Every spring, my FOMO overrides my common sense and I end up signing up for the Marine Corps Marathon. It's kind of like having babies - you conveniently forget the bad parts and only remember that cute squishy baby you ended up with. This year, FOMO REALLY got the best of me and I ended up signing up for the Marine Corps 50K. Know what that means? It means I'm already up to 16 mile long runs. (For those playing along at home, I usually use Hansons Marathon Method, which means 16 miles is my longest marathon training run. Yeah.) So, for the first time in years, I'm running some really long runs during the hottest months of the year. Yes, we are talking 80+ degrees with matching humidity. Running when the air feels like you are breathing … [Read more...]
Here we are, runfessing again
I swear it was just yesterday that I was runfessing about my lack of running in June and here we are in July and I'm still not running much. I must runfess that I have no real excuse not to run a lot of miles - my ankle/heel is probably 90% pain free and even more so when I massage it and foam roll. I've even done some icing lately after the few times I've run this month. I know, who am I? I must also runfess that we are now down to 93 days before the Marine Corps Marathon and the last double digit run I did was the half marathon in New Zealand on July 1. Between work, the weather, my son's econ class... I can't seem to get my runs in. I really need to start training. OK, even more than that, I really need to start caring about … [Read more...]
Fueling the run: this is what you should not do
Post contains affiliate links, which means if you buy through them, I get a commission. One of my favorite books to read to my kids when they were younger was the Berenstain Bears Bike Lesson. The premise of the book was that the dad did a bunch of stupid things and then said they were lessons: "That is what you should not do. So let that be a lesson for you." Amazon affiliate link Sometimes I feel like this is the perfect analogy for my running. I go out too fast, I over dress, and I regularly screw up my fueling on anything over a half marathon run. Since today's topic is "Race Fuel", I thought I'd share my strategy (or lack there of.) Join Marcia, Patty and I and tell us what you eat on the run. Under a half marathon? I don't … [Read more...]
How the marathon taper is like waiting to give birth
In two days, I'll be lining up with 30,000 of my closest friends, ready to run my 4th Marine Corps Marathon. I haven't been this trained for the race since I ran it for the first time in 2008. Which means, for the first time in a while, I went into taper actually NEEDING to taper. I was exhausted and had been for weeks. And when you go from 50-60 mile weeks down to the 20s, you end up with a little extra time on your hands. As I did crazy things like weed through all of our off season clothes, I realized that the last time I felt this driven to clean clean clean, Shoo arrived a few hours later. This led me to the realization that tapering has a lot in common with the final days of pregnancy. You'll find yourself doing the oddest … [Read more...]
The secret to my marathon training success: regular massages
Hansons Marathon Method is a high mileage plan. You run 6 days a week, with 3 runs being a somewhat hard workout to hard workout. Each week there is a speed/strength workout, which is an run that includes speed intervals. At the beginning of the program, you run shorter, faster intervals. By the end, you are running two sets of 3 miles at just below marathon pace. In addition to this workout, there is a tempo run (although it's more of a pace run since you run it at marathon pace) and a long run. On top of the 3 "hard" workouts, you also run 4 "easy" workouts. While the easy workouts are at a super easy pace, the mileage does start to add up in the end. In other words, despite maxing out at a 16 mile long run, Hansons is not an easy … [Read more...]
Some things I must runfess…
Here we are at the end of September, ready once again to head to the Runfessional. I have apparently run out of motivation before I've run out of training plan. This week was supposed to be a peak mileage week, but between the exhaustion from Ragnar, the remnants of my cold. and TWO Back to School nights, I've had a hard time even getting out the door. Heck, one day I didn't even get out the door - I ran on the treadmill because it took less thought and effort. *** But I did get out for a 10 mile run on Thursday! Which was totally awesome, until it wasn't. I had a slow warm up mile (mostly due to traffic lights) and then ran by feel for 5 miles. I hit within a few seconds of 10:30 pace each mile without checking my Garmin. What?!? … [Read more...]
