Goofy Challenge Training Week 14: 12/4 -12/10/17

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but there is just ONE MORE WEEK until I start to taper for the Goofy Challenge! My magic bands have arrived, all I have left to buy is Disney’s Photo Pass service, and our fast passes have been booked for a month (well, some I re-did this week). This week didn’t go quite according to plan, but I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Monday: Rest. My quad was really achy, so I took an extra day to let it recover a bit.

Tuesday: 5 miles before work. This was my first morning run in forever that I really enjoyed and was happy that I got out of bed for. I kept it pretty easy on the hills.

Wednesday: Rest. I woke up feeling ill and stayed in bed. I thought about running in the afternoon, but ended up going home and sleeping through my break. My daily resting HR was about 6 BPM higher than normal, so I took it as a sign my body was fighting something and needed rest.

Thursday: 5 miles during my afternoon break! It was an absolutely beautiful day to be outside, and it really helped me keep up my motivation during my last work hours of the week.

Friday AM: CRYOTHERAPY! I’m planning on writing a post on this experience soon, but I’m so glad I went. My quad does not feel 100%, but it certainly helped it feel better and also helped my calves loosen up.

Friday PM: 7.31 miles. I honestly didn’t think I’d make it that far, but I felt great!! If I didn’t need to get home to start making dinner (homemade sauce, yo!) I probably would have ran another 1-2 miles.

Saturday: 19 miles! Guys, this run was fantastic. I think it was my second fastest long run pace of this training cycle, and I felt like I could have gone on and on. Now that I look back, it was :23 sec/mi faster than any 20 miler I’ve done. I had almost decided to go for 20; however, it started snowing the minute I started to run and by the end I was sick of my eyes burning by being pelted with snow. Then I spent the day celebrating my Birthday! I had an amazing night out with friends. Now, I’m ready to “detox” without (almost any alcohol) for the next 4 months until it’s time to go to Florida!

My phone was almost dead by mile 10, so no run picture happened. So you get this beaut instead!

Weekly total: 36.6 miles!

I’m so glad that I’m finally, truly starting to feel like myself again. This week is my “peak week.” I’m aiming to hit 40 miles in 4-5 runs. Then it’s taper time, just in time for the crazy holidays. Taking two trips in 2 weeks is going to be draining, but so worth it. I’m hoping work will be nice and quiet in-between so I have some good downtime.

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Goofy Challenge Training: Week 8

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend is now just 10 weeks away!! I’m excited to really get into the longer runs now and run some serious mileage!

Monday: 4 miles at the gym. I was feeling a little down from the weekend, so I did some random speed work. 1 mi easy, 1 mi without intervals at moderate-hard effort (8:54!), 1 mi easy, then 1 mi w/ 4 x .2 mi at moderate pace with .05 walking recovery. It felt so good and I miss doing speed work! Did arm and ab weights after.

Tuesday: 3.16 miles easy in the morning, 4 miles progression run on the treadmill in the afternoon. I had a long commute this day, so felt nervous time-wise about getting 7 done in the morning but I got the miles done!

Wednesday: 4.75 miles at November Project. I worked hard during the 5:30 workout and set a small PR for PR day, then ran part of 6:30 with a friend. My legs hated me when I went up stairs at work after!

Thursday: 20 minutes on the bike, leg weights. I moved up the weights on all the machines, which made me super happy!

Friday: 5 miles easy. This one wasn’t on my training plan, but I really wanted to get in another run. It was cold enough to wear leggings! I was a happy, happy runner.

Saturday: 6.7 miles solo then 3 miles during a 5K with friends. I should have ran the extra .3 to make it 10 even, but oh well. And in new shoes, my legs felt so great!

Sunday: Rest dayayayay!

Weekly miles: 30.61 miles

My glutes/hips are starting to feel better, but I definitely need to do better with foam rolling this week to really kill it for good and to keep the discomfort from coming back! I’m also really struggling mentally with a desire to do another half marathon this year, but I can’t find one that fits my schedule and seems worth it. Meanwhile, I’ve picked out some potential marathons for later in spring 2018!

