Training log: Week 13

I am officially the worst at recaps. In my defense, school work has been a pain and taken a lot of my free time up. Plus running 60 miles the last week eats up quite a bit of your time (and a lot of your time is also spent eating). I actually had the thought of typing this up three different nights but then an extra hour of sleep won out. Sorry not sorry.

Ugh this week. Right when I was feeling strong I get knocked back down to size (it’s okay, my ego needs that from time to time). I am sure there is some weather related science-y explanation for it but I like to believe that for some reason North Carolina has been cursed by a demon spirit and we are living in a hell of heat in humidity because we were all enjoying the first day of fall far too much. For serious, I have lived in the south my entire life but the humidity we have been dealing with is the worst. It’s been two weeks of runs where you struggle to breathe, and your dehydrated and sick the rest of the day. Basically life sucks right now and we should all quit.

I managed to cruise through my easy runs and track work out of 4×1200’s with relative easy, but after taking a rest day I was hit with the Wall of Humidity for the rest of my runs and I bitched and moaned on every one of them. My long run was 16 soul crushing, sweat drenched, disgustingly awful miles. I can usually get out of my own brain and shut off negative thoughts but at two miles into it I wanted to quit. If I hadn’t been running with a friend who kindly reminded me that I had been at this place mentally before and I had pushed through it then and could do it again, I would have quit. My legs were achy, my breathing was crappy, and I was just a generally awful person. I don’t know how I sucked it up, but I did and finished with an average of 8:11 per mile which in that humidity I will wear like a badge of honor.

Of course on Sunday my recovery run of 10 miles felt easy and magical and the complete opposite of the day before. Oh running how I love and loathe you.

Looks pleasant but is actually the gates of Hell

I have to say even with the humidity I was pretty pleased with the week training wise. My mileage is has peaked at what I will maintain from here on out, and knock on wood, I feel like I am handling it well. I am being extremely careful about monitoring my fluid and electrolytes as well as making sure I am not just gorging myself on junk food 24/7. ‘Cause you know, with 60 mile weeks you just want to eat everything in sight like some sort of human vacuum.

I would say the only thing about this training week that is slightly annoying is I am at the point where your life pretty much only revolves around running. I apologize to any friends I might still have that think I hate them, it is just I am either on the trail or asleep most days (sometimes I feel like I am on the trail running and yet asleep). Want to know why runners seem to only have friends that run? It’s because they are the only people who ever get to see them. Any day now my family is going to put out a missing persons report for me and maybe they have just given me up to this crazy nomadic running lifestyle I lead now.

Either way, if anyone needs me I’ll be either running or eating.

Training log: Week 12

Weird. My post for last week was absorbed into the interspace and no longer exists in this world. Very strange because I know I didn’t slack off and not recap it (after all the image is still uploaded and everything). Oh well, I guess I will try and recover it somehow at another point when I feel like it. Jumping right into this past week…

So last week I was super dooper happy about finally reaching my 50 mile mileage total. 50 miles is where I like to hit and hang out when it comes to marathon training. It has been quite a few seasons since I was able to stay at this point healthy, and I was ecstatic that I not only hit it but that my body felt pretty great over all. Well I am happy to report that not only did that week feel great, this past week I hit 55 miles and still am feeling pretty fantastic. I think a lot of this has to do with properly focusing on easy runs vs speed runs, and saving effort for when it matters.

This is helped by the fact that I am content to spend my easy days alone on the trail where I wont get caught up in racing other runners at run club, or pushing my speed just to get home at the end of the day. It also means that I really enjoy the challenge of pushing myself on my hard work out days, like at the track, or the mentally tough days of my long runs. If I am successful at Chicago I know it will be largely because of this change in my mindset when it comes to training.

As far as training runs went, I had a really great track work out of 5x1k where I hit some pretty impressive paces for where I am. I feel like I am almost starting to consider myself “in racing shape” again. My long run was a 14 miler that I was able to keep at an 8:06 minute average for the entire run. Consistent all the way through and although it isn’t my 7:50 pace from past training cycles, I was spent at the end so I know it is what I have right now. After all I have been through this training cycle if I can keep that pace for Chicago I will be extremely pleased!

I am quite please with myself being able to keep such a great week of mileage going. I had a very heavy week at work and took on quite a few extra hours. That coupled with school meant I was more than a little stressed but luckily training didn’t take a hit. It did mean that I was pretty wiped out and slept all weekend, but I got my miles in and stayed somewhat sane.

