Twin Cities Marathon Training Week 11

Monday Planned: GA 6 miles
Monday Actual: 5 Recovery miles. Again, I don't think I was really paying attention to the 17 mile long run during the cutback week when finalizing my training program. Apparently I thought I wouldn't need a nice easy recovery run after that long run, but I did, so I flip flopped Monday and Tuesday's miles and slowed this waaaaaaay down.

Tuesday Planned: GA 5 miles
Tuesday Actual: GA 6 miles with Chris. I tried to bail on the run, or at the very least bail on running it with Chris but he wouldn't let me. Which is good. A good run on a bad day is always a good idea.

Wednesday Planned:  VO2 Max 9 miles 5x1k @ 5k
Wednesday Actual: 4 miles recovery at the group run with Kristin and then 5 miles at the track with 5x1k @ 5k. I had some discomfort in my right hip but still managed to run really speedily.

Thursday Planned:  Recovery 5 miles
Thursday Actual: Unplanned rest day. I had some discomfort in my right hip, so I opted to take a rest day instead of my recovery run. An epsom bath and icing. As well as POWER in the early a.m.

Friday Planned: Rest
Friday Actual: Recovery 4.1 miles at the coffee run. Thank goodness I couldn't run on Thursday so I could do my coffee run!

Saturday Planned: Shakeout with strides 5 miles
Saturday Actual: Shakeout 5.5 miles with zero strides because I decided I should do them Sunday in my warm up miles (spoiler alert: I didn't do that either).

Sunday Planned: MP Long run (Sioux Falls Half) 18 miles with 13 at MP
Sunday Actual: 5 miles and 13.17 miles!

Total Mileage Planned: 48 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 48 miles

Recovery Run Philosophy

I have a had a bit of a shift or epiphany when it comes to training, specifically this marathon cycle, and that's surrounding recovery runs. I've always been someone who takes recovery runs very seriously. Recovery is important and necessary, and for someone who has been injury prone in the past, it's something that I have to be on top of with my running, especially as the miles ramp up.

I train by heart rate, and have for the last few years. I let my heart rate dictate my recovery run pace. In the past I've used this as a tool to make sure I was running easy enough on these runs. I would start in the recovery zone, and if I got to talking, or as the legs would feel better, maybe toward the end of the run I'd creep out of that recovery zone, no big deal.

Since Toni has been gone for this training cycle, many of my recovery runs have been solo. This cycle I've taken a new strategy which is, see how low you can keep your heart rate on this run! My recovery runs are supposed to be under 148 or 150, but I see if I can keep them in the 130s. It's like a really fun slash really dumb game that keeps my mind off of my legs feeling like elephants are attached to each one. Usually I am only this diligent on my recovery runs the day after a long run, as that's when I really feel the gunk in my legs, but I also make sure to keep it easy after speedwork, even if my legs don't feel as junky. I can usually run a faster pace with the super low heart rate after speedwork, so I suspect my body just naturally recovers faster from the speed vs. the long.

This is such a shift from previous years where I used to think if my recovery pace wasn't X time than my goal race paces were just not even in the realm of possibility. Well guess what? I used to get injured all the time with that philosophy, and **knock on wood** I'm having my strongest training cycle of my life currently. So I think I'll keep up this new approach.

Sioux Falls Half Marathon Goals

For the second year in a row, I'm not racing the Sioux Falls Half Marathon. I love the race, and I love the race weekend, but I've focused on other fall goal races and will probably plan to use this as a training run for years to come to keep my streak (13 years!) alive.

When I was writing up our training program for TCM I was excited to see that the Sioux Falls half fell on the weekend of an 18 mile long run with 14 miles at goal marathon pace. That seems just about perfect! I edited it slightly to 13 miles at goal marathon pace, as I know there'll be a little break between the 5 mile warm up and the race to gear check my bag and get into the starting corral.

I will say that having to focus on my goal pace and race strategy for the Twin Cities Marathon this early and still this far out from the race put me into a PANIC. Especially because the half is typically warmer, humid conditions, and I wanted to be sure I ran by goal marathon effort instead of killing myself trying to do goal marathon pace on a less than desirable day.

I don't know if I have any actual goal times for this race, since it is a training run, but it'd be nice if the time reflected what I hope to accomplish at TCM, without leaving me feeling like I'd die if I have to do that all over again. I do want to finish feeling strong, picking up the pace the last 5k, and staying steady in the miles leading up to that, particularly on the hillier portions.

I suspect I'll finish in the 1:59-2:04 range, which would equate to my fastest Sioux Falls half since 2011, as a training run. I'd be pretty stoked about that. And I don't even use the word stoked. :P

August in Review

Total Miles:  188.63 miles up from 152.76 miles last month. 140.7 miles last August. This was my highest mileage month OF MY LIFE! I hate 180 miles in April 2010, the month prior to my marathon PR, so this is positive for TCM!