This week I’m linking up with Tricia at misssippipiddlin  and Holly from HoHoRuns for the weekly  Wrap Up. Check out their page to see other bloggers’ weekly wrap ups!

Goofy Challenge Training: 10/2 – 10/8/2017

And just like that another week is gone. 13 weeks to go until the Goofy Challenge! I can’t say much more before mentioning how inspired I was while strolling through Instagram this weekend. This weekend was huge in the running world – there were big marathons in Chicago, St. George, Portland, and countless other races. Seeing an American once again win Chicago (was it clean? I sure hope so…) and Jordan Hasay have a huge showing was incredible, but so was every other performance out there. I’m so inspired and have some extra motivation for my training and the race I have in a few weeks!

BUT I’m not inspired enough to get to bed so I can rock my run in the morning…I still need to look at how many miles I need to run! I love spending my Sunday nights reflecting on my week of running.

Monday: Travel & Rest. Foam rolling was so needed after the weekend’s running and traveling!

Tuesday: 4 miles at Planet Fitness; I was way too tired to get up on Tuesday morning. I ran nice and easy with a hill with increasing steepness added in during each mile.

Wednesday: 6 miles. I didn’t necessarily to run near tempo/race pace due to a lot of hard efforts lately, but I purposefully skipped November Project so I could get some quality miles in. A faster run sort of happened anyway. I ran 90:30 intervals, had an average pace of 10:49 and my heart rate was low for that speed. I spent some time at the gym in the evening – a quick cardio warm-up and full body weights.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 15 miles for my longest run since the NJ Marathon! I ran the entire Baltimore Half Marathon course. It helped with confidence going into the race, as the course is rough. It goes up and up and seemingly doesn’t go down at all until mile 10. The elevation gain isn’t horrible, but the hills are long and gradual, and simply just drain your legs! Either way – I was happy I did it but I will not do it alone, again. Some of those areas should only be seen while running with thousands of other people.

Saturday: 5 miles easy for my first successful double training weekend. Yup, I haven’t followed any weekend schedule to a T yet. OOPS. I got hit with a mighty cold on Friday night, but still had a great recovery run.

Weekly miles: 30 – first 30 mile week of this training cycle!

I’m glad this week was good, and also that it’s over! After some crazy weeks, I’m happy to be back on a routine again, especially with my running. This week is a “down” week, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’ll be making sure my mileage is close to 30 again – I just feel so good when I’m around that number. Just 13 weeks to go!

How was your week? Were you inspired by anything/anyone this weekend?

This week I’m linking up with Tricia at misssippipiddlin  and Holly from HoHoRuns for the weekly  Wrap Up. Check out their page to see other bloggers’ weekly wrap ups!

Goofy Challenge Training: Week 1 (9/4 – 9/10/17)

Happy Tuesday everyone! It’s like my Wednesday, and I’m definitely struggling to get over the hump. I didn’t put in many early mornings during the summer and the late nights and early mornings aren’t boding well for me yet. Most nights I’m sleeping earlier, but Monday is TV night in this house! Thankfully, I’ll be able to fit in my run during my break later on today (gotta use my gym membership sometime!)

Week 1 was….week one. Going straight into marathon training the week after a hard race was not my greatest idea when trying to set myself up for success.

Monday: 3.1 miles at 90:30 intervals. My legs were still a bit off from the race, which was my fault for not taking proper care of myself and rolling over the weekend.

Tuesday: 3 miles at 120:30 intervals. This was supposed to be 5 miles…it started with a near panic attack after almost getting swarmed by giant wasps as I walked out my door and never got better. I felt rushed by the time I got out the door and calmed down and took a route that was much longer than I thought it would be, so I turned around. Not my run. I even just walked home after I hit 3. I was just not having it.

