Highest Mileage Week: 42 miles

This week was a good week.   All the knee pain is gone.   Lesson learned......listening to my body is always a good idea.   I'm so glad I took 4 days off last weekend because now (fingers crossed) I seem to be back to 100%.

Monday was a 7 mile tempo.   Felt good and thought the splits were right on target:
9:31
9:02
8:26
7:46
8:40
9:23
9:39

Tuesday was 7 x hill. I wanted to conserve a little energy for my second 20 miler on Wednesday so I didn't give full effort on the hills. I was proud to knock out all 7 though and then we headed to our hill repeat treat.....the petting zoo!! 

Wednesday was a pretty solid 20 miler.   I felt tired in the middle (as evidenced by my splits) but then felt pretty energetic towards the end and finished strong.   All in all a good run.
9:43
9:23
9:24
9:34
9:38
9:39
9:35
12:31
9:55
9:47
9:53
9:40
9:51
10:11
9:59
9:27
9:25
8:17 (I'm thinking the gps may have glitched here, but maybe I should just give myself credit.)
9:29

Thursday was an off day, followed by an easy 5 miler Friday.   Avg pace 9:14

Saturday was a 7 mile pace run.    I am still a little nervous about my lack of ability to find and hold my race pace.  I am always too fast, but I know that I couldn't hold the faster pace for the entire 26 miles.   I'm going to try this week to focus on pacing correctly.   Based on these splits, I clearly need it:  
Target pace 8:31
My Splits:
8:29
8:17
7:50
8:20
8:24
8:29
8:29 
I'm pretty sure that in this case, faster isn't better.   Really need to work on this. 

This week is a fall back week, followed by my third 20 miler week and then the taper officially begins.   yay!

Listening to my body, even when it hurts......

Well, this week started off MUCH better than it is ending.   Susannah and I both came down with colds last weekend, so I was dreading my Monday 7x800 workout.   It turned out to be really great though.   I felt good, only had to blow my nose a few times, the weather was beautiful, and Susannah was content in the stroller.........a recipe for a good morning.  Here are the splits:
3:29
3:29
3:27
3:29
3:32
3:33
3:28
I feel good about these because they are all in or below my 3:30-3:40 range and I did them all pushing Susannah, with 4/7 being into a headwind.   Even if my nike gps is a little generous, I still feel confident about this workout.

Tuesday was supposed to be 6 easy miles, but I had a baby-sitting committment at 9 and we didn't get out the door in time to do all 6 miles (And I opted to use 10 of the minutes we did have getting coffee) so we only did 3 at a 9:30 pace.

Wednesday was a 12 miler since this is a fall back week.   I felt okay at the beginning but by the turn-around I was feeling my hamstrings again.   I managed to keep a pretty consistent pace throughout the run, but I definitely felt pretty tired at the end.     Here are the splits:
9:22
9:22
9:15
9:21
9:27
9:08
9:37
9:22
9:18
9:08
9:02

Thursday was a scheduled rest day, which was a good thing considering my left knee was hurting even when I walked.   Not horrible pain, just a little ache, but still an ache.   NOT GOOD NEWS!!!!   My left IT band and glute are complaining too, so I've decided to take today off as well.   And probably tomorrow so that I will have a 4 day rest period before starting back again on Monday.   I'm going to stay positive and trust that God has even this in his hands and he will use whatever happens for good.   Definitely keeping fingers crossed though that his plan involves me being injury free, well trained and on the start line of the Ojai to Ocean Marathon in June.   ;)

Happy running (and resting) to everybody!

This week has been pretty solid.    My hill workout on Tuesday was a little disappointing.....my legs were tired and heavy.......but I found my strong and got it done.  (Just a warning.....I am a little obsessed with Saucony's new ad campaign and will probably be using the slogan an obnoxious number of times in my posts.)   I told my partner Brittany that sometimes Finding Your Stong just means finishing the workout and that was definitely the case.   So, while I didn't run up the 6th avenue hill as fast as I would have liked, I ran up it the 6 times my workout called for and that is all that really matters.   The other thing that really matters is Susannah got to go see the petting zoo goats after our run.   And oh, how she loves them!

  

The day before the hill workout, I did a 6.5 mile run with 5 at race pace.   Felt pretty satisfied with this effort.    Here are splits for that one:
9:35
8:51
8:31
8:14
8:24
8:18

Then Wednesday came the first 20 miler.  I was mentally prepared because the weather report said 100% chance of rain and predicted the rain to be "heavy and steady" for the hours I was planning to run.   So I was ready......dreading it, but ready.   Waterproof jacket.....check.    Hat.....check.   ziplock bag for phone.....check    A determination to run 20 miles even if it meant pneumonia......check.  
After all my meticulous planning and prayers for strength and will power though, God decided to give me a break.   So even though the weather forecast on my phone was still reading a "100% chance" of rain, I enjoyed 20 miles of sunshine with only one 5 minute shower that came at the perfect time and provided the perfect amount of refreshment I needed at mile 11.   Thank you Lord!!

