August 21, 2012

New York City Marathon Training: Week 5

If there's one thing in my life that has been super consistent, it's marathon training. For the first time in my running history, I'm very confident in my training. I'm not waking up every morning thinking about going sub-4 and spending every step of every training run thinking about my goals, I'm waking up and heading out the door to get my workout in, thinking only about my workout.

I'm analyzing each week, week at a time...not worrying about what I'll be doing next Thursday when I haven't even gotten to this Thursday yet.

I'm not thinking about Race Day. I'm not even thinking about the 2 Halves I have leading up to Race Day. I'm just thinking about now.

I have so many other things going on in my life right now that taking training one day at a time, is helping me to just focus on the now. It's been a pretty great life lesson lately and it's helped me overcome a lot in the last month.

That and yoga. I can't say enough about how much I love the yoga studio I've joined. While I've pretty much nixed every other form of cross training (oops), I've been really consistent about going to yoga so I'm happy about that.

Being on vacation last week, I had to modify my training slightly and I skipped out on my speed work for the week but compensated for it with other miles.

This week, things are going to be a bit interesting as I'm home with a bad chest cold and the simple act of walking up stairs is taking it's toll on me...never mind heading to the track for mile repeats. I'm medicating myself and heading to the doctor today so hopefully I'll be able to get out the door again soon.

Let's recap last week:

Total Mileage: 36
Missed Workouts: 1...but I still made up the miles
Trouble Spots: None...other than being sick this week
Planned Mileage this Week:  36-40

I'm hoping to do an easy, non-running workout today and to be out running again tomorrow, but I'm listening to my body, taking lots of vitamins and resting up so that I can get back into training again soon. In the mean time, let me know how your training is going! I'd love to know!

Happy Running! 

August 14, 2012

New York City Marathon Training: Week 4

Thank goodness this week slowed down a bit because last week, I was slightly panicked at how quickly training seemed to be going.

I had a lot of work-related things going on this week which changed my plans around slightly but I still got in all of my runs and felt pretty great on all of them.

The thing I want to talk about this week though...is nerves.

I have a serious case of pre-run anxiety when it comes to my long runs. I end up tossing and turning thinking about my long run so late into the night that sometimes I can't wake up for my run.

After missing my long run last week, I felt like my long run this weekend would be really hard. I have no idea why. It was (only) 14 miles, a distance I've covered a number of times either on its own in a training run or in the marathon distance itself.

My initial plan was to run on Saturday. Friday night, I made up a number of excuses to put it off...I'm tired, it's going to be hot out, I really want to go to yoga tomorrow, there are thunderstorms in the forecast, I'll be tired at the party all day...

Excuses, excuses, excuses. In all reality, it was going to be 84 with 94% humidity on Saturday morning and 68 with 20% humidity on Sunday morning so it just made more sense to run but even if the forecast had been reversed, I don't know if I would have run on Saturday.

To run long, you have to mentally and physically prepare yourself and while, mentally I'm definitely there, the build up to the run makes me feel like I'm going 0-14 with no training whatsoever.



So that's something I really need to work on...setting a day to run each week (Saturday) and committing to it...only allowing real conflicts to get in the way and not my feelings. Because you know what? As nervous as I got before my Sunday long run, I actually had a great run.




It wasn't perfect pacing, but for once I ignored my Garmin, other than to look at my mile markers and focused on running by feel...and I still managed to run well within my target long run pace.

So let's recap Week 4:

Total Mileage: 32.5
Missed Workouts: None...well, I didn't strength train at all like I said I would. =/
Trouble Spots: My right leg has been a bit wonky but foam rolling seems to be helping.
Planned Mileage This Week: 35-40

This past week's speed workout was hill repeats which went well but the hills weren't as steep or long as I would have liked them to be. This coming week, it's back to mile repeats and starting my speed work cycle again from Week 1.

So, this week, I will run all of my workouts, I will do at least one strength training session, and I will have faith in my ability to run long.


How is your training going? Do you get nervous before any of your workouts?

If you're interested in reading more about my specific workouts, you can always check me out on Daily Mile!

August 7, 2012

New York City Marathon Training: Week 3

If you read my novel of a post yesterday, you'll understand why I never recapped my training last week. I actually started the post about 17 times before giving up.

Last week, my training fell short due to my getting stuck in Florida for 2 days. With 12 weeks to go in training, and already hitting higher mileage than normal this early in training, I'm ok with it and since this week is meant to be a step back week, it works out since I can increase my mileage this week without over training.

After Week 2, I was feeling a little tired but a few yoga classes did the trick to get me feeling fresh again. The one thing I'm disappointed in is that although I've been great about incorporating yoga into my training and hitting most of my workouts, I've fallen off the strength training band wagon so it's time to get back into that routine this week.

So while Week 1 didn't quite go as planned, Week 2 went absolutely fantastic. Week 3, once again didn't go as planned but I'm looking forward to picking up where I left off after Week 2 and kick the next 12 weeks into high gear and having a great training cycle.