Wednesday: 5 miles at 90:30 intervals. Made up for Tuesday’s missing miles, and felt so much better. With a new commute I skipped November Project, but I plan to be back tomorrow!

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 13 miles. This was a rough one, probably my worst long run since my 18 turned into a 6 last spring. My legs were definitely not ready to start at 90:30, and 120:30 was not happening. It was hard getting myself to finish and had to play tricks with myself, but I’m glad I got it done.

Saturday: (unplanned) Rest. I stayed over at a friends’ house and was leaving at 7 for a tailgate/football game. I planned to run 3 miles beforehand, but when I got there I realized that their neighborhood is so new that there are next to no lights and I had no lights/reflection with me. I was actually sore from Friday, so it’s not the end of the world.

Our team got demolished. But hey, our tailgate food and mimosas were wonderful!

Sunday: Rest. I was still sore from Friday! Which has not happened after a long run since I started using intervals, so it was definitely too much to start with 90:30. Womp. I took a bath and rolled to try to work it out!

Weekly miles: 24.1

This was by far not the week I hoped for – with two “not great” runs and one missed one. You know it was a bad week when I hardly even took photos for the insta. Life happens, and last week was a big adjustment, work-wise. I was hoping this week would be better…but seeing as I should be almost done my 5 mile run by now, we’ll see how that turns out. I am excited that I joined a gym, because I have a 2 hour break in the middle of the day. But (aside from today) that’s more meant for cross training and strength training!

 

Zooma Half Marathon Training – Week 1 of 2

Guys, the Zooma (Annapolis) Half Marathon is on Saturday! It’s crazy to believe that it’s already been a month since the New Jersey Marathon. I had a great week of running this week, but I’m still far from 100%. The back pain is still around intermittently, and I’m dealing with continuing calf/achilles tightness like I haven’t felt in a long time. Aside from that, I would say that the week went well!

Monday: Rest, 30  (day 8!)

Tuesday: 3 miles at Girls on the Run. I managed to run without intervals with a friend from work. (and 30 burpees)

Wednesday: 5 mile progression run. First two miles were 60:30, last three were 90:30. I felt very strong but was dead after! (30 more burpees!)

Thursday: Thursday turned into a rest day after I couldn’t get myself up in the morning, and really just didn’t feel like going out at night. But my 30 burpees got burped.

Friday: On Friday morning, I randomly decided to sign up for a 5K on Saturday morning. Before I registered, I did a 2 mile shake out and my 30 burpees. I threw in a couple of fast intervals and felt good, albeit tight.

Saturday: 3.1 miles at a local 5K. It was very hilly, but fun. I definitely went out too fast but I was able to hang on and run an alright time for me. I got home and did my 30 burpees, and took a super long couch nap.

Beth and I at the 5K!

Sunday: 8 miles for my only pre-Zooma “long run”. I really wanted to go longer, but realized it would be silly of me to push to hard and make my tightness and back pain worse. This was the one day I didn’t do my burpees, which I felt bad about, but it really isn’t the end of the world.

Weekly miles: 21.1.

I’m happy to finally be back up into the 20’s and hoping that I can work out some of this leg soreness this week. I’m going into Zooma just wanting to have fun! I know it’s not a PR course, so I’m just hoping to enjoy it and finish in one piece.

Do you have any races in the next couple of weeks?

NJ Marathon Training Week 18: Race Week

I seriously can’t believe that the marathon (and April) is/are already over! April was seriously a whirlwind and Sunday was amazing. I can’t wait to share it with you all tomorrow (I need to decide if I’m buying my pictures!). I was worried that my taper wasn’t “restful” enough, but I think that it ended up being just right.

Monday: #restday

Tuesday: Girls on the Run –  1.17 (ish) miles. We ended up doing the workout indoors and my watch was on treadmill mode. It was about 6/8 walking and 2/8 running. But it worked for taper.

Wednesday: 3.1 miles easy around the neighborhood.

Thursday: Girls on the run – 1.28 miles. It was HOT but one thing is for sure, I love running with those girls/students!

