Sunday Runday - Week 2 of Marathon Training

So I realized after publishing last week's post that I forgot to mention something really cool - during a giveaway spree by my favorite running blogs last month, I won a free month of run coaching from offtorun.com.  I am by no means an elite runner and I thought getting a coach would be kind of... well, snooty.  I have to tell you how excited I am that having a run coach, especially when you don't have many friends who run in the area, is proving to be an amazing experience. With LouAnn's guidance, I'm hoping to PR in my next event - The Strawberry Plains Half Marathon.  This week in running went much better than last week.  I felt stronger and seemed to have worked out my nutritional needs with my coach's help.  

Monday 1/4: Advanced Yoga with Nike Training Club - 45 minutes.  I did have to modify some of the poses that required me to hold my weight with my left wrist.  The small cyst that developed does make it painful to hold planks sometimes. 

Tuesday 1/5: 7.1 miles slow run/45 min. cross training.  NoKey had to have some dental work done, so I drove him to his appointment and went running in the neighborhood, which is one I run in quite frequently.  By the time I finished my cool down, he was ready to head back out to the car so timing couldn't have been better!  I felt great and did the Body Buffer workout from my NTC app in the evening. 

Showing off on Instagram :) 

Wednesday 1/6: Active rest day.  After a 7 mile run and 45-minute workout the day before, I earned this one!

Thursday 1/7: 6.5 mile run.  This run felt more difficult to me and I thought about doing just five miles instead of the 6.5.  There was a bit of a headwind a few times and I felt slow, but pushed through. 

Friday 1/8: Curve Carver from NTC - 30 minutes. 

Saturday 1/9: 10 mile long run with intervals.  I have to say I was skeptical of this run. With LouAnn's coaching, she recommended on my long runs of more than 10 miles I simulate water stops during a race, running for 9 minutes and walking for 1 minute.  I decided that since my pace has been a little slower lately, I would run 10 minutes and walk 30 seconds.  I cannot believe that 1) This didn't affect my time on the run - I ran pretty much the same as I do without the break; 2) My legs actually felt good and I was able to push strong on my last mile. I also carried hydration with me on this run which was awkward at first, but it really helped me.  I've been getting headaches a few hours after my long runs for a few months now and the extra water I drank during the run really seemed to help it go away. 

Sunday 1/10: NTC Jump Around (30 min) and Leslie Fightmaster's Relaxing Yoga Flow (30 min.)

So, how did your training go this week? Are you training for any upcoming races? Leave me a comment or catch me over on Facebook to talk about it!

Sunday Runday - A new toy and marathon training begin!

December 28, 2015 - January 3, 2016

This is my first week back into running since my injury at the Santa Hustle Half Marathon back in December. That injury really threw me a curveball - every time I would tape up something on my leg, the pain would migrate someplace else entirely.  After getting a foam roller (I normally use Yoga Tune Up balls), I've been able to pinpoint it to an IT band and glute muscle issue. The foam rolling and light runs have really helped.  I still have some knee pain, but it's difficult to tell anymore what is a new injury and what is an old injury for me. I've had problems with the left knee since a surgery in 2009, so to say I'm used to knee pain is definitely an understatement!  Let's look at my week in marathon training: 

Monday 12/28: Dynamic yoga (15 min) from Nike Training club. I also discovered a ganglion cyst in my wrist this week. It seems like my injuries are trying to keep me from all the things keeping me sane!

Tuesday 12/29: 3.1 miles. This was my first run since my injury and I'd be lying if I said it felt great to be back out there.  Not only was my leg still pretty sore, I could NOT figure out my gait. I kept running normally with the right foot and running tip-toe style with my left foot - a limping kind of run. I felt out of shape and generally crappy the entire run. 

Wednesday 12/30: Competitor (45 min) from Nike Training Club.  I didn't feel like working out AT all, but I did it with some slight modifications to protect my left knee. I felt much better after finishing. 

Thursday 12/31: Wipeout (30 min) from Nike Training Club.  I killed this workout on NYE to help myself stay awake.  I promptly crashed at 12:01 a.m.

Friday 1/1: 5 miles.  I was nervous doing this run, mostly because of how poorly my 5K went on Tuesday.  I felt kind of cruddy the first two miles or so, but I had been actively working on my gait and it all clicked into place around 2.5 miles in.  I ran strong for miles 3-4 and then hitting mile 5 I felt amazing.  My last mile was my fastest.  I also ran for the first time with my new Garmin Forerunner 10 - which I bought myself on Christmas morning with a giftcard (thanks mom and dad!)