Let's recap Week 3:

Total Mileage: 14.5
Missed Workouts: 2, my 14 mile long run and an easy shake out run
Trouble Spots: A bit more knee pain that I would like
Planned Mileage for Week 4: 30-35

This week, I'm incorporating hill work into my normal speed work sessions, upping the mileage on my marathon goal pace runs and doing my first Time Trial of training. I'm hoping to do at least 2 strength sessions and go to yoga at least once. Yesterday's 4 mile easy run felt nice and easy after 3 days off and I haven't yet made it out the door for today's hill workout (it's been a busy day!) but I'm confident about this week's workouts, especially after nailing my speed work last week.

Well, that's that! I'm a little bit busier this week than I'd like to be, but hey, I'm not complaining in the least!

To those of you training for fall races, how is your training coming along? How do you feel about missing workouts? Do you beat yourself up? Try and add on? Or just let it go?


August 6, 2012

Where Have I Been???

The last week has been an absolute whirlwind. I think it was the universe's way of getting back at me for getting so down about being all 'OMG-I-have-nothing-to-do-all-day-every-day' for the last 2 weeks months.

I started my NYC Marathon Training Week 3 post about 17 times over the last week and not only did it never go up, but my blog disappeared into the whirlwind completely, so here's what's been going on.

I Presented my Thesis in DC...and I nailed it. I was really nervous about doing my presentation for reasons completely unknown to me. Public speaking is definitely my forte...I mean, come on, I moonlight as a radio personality. But for some reason, I was incredibly nervous. It turned out to be for no reason at all though because, I nailed it. It was so well received. I presented for just over 25 people and at the end, more than half of them came up to talk to me about my research and my presentation. It was awesome.  

Post-presentation, it was planes, trains and running shoes all the way home as my flight was cancelled and I ended up running across DC to take a train home so that I could leave the next morning. 

I Went to Florida - Thursday morning, The Pilot and I attempted to make our way to Florida for a wedding in the Orlando area...which is where everyone on the New York Metropolitan area seemed to be trying to go. When flying stand-by into Orlando seemed to be impossible, we tried our luck with Tampa and rented a car and drove 2 hours to Orlando. The wedding wasn't until Friday so we spent Thursday and Friday hanging out with friends, lounging by the pool, and getting involved with all sorts of pre-wedding shenanigans before getting all dolled up for the wedding. 

With my handsome date
The wedding was awesome. This is the first couple that I met when The Pilot and I started dating and their wedding was exactly like them. It was fun, it was relaxed and it was just perfect. I drank like I was still in college and danced my face off. It was great. 

Us with the happy couple
I Got Stuck in Florida - Saturday morning, The Pilot and I made our way the 2 hours back to Tampa to head home. My plan was to get home, run 4 miles and go to bed early so that I could wake up, watch the Women's Marathon and head out for my own 14 miles before unpacking, catching up on blogs and emails and doing all of those other things you do when you get home from vacation.

The Pilot and I couldn't get on the first flight out...then that flight had to return to the gate and a lot of people decided to take different flights, so we got on, boarded the plane, taxied to the runway...and were deplaned due to a mechanical error which later resulted in the crew timing out and the flight being cancelled. We weighed all of our options for going home...should we try to go to Denver? Oh this flight to DC looks good...before realizing we weren't going anywhere and renting a car and driving 4 hours to Jacksonville to crash with some friends before trying to leave in the morning. 

We got to the airport, boarded a flight...and were deplaned due to a ground stop in Newark...then we were kicked off our flight after a family arrived an hour and a half late and got their seats back. The Pilot and I had to separate since he had to be back at work but because of the delays, by the time I finally got on a plane and we were actually able to get off the plane (due to another ground stop that kept us from getting a gate), we actually ended up landing only 20 minutes apart. 

Despite the sheer and utter exhaustion of it taking over 30 hours to get home, I was so unbelievably grateful to The Pilot for sticking around with me when he could've left on the first flight out of Tampa if he wanted to. I actually enjoyed our time together in the airport(s) and rented cars and it just made the weekend that much more adventurous. 

I Didn't Run -  Originally, I thought I'd be home around 2pm Saturday. In reality, I got home around 6pm on Sunday. I did get in a run in Florida but only the 1 that I had planned and instead of the 30+ miles I had planned for the week, I ran 15. I'm ok with it. It happens. It's part of my go-with-the-flow-sometimes-life-happens attitude toward marathon training. I'll get back out and better than ever this week. 

So that's where I've been. Presenting in DC. Road tripping across Florida 3 times. Airport squatting. Not running as much as I wanted to or should have. As much as I'd like to say that I'm going to stay put for awhile, I'm heading back to DC at the end of this week for another short business-related trip. 

Hope you're weekend was a bit less adventurous than mine! 
Have a great start to the week!
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