Banquet 10k Race Goals + Maintenance Week

I took a brief poll on instagram the other day because I couldn't decide whether to run the 10k or the 5k on Thanksgiving. It's going to be so nice here, so I think I was excited when the vote swung to 10k. But then I had to think of a time goal. I want to run a hard 10k, but I'm not really sure what that'll look like. I haven't raced a 10k well in 3.5 years, so we'll see what that ends up looking like, but I'd like to be in the 8:30-8:40s for pace.

Maintenance Week November 13th-19th

Monday: Rest. I had plans to run with Toni after work, and then she was sick. And by the time I got home, I just couldn't get myself off the couch to go solo.

Tuesday: I had a horrible night of sleep Monday night and a run sounded miserable. Off to a great start this week! [sarcasm font]

Wednesday: Group run at 605 with company from my BRF. We're on the no-plan plan this week so we were thinking 3-4. I love when we do that, because we always end up going on the longer range. 4 miles done followed by yoga.

Thursday: Toni and I met up after work for some more miles. Since I didn't run Monday or Tuesday we opted for six, and I love how nbd 6 milers feel nowadays. That used to be a legit long run! #progress

Friday: Up and at em at 4am to make it to the coffee run for 4 miles and all the coffee after. Best way to start the day!

Saturday: Yoga at the brewery!

Sunday: 9 mile long run on the most beautiful winter day. If it could stay in the 30s with no snow or freezing rain or ice, I would love running a million times more!!

Total miles: 23.13 miles. Not quite the 25 I had as a goal, but pretty darn close!

Maintenance Training Week 7

Week of July 3-9

Monday: I had Kyle convinced to join me on his bike for 2-3 miles to accompany me after work for my run. And then I stepped outside, and could barely breathe. So we scrapped the run instead. And ate ice cream out of the carton. Perfect race eve fuel. Duh.

Tuesday: Lennox Firecracker 5k. Had planned to get in 6 miles for the day and got in 3.13 and not a step more. I did walk a good mile afterward just trying to get my heart rate to come down.

Wednesday: It was so hot and humid that I convinced my yoga class to do yoga inside instead of on the beautiful deck, and I skipped my run. So hot, so cranky. We did a lovely 60 minutes of yin stretching inside.

Thursday: And after a few days of hades level temps, I finally vowed to start running in the morning. Thank goodness. I ran from my house and met Toni about a mile in to the run, we did 3 miles together and then I headed home for 5 miles total.

Friday: Back to POWER. I was sweating my ass off in the middle of our warm up. So that's embarrassing. We had a week off, so I knew I'd be sore, so I made myself take a really easy 2 mile jog after to flush out my legs a bit.

Obsessed with my new Oregon Track Club tank.

Saturday: We had our first long run in quite awhile. We had planned for 6-8 and knocked 8 out of the park. My stomach was a little iffy on the final mile, but it felt really good otherwise. Our splits were insanely even and it was great to have my running buddy back!

I taught a 60 minute yoga class after with lots of hip openers because I realized I couldn't demo any warriors or lunges without opening my hips. Oops.

Sunday: Rest. Sweet sweet rest. And core work. But mostly rest.

Total Mileage: 20.2 miles

Brookings Half Training Week 8

Week of April 10-16
Monday Planned: Recovery 5 miles
Monday Actual: Rest. I skipped my run because I thought I was going to meet with a family about re-homing a pug. No pug, no run. Grrr.

Tuesday Planned: Lactate Threshold 9 miles with 38 at LT
Tuesday Actual: Originally I had thought I would be done with POWER mid-March, so I had some tougher workouts planned for Tuesday mornings. Once they offered POWER for another session, I was all in. But clearly cannot do 9 miles with 4ish at LT after a POWER session. I had planned to do my 5 mile recovery run, but I was exhausted and actually fell back asleep after my shower, before work. Ooops.

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 4 Miles 8x100 m strides
Wednesday Actual: 4 miles with Toni. I apparently neglected to notice the strides we were supposed to do as well. Ooops. Then yoga. Some lovely stretchy yin yoga.

