Week 3 - February 3-9, 2020

This was a different week, both because of my travel plans and because of my 5K race on Sunday. All in all, things went quite well...

Photo by my dear friend Laura, who was also kind enough to be my gear sherpa for this race!

Overview:

Monday - Day off

Tuesday - 30 min bike w/ 10 min hard tempo
                 Poseidon Total Body Workout

Wednesday - Tempo: 7 miles w/ 3 mile Tempo pace
                      Atlas Basic Core Workout

Thursday - 45 min easy bike

Friday - Off, travel

Saturday - 4-mile easy run.

Sunday - 5K Race!

Run Details:

Tempo Day - I decided to keep the tempo run and cut the repeats, in lieu of the race. Felt really easy, since it was a shorter tempo than I had been doing. Nice to feel that it was easy!

Easy Run - this was a fun, light run in my old tromping grounds with a good friend. It was refreshing to have good weather and be able to wear shorts!

5K Race (St Pete Distance Classic) - this actually went pretty well. I had a solid 6:20s pace for mile one, and then slowed a bit. I was frustrated with my mentality for most of the run; I don't seem to push myself the way that I used to, and then I finish the race with gas still in the tank and no soreness. So I am obviously physiologically capable, but I need to work on my mental game for short-distance races. But this was a good baseline indicator of where I am, and where I can go in my marathon training. Best 5K time in 3 years!
Finish time: 20:55

Overall, I'm pleased with how my body is responding to the training and with how the race went. Now I want to focus on really dialing in those training paces, based on my current time, and keep pushing forward into longer long runs. Desired long run pace: 7:44/mile.

One thing I need to change: my strength program. I appreciate how Runner's Connect approaches their strength philosophy, but I don't feel the workouts are specific enough for my training. I am going to design my own strength routines moving foward, ones that combine the best of RC and the Bodybuilding programs.

End of 2015...and First Half of 2016!

Well I have sufficiently ignored my blog for about half a year now...yikes!

Due largely to one thing: in January of 2016, I accepted a long-term substitute teaching position at a local private school that then turned into a full-time position. I am SO excited to be a part of this school community, and back to full-time teaching.

What happened regarding my blogging: since I went from being a teacher of three online classes to a teacher of three online classes plus four face-to-face classes (that's 7 different preps...), trained for Boston, and ran out of every last ounce of spare time I might have maybe had once.

But enough excuses. I pledge to being a better author/blogger, now that my life has settled back into full-time work routine, plus my growing training regimen!

A quick recap of the past 6-7 months:

December 2015

- Was on a routine morning run, and this happened...Jogger Saves Sleeping Mother and Child from Burning Home. Because we are out in the early morning, we runners often witness things unfold before the sleeping do. I happened to be in the right place at the right time.



- Didn't quite run a PR at the Florida Holiday Halfathon, but was only about 6 seconds off, 1:32:18. 5th place overall female, and still retaining my position of 2nd in the series.

January 2016

- Ran a 19:51 at the Kettle Krush 5K in Downtown St Pete, 3rd overall female. 
- Had an insane race at the Clearwater Halfathon! Winds sustained around 25mph and gusting in the 30s. Was feeling sick the day before. Suffice to say, this was not my best race. 1:36:04. But it was SO worth it to meet this running legend! Bill Rogers...

 

February 2016

- OMG...got to meet Meb and Shalane...

 

- This was just before the Gasparilla Distance Classic 15K, which was a great race for me, 15K PR, 1:03:07!
- Started getting coached by Mark Hadley! Very excited to have a coach for the first time since high school. Loved coaching myself, but was becoming too stressed out by the process, and began to second-guess myself significantly. Mark also coaches my training buddy Christina, who is a rockstar Masters runner, so now we are on the same training cycle. 

March 2016

- Florida Beach Halfathon at Ft. DeSoto, awesome race and big PR, 1:28:54. 4th overall female, but won 2nd in the series! This was my first time wining big prize money for running.

April 2016

- Boston Marathon! Amazing experience, but tough race-day conditions: hot, headwind, full sunlight, and I did not hydrate nor rest properly in the days leading up. So no PR for me, finished 3:24:48. All in all, not a bad time considering everything else.



May 2016

- Mayfaire 5K in Lakeland, no expectations since it was only a couple of weeks post-Boston. But still OK...ran 20:08, 2nd overall female, won new Mizuno running shoes, and got to race with my awesome little brother...



June 2016

- While in Arizona for my high school reunion, ran in the Yarnell Memorial 5K in honor of the 19 firefighters who lost their lives in 2013, one of whom was a classmate of mine at Orme. Had a great time with my long-time friend, Sue, and ran 19:44...though my Garmin said the course was 3.0 miles. 1st place overall finisher! Not bad for a race at 5,000 feet elevation and 90 degrees. But hey, its a dry heat.



- Watermelon Run #2 5K in Lakeland, was hoping for PR but ran 19:54, 1st overall female. Despite not hitting a PR, I felt the best I have ever felt at mile 2 during a 5K, my first two mile splits were 6:15, 6:14, setting an in-race 2-mile PR of 12:28-ish. The last mile absolutely killed me with the heat and humidity (80 degrees / 80% humidity), which seems to affect me much worse than elevation. Still, promising results.

So that is my racing history since my last post. Many exciting races to come this summer, including a track (yes, TRACK) series starting on July 6th with a mile, then two weeks later with a 2-mile, then two weeks later with a 5K. Haven't raced on a track since high school....but this will be good for me, I am sure!

Halloween Halfathon & Training Recap

Haven't written in a while. Time goes by way too fast! Especially in the fall, it seems. Frequent races, busy school schedule, and right now an energetic 2-year old who is growing before my eyes. I can't believe that Boston is almost exactly 5 months away...

My training has been going wonderfully! Mostly, that is. Since my last post, I built up my weekly mileage to around 60 miles/week, with a couple of lighter weeks surrounding the Halloween Halfathon. I've shifted my workouts to be more half-marathon-specific, which is quite a relief for me, since I tend to thrive at long-interval and tempo-paced workouts, not so much the shorter stuff. 

Which brings me to another fun addition - I joined the inaugural group of the McMillan Run Club, a recent development by Greg McMillan's training program. I have read his books and implemented some of his training philosophies into my own program, and am very impressed with his thoroughness, individualization, and openness to other training methodologies. The Run Club is basically a way for runners to connect to the coaches - usually Greg himself - with Q&A, training advice, and specific race preparation plans. 

Anyways...one of the tenants of McMillan's training programs is identifying the type of runner you are: a speedster, an endurance monster, or a combination of both. McMillian describes these types in greater detail in this Runner's World article. If you're a speedster, you respond best to short, fast workouts and tend to perform better in mile up to 10K races. If you're an endurance monster, you respond best to threshold and tempo workouts and tend to perform better in 15K to marathon or longer. If you're pretty balanced across both, you are obviously a combination.

I am most definitely an endurance monster. I feel like a rockstar after tempo runs and a pile of poop after track workouts. Learning this and adjusting my training accordingly has really helped me maximize my training. For example, I do fewer speed workouts, but still some, and give myself longer recovery after them. I use my threshold and tempo runs more strategically, and gradually build up the distances I run at goal race pace during longer runs. The result: I feel faster, less mentally and physically worn down, and more responsive to the training. 

Proof is in the pudding! I ran a big time PR - a 5 minute improvement on my last time - at the Florida Halloween Halfathon, placing 2nd overall female with a time of 1:32:12. I was more cautious in the beginning (see my post about my overzealous start the last time I raced at Ft. DeSoto) and felt strong and steady for the rest of the race. There was a pretty solid headwind during the middle miles, but I didn't slow by much. Held on to about a 7 min/mile average and finished feeling strong. 

Thanks for another great race, Chris Lauber!

The week after this race was really tough on my body. It didn't help that I was sick with a mild flu or cold the day after the halfathon. I took Sunday and Monday completely off, but then jumped back into my training plan without a significant amount of recovery time. This race was not my goal race, which I am currently still training for, and I wanted to get back to progression runs and 800m repeats the following week. It just didn't happen. The progression run turned into a very slow, random tempo, and I made it through 2 of the 800m reps before my pace really took a dive. Bottom line: give yourself more recovery time than you think you will need. Especially as you get older. When we run longer than the half-marathon distance regularly during training, we tend to assume that we don't need much recovery after racing a half-marathon. But races really take it out of you, if you're running faster than your easy pace, that is. I certainly did. Left it all out on the course. And for that, I needed more serious recovery.

Finally did feel fully recovered after about a week, and my training this past week has been fantastic! A nice light fartlek of 12 x 1 min hard / 1 min easy on Tuesday got my fast-twitch fibers re-ignited, and then an awesome workout of 3 x 2 miles @ 15K race pace with Christina, who really pushed me when I felt sluggish towards the end. I plan on doing more workouts with running buddies rather than alone, as it is certainly more effective and less painful to get through. 

Feeling great after a tough workout!

Now here's to hoping that the weather continues to cool off!

One last note: I added a tab at the top of the blog to a list of Favorite Links. Check it out!

I'm Glad I Got Injured.

Yes, you read that correctly. I am glad for my injury, the one I had been complaining about incessantly for the past month. Why?

First of all, my sports doctor has been gradually letting me run again. Started with 2.5 miles every other day, then 3 miles every day for a week, now it's 5 miles every other day, just seeing how my body is responding to the treatment. So far, so good! Some minor twinges of pain here and there, and soreness that he assures me is mostly just from working muscles that have rested for three weeks. He is most pleased that my range of motion has greatly improved in my hip, and though he is cautious in letting my normal training resume now, he is confident that my form and function will be stronger than it was pre-injury.

That is where I have adopted a new attitude towards this particular injury.

From: HealthBalanceHappiness.com

In 3 and 5 mile runs this past week, my form feels different. A little strange even, but in the best possible way. My hip extension is light years ahead of where it was, and the funny thing is that I didn't even realize that I wasn't getting the full range of motion prior to this. I have been a mid-foot striker for some time now, not overreaching my stride, keeping decent posture. But now, I feel as if someone is pushing my feet back out in front of my during the extension to takeoff phase of my stride. Dr Maggio has had me do some hamstring strengthening exercises, which undoubtedly have helped as well. My shoulders feel more relaxed and my torso seems to lift up and forward with each push-off, rather than sink into it.

Had I not incurred this pain in my lower back, glutes and hips, I would not have discovered the dysfunction in my running physiology, or found a doc who can fix it. While there is still work to be done on it, and my body has to adapt to a new running form, I am so thankful for this improvement!

So there is often silver lining, in even the most frustrating of circumstances. Often times being injured drove me mad, sad, stir-crazy, jealous, and whiny. But the payoff is coming back so much stronger, and with much greater potential for success, than I had before. Now I am not only running again, but I am very hopeful for my upcoming races. Note to self: don't get overzealous too soon....I think I have learned that lesson before, must remind self frequently. This new lesson, that an injury (at least, a relatively innocuous one) can serve an important greater purpose, is so important for many runners to consider. What may appear to be a setback can sometimes launch you forward!

Thank you so much, Dr Maggio.

Next race - my "comeback" 5K: Florida Halloween Halfathon & 5K at Ft DeSoto on Oct 26th. Check out the lineup of their events!