport.

The pace of knowledge enhancement and innovation has, in fact, been so brisk through the years that even highly informed runners could be excused for not keeping up, but no longer.Running Science is a one-of-a-kind resource:

- An easily comprehended repository of running research

- A wealth of insights distilled from great sport and exercise scientists, coaches, and runners

- A do-it-right reference for a host of techniques and tactics

- An array of the most credible and widely used training principles and programs

- Perhaps most of all, a celebration of the latest science-based know-how of running, now truly the world's most popular sport

Elite running coach Owen Anderson presents this comprehensive work in a compelling way for runners. A PhD and coach himself, Anderson has both a great enthusiasm for sharing what scientific studies offer the running community and a keen sense of what's really important for today's informed runners to know. 

Never Miss a Monday

I'm sure everyone has heard "Never miss a Monday" in regards to working out/training/running. I've never been someone to subscribe to this way of thinking. In fact, 98% of my training programs in the past have had rest days on Mondays. I liked this because it gave me the flexibility of a long run on Saturday or Sunday. But sometimes that rest day would lead to another day. And another day. And another day. And soon the week would almost be over and I hadn't laced up my running shoes.

While doing my base building, I tried to make it a point to run on Mondays. Knowing that I was 1/1 on my workouts for the week seemed to start me out on the right foot. I also liked seeing my weekly mileage start out with a number greater than 0.0.

The training program I'm following for this spring also has Mondays as a rest day. But now that I know that Monday runs do help to create momentum for me, I want to keep it up! I shifted all of the runs in the week up a day. Since those Monday runs are can be somewhat challenging, it also means that I have to be more consistent about running my long runs on Saturdays instead of having Sundays to fall back on. This is very necessary to my training as well, because I often use the excuse of pushing back my long run until later in the day/tomorrow/later tomorrow and before I know it its Sunday night and I haven't ran.

Ultimately, I'd love to be back to the level of commitment and dedication that I was for my first few marathons and half marathons in 2010-2012. I'm hoping these small realizations will help lead to some new found habits and eventually progress towards my goals!

What tricks do you use to keep yourself on track??

January in Review

January in Review

Total Miles: 72.4 up from 27.3 last month. Up from 9.1 miles last January.

Planned Miles: 90

Total Time:  12:48:40 up from 5:08:41 last month. 

Total Runs: 13

Highest weekly mileage:

1/23/2017 – 1/29/2017:	20.5 mi	3:31:05

Favorite run: Ten mile long run with 3 minute pickups every 20 minutes. Felt like a unicorn run for me. Felt waaaaaay easier than it should and that I could've kept going. YES! Most hardcore run: Since I was in full on base building mode, I didn't have many runs with real workouts in them. I will say that I ran in some pretty hardcore conditions, including running in below zero temps, and then running in -15 temps on sidewalks that were full of ice and snow, and we still got in 5 miles! #bapoints Favorite race: Too Cold to Hold Half (race report to come!) Bike Miles: 0 Favorite Jam: Still jammin' on Panic at the Disco.

Shopping List for your Runner

If you asked Kyle, he would tell you that I have every piece of running gear I could possible need. Being a runner for the past eleven years, he's probably 95% right. I see posts every year for a gift guide for your runner, but this one will be slightly different. This is a gift guide for the runner who already has everything! Most of the links in this post are amazon affiliate links. So if you buy something I get a few pennies off of it. Definitely check your local running store for any of these suggestions to help support your local businesses. Check out 605 Running Co. if you're in South Dakota!

Shoes
Chances are, your runner has a favorite type of shoe they've ran in for years. Check the brand, type, size and you're well on your way to helping them stockpile shoes in their closet like they're their own shoe store (#goalz). I've been wearing Mizuno Wave Riders pretty religiously for the past 4-5 years, so I have several pairs (that are half OFF on Amazon!) on my list. I always stock up on the previous year's shoe model when the new one comes out to get the best possible deals!






Winter Gear
Unless you live somewhere nice and warm, winter gear is a necessity. I've taken the last couple of years off from running, so I'm in desperate need of a nice running coat. My old ones are teeny, tiny, itsy bitsy, and in order for me to be teeny tiny itsy bitsy again, I need to run through the winter, hence needing a new coat. Bonus points for bright colors, warmth, wind breaking material, and reflective elements.




Night-time Running Gear
Speaking of reflective elements, it's been brought to my attention that perhaps I haven't always been the safest runner. I'm in an awesome group of female runners, and they are always so great about sharing tips for staying safe on the run. My idea of safety is letting Kyle know when and where I'm going running (usually). Everyone else shows up to group runs in full on reflective clothes, headlamps, blinking lights, EVERYTHING. So obviously I need those items as well! At the very least, I'd love a lightweight reflective vest to throw over whatever I'm wearing to run at night, and a handheld light.




Running Books
It should come as no surprise that I love running books. I have read so many training books and tried to absorb as much as I could. Here are a few of my favorites: