I was feeling really great after the Sioux Falls half marathon. I finished strong, a good chunk of the "race" was in recovery heart rate zone because my fitness has improved so much this summer (!!), and it was the first half marathon I've done in quite some time that I thought, upon finishing, I could totally do 26.2 today.
Whoa.
That's exciting.
But once the dust settled, I caught myself thinking, hmmm.... I wonder what I would've ran if I had raced the course. Could I have broken 2? I think I'm in shape for it, but it's a hard course, and it was incredibly humid. Would the humidity have effected me if I was running harder?
And then I started looking at my goal time for the Twin Cities 10 Mile. Fun fact: last June, before we started training for the race, I wrote down a goal time for TC10 and the November half marathon on a sticky note and hung it up in my locker at work. I paid it no attention for the past few months, only to re-calculate a goal time based on some other data and realized that it matched up.... exactly. Well that's creepy.
So, when I was looking at my goal time, I started to panic a little. Why are goal paces so terrifying?? I looked at McMillans calculator and saw that an 8:08 paced 5k would translate to my goal time. That seems doable. All of my 3k-5k paced speedwork has been in the 7:49-8:10 range.
And then I remembered that our Parks and Rec was putting on a 5k Monday evening. We can't go to most of them this fall since we're training for TC10, but I thought a quick little 3 mile tune up race might be that final mental push to get my brain committed to thinking that I *can* do the goal time I have laid out. I've been running #ALLTHEMILES this year, but I haven't been racing much, so I'm really lacking that strength and ability to know I can push through the suck that comes with racing more frequently.
Tonight I'll be lining up for a 5k (or probably 3 mile, as it tends to be a short course) and seeing what these legs have in them. An 8:08 would be perfect. A sub 8 would make me do a happy dance (I couldn't even tell you the last time I had a sub 8 5k pace, maybe 2011??), and an 8:10-8:15 would even make me happy since we've ran a lot of miles the last few months.
Stay tuned!
Monday, September 18, 2017
Friday, September 15, 2017
Hill Cramming
In June, prior to starting to train for the Twin Cities 10 Miler (actually before we even got in to the lottery for the race) I re-read my blog post from 2010, and was reminded of how hilly the route was. I sent a panicked text to Toni that there were ZOMG HILLS in the TC10 and I suck at hills, and I was going to die.
She calmly replied that we'd make sure to integrate all the hill running into our training. Because she's smart. And knows exactly what to say to calm the crazy. We had a lot of endurance runs with 100 meter pick ups in them, as well as ones with 12 second hill repeats.
But as I was driving to work this week, I thought to myself, "self, have you been doing diligent hill work as promised?" and my answer was, "shit, no!" So we're 2 weeks out from the race, and I know you can't cram train for a race, but can you hill cram for a race? Because I'm going to try.
We're going to pick hillier routes for our last two long runs, which should be easy since the bike trail (my beloved flat bike path where I don't have to worry about stopping at stop lights and getting hit by vehicles) is under construction. We also do a hilly route with the group run on Wednesday nights, so we might do 3.5-4 miles with the group instead of the usual 3 to take advantage of the hilly parts, and taking a hillier route during our regular runs from the library. Eeps.
So hill cramming. TBD if that works out or if we should've started in June AS PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED. This will serve as a reminder for next year when we're doing the marathon instead of the ten miler. Mark my words (and someone actually remind me in June, please).
She calmly replied that we'd make sure to integrate all the hill running into our training. Because she's smart. And knows exactly what to say to calm the crazy. We had a lot of endurance runs with 100 meter pick ups in them, as well as ones with 12 second hill repeats.
But as I was driving to work this week, I thought to myself, "self, have you been doing diligent hill work as promised?" and my answer was, "shit, no!" So we're 2 weeks out from the race, and I know you can't cram train for a race, but can you hill cram for a race? Because I'm going to try.
We're going to pick hillier routes for our last two long runs, which should be easy since the bike trail (my beloved flat bike path where I don't have to worry about stopping at stop lights and getting hit by vehicles) is under construction. We also do a hilly route with the group run on Wednesday nights, so we might do 3.5-4 miles with the group instead of the usual 3 to take advantage of the hilly parts, and taking a hillier route during our regular runs from the library. Eeps.
So hill cramming. TBD if that works out or if we should've started in June AS PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED. This will serve as a reminder for next year when we're doing the marathon instead of the ten miler. Mark my words (and someone actually remind me in June, please).
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Twin Cities 10 Training Week 9
Week of September 4-10
Monday Planned: Recovery 5 Miles
Monday Actual: 5 recovery miles with Toni in the evening. I had terrible heartburn during most of the run so I was super thankful it was just a recovery run. Woof.
Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 8 miles 2 sets 6x100
Tuesday Actual: General Aerobic + Speed 8 miles 2 sets 6x100. I really hoped that Toni was going to sleep in and skip this run so I could also sleep in and skip this run. But she didn't, and neither did I and it was awesome to get 8 miles done before the sun was barely up. And you can't quite see it, but it was 48 degrees on that sign. Yessssss.