Saturday 1/2: Active rest day. 

Sunday 1/3: 7.01 miles. I started off with a short walk before beginning the run today.  Around 2.75 miles into the run I got a stitch and needed a short walking break for about a block.  The stitch worked out and I was able to run again.  I was feeling stronger than I did on my five mile run earlier in the week and when I looked at the Garmin and saw I had almost 6 miles in, I decided to run for 7 instead, just because I felt strong.  My training plan had me down for 9, but I knew that would just be too far to push it, as I was starting to feel tightness in my Achilles tendon and knew I shouldn't push on.  I did Leslie Fightmaster's Yoga for Runners when I got home. 

How did your runs go this week?  Are you actively training for any races right now?  My next race is the Strawberry Plains Half Marathon on 2/6/16!

Sunday Runday - Santa Hustle Half Marathon

For those of you following me on Instagram or Twitter, you know that when I'm not actively doing a lot of hiking I am a runner.  I'm starting a new category on my blog called Sunday Runday, where I'll recap the week in running and my next adventure - training for my first marathon.  For the first installment of Sunday Runday, I'm going to write about my second half marathon, which I ran on December 13th, the Santa Hustle.  

The Santa Hustle took place on an unseasonably warm morning in December - it was already nearly 50 degrees at 6:45 a.m. and incredibly foggy. They were calling for weather in the low 70s by early afternoon, so I set out for this race wearing shorts and a T-shirt!  The turnout for the race was much smaller than I anticipated. There were only 640 runners in the half marathon, so the course wasn't crowded. Also, unlike any race I've EVER run this one actually started on time!  At 7:30 a.m. we took off uncerimoniously.  The first three miles of the race I was feeling great, despite being soaking wet from the thick fog.  After hitting mile three, the race climbed the first hill and turned away from the river which also helped with the fog.  By mile five the sun was peeking through the clouds and I felt like I was hitting my stride. 

Miles 6-7 were remarkable because the leaders were starting to head back toward the finish. It was a lot of fun to cheer them on since there weren't really any spectators on this course to do the traditional cheering you see during a road race.  When I hit the halfway mark I was surprised to see how many runners were still behind me.  It felt great to be moving at a comfortable pace.  This is also when I met girl in the white tank top.  She was walking when I saw her, but every time I caught up to her she would start running again for a few minutes.  She'd start walking again, but continue to repeat the pattern of run/walk every time I caught her.  By mile 10 I was starting to slow down.  I felt tired despite actually running downhill. I wouldn't say I had hit the wall, but I felt like I was hitting the brakes.  

When mile 11 came after what felt like hours since seeing mile 10, I started to feel a little bit more energized, especially because I knew the course was pretty flat from here to the finish line.  Mile 12 came even faster and there were more people cheering at this point.  They had a cookie and candy station between mile 12 and 13 with lots of smiling and cheering volunteers, so that was helpful also.  Mile 13 felt like sweet victory for two reasons - I was almost done running and I finally sprinted past girl in the white tank top!  I grabbed my finisher's medal, a few bananas, a few waters, and a few Clif bars and wandered back to my car. 

I signed up for this race back in October in hopes that it would motivate me to start running again. Once I started training for the race I started to have some serious doubts about my ability to run it at a decent speed.  With all the multi-night backpacking trips and then the 10 days I took to go to the Wilderness First Responder training I took back in November I really lost a lot of training days.  Thankfully, I was able to train well enough to get in a full session.  Unfortunately, the last week of my training, the taper week, turned out to be a disaster.  I started feeling some shin pain on my very last run and I got a hamstring cramp, but I ran through it and it didn't bother me again. After an active taper week, I K-taped my injuries and hoped for the best.  I did a poor job with the K-tape the morning of the race and lost all of it off my knee.  The sprint I pulled at the end of the race ended up pulling my hamstring and causing an injury worse than the shin splints. 

So this week I spent K-taping my hamstring and actively doing compression from my thigh to my knee.  The first day was by far the worst and I'm feeling much better than I did post race.  I was planning to take a few easy weeks before diving into marathon training January 1st, but knowing I've got an injury really makes me nervous.  I'll focus on injury recovery on my next post. 

I hope you enjoyed my race recap and my very first Sunday Runday post!