Marathon Training Week 11

WOW! 7 weeks to go. I'm working really, really hard and smart (I think), to reach my goal. The goal is a 4:30 ish Marathon. That's a HUGE PR, so anything remotely close is going to be AWESOME. The two most important things I did this year is switched my tempo runs to the treadmill. I think I said that before. And added weight training. I haven't been very structured or consistent with it, but I can definitely tell that it is helping.

Monday - 1.6 km This was my mile rest day. I had a bit of hip pain from my long run the day before, but it wasn't sore while I was running, so I kept on keeping on.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. I hit a sub 6 minute tempo run this week. I am over the moon about this. I was hoping to reach this by the end of the cycle, but gosh darn golly gee, now I have to set a new tempo goal. The new tempo goal is 5:30 pace. That might be a little lofty for the next 7 weeks, but I guess this cycle has been all about the loft.

Wednesday - 9 km HILLS! On the the treadmill. This was a little slower than prior weeks, but I got it done. 8 x 500 m @ 6%.

Thursday - 8 km. Clinic night. It was the talk about the feet. General consensus was that it was probably one of the best discussions to date. It was really interesting. It was a great run. And NO SNOW! We got rained on instead. But that's ok.

Friday - 6 km. Got my run in before Costco and beer. Yep. You heard that right. My beer free streak is back to zero. Or actually 2 for the end of the week. I found this fun little app for my pebble watch that I wanted to try. It is called SoberUp. You have a drink. You click the button. It tells you what your estimated BAC is, how long until your BAC is back to zero. And your condition. Euphoric. Disinhibited. etc. Yea, I know. Not much to do with running. But hey.

Saturday - 1.6 km. Mile rest day. And a little bit of strength training.

I'm trying a new program. We will see how that goes.  The gist is that you work your way up from very easy to very hard exercises in 5 categories of movements. Pulling. Squatting. Inline Pushing. Perpendicular Pushing. And Bending. Starting with 2 sets of 12 reps in each exercise. 20 minutes. 3 times a week. I should be able to manage that. Monday is a rest day. Friday is a rest day. Wednesday is hills, so I will have to force myself into that one. I did manage to break a door on my first workout. Only 7 doors to go. oops.

Sunday - 29 km. Seriously! I am really sick of the snow. It's the end of March it should be over now. /endwhine. We were supposed to get 5 - 10 cm of snow. It turned into 20 - 25 cm. Woke up to a winter wonderland again this morning. This was a good run, but it was a clusterfuck of a run. The original plan was a few klicks, then up Rocky Lake Drive. Snow turned that into Shore - Union and back 3 times. But once we hit Shore and were about to hit Union, some other runners told us that Union was very snow covered, so we thought we'd take our chance on the Bedford Highway. Going out was not bad, but coming back was miserable in a "We are either going to get run over by a truck or hit by a road raging driver" Are road raging drivers that irate at pedestrians walking down the road, or is it just runners that make them go bat shit crazy?

Week 11 - 62 km run this week 

                - 581 km run in 2015
                - .5 lbs lost this week. 

                - 17.2 lbs lost since January 1. 

                - 12.9 lbs to lose to goal. 8 weeks to go.
                - Streaking 487 days and counting
                - Alcohol free for 2 days. 
                - 20 minutes of weights 

                - 20 days until my Boston vacation. 

Marathon Training - Week 10

The last week of winter sure went out with a bang. We had snow Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday night. We had more snow on Sunday and Wednesday then we had during White Juan. And that was on top of the already 2 or 3 feet of snow that was everywhere. There is just nowhere left to run. The roads are just barely wider than single lane. And most of the sidewalks are not plowed, and if they are, they are ice covered.

All my runs this week were done on the treadmill and the track. Yep. Long run on a track. I also kicked up the treadmill a notch. The 5 mph was getting too easy, and I noticed that my steady runs were too slow based on my training schedule paces. Oops. I thought they were ok at 8:00 / km. The steady runs should have been at 7:08 / km, so 5.4 mph on the treadmill.

They finally did manage to plow our sidewalks at home. I was able to get Sam out for a little walk this week. My poor old running buddy isn't getting any running in. He does go to daycare, so he is getting his exercise. He also found a new fence to jump in the backyard, so now we are back to leashing him and taking him out.

Mom, I can't see what's going on.

Monday - 1.6 km. A mile rest day.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. I really pushed it for this run. I did have to stop a couple of times because there was a pebble in my shoe that I couldn't get out. But I'm happy with the pace.

Wednesday -  8 km. Storm day. I think in the end we got about 60 cm of snow. My car was buried and we had to shovel it out.

Yep. That's my car.

For whatever reason, I actually thought I'd be able to do my run after shoveling. (What was I thinking?) I hit the treadmill and could only manage 3 of 7 hills. I had a rest, had some supper and hit the treadmill again. I was able to finish the other 4. So 1 km warm up. 7 x 500 m x 6%. And 1 km cool down.