Wednesday Planned: VO2 Max 9 miles, 5x1200 @ 3k-5k pace
Wednesday Actual: VO2 Max 9 miles, 5x1200 @ 3k-5k pace Track work! We did 3 miles at the group run, nice and easy paced. Yoga class, then headed to the track for our workout. Similar workout to two weeks ago, but +200m for each of the repeats. Felt great!
Thursday Planned: POWER + Recovery 4 Miles
Thursday Actual: Recovery 3.25 miles with the 605 beer run. Literally ran to pick up our sushi orders and brought them back to listen to some OG runners give a panel discussion.
Friday Planned: General Aerobic 4 Miles
Friday Actual: Rest. I slept in and skipped our recovery run. Sorry Toni!
Saturday Planned: Rest
Saturday Actual: General Aerobic 4.4 Miles + 60 minute yoga class. I taught yoga and then planned to do a recovery run right after, but I had drama with my race bib and didn't end up doing my shake out run until 4 or 5pm and I was starvvvvvving.
Sunday Planned: Endurance 13.1, last 3 miles at LT: Sioux Falls Half Marathon
Sunday Actual: Sioux Falls Half Marathon! (race report to come!)
Total Mileage Planned: 43 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 43.08 miles--PEAK WEEK COMPLETE!
Monday Planned: Recovery 5 Miles
Monday Actual: 5 recovery miles with Toni in the evening. I had terrible heartburn during most of the run so I was super thankful it was just a recovery run. Woof.
Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 8 miles 2 sets 6x100
Tuesday Actual: General Aerobic + Speed 8 miles 2 sets 6x100. I really hoped that Toni was going to sleep in and skip this run so I could also sleep in and skip this run. But she didn't, and neither did I and it was awesome to get 8 miles done before the sun was barely up. And you can't quite see it, but it was 48 degrees on that sign. Yessssss.
Wednesday Planned: VO2 Max 9 miles, 5x1200 @ 3k-5k pace
Wednesday Actual: VO2 Max 9 miles, 5x1200 @ 3k-5k pace Track work! We did 3 miles at the group run, nice and easy paced. Yoga class, then headed to the track for our workout. Similar workout to two weeks ago, but +200m for each of the repeats. Felt great!
Thursday Planned: POWER + Recovery 4 Miles
Thursday Actual: Recovery 3.25 miles with the 605 beer run. Literally ran to pick up our sushi orders and brought them back to listen to some OG runners give a panel discussion.
Friday Planned: General Aerobic 4 Miles
Friday Actual: Rest. I slept in and skipped our recovery run. Sorry Toni!
Saturday Actual: General Aerobic 4.4 Miles + 60 minute yoga class. I taught yoga and then planned to do a recovery run right after, but I had drama with my race bib and didn't end up doing my shake out run until 4 or 5pm and I was starvvvvvving.
Sunday Actual: Sioux Falls Half Marathon! (race report to come!)
Total Mileage Planned: 43 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 43.08 miles--PEAK WEEK COMPLETE!
Friday, September 8, 2017
Sioux Falls Half Marathon Race Goals
Sunday's Sioux Falls Half Marathon is my 13th consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon and my 32nd half marathon. This is the first time ever that I'm doing the race as a training run for a goal race later in the fall. The workout is 13 miles with the last three at lactate threshold pace.
My plan is to run the first ten around 10:30 pace with the last 3.1 near 9:00 pace. If I run that exactly as planned, I think that puts me around 2:12. Last year I predicted a 2:12:08 for my finishing time (which was VERY ambitious, lolz) so it'd be kind of fun to run close to that time. But truly I just want to have a good time and get to cheer on a bunch of my friends and get a finisher medal after running my long run!
My plan is to run the first ten around 10:30 pace with the last 3.1 near 9:00 pace. If I run that exactly as planned, I think that puts me around 2:12. Last year I predicted a 2:12:08 for my finishing time (which was VERY ambitious, lolz) so it'd be kind of fun to run close to that time. But truly I just want to have a good time and get to cheer on a bunch of my friends and get a finisher medal after running my long run!
Thursday, September 7, 2017
August in Review
Total Miles: 140.7 miles up from 112 miles last month. 58.7 miles last August.
Total Time: 24:45:18 up from 20:09:56. Average pace dropped from 10:49 to 10:34 even with more miles. Whoop!
Total Runs: 24 runs, an average of 5.86 miles/run.
Highest weekly mileage:
| 8/14/2017 – 8/20/2017: | 39.1 mi | 6:51:01 | 10:32 / mi |
|---|
Favorite run: 8 miles with 5x1000 m repeats at the track with Toni.
Most hardcore run: 14 mile long run in all the humidity after it had disappeared for a few weeks. Barf.
Favorite Race: The only race I did was the 605 Series 8 mile, which was part of our 11 mile long run with tempo miles. It wasn't a race-race, but it felt good to have a hard effort workout!
Bike Miles: 0 miles.