In the week ahead I am hoping to continue pushing the distance on longs runs but not getting to high in mileage. I can sit around 55 from here on out.

Training log: Week 10

Wow, week ten already, huh? Why does this seem like it came up fast? Probably because I rested for 3 weeks of this training cycle. Whoops, life is hard. Anyway, I am having a hard time recalling memorable events of week ten, mostly because it was pretty darn nifty all around.

I hit up plenty of nice easy long trail runs since with beginning a new semester next week I knew that was going to be difficult to get too. What can I say? Trail running is just the best. I did another great track work out, 8×600’s, that ended up being much faster than I expected with the sun frying me to the track. Another day of 2-a-days that was fresh and surprisingly easy. To cap it all off I switched my long runs around to be able to take a nice day trip on Sunday to Ikea for furniture.

Did I mention I am also moving this training cycle? Yeah I am an idiot…

Anyway, I needed to hit my first double digit long run and decided to meet with a friend for it (said friend who is actually training properly for Chicago). The plan was for ten miles in Umstead with a mix of single track and the bmx trails. Basically just plenty of hills, hills, and more hills. My kind of “easy double digit long run back.” So at 7 in the morning I was having a good quad busting time in the woods. I was beat after it but I feel like if I survived that my 12 next weekend should be a cake walk. You know, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, etc.

This was another week where I just feel like everything is coming into place and I am enjoying my running again. I might not be as fast as I think I should be, but I am having a hell of a good time.

Training log: Week 9

I know its been a good week when my shoes look like this..

Is this what it feels like? When everything starts falling into place? I don’t want to jinx anything.. but this is the week I needed. After the first 7 weeks of weird pains and issues, forced rest, frustrations, and not being able to see any light at the end of the tunnel, this week was exactly what I needed. I can finally see the possibility of actually making it to my goal race and being able to enjoy myself. Thank every deity known to man.

I decided last week, to focus on slowly building my mileage safely and enjoy running. Throw all paces and just focus on what my body was telling me that day. I am glad to see that I did this wisely (for once) and was able to not only hit the mileage I wanted but actually went over a little bit extra. I did this all by being careful and I never felt like I was asking too much of myself and I ended the week feeling great and not exhausted and spent.

This week included:

1. One day of two-a-days
2. One speed workout of 12×400’s
3. One long run (only 8 miles)
4. 3 days of easy trail running.

Even with hitting about 42 miles my body feels great for that big of a jump from the last week. In part thanks to making sure that I was running super easy and not taxing myself. I was shocked to see my 400’s were actually faster than what I thought I could manage, and my long run was at a faster average than I was running on my easy runs. Basically, I am doing exactly what I should be doing. Yes I am still not anywhere around what my original goal was, but you know what? Fuck that goal. My goal is to have fun. Even with a decent week there is zero pain or discomfort in any of the places I was having issues before and that to me means more than anything.

For the next week my plan is to stay on track with both my runs and my supplimental training. I also will be focusing on keeping my easy runs easy and not push the pace even though I am feeling more capable. Let’s keep the speed to the speed days and enjoy my fabulous easy trail runs where I can just let go and enjoy making the outdoors my bitch. 😉

Training log: Week 7

I will forever be the worst at recapping on any sort of schedule (you would think Sunday nights/Mondays would be the obvious time to actually write these) but this week I had an excuse besides my state of laziness. It was Finals week for my summer classes and I was spending time studying (eh mildly) and then celebrating my new found freedom that normal people have been enjoying for the past 10 or so weeks.

I also have to admit that writing this recap is about as easy as writing the Week 4 recap in that I didn’t run a single mile all week. My dodgy ankle was extremely angry after a long run the past Sunday and I knew running wasn’t a thing that was going to happen. This entire training cycle has been one issue after another and instead of fighting it, trying to push through it, etc (the typical response I have) I just decided to fuck it and take another rest week. At this point most of my goals have been thrown out the window, so why beat myself up further?

With that charming attitude I decided to focus on cross-training/ strength training, and yoga. Also just enjoying all the normal things life that can be hard to fit in when running 50 miles a week. I think that with the majority of runners (myself included) one can get so wrapped up in training and racing that when faced with downtown, you sort of lose your identity. Focusing on being hurt and if the worry of whether or not I was facing a serious issue wasn’t going to help me feel any better. Instead I like to use my downtime as an opportunity to be a normal person that doesn’t spend all her time sweating it out on the trail and pounding the pavement. It restores some mental clarity and helps eliminate the depression and worry that goes hand in hand with injury. I am a runner, but I am also a lot of other things and resting and not running doesn’t change that. So instead of focusing on what I couldn’t do, I focused on what I could.