Total Time: 32:15:59 up from 26:39:38. 

Total Runs: 26 runs for an average of 7.26 miles/run.

Highest weekly mileage: 

8/20/2018 – 8/26/2018:	49.1 mi	8:24:23	10:16 / mi

Most hardcore run: The 20 mile loop. Uff. Such a struggle almost from the first mile to the last. Mentally hard, physically hard, and to finish was such good mental training!

Favorite run: 12 mile Monday with Melissa and 12 mile Monday with Chris. There's something about starting the week with that many miles that just gets your really amped for the rest of the week! Both runs were super hilly too so it was fun to conquer that to kick off the week!

Favorite Race: None. No races, just all the miles! 

Favorite Jam: Weezer's cover of Africa is still one of my top songs!

Twin Cities Marathon Training Week 10

Monday Planned: GA 6 miles
Monday Actual: 6 GA V. HILLY miles. I regretted giving Chris the green light to plan a route on ALL OF THE HILLS. He also regretted that as he just came back from hiking 100+ miles the previous week. Uff da. But we made it! Barely.



Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest + Massage. Sweet sweet massage.

Wednesday Planned:  VO2 Max 8 miles 5x600m @ 5k
Wednesday Actual: 3 Recovery Miles with Kristin, and then we hung out at the store to listen to a panel of runners talk about racing and the Sioux Falls races that are upcoming. Kristin enjoyed some nuun like a good responsible human, and I had two glasses of an IPA from Woodgrain. What's better than running and beer you guys??

Thursday Planned:  Rest
Thursday Actual: I split up Wednesday night's run to attend the talk, so that left me with 5 miles with 5x600m @ 5k. I went to the track solo after work and had to wait 25 minutes for football practice to be over. Ugh. Once it was my turn, I was excited to get after it, even though I was solo. I set my phone up for some pictures on the laps, so that was entertaining afterwards. Ha. My splits were strong and fairly consistent except for one when there was an audience and at one point I was running a 6:46 pace. Oops. Hah.







Friday Planned: Recovery 4 miles
Friday Actual: 4 recovery miles at the coffee run. I was so thankful that Emily agreed to run some miles with me, since I knew I needed to take them easy with 17 the next day!




Saturday Planned: Long run 17 miles
Saturday Actual: Long run 17 miles. Oh cut back week, in what world is 17 miles an easy long run? I spent the whole week saying I *only* had 17 miles to run this weekend. Well damn it if that isn't still almost a 3 hour run. Uff da. It felt pretty good, until the last few miles. We did a much better job of keeping it moving, only stopping for one quick potty break and two quick water refills. I didn't want to pick it up at the end of the run since I know next week's miles will be hard, but a quicker effort made my body feel a little better, so there you have it.

Sunday Planned: Rest
Sunday Actual: Rest + core work + foam rolling.

Total Mileage Planned: 35 miles
Total Mileage Actual:  35.13 miles

Weekly Reads: The Cheerleaders

The Cheerleaders is a teen book that I heard a lot of buzz about before it came out. I had an e-ARC of it, but I didn't get through it before the book was published. I don't read a ton of mysteries, but this one seemed up my alley and a possible contender for the YA book list for the state, and I serve on that committee. I have never read anything by Kara Thomas, so I was excited when my library finally got the book in.

It was a PAGE TURNER. I thought I had things figured out a few times, and I was really sucked into how everything unfolded. A great mystery for teens and adults who like to read YA.

My rating: 4.5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe. 

Progress Check In

After my bummer of a long run, I was a little down on myself. Running does that sometimes, but I'm thankful it happened on a training run vs. a race. When this happens, instead of dwelling on the bummer, I try to make myself focus on progress instead.

So Sunday, while procrastinating my recovery run in the blazing heat and humidity, while enjoying a relaxing afternoon, I decided to pick up my training log from last year to see where I was at. Last summer was the first time in years that I really felt like my training was coming together. I was running some consistent miles, including some bigger weekly mileage. I was staying consistent-ish with my weekly long runs, and was having success adding in some speed work here and there. Last summer I was finally having some fun with training.

I took a look at my long runs to start. Most of them were in the 10:40+ pace range, with the exception of some that had race pace finishes. These long runs were half the distance of my long runs this summer. And my stinker of a 20 miler? Was a 10:20 pace. Whoa. Ok. That's some much needed perspective check.

Then I took a look at my tempo workouts. Last summer my tempo goal paces were 9-9:20 pace. That was a pretty big jump up from the spring, and I was really proud of that. Now this summer, that's my goal marathon pace. What I would shoot to do for 20-40 minutes at a time last year, I'm now (hopefully) in shape to do for ~4 hours. That blows my mind.

So I would highly recommend that any time you're feeling a little ho hum about a performance, to take a few minutes to look at where you are compared to where you were (just avoid looking at those years where all of your PRs live, because that's a different comparison trap altogether :P).