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 2 miles easy. It wasn’t as “easy” as it should have been, seeing it was almost 70 degrees and 99% humidity! I’m NOT ready for Summer running yet. Bring back Spring!

Sunday: 26.49 miles. I’ll share more tomorrow, but it was as wonderful as 26.2 (+some) could be.

Week 18 total: 34.04 miles

On Monday morning I was crazy and along with entering the 2018 London Marathon lottery, I was looking up fall marathons. I also said on Monday that I wanted to run, although I couldn’t sit on the the toilet without hanging on to the walls/door knob, bathtub, etc. I’m still so on a high.

 

NJ Marathon Training: Week 5

Just like that, the first month of training for my second marathon is complete. I can probably rank this as the top week, this far, running wise.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 5 miles on the treadmill, and I didn’t hate it. Did a progressive workout, running faster throughout each 60:30 interval of a mile. Mile 1 started at 5.2 and ended at 5.8, mile 5 started at 5.9 and ended at 6.6. I was pretty dead after.

Wednesday: NP headed to M+T Bank stadium for the week! 1 mile beforehand + 40ish minutes of straight stairs (with some planks interspersed). It was so hard – I was good for the first half but really struggled the second half and started getting some knee pain.

Thursday: 5.5 miles, easy. This run felt great, mentally, after a long few days at work. My knee hurt slightly from the day before, but not too badly. The run ended at trivia night with my friends, where we came in second!

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 4 miles super easy – easy with my roommate. My HR ran pretty high for the pace, not sure why. I finished feeling good, but slightly tired.

Thanks for the picture, roomie!

Sunday: 9 miles – w/ 6 miles tempo. This was supposed to be 10, but I cut it short. I intended to run 6 miles at MGP, but they ended up being 1:00/mi FASTER than MGP. I can’t be mad at that, except for I know I can’t keep that pace for a marathon. I was completely wiped by mile 9 when I got back to my car, and bailed on the last mile.

Weekly total: 26.5 miles

Despite not finishing my long run, I was pretty happy with this week. I’m still feeling under the weather and was busy/stressed with work, and managed to get 5 pretty good runs in. This week will have 3 easier runs, before a trail half marathon on Sunday!

Don’t forget, you can join me in New Jersey and save $5 on your registration!

 

 

Marine Corps Marathon Training: 7/18-7/24/16

Another Monday means the beginning of another training week and it’s time to process the week that just ended. I’d say “this week was a big week for me”, but I have a feeling most weeks between now and October 30th are going to be big weeks.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 6.2 miles, easy effort on the hills around my house.

Wednesday: AM: November Project – 1.9 miles run (workout and run to my car), but mostly strength work

So happy! Today was a partner day and I ran with a friend that I made through NP and work!

PM: 2.9 miles “run date” at a monthly running group for a local animal shelter. We ran around Federal Hill and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor before ending at a happy hour. Let’s just say that there was another date after this, so it must have gone well 😉

Thursday: 2.75 miles at super easy effort on the treadmill. It was way too hot to go outside after work!

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 4.75 miles super easy effort. Lower temps in the morning helped this be my fastest “super easy effort” pace in the past month. I felt great and like I could go forever! I also ran in my new Hoka One One Clifton 3’s which I surprisingly loved! (#workperks)

Sunday: 14 miles!!! The first 4 miles were rough (I was coming down with a cold, no fun), but after that I felt much better. Around mile 10 the heat started to set in so that was challenging, but I was happy to bust it out feeling I could have gone at least 2 more miles.

Earned the last medal of the One HRC Marathon for the Hogwarts Running Club. 21K = 13.1 miles

Weekly total: 32.5 miles

MCM Training so far: 172.7 miles

In all honesty, this week really was a big week for me and I’m not afraid to shout it from the rooftops. It was my second 30+ mile week, I ran my longest run ever, and hit 100+ miles for the month <– this goal has been haunting me for a year. I ran a few less miles than planned thanks to the #rundate, but it was so worth it.

