Tag: training log

Training Week 5 Recap

Last week was another solid training week. First off, I am loving my rest days this cycle. I love the hard work of training, but my body is happy to have a day off to recover after 5-6 days of grinding. I did skip my Tuesday class last week (*sad*) because my hamstrings were tight and it was affecting my knees, and I wanted to be able to get my runs in. Class, from past experience, could have helped or made it worse, so I erred on the side of caution.

Wednesday and Thursday Pittsburgh was thrown into the Polar Vortex, so I got up and did my Wednesday run on the treadmill before work. Knee was doing better after some quality time with Orange Spiky (my favorite and most terrifying roller) the previous day. I ran fasted and it went remarkably well. I’ve not had much success running fasted in the past, and I wouldn’t do it running outside, at least not without a little more experimenting. But an occasional treadmill run is worth experimenting with.

Thursday I did my 5 on the treadmill again after work, then realized I only needed 1/2 a mile to hit 130 miles for the month, so you know I went back to the treadmill and ran another half mile. 130 miles in the month of January. Unreal. Loving this ultra journey. Solid run, nothing remarkable except my cumulative mileage.

Kettlebell and warmup mile on Friday. Very nice warmup mile, and really solid class. Even bumped up weight in the last round of the circuit. I felt really strong.

Saturday was my longest run in over a year. I’m really struggling with the Saturday group runs with all the stopping and starting and breaking up the mileage, so I wanted to do this as close to unbroken as I could. I ran with BRF and another friend out at North Park–not my favorite place to run, but I wasn’t alone and I didn’t have to keep stopping. The run went really well. I was strong and pretty consistent. Did start getting fatigued near the end, but held it together well. Spent some QT with the BRF after the run, grabbing lunch and checking out the new Pro Bike + Run location (heavy emphasis on the Bike…). Pittsburgh was thawing out, but not when I was running-temp was between 9 and 12 when we got started.

Sunday, I got up at the crack of dawn to run with some friends. 10 solid miles in the city. 33 degree starting temps felt like a heatwave after the rest of the week. Felt really good during most of the run, though fatigue started to catch me near the end. Definitely felt more sore after the run (and some quality couch time with my cat) so I’m glad I have a rest day. Need to work on more solid recovery practices–this has always been my weakness.

I am LOVING this ultra journey. Loving. The high mileage makes me so ridiculously happy. I feel good going into each run, and for the most part I’m recovering well and quickly.

Training Recap: Week 4

This was a really really solid week of training. I hit every work out. Three of four runs were outside, which is always a good week in my life. Pro Bike + Run group run on Wednesday was great–warmer weather than we’ve had with a slightly different route. I crushed (most of) the hills. Saturday’s run was in cold and blowy snow, so it was slow going but I got it done. Flew solo due to a commitment in the morning, though the group run was cancelled anyway. Flopped my mileage so I could run my longer miles with people on Sunday. Explored a new to me rail trail and it was great! So happy to have somewhere else to run closer to home.

I’m trying to be mindful of my weights in KB classes and choose bells that are still challenging, even though I’m running a lot. 1) I want to be stronger. That happens when you challenge yourself. 2) Ultras are made on tired legs. If I’m going into my runs a little sore and/or fatigued it will only prepare me for the challenge that lies ahead of me. (That said, there is a huge difference between being a little sore and fatigued and being really sore and fatigued…keeping my schedule as is and keeping an eye on who is filling in so I don’t completely wreck my runs…)

I’m over 100 miles for the month already, and I still have a few more runs left. I LOVE this! I’ve grown to really appreciate my rest day, and when I tried a runstreak it did not end well for me. But I feel like a streak of 100+ mile months is something fun to shoot for, and will be easy this year.

I’m recovering really well from the runs/workouts. Fatigued and ready for my rest day? Definitely. Sore? Not too much. I might be done by the end of a run, but the next day I usually am ready to go back out. Distance really is my happy place. I feel really good and I think I’m built for this ultra-life. Bigger mileage starting this weekend and I’m kinda pumped to see how it plays out. I have my long run distances mapped out through my first ultra for the year, so I’ve started to see when I can schedule races around them to make it more interesting. I also need to start comparing them to the scheduled group runs to see how I can get the extra miles I’ll need.

So another successful week in the books. More soon, friends.

Training Recap-weeks 1-3

Yowza. This is why I want to write twice a week–once to recap my training, and once about whatever else I feel like. So…I’ll get caught up on that and hopefully not miss it going forward. I’m definitely a paper planner/journal kind of girl, so I am using the Believe training journal (red edition) for this round of training to capture the day-to-day snapshots.