Thursday - 8 km. I did this one at the faster pace. On the treadmill.

Friday - 6 km. There's another storm coming Saturday night. It's supposed to be rain and it's supposed to be over by 8:00 am, but just in case the clinic decided to run long on Saturday, I wanted this run done beforehand. My thought was, with that much rain coming, the roads might be flooded.

Saturday -  1.6 km. Another rest day. I'm actually glad we didn't run long this day. I was plum wore out from this week.

Sunday - 26 km of 29 km scheduled. So I wake up at 6:00 am this morning and look outside and there's 5 - 10 cm of snow on the ground. FFS!!!!! I was up with Sam at 3:30 and had him outside and it was still raining, so we had a full fledged blizzard in 2.5 hours. The clinic decided that we would run at the track. 132 laps of the 220 m track. It's a nice facility. I wouldn't mind running laps there again. Just not 132 of them. I could only manage about 30 at a time before I was going shack wacky. And I was forgetting to hit my lap counter, so then I was getting annoyed. I did 33 laps. Hit the treadmill for an hour. 32 more laps and then hit the treadmill again.

Week 10 - 57 km run this week 

             - 519 km run in 2015
              - 2.2 lbs lost this week. 

              - 16.7 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 13.4 lbs to lose to goal. 8 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 480 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 72 days. 
              - 0 minutes of weights 

              - 27 days until my Boston vacation. 

On the agenda for Week 11 is 6 km Tempo Run, 8 Hills, and then the regular 8 km and 6 km steady runs.

Marathon Training - Week 9

This was a really good training week. I feel like I'm progressing really well and I feel like my 4:30 goal may actually be within my reach with 9 weeks left to go. Switching to the treadmill for my tempo and hills runs was probably the best decision I have made.

Benefits of Treadmill Tempo runs

• I'm able to push harder on the treadmill than on snow covered roads.
• I'm able to maintain an even pace for longer duration which carries over into road running.
• This is really interesting. I find that because of all the miles at the same pace that I've done, that when I zone out, I'm actually running that pace and breathing at that rhythm. That whole repetition thing. Very interesting.
• It's not as easy to slow down on the treadmill as it is on the road.
• I'm not a victim to the elements.

Monday - 1.8 km. This was my mile rest day. I did a bit of everything, run, foam rolling, yoga, weights. I'm trying to be a little more proactive with the post run recovery. 

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. I was really happy with this run. It was almost uncomfortably hard, and I had to slow down a couple of times to get my breathing back under control. 

Wednesday - 8.77 km. Wednesday night hills. I actually went to the clinic for this run. That was a pretty decent hill. 6 x 600m @ 5%. I'm a week ahead of most people, so it was a little awkward when I had to run an extra hill by myself while everyone patiently waited. The hills are definitely harder on the treadmill. So I won't be that upset if I miss a clinic run to run them at home. I will say that I was pleasantly runner's high from this run. Gotta love it.

Thursday - 8 km Steady. After two relatively hard workouts, I was surprised that my "easy" pace for this run was a 7:30 / km. It was probably a little harder than an easy, but when I think back (I actually looked back) to this time last year my tempo pace was 7:30 and my easy / long run paces were between 9:00 and 10:00 / km. 

Friday - 6 km There was a big storm brewing for Sunday, so we decided to run our long run on Saturday this week. I have found in the past that I prefer to run this 6km easy run on Friday instead of waiting until Sunday or Monday when we run long on Saturday. I could tell my legs were a little weak, but that was totally expected.

Saturday - 19 km. This was a cut back week. Other than being a little sick with a cold (I took some tylenol cold and sinus that worked really well), this was a great run. OK. I did have a little hip pain from running on sloped roads, but it's long forgotten now. The temperature was fantastic, if not a little cold. No wind. No tummy troubles. I didn't run out of water, but I am going to have to address that before next week. The only thing to complain about was the lack of patience of the drivers on the road. They were not happy at all. FYI, we really would prefer to run on the sidewalks. But the choice is ice or irate drivers. We'll take our chances with the drivers. Most of them have a conscience and morals. Ice would take us out and not give two shits about it.

Sunday - 2 km. Rest day. HA! I actually like doing my long run on Saturday and having Sunday and Mondays as "rest days" I feel like I can get a half decent strength workout in on Sunday without having to worry about compromising my running due to DOMS. I did two 15 minute HIIT strength circuits after my run. 

Week 9 - 52 km run this week 

             - 462 km run in 2015
              - 2 lbs lost this week. 

              - 14.5 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 15.5 lbs to lose to goal. 9 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 473 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 65 days. 
              - 60 minutes of weights  

Marathon Training - Week 8

WOW! 10 weeks to go. The time is flying by. Literally. We lost an hour this weekend because of the time change. I'd really like to have it back.