Favorite Jam: During the 14 mile death march long run, I was wishing I had brought my headphones to zone out during the last few hard miles, so I pretended I was listening to N Sync's Bye Bye Bye. So I suppose that.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Twin Cities 10 Training Week 8
Week of August 28-September 3
Monday Planned: General Aerobic 4 miles
Monday Actual: Rest day. Still some residual hamstring tightness so I erred on the side of caution.
Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 6 miles 2 sets 4x150m strides
Tuesday Actual: General Aerobic 6 miles. Opted to skip the strides to be on the safe side. Legs felt about 90% better.
Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 3 miles
Wednesday Actual: 3.5 Miles with the group run at 605 Running Co. I had hoped to do 8 miles to make up for some of the miles, some before yoga some after, but that didn't happen. AND *gasp* we forgot to take a running selfie. Ugh. So sad.
Thursday Planned: LT 9 miles, 36 minutes at tempo
Thursday Actual: LT 9 miles, 36 minutes at tempo, it was hot and humid but we did it and did it well! 3 miles warm up, 4 miles at tempo, and 2 miles cool down. Major confidence boost.
Friday Planned: Recovery 3 miles
Friday Actual: Recovery 4 miles. I met up with the coffee run with the hopes of doing 3-4 miles depending on how my legs felt after doing the tempo run about 10 hours earlier. They felt great. I kept it nice and slow but got in an easy 4.
Saturday Planned: GA 3-5 miles.
Saturday Actual: We stayed at Kyle's parents' cabin on Friday night and Ollie was being really weird and wouldn't sleep and then she got sick in the middle of the night. I think I maybe slept 20 minutes. So tired. It was the perfect day for a run too.
Sunday Planned: Endurance 12 miles
Sunday Actual: Ugh. Kyle brought his bike up to our camper to be my bike sherpa Sunday morning, and it did not happen. I barely slept yet again, and despite not having run since Friday morning, I could feel massive knots in my calves, and didn't bring any of my torture devices along to rectify the situation.
Total Mileage Planned: 36 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 22.58 miles.
Monday Planned: General Aerobic 4 miles
Monday Actual: Rest day. Still some residual hamstring tightness so I erred on the side of caution.
Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 6 miles 2 sets 4x150m strides
Tuesday Actual: General Aerobic 6 miles. Opted to skip the strides to be on the safe side. Legs felt about 90% better.
Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 3 miles
Wednesday Actual: 3.5 Miles with the group run at 605 Running Co. I had hoped to do 8 miles to make up for some of the miles, some before yoga some after, but that didn't happen. AND *gasp* we forgot to take a running selfie. Ugh. So sad.
Thursday Planned: LT 9 miles, 36 minutes at tempo
Thursday Actual: LT 9 miles, 36 minutes at tempo, it was hot and humid but we did it and did it well! 3 miles warm up, 4 miles at tempo, and 2 miles cool down. Major confidence boost.
Friday Planned: Recovery 3 miles
Friday Actual: Recovery 4 miles. I met up with the coffee run with the hopes of doing 3-4 miles depending on how my legs felt after doing the tempo run about 10 hours earlier. They felt great. I kept it nice and slow but got in an easy 4.
Saturday Actual: We stayed at Kyle's parents' cabin on Friday night and Ollie was being really weird and wouldn't sleep and then she got sick in the middle of the night. I think I maybe slept 20 minutes. So tired. It was the perfect day for a run too.
Sunday Planned: Endurance 12 miles
Sunday Actual: Ugh. Kyle brought his bike up to our camper to be my bike sherpa Sunday morning, and it did not happen. I barely slept yet again, and despite not having run since Friday morning, I could feel massive knots in my calves, and didn't bring any of my torture devices along to rectify the situation.
Total Mileage Planned: 36 miles
Total Mileage Actual: 22.58 miles.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Labor Day Weekend
Friday night after work, Ollie, Kyle and I packed up and headed north to Kyle's parents' cabin for the night. We got there, had an awesome dinner and then spent some time by the camp fire, before I was zonking out by the fire. I attempted to go to bed, but a) I had forgotten my earplugs and everyone snores and b) Ollie was being super weird, wouldn't sleep, was pacing in the bed, and then eventually got sick. So I got zero sleep.
After an awesome breakfast, we went out on the water for a nice long pontoon ride. Despite Ollie's RBF, she really loves boat rides. I think she was also exhausted from the evening of not sleeping. It got a little toasty toward the end of the boat ride, so I was attempting to make her a shaded tent out of my running shirt.
I also thought she'd enjoy having a sleep mask of her own to block out the sun.
Saturday afternoon we headed further north to go up to our camper. There was a campsite potluck dinner, so I got to meet a bunch of our "neighbors" and eat a lot of delicious food (most of which was deep fat fried or included mayo as a major recipe component).
Sunday morning I bailed on my long run and Kyle and I went out fishing. It was the most perfect day to be on the water. Warm but not hot, a nice breeze, no bugs. I was in heaven. Even if the fish weren't biting. At all.
Eventually we caught a couple but nothing big enough to keep. Monday the winds were atrocious so we packed up early to head home. It was an awesome weekend. Why isn't every weekend three days long??
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