Thursday Planned: Endurance 10 Miles
Thursday Actual: 10 endurance miles. It was so beautiful out. What a perfect day for a double digit run.

Friday Planned: Recovery 4 miles
Friday Actual: 4 Recovery miles with Jordanne for the coffee run. This means I woke up in the 4s just to drink some coffee with friends before work. It was so hot, humid and muggy that I had to take a lot of walk breaks to keep my heart rate nice and low. After ten miles was a breeze, this was quite humbling.

Saturday Planned: Long Run Progression 13 miles, increase pace last 3 miles at LT
Saturday Actual: Yoga. A few weeks ago, I learned I can't run further than 4-6 miles before I teach yoga, because I'm such a creaky, tight muscled mess that I'm afraid I'm going to hurt myself. So I couldn't do my long run before I taught yoga. And then after there were thunderstorms and VERY warm temps on the forecast. I meant to do 4-5 miles just to make up some of my miles for the week, but Saturday got away from me.

Sunday Planned: Rest.
Sunday Actual: I had a terrible night of sleep, not going to bed until maybe 3:30am and tossing and turning until 8am when I finally got up. By the time I got up there wasn't enough time to run before Easter. I had thought I could go after, but I got stuck watching Kyle finish rigging a boat, which took 2.5 hours. aka the exact amount of time it would've taken me to do a 13.1 mile training run. Grrrr.

Total Mileage Planned: 45 miles
Total Mileage Actual:  18 miles. womp.

Wedding Week Training Recap

I worked Monday and Tuesday of wedding week, and then Megan got in! We opted for sushi and catching up instead of working out. 

Wednesday we had a to-do list a mile long, and then made our way to back to back yoga classes. Starting with power vinyasa.

Followed by restorative.

 

And then Thursday was spent at the barre.

Friday I got some strange looks from friends and instructors that knew I was getting married on Friday. Apparently they all thought I had somewhere else to be, but I thought the mat was the perfect place to start the day!

Weekly Training Recap

On Tuesday I did a quick tempo run to and from barreamped.

Tuesday's barre class was small and was tough as usual. I have no clue how I ran faster on the way home than on the way to the studio. Must've been that power I gained from the booty work.

Wednesday I managed to get out of bed for 5:30am Ashtanga yoga. I'm going to miss working on the primary series when this session is over!

Wednesday night I was messing around and showing Kyle a flow series, and ended up pulling a rib out of place. I did this at the beginning of yoga teacher training, and it had FINALLY healed, but one chaturanga later, I was back to where I started. I had to take Thursday, Friday and Saturday off to rest it.

Sunday morning I went to an awesome power vinyasa class. There were some uncomfortable moments in class, and I skipped chaturangas, but overall it felt great to be back on the mat.

Weekly Training Recap

Before starting the 28 day TransFORMation, we were told that days 3-5 would be the hardest and our energy levels would be low and to beware. So on Monday and Tuesday when I was exhausted, I listened. I seem to have a handle on the meals and timing and portions, but throw in a workout, and I feel like crap.

So Wednesday rolled around, and I felt awesome. I slept amazing, and if it wasn't for Kyle's alarm going off at 3am (and snoozing for an hour....wtf Kyle) I would've been well rested enough to get up for early morning Ashtanga! But such is life.

I was able to head to the running store after work for a group run! I'm still the pokiest person there, but it's nice to chat with folks before and after the runs. During this training "cycle" my plan is to come to weekly group runs and run 2-3 miles at a tempo-ish pace. Clearly my body is not prepared to run in humidity, so after going out a bit too fast, I paid for it. I still managed to finish strong, but if my heart rate at the end of the run is any indication, I have some work to do on my cardio!

I did get to chat with the store folks about leading a post-run yoga flow during their weekly run, so hopefully that'll pan out in the near future!

Friday I attended the Manifestation flow that kicked off another weekend of yoga teacher training. It was exactly what I needed to hear. Lora is an amazing yoga instructor.

Saturday morning kicked off with a Chakra flow which was awesome.

Sunday we spent practice teaching, so I did 2.5 hours of sun salutations. Uff. And then later in the evening I taught a 40 minute class to Kyle to practice.

