Marathon Training - Week 12

The laziest blog post ever.

Yep, that's all I did last week to mark the halfway point of this adventure. I was recovering from being on vacation for a week (where I got minimal rest) and work was hell all week. I continue to follow the Run Less, Run Faster plan and some of these paces are tough. But this should make the marathon easier, right? Someone please say yes!

The highlights were a little painting and wine time with the mommas from Moms Run This Town.

It started out a little scary.

But turned out not so bad. And this is my view every morning going in to work.

Then, the week ended with a Rogue Run. We were supposed to run a local half that is co-sponsored by the marathon team, but I just wasn't feeling a run through farmland. After the Zooma debacle, I need a fantastic half and I didn't think this was going to be it. So one of my wonderful teammates created the Going Rogue run. About 40 of us ran our own little half around Richmond. We covered part of the marathon route and I got to run over a new bridge. And we even got a medal and certificate at the end. Greg is awesome.

And here's my running twin, except she's a lot faster. We even have the same shoes, and excellent taste in skirts.

I didn't race this run, but rather just let the miles roll by. We still have a long way until November 16th, so let's go drink a milkshake.

That's my crazy kid sucking down my peanut butter chocolate milkshake. It's a good thing he's cute.

 

Jilly Bean

Marathon Training - Week 11

I stink at blogging, or more specifically, the consistency of blogging.

I freaked out about running 16 miles. And then never said how it ended up. I know you've been waiting on the edge of your seat.

Sarcasm aside. I made it. Getting up at 4:15 on vacation to meet a perfect stranger (through a local running club) to run through the PITCH black streets of the Outer Banks to run 16 miles.

Thank goodness for angels, because that is what the wonderful woman, K, is after hosting me for this run. After we started, she told me that this was a recovery run after her 50 km race last week.

Huh? Say what? What have I gotten myself into?

Well, she was awesome. We had great conversation, got to see the sun rise, and easily tackled the first 8 miles. She started not feeling so great shortly before 10, but stuck it out with me for 12.5 before making sure I knew where to go for the rest. She was inspiring and I'm thankful to have met her.

So, this is where I'm supposed to tell you it was rainbows and unicorns for the last 3.5. It was not. The humidity struck and I ran out of water. But in the end, it was done. I even clocked 9:08 for the last mile because I was like a horse who could smell the barn. All I really wanted to smell was bacon because I was also hungry.

I might have even called my sister to make sure my family had left me some bacon and eggs for breakfast before coming home. And there may have been a threat involved if it was gone when I got there.

Here's the sweaty selfie with a canal backdrop that made we want to jump in or maybe just sit for a while in those bright chairs.

I couldn't wait to take a picture before chomping down, and yes that is a cran-pomegranate mimosa, and it was AWESOME. And I might have washed this all down with sour cream and onion Pringles after this. Guess I needed some salt.

And the biggest surprise of all was that I felt pretty good the next day. Packing the car with lots of stairs probably helped to work the soreness out.

So, maybe I can do this marathon thing. This run made up for the sucky 10 miler last week and Tuesday's sweatfest.

Week 11 is in the books. No cross-training happened, but longest run yet did.

 

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16 miles

I'm definitely going to be saying WTF (where's the finish) tomorrow morning.

This will be my longest run so far.

I'm on vacation and meeting someone from the local running group at 5 am. I don't do 5 am.

And the forecast is for cool rain ... and I didn't bring a long sleeve shirt.

If it's pouring, I'm not going. But I'm gonna try.

 

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Marathon Training - Week 10

The number 10 was not a good one for me. The week was humming along (still no core workouts), and I started thinking that "Oh, it's only 10 miles this week. Piece of cake considering the last two great long runs I've had." Cue the Jaws music in honor of Shark Week.

That long run chewed me up, and thank goodness, spit me out. It was hot, humid, muggy, and overall CRAPTASTIC! And I wasn't the only one in my group that felt that way. I'm lucky I fell into stride with another girl around mile 5 and we finished up almost together. Right before we got back to the finish, I had to stop to walk and drink because I started feeling chills. Let the dehydration begin.

And I kept feeling bad for a while. We needed to finish packing for vacation when I got back, and I could hardly move. Everything was just tired. Some food, foam rolling with a brief siesta on the floor, a shower, and I could finally move again. Thank goodness for compression socks, but I needed a compression body suit.

The rest of the week went well. Speed work is humming along. The goal was 4x800 at 3:47. I hit the first one at 3:39 (whoops, too fast), then the next two at 3:49, and finally finishing up at 3:47. Thank goodness for treadmills because I'm not savy enough to hit those on a track yet.

Can you tackle speed work on the track?

How do you recover from a CRAPTASTIC run?

 

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A Virtual Half and Marathon Training - Week 9

The only thing worse than coming back from vacation is getting ready for vacation. I feel like I am running two weeks behind, and guess what, I am on anything that I didn't have to do before vacation.

So here goes.

The core workouts have become non-existent. And I miss them. Gotta figure out how to make it happen.

Cycling as cross-training has continued to be great.

And then I was scared to run 14 after last week's awesome run. Luckily, I met up with Emma from A Mom Runs This Town who is our local Moms Run This Town Chapter Leader. She coordinated the Running Mad Virtual Half/10k/5k for us. And she slowed down to run with me and two other girls for the half. Thanks Emma! I got there a little early to try to add up to 14 (ended up with 13.6, longest run to date). It was hot but doable, and we had Baker's Crust for breakfast.

I had to steal this photo from Emma of part of our crew.

And here's the cool stuff we got.

So glad to meet some new runners and have time to chat with friends while working out. Double bonus.

 

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