I’m giving myself an A+ for the month
No, I didn't have a perfect running month (and the month is not over and I'm sure I won't follow my plan exactly.) But I did have a smart running month. Before I get into *my* month of running, how was yours? Join us for Tuesdays on the Run and rate your September. So, why exactly am I rating my month an A+ when I haven't followed my training perfectly and probably won't this week either? Well, I did have one week where I *almost* followed my training to a T, but that was just one week. I'm giving myself an A+ because I listened to my body when I got sick and scaled my running way back for a few days. I have enough experience training for long distances that I knew it was smarter to miss or shorten some runs than to push through … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #69: Navy Air Force Half Marathon
Navy Air Force Half Marathon September 17, 2017 2:28:42 Temp: 73* with 95% humidity What I wore:visor, tank top, a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra, Balega socks, and Altra One 2.5 I am currently in the highest mileage month of training for the Marine Corps Marathon. I've been running a lot of double digit runs and, quite frankly, getting a bit bored with it. So I suggested to my running partner that we run the Navy Air Force half marathon and then run home instead of running our 16 miles on our usual route. (Don't ever suggest something like this without actually checking the distance to "home".) She was on board, so we both signed up. I had a crazy weekend lined up, so we took the metro over to the expo and picked up our packets … [Read more...]
Mantra for the week: Be Awesome
From a training standpoint, last week was a week of highs and lows. I made the mistake of running my recovery runs to fast plus stress levels were high here as the boys were starting school. This resulted in a total failure of my 1.5 mile repeats on Tuesday. I just could not hold my goal pace. I know a big piece was mental, because the run didn't feel hard, it just seemed hard. And I couldn't make myself complete it. I could have beaten myself up about it, but I just wrote it off. Sometimes you just can't handle life and running at the same time. Wednesday I managed an easy 5 miles in the misty rain. My hip had been bothering me off and on since Monday, but between stretching and my Addaday stick, I was able to run without pain. I … [Read more...]
First day of school means fall training has begun
Here we go! Another school year is about to begin. I'm kind of in denial that I no longer have a kid in elementary school, but the big change this brings is that everyone is out of the house before 7:30am now. We'll see if that means I get out the door to run earlier or not. Fall is my favorite time of year. It's also prime marathon training time. My training plan calls for multiple double digit runs per week, starting this week. Gulp! Thankfully, the weather tends to start cooling down and the return to school gets me back on a running schedule. Know what else changes about my training? Races! I've got a lot coming up and will talk about that soon. I don't race a lot during the summer. Between vacations and the weather and the … [Read more...]
Lessons Learned from Summer Training
In the month of August, I ran 148.9 miles total. Yes, it did pain me not to run 1.1 more miles, but I also knew I was doing a long run on September 1, so didn't feel like pushing past my training plan. Anyways, I've only run more miles in a month 6 times before- and only one of those was during a summer month. I'm just thankful that while I've had some really awful hot runs, much of August has not been as hot as the typical Virginia summer. Here are my lessons learned from this summer. Some of them are not new, but I always need a reminder... Humidity WILL slow you down. How much depends on the humidity level, the temperature, and how much you personally are affected by it. If I look up what a certain heat and humidity are going … [Read more...]
August running by the numbers
It's that time of month again - the last Tuesday of the month. It's the one where we evaluate how our running/training went for the month. Join Marcia and Patty and me as we talk about the ups and downs of running through August. I'm going to take a little different approach this month. What do the numbers show this month? Number of states I ran in: 3 (Wisconsin, Virginia, and South Carolina. I just missed running in 4 as I ran in Colorado on July 30. Maybe I should make sure to hit DC in the next few days...) Number of total miles: 131 and counting. I have 3 more runs yet this month. This is the highest mileage I've run since May 2016 when I ran 7 half marathons in 7 days. In fact, I haven't run more than 110 miles in any … [Read more...]