The surprisingly good weather must have been symbolic of the entire run, too.   Despite my fears of heavy legs after running hard Monday and Tuesday, I was pleasantly surprised with my performance.   I averaged a 9:35 for the first 15 miles.   I felt good but wanted to stay conservative because I knew that this week was a 3:1 workout so I was supposed to run the last 5 miles at race pace.   And while my training plan author, Hal Higdon, would definitely frown on it, I decided to go pretty much all out for the last 5 miles so I could do a little mental training in preparation for the pain of race day.   It was tough, but I gave it my all and this was the result:
Mile 16  8:34
Mile 17 8:25
Mile 18  8:09
Mile 19  8:05
Mile 20 7:50
I think I Found My Strong on this run.   ;)

I took Thursday off to rest my legs and then did a 6 mile easy run yesterday.   Felt pretty heavy but averaged a 9:15 pace which felt slow and easy.

Today I was supposed to run 10 easy miles, but we are having a serious wind storm and the jogging stroller creates quite the resistance, so I ended up only doing 8.   My hamstrings are a little whiny with me so I decided cutting it short was the wise choice.   I averaged a 10:05 but that was with the crazy, crazy wind and several stops to give Susannah snacks.   I don't think she liked the wind either so she was whining along with my hamstrings.

Taking tomorrow off and then hitting it hard on Monday with 7 x 800 repeats.   Happy Running everybody!

I'm Back

So, what has happened with my training in the three weeks that have passed since my last post?   Thankfully, I am happy to report that I'm still on track and feeling strong for my first of three 20 milers this week.  

I just returned from a two and a half week visit to Georgia and Tennessee.   I didn't post from there because I don't like advertising on the internet that we have an empty house waiting to be burglarized.   But now we are home and Meadow is posted at the door, so I figure it is time to play some catch up.  
I'm not going to document every single run from the trip, but would like to highlight a few points.   First of all, I discovered that I miss hills.   After living in two flat cities, I had convinced myself that hills were the enemy, so I was sort of dreading my runs during our trip.....especially the fast runs.   But I was pleasantly surprised.  My first run in LaGrange was a tempo run and I was so happy when I remembered that, while the uphills are tough, the downhills provide a full rest period or a great time to make up for any speed that was lost on the uphill.   Luckily I had lots of grandparents willing to keep Susannah so I didn't have to tackle the hills with the extra 30 lbs.   I managed to hit all my target paces for my runs while I was home.  
My two long run days while I was away were great.   The first was a 17 miler that I did in Callaway Gardens.   It was so beautiful.....all the spring flowers were in bloom and the azaleas were so vibrant and bright.   I kept a sub 10 minute pace the entire first 13 miles and felt really good.   Listened to two good sermons and enjoyed the scenery and the rolling hills.   This week was a 3/1 run so I knew I needed to pick it up to race pace for the last 4 miles.   Considering the hills, I had decided to give myself a break if I was feeling tired, but luckily, I still had lots of gas so I reset my GPS, turned up some music and took off.   I was super happy with the results......an average of 8:22 pace for the last 4 miles with the last mile being a 7:45 pace.   Yay!

The next week's long run was a half marathon. This was the most perfect timing ever because that weekend happened to be the Knoxville Marathon weekend. Over Christmas vacation I had convinced my cousin Caleb to run his first half marathon and I was so excited to run with him. It was a great course and such a fun morning......I was so proud of Caleb for pushing through the pain of the last few miles and we were rewarded with cheers of friends and family at the finish and a delicious lunch prepared by Grandmama! I think cornbread is definitely my favorite post race recovery meal.

Caleb and me pre-race

Celebrating afterward with my best friend from childhood, Lyndsey and her precious daughter Ellie.

I also did one speed workout while I was home.....6 800's.   I was pretty pleased with the results, but also a little wary because I was depending on my GPS for distance.   According to Nike Plus though, I did all 6 under my training goal......I'm supposed to do my 800's between 3:30 and 3:40.   Here are my splits:

3:35

3:19

3:18

3:10

3:19

3:29

Last week we arrived home on Wednesday, got organized on Thursday and then Friday I did my longest run yet....19 miles.   My friend Brittany was awesome enough to come along on the bike to keep me company.   I was so thankful.   We chatted the entire way and it was such a successful strategy because I didn't even start to feel tired until Mile 14 or so.  And even then I felt relatively good.   It was a beautiful sunny day so that probably helped too.   My legs were super tired after I finished though and stayed pretty achy throughout the rest of the day.    Didn't have any soreness Saturday though and managed to push my legs (and Susannah) on a 7 mile tempo run.  I was expecting to feel super heavy and was considering changing from a tempo run to a recovery run, but I ended up feeling okay so I went ahead with the tempo.     

9:42

9:12

8:17

7:48

8;44

9:23

8:58

Tomorrow is 6 hill repeats and Wednesday is that first 20 miler.   It is supposed to rain and I don't have a partner for that one.   Going to need to use Saucony's slogan and "FIND MY STRONG."  I'm a total fan of their new ad campaign.  Happy running everybody!

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