Week 1: I worked out 10 days straight. It was a bit much, but they were all solid runs/workouts and I was never so happy for my rest day when it came. I felt good, but was definitely tired. So thankful for my runcrew this week, they definitely helped pull me through.

Week 2: Another solid week of training from a physical standpoint, but struggled mentally/emotionally. Difficulty finding balance in my routine between household responsibilities, workouts, work, and the other ‘stuff’ I need to accomplish at any given time. Took an extra rest day to give myself that mental space to get caught up on tasks I’d been pushing off. Long run felt like Columbus round two–my legs would just not warm up and cooperate.

Week 3: This was a good week. Too much treadmill running for my taste, but thank goddess for Shameless on Nextflix. I’m about half way through season 3 already, and will likely be mostly caught up by the end of winter. Haha. Long run was fantastic. I felt so good the whole time. Better than I’d felt on a long run in over a month. Felt really good on my recovery treadmill miles the next day too. Focusing more on core and ITB pre-hab as well (still need to get better about stretching and foam rolling, but baby steps…)

Lots more to come. Talk to you soon, friends.

Marathon Training: Week 5

This week was interesting. I was traveling for work, so I was out of my routine–which is both good and bad. I didn’t stick to my training plan, I didn’t run or work out nearly as much as I should’ve. I had a really good solid 5k on the treadmill one day, and I stepped out of my comfort zone and met up with someone from the local running club in Milwaukee for a morning run while I was out there. Again, a nice solid run, I’m proud of it for a million reasons. But that said, returning to reality has been rough. I’ve been tired and trying to get everything together for my return to my real job. Being lax with my training and eating–not just for the past week, but really over the past month–has caught up to me, though and it’s time to buckle down and get serious if I want to reach my goals for this fall marathon.

I’ve debated this long and hard, but I’ve finally decided I’m going to do a modified round of Insanity for at least the next month until our vacation, which will mean twice a day workouts most days (1 day completely off in any given week) but the first part of the program the workouts are all 30-40 minutes essentially so that’s easy enough to work into my days. If I find it interferes with running too much, I’ll re-work my schedule and cut days out and what not, but I feel like I need to at least give this a try.

I also need to reign in my food. I’ve read Matt Fitzgerald’s The Endurance Diet and I like the focus on quality over calories–if you’re eating consciously to fuel your activity and choosing high quality foods you can be less beholden to hard and fast macro or calorie counts. I like this concept, it makes sense to me, though I’m also skeptical–but I got the Diet Quality Score app and we’re gonna give this a go. I’ve prepped a bunch of food for this week to keep myself on the straight and narrow. Now I just need to stay focused and keep my eyes on the prize.

Happy Monday, friends.

Training Log–Week 2 (1/10-1/15)

Monday (1/10)-2 miles on treadmill; went in dreading it, but forced myself to pick up the pace and left glad that I did it.

Thursday (1/13)-2.27 miles on treadmill; first 2.02 in my Ryka’s, last .25 in my VFFs! Love them already.

Saturday (1/15)– 3.25 miles on treadmill; varied speed every ¼-½ mile. Last ¼ mile in my VFFs, a little rough in the middle, but good overall.

Total Mileage for week: 7.52

Total Mileage for year: 13.96

Training Log–Week 1 (1/3-1/9)

I’ve decided to post the highlights from my paper training log weekly (unless there is something spectacular, in which case I’ll probably update from my phone at the gym).

Monday (1/3)-2.20 miles on treadmill; w .25//r 1.75//w .20; needed to eat something & drink more water before but felt good otherwise.

Wednesday (1/5)-2 miles on treadmill; w .25//r 1.5// w .25; still not eating/drinking enough, sidestitch around 1 mile mark, stopped for water. Not stellar but in the books.

Saturday (1/8)– 2.24 miles on treadmill; w .25//r 1/75//w .24; ate a banana 30 min. before & drank more water = FELT BETTER! good run.

Total Mileage for week: 6.44

Total Mileage for year: 6.44

Blah Run

I love running. I really do. I usually look forward to my runs.

But tonight sucked. It wasn’t the worst run ever, but my heart and my head were just not in the game.

But I did it so I could cross it off in the log–which is something, because normally I would’ve quit about a mile in if I wasn’t feeling it. I’m giving myself credit for finishing it.

Long run on Thursday (5-6 miles). Looking forward to that. :o)