So in a week that included zero running, I instead spent loads of time with friends that I don’t get to see a lot. This included a makeover/facial session, a night with movies and sushi, an outdoor concert, and just the ability to hang out and talk. I didn’t have to worry about staying out too late and missing my morning run, or working plans around my running schedule. It was glorious and just what I needed. I was also able to spend plenty of time focusing on my finals and school work to end the semester with A’s all around.

ALL MINE. I don’t share well…

I also decided to focus more on cleaning up some bad habits I have picked up in my diet, and clean things up a bit. This meant I had plenty of time to do some baking (of the best recipe for gluten-free muffins I have ever made) and meal prep. I have meant to write an post dealing with my health/food related issues (allergies ahoy!), mostly because I feel like it is a massive hindrance to my running and training trying to get what my body needs from the rather complicated issues I deal with. I think I am finally figuring out how to unlock this puzzle and get my body fueled correctly in order to prevent the nutritional deficiencies I have been facing lately.

All in all, although this wasn’t a week on any sort of actual “training”, I know that it is just what I needed to get my self back on track and tackle the journey back to where I want to be. My attitude towards Chicago hasn’t changed at all, I want to have fun and enjoy myself and this will happen no matter how awkwardly I get there.

Training log: Week 6

This is the week in which I am in a terrible emotional state and make a lot of stupid decisions that will come back to bite me in the ass (spoiler for the next weeks training log). When we last left our sarcastic and impatient runner chick, she was returning from some time off due to the hip-injury-that-will-not-die and facing the-swollen-ankle-that-will-not-go-away…

So,  I started this week with sunshine and butterflies and happy feelings. Everything seemed to be improving and I managed a decent couple of runs plus even a day of some light intervals on the track. The ankle was being a fat little baby, and I was trying to run with some light support that helped (but also gave me the most horrendous blisters ever). I was starting to feel like things were looking up and I would be at 100% soon.

As the week progressed I started to feel more and more fatigued but chalked it up to lack of sleep, my body adjusting to running mileage again, and I ignored it. I continued to run even when I had just forced myself to rest to try and get better (don’t worry I understand just why this is stupid and going to be a harbinger of evil).

Why would I keep running? What was I thinking? In reality I know I was being silly (though it wasn’t as bad as it originally was) but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I had a reason for my sanity being shaky…

It is hard for me to even write about it now, but the entire week I was struggling with dealing with handling some personal grief at the thought of losing my best friend and greatest partner, my horse. My boy had lived a pretty full life when I bought him, and I knew that I was owning him for the golder years of his life. We had seven wonderful years together and then this summer he was slowly losing his battle with old age and had developed a cancer that was spreading very aggressively. I had made the decision to allow him to pass peacefully and comfortably before the cancer wrecked his body and left him in pain and unable to function. So the entire week I was trying to prepare myself to say goodbye to my best friend that had been a huge part of my life. My runs were an emotional outlet for my pain and sadness. A way for me to escape and feel raw and wounded and tear myself down to the core. After my old boy passed on Friday my runs became a way for me to let my grief spill out and emotions to run free. I finished most of my runs in tears, dealing with my sorrow the only way I knew how. I am not an overly emotional person and I don’t like to confide in others. My time spent running on the trails allowed me to privately say goodbye to my best friend. Even though I was damaging my body but ignoring the issues I had cropping up, I was completely blinded by my emotional state and not in-tuned to the warning signs.

In a way I am okay with ending the week this way. I don’t know what the next week of training will be life but I really needed those runs to help me deal with my pain. Perhaps it won’t matter too much in the end. After all, I have taken so much time off my goal time isn’t achievable and I will be running Chicago for fun at this point. In a way that is fine by me because I needed to allow myself this week to just feel.

Training log: Week 5

I have to admit, after last weeks recap post I was really afraid of my next post being a continuation on rest an injury woes. I am relieved to report that I actually did get some mileage in this week and things are starting to improve. Shocker! Taking 10 days off did not in fact kill me or throw my plans out the window! Yes, having to elliptical and hit the gym was not my ideal form of cardio but at least I feel like my body has recovered significantly and I am headed in the right direction.

After the break from running my hip is back at 100%. There is no pain or tightness anymore and I feel like once my body is back to realizing that running isn’t terrible I will be back to my usual paces. The only issue I have on returning is that the ankle is still a little wonky. I seem to have a flair up on tendinitis (in a different place than before ugh) probably from the break and my body adjusting back to running normally again. There is a nag and an ache after I run with some swelling, but this always subsides after I ice and compress it. For now I am just allowing it to be a delicate flower and focusing on slowly building my mileage back to where it should be. I will probably not be doing any speed work just to make sure that I do not aggravate it further.

My first run back (besides a lame test mile) was on Thursday where I did a nice easy 3 miles. By the end of the week I managed 17 miles total with a 7 mile hike in there as well to keep the legs moving. Adding in a few hours of cycling and work on the elliptical plus the gym, and it was an extremely productive week of easy work.

Scenic views from my hike where we might have been a bit lost

Next week I want slowly build back up my mileage while taking care of my body. I am trying to not focus at all on pace right now, and just keep things at an easy, natural pace. I am hoping to be able to get my long run in and then see myself back on track with the training program the week after that.

All in all, I am quite proud of the fact that although I was super stressed out and obsessing over how damaged I was, I took care of myself and allowed my body to recover for once. The difference in how I feel this Sunday versus last Sunday is night and day. I was considering throwing in the towel and abandoning Chicago once again last week, and this week I am cautiously optimistic about making it there in some shape or form. Time will tell whether I need to adjust my finishing time goal, but the main aim is just to get to Chicago healthy and happy. I won’t complain if I get back to sub 8 minute miles though……

Training log: Week 4

This is literally the easiest training log post to write ever. Mostly because I can count on one hand how many miles I ran this week….five. Five miles. My ankle disturbingly swelled up to the size of a decent A cup on Monday, and after taking a short jog of a couple miles in my PE class I realized that my body wanted a rest day (the falling off the bike indecent didn’t help things). Then on Tuesday I woke up to a nice B cup on the side of my left ankle and the inability to walk correctly. Whoops! There goes running anything for the week. I have managed to get the swelling down to basically a light puffiness with some good old RICE-ing, but running hasn’t happened.

So what is going on with the ankle? I have exactly zero idea. I guess I could go to my orthopedist that I see waaaaay too much to be comfortable with, but I know that he is just going to tell me to do exactly what I am doing now. Rest and take it easy. I don’t think it is a stress fracture at all. After my experience last year with one last year, and then a stress reaction earlier this year, I have determined  the evil feeling on a bone problem. Also I have found with bone issues there is less swelling. I am pretty sure I have aggravated a tendon or ligament with my funky gait I was doing while my hip was wonky (imagine that, its all better now), and maybe the fall was just the last nail in the coffin. IT only hurts when I am pushing off in my stride on that foot which to me means a ligament thing since I can bare weight totally fine.

So to sum up, instead of running I have just been doing some intense cross training. I am determined to use my rest from running to focus on getting myself evened up and aligned correctly, which means that I have been doing a lot of weight training (something I hate and neglect). I have also been using the elliptical and cycling to keep the cardio going. I know neither are exactly like running but at least I am keeping my overall fitness level up. Yes, I am being careful and not doing anything that causes pain or seems to aggravate things. I know that over the course of a week I have gone from barely being able to walk correctly, to now being able to do box jumps and one legged squats without any pain. Good progress?

So what does this mean about my training as a whole? Well I don’t really know. I know that until I am running again I wont know just how far behind this puts me. As long as I am running by the end of the week I think I will be fine. Maybe not as speedy as I wanted to be, but at least hit my current normal marathon time. Now if I need another week of rest? That’s when things get stressed and scary. I am running Chicago no matter what this year, and I am capable of running it at an easy pace just to enjoy it even with a very short training cycle.