The week wasn’t all sunshine and daisies though – there were moments of struggling to get out of bed, failing to take care of my body, and sheer exhaustion. There were also feelings of progress and improvement, self-love, and even some connection to the greater world.

What were a high and low of your week?

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Marine Corps Marathon Training: 6/27 – 7/3/16

My first “official” week of MCM training is complete! I should have a training plan in my hands soon, but for now I’m winging it. I’ve learned over the last month what’s been working well for me. This is the first month in a very long time I haven’t had any skipped/missed runs due to pain/injury and I seriously couldn’t be happier.

Monday: Rest. Had way too much fun at the wedding the night before to run!

Tuesday: 5 miles around the hills of the neighborhood. It was ridiculously muggy and I don’t think I’ve ever returned from a run so soaked before! It was slow, but my heart rate was controlled (my goal for many runs lately).

Wednesday:  2.5 miles at November Project PR day! I PR’d by .7 points, which in reality is almost a whole lap of running/stairs. I met the goal I set for myself last month and almost hit my “out there” goal. I went from 5.0 to 5.7 and hope to hit 6.1 next month!

I was the “social lap leader” until everyone passed me LOL (thanks to my new friend in orange for sticking with me!)

Thursday: 6 miles easy on the trail. I finished with a fast mile, where I was in my max HR zone almost the whole time and basically felt like I was dying. I’m “racing” again on Monday so I just wanted to get my legs turning over a bit. I ran into my favorite undergrad professor and it totally made my day!

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 9 miles on the trail, again. This run was all over the place, thanks to some tummy troubles and realizing I left my car unlocked, leading me to turn around and lock it. The last three miles were the fastest of the morning, which is a challenge I’m enjoying lately.

Working on my Hogwarts Running Club marathon. More info on the HRC coming this week!

 

Sunday: Rest and 4th of July festivities. I have a 4 mile race tomorrow!

Total weekly mileage: 22.5 miles

Have a great weekend! Do you have any fun 4th of July plans? Any Races?

Marine Corps Marathon Base Building: 6/20-6/26/16

To make the intro short and sweet…This photo popped up on my news feed the other day.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 3.5 miles around the neighborhood. I planned to do 4.5, but was running short on time. I need to get used to not being able to multiplying my miles times 10:00 to get the time needed to run!

 

Wednesday: 1.5 miles at November Project. I brought my roommate, and stayed with her throughout the workout. It wasn’t as much of a run-heavy workout, but it was still lots of fun. I did also run to the liquor store for some beer, but I won’t count that.

Thursday: 4 miles easy in the rain, with my roommate again! I love that she’s coming to run with me, and if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t have left my bed to run in the freakin’ rain.

Rain running buddies.

Friday: 2.5 miles at November Project. This workout was hard not because of the hill (uh yeah, that’s hard) but because I was sick. But I didn’t realize it until I was there so I powered through as much as I could. I ended up coming home from work that day, which I never do, so I’m happy with 2.5 miles. I don’t normally go on Fridays, but one of the founders was there so I HAD to go. Now I never want to miss a Friday.

Losers do burpees. I won, but still did burpees. Oh, so much has changed in 6 weeks.

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: 3.15 miles at the Baltimore Women’s Classic 5K! Recap to come soon!

Weekly miles: 15.15. Lighter than I had hoped, but step-back weeks are supposed to be a part of marathon training, right?

This week was definitely lighter on the miles, but with an extra run day added in my legs still felt good. I don’t have my training plan yet, but this week is going to be my first “official” week of marathon training. It’s getting real! This week will have some super easy runs, with speed for PR day on Wednesday, a potential beer-mile on Saturday (I want to! I just don’t want to puke!), and another race next Monday.

I’m linking up with  Patty, Erika, and Marcia today for Tuesdays on the Run! Thanks for hosting, ladies!

 

What was your best run/workout of the past week?