Weekly Training Recap

Monday I skipped my usual gentle vinyasa class to instead sit in and observe the class. As part of my yoga teacher training requirements, I need to take 30 classes with approved teachers (nbd), observe 10 classes with approved teachers (eeps!), and assist 10 classes with approved teachers (double eeps!). I figured I should get going on the requirements. However, after spending 18 hours in the yoga studio throughout the weekend, it felt like I hadn't left when I rolled in Monday morning!

Tuesday I was grumpy so I skipped my weekly barre date with Emily. Wednesday I had to go to work early for training, so I was able to go to a 5:30pm barre class. The class was taught by one of my yoga teacher training classmates. She's a fairly new instructor, and she ROCKED the class. It was so amazing and hard.

Friday I had the day off from work so I did a lunchtime shake and flow class: 30 minutes of barre followed by 30 minutes of vinyasa flow. I love these classes because it's easier for me to push myself really hard in the first 30 minutes knowing I don't have to "save myself" for a full 60 minutes of class.

Later in the day, I went to a power vinyasa flow class. It was awesome and I left dripping in sweat with a smile on my face and a song for Kyle and I to walk down the aisle to (more on that later).

I hope you all had a hoppy Easter!

Weekly Training Recap

Monday I started the day with a BarreAmped class with a new-to-me instructor. 

Tuesday I worked late due to an event, so I got to attend one of my favorite instructor's power vinyasa class in the morning. 

Wednesday I took a rest day and Thursday I went to a yoga sculpt class with my favorite sculpt class. I was lucky that my co-worker Emily wanted to give sculpt a try so I had a buddy! Yay buddies! 

Friday it was straight from work to yoga teacher training which started with my first experience with Astanga yoga. We practiced for 90 minutes with the room set up like a traditional astanga studio with two lanes facing inward with an empty lane in between us. We got to listen to the sanskrit counting and poses that we had been instructed to memorize for this weekend. Eeps.

Saturday morning we kicked off the teacher training by doing a 1 hour inversion class. I'm not very confident in my inversion practice so it was great to learn some proper technique and alignment as well as some exercises to get me flipping upside down! I also got to practice with one of my favorite pug owners Mary! She's an awesome yogi, so hopefully we get to play around more frequently! Pug yogi in the dog park has been thrown out... .somewhat seriously. :)

Sunday morning we started our session with a 30 minute yoga session where we focused on deep stretching. It may have been an "easy" flow but my arms were so dead that downward facing dog made me feel like my arms were going to fall off. :/ Throughout the day we practiced tons of Sun A and B salutations, so I feel like I have a few hours of yoga in on Sunday. 

Weekly Training Recap

I took a few days off last week because during teacher training I thought I had strained a muscle in my chest. Chaturwrongway apparently. I rested and stretched.

Thursday I woke up and it was completely gone. I attempted a couple of push ups and had no pain. Which seemed random to me. I went to yoga sculpt taught by a new to me teacher and it was hard. More dancy/choreographed than I'm used to. It was fun though, and no chest pain. Whoop.

Friday while getting ready for bed I hurt my chest afain and realized that I had a rib going in and out of place. Grr. I think a chiro visit is in my near future.

Saturday I worked and then fell asleep at 6pm. 

Sunday I worked and then went to a BarreAmped+ class. A harder version of the typical barre classes I attend. Hard but good! 

Weekly Training Recap

Awesome Monday morning  flow.

Tuesday morning I got up for 5:30am power vinyasa. I felt like absolute crap and was somewhat convinced that I was getting the flu. Blech.

Thursday night I went to yoga sculpt and there were only two people in the class. That made it so much harder. Oh my. We did ten pushups before every chaturanga. Woof. It hurt to text later in the night.

Saturday morning power vinyasa flow. It was good and tough and fueled by free delicious lattes for the gym's 1 year anniversary.

Sunday was a super hard power vinyasa class. So many lunges, so much plank word. Uff da.

Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon Training Recap Week 15

Monday I went to a new massage therapist and it was like night and day from last week's experience, thank god. He said that he didn't ever want me to be in pain that I couldn't tolerate for 10 seconds. There were a few times that I was uncomfortable for a 10 count but nothing like the week before when I wished we had established a safe word. 

He actually thinks my issues are stemming from my feet and worked my arch as well as a muscle that runs from the bottom of your foot to the inside of your calf and attaches at the inside of your knee, then starts up again and wraps around to the hip. My right leg was also considerably shorter than the left leg, so when he was done working things, that was back to normal. Apparently my right leg is my strong leg.

I left the massage feeling loose and optimistic about Bemidji.

Tuesday I had a book club with some friends and mexican and margaritas is not good pre-run fuel so I had another rest day.

Wednesday I set out for an easy 3 miles. I had some tightness in my left calf, but no pain. I'll likely just be doing easy 3-6 mile runs during the week and my taper-length long runs on the weekend up until race day.

I had planned to do my long run on Friday (I worked Saturday at the library this week), but I was really nervous that it was going to hurt. So I just enjoyed a lazy day with the pug. I wrote a ton of blog posts, read a book, and did some core work. So it was equal parts lazy and productive I guess.

Saturday I worked and then went out to one of Kyle's fishing buddy's housewarming party. While at the party I started having some stabbing lower back pain on my right side. My heart rate was crazy high and I started to feel nauseous. Neat. We ended up leaving around 10pm.

When I woke up on Sunday I was still feeling short of breath, and I thought it had to do with my allergies. They've been a pain the behind for the last few weeks. I did my usual hip/glute exercises and while I was waiting for my garmin to find a signal, I realized I was panting like a pug. That's when I realized I probably had a rib out that was effecting my breathing.

Luckily for me I had 12 pain free miles. They weren't anything speedy, but it was nice to run instead of hobbling like last weekend. My breathing was really off, and my heart rate was really high, but I'm hoping things will sort themselves during my massage tomorrow.

Most importantly: Bemidji is a go!!!

Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon Training Recap Week 14

I already briefly mentioned in a previous post how week 14 of training went, but for the purposes of looking back on this for future planning/training ponderings, I'd like to do my regular weekly post. Apologies if I'm a bore.

Monday I received the massage from hell.

And I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday recovering from it. I was honestly more sore after the massage than I am after marathons. Brutal.

I would've liked to extend my long run to the weekend, but I worked Saturday and I had a friend's bachelorette party Saturday night, so I knew I'd be in no condition to run long on Sunday. Had I known that the evening wasn't going to be quite so crazy, and that the temps were 30 degrees cooler on Sunday, I surely would've waited.

As it was, I set out for my long run Friday morning around 8. I felt great until around mile 9 when my hip started to tighten. And then things quickly went downhill after mile 12. I finally threw in the towel at 16.25 and walked the last 1.75 home. Womp.

I then preceded to lay on this foam roller for the next hour or so until my stomach NEEDED Qdoba.

I spent the rest of Friday and Saturday freaking out about the race and if I'd be able to do it or not.

Sunday I searched all the yoga studios in town for a restorative or gentle flow class, and I found one at a new studio about a mile from my place. And your first class is free. See you there! It was magical. The room was still really warm from the previous class and I was there super early to fill out paperwork, so I spent a good 15 minutes stretching on my own before class started. We held various poses for 5-7 minutes at a time, and there were moments I felt like I was actually melting in to my yoga mat. Ahhhhhh so amazing.

Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon Training Recap Week 13

I spent the beginning of the week foam rolling my face off.

By Thursday I finally had all the ouchies out of my IT band. And by Saturday I decided to push my long run to Sunday.

Sunday I made it .1 of my 18 miles before calling it quits and walking back home. But not before stopping to stretch three times to see if that'd help. Nope. It's a different knee pain than what I've experienced in the past, and I attributed it to residual IT band soreness that I wasn't getting completely.

So instead of a 3 hour long run, I went for a 3 hour long ride. Not nearly as beneficial as the run, but it was still a great day to be out enjoying the outdoors.

Longest solo ride. Second longest ride ever. While maintaining my fastest long-long ride pace. Wahoo!