I guess the most frustrating thing is that I don’t understand why my body seems to throw these little hiccups into my plans all the time. I wouldn’t say I am injury prone, because I do take really good care of my body. I don’t know if maybe I should lose an easy day of running and instead use it to cross train and give my legs another day to recover, or if two workouts a week is just a little too much to ask. I don’t think that is what caused it because I was sticking to the same training plan earlier in the year with no problems. Really the fall that messed up my hip was the catalyst of all of this so maybe I just need to chalk it up to bad luck that never left me? Either way I have a couple days of cross training and then I intend to have a make or break run on it and see what happens. I just know that I am sick of running in pain, and running slow because my body can’t keep up. I love running and I don’t want pushing through theses injuries to continue to ruin it for me. My body needs to cooperate so that we can do more fun things together though because the elliptical is the most demon spawn torture device I can think of…

Training log: Week 2

Week #2 of Chicago training has come and gone. I am a little behind in recapping, because I am a terrible person, and also the first couple of weeks are pretty basic and boring as far as training is concerned. The big highlight of the second week of training is the start of speed work outs!!! Now, usually I fucking love speed work outs (which is weird because I hate short distance races?), but since I am still dealing with unlocking the hip issue I wasn’t super excited for what was on deck this week.

But look at how beautiful and inviting this looks! (Actually hiding death-by-heatstroke)

The first speed workout was 12×400’s and I didn’t have a tempo run scheduled for this week. Knowing that my hip was iffy about anything faster than an 8 minute pace, and the fact that North Carolina is currently hotter than the surface of the sun, I put my work out off until Friday morning where I would be able to wake up early and beat the heat (Ha!) and only have to suffer with humidity.

So it took me a couple days but I finally put on my big girl pants and had enjoyed myself. The thing is that I get super worked up about doing speed work and then have a killer good time doing it. I had to do this week all alone, but from now on I will be hitting the track with friends to have someone to chase. Also strange, I was so worried about the hip and possibly hurting myself, but when it came down to the workout it actually felt pretty good. I think picking up my turn over forced it to loosen up a bit quicker, and although I wasn’t right at my target paces I am happy with it all heat/humidity/and hip considered.

After the fun of my first speed session the rest of the week was basically just super chill and laid back easy runs. I am trying to take my time and enjoy these while I have them since pretty soon I will be in the thick of wanting to sleep or die all the time. I know I am making marathon training sound uber-dramatic. I promise it is actually not this terrible (maybe that’s a lie).

For Week #3 I have another speed day plus my first tempo run. I am hoping that my hip continues to improve and that I do not melt into a puddle of human guu. Training in 100 degree weather is a very hot and slow form of torture but here’s hoping for some good gains in Chicago to come out of it. If I knew a super cheesy motivational message I wold insert it here but I am pretty much a shut up and do the work kind of person. Cheers!

Training log: Week 1

So this week was the start of my training for the 2015 Chicago Marathon. I am now from here on out a very tired and hungry running machine (wait that is me literally alllll the time). If you have read back far enough, you might remember my spectacular exit from running this same race last year, due to a stress fracture of my heel (how dare it betray me like that). So I have entered my training for this race with the following goals: don’t get injured again, and run it no matter what happens you still running person. I have really, really, really, wanted to run Chicago since I have never visited a “big city” and also for some reason I see this as a “fun” marathon and not Big Giant Serious Business Boston. So here is hoping that I get there healthy, happy, and ready to PR.

Now, my training is off to a bit of a rocky start. I was planning on being ahead of the game due to the fact I was already doing some moderately intense training for the half a few weeks ago. My fall in the trail race scrapped that race, and I took two weeks of rest and easy running. I wish I could say I feel 100% healed and *amazing sparkles and majic!* but sadly my hip is still being a whiny little bitch. My runs this week have been even easier than my easy pace calls for and I feel like slowly dying inside when I look down on my watch and see my time. I am trying to keep these feelings in check, because with every slow run I have the hip is feeling closer and closer to normal. Which is good because the rest of my body is not enjoying my baby-range of motion on it. I am hoping to close out the current week back at where I should be at.

The other startling realization I have come to is that training for an early fall marathon sucks in the South. The humidity and heat have officially kicked things into high gear and I feel like I am literally melting to death most runs. I guess I am lucky(??) that I am usually injured or running a later race and have so far never had to experience really heavy training weeks in the dead of summer. Until now. I keep trying to picture how lovely and cool Chicago will be in October and how I am making so many gains training through this muck, but that is difficult when you are leaving sweaty puddles everywhere you go after a run. I am living in fear of dehydration every minute of the day.

I thank every minute of the day for enjoying trail running, because without those nice shaded trails I would be throwing in the towel. Okay, not really, but I would be really angry even more than normal. It is easier to get out there knowing that I don’t have the sun beating down my neck or the exhaust for cars in my face.

Thank you, shady trees!

So cheers to a slightly successful Week #1! Hopefully the hip will hold up and I will be back to some decent paces soon. Also if this weather would go away that would be great. kthxbai.