It was a pretty uneventful week. I didn't get much reading done, so I don't have any great insightful websites or articles to offer up. I found a really cool RVing podcast this week, that I've been binge listening to. Roadtreking.com Dreaming of vacation and warmer days.

I don't want to say my long run this week was a disaster, because it wasn't, but it was definitely harder than it should have been. As I've been hearing, it seems it was a pain for a lot of people.

Monday - 1.6km Mile rest day. This pace is starting to get a little easy. I think I'm going to kick it up a notch. Just a notch.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. My pace was all over the place. I couldn't find an even pace that I could maintain for any length of time. It wasn't a bad pace overall. Just kinda sloppy.

Wednesday - 6 km. Hills! Hills! Hills! I ran them on the treadmill again. I'm still not happy with the road conditions. 1 km warm up. 5 x 500m @ 6%. 1 km cool down.

Thursday - 8 km. This was clinic and 8 km steady. The roads are actually starting to thaw out a little.  I think the hills workouts are working. Go figure eh? We hit a couple of hills on tonights run that we are quite familiar with, and I didn't have the problem tackling them like a normally do. The clinic was on stretching. With a focus on yoga. Love love love yoga. Yoga is great for runners. It increases flexibility and strength. It helps maintain muscle balance. It improves focus and helps runners maintain their sanity for those long runs.

Friday - 1.6 km. It's Sport and RV Show weekend. I had to get up early and get this one done because it was going to be a long long day.

Saturday - 6km. Up early on a Saturday morning to get this one done. Show again today.

Sunday - 25km. Headed out to Bedford to run with the clinic. Time change weekend so we all lost an hours sleep. Some of us handled it better than others. Us didn't include me. My biggest issue was my stomach. I think part of the problem was that I tried to overcompensate for my lack of food on Saturday and I ate too much Saturday night. Even though it was good for me food, it was still too much. What goes in, must come out. I turned my time off before my walk down the hill ruined my pace time. LOL. I'd rather be short on mileage, than slow on pace.  Add that to being on my feet for the past two days. And then having Sam jump the backyard fence 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave, didn't leave me in a calm state to run long.

Week 8 - 55 km run this week 

             - 410 km run in 2015
              - 4.5 lbs lost this week. This isn't a real 1 week loss. This is the result of carb gaining last week. 

              - 12.5 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 17.5 lbs to lose to goal. 10 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 466 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 58 days. 
              - No weights this week. 

Marathon Training - Week 7

Rest in Peace, Pepere.

My father in law passed away on Wednesday, so we had to make the sad trip to Cape Breton for the funeral. It was nice to see all of the family together, but of course, sad that it had to be under such circumstances.

The Hypo Half was this Sunday, which I was registered for, and the marathon training run distance was 23km this week. I had good intentions of running the 23km on Sunday morning along the Cabot Trail, but it didn't happen. I did get out on Saturday afternoon for a run. I should have run the 23km then, but by the time I felt like I could, I couldn't let anyone know that I'd be gone for three hours instead of one. We were so far back in the woods, there's no cell service.


Monday - 1.8 km This was my mile rest day and some weights. After running 19km the day before, I had some itchy legs. I had a "need for speed", I called it. I managed 60 seconds at 8mph.

Tuesday - 6 km. Treadmill Tempo Tuesday. We had ice quakes over night. They kept me up a lot. Scared the crap out of me. I thought the house was falling apart. With the little sleep that I had, I thought I was going to be much slower for this tempo run than I was. I managed to maintain a 6:16 / km average for the 6k. I'm quite pleased with that.

Wednesday - 5.3 km. Hills training started tonight. The roads are still pretty crappy, so I ran these on the treadmill. 1km warm-up. 4 x 500m @ 6%. 1 km cool-down. These were all over the place. I couldn't find a pace I could maintain for all 4 reps, or even within one rep. I started out too hard and couldn't recover enough to maintain an even pace. But they are done. Next week will be 5 reps, but I will try a different pace to maintain.


Thursday - 8 km. This was our clinic discussion and 8km steady run. The nutrition information was interesting. I didn't really learn a whole lot, just reinforcing my opinion on food. A second opinion so to speak. I do wish she had spoken more about running as a vegetarian though. A couple of things that she did discuss that I didn't realize, is that fats act as an anti-inflammatory. I will definitely research this some more. She also mentioned that she wasn't able to train for a marathon using whole foods. (That may be putting words in her mouth, but that's basically the jist of what I got from it) That's disappointing. But what she said does make sense. The manufacturers of sport drinks and sports nutrition have put the research into getting the right mix of ingredients, nutrients, vitamins and minerals to make things work, so go with it.

The 8 km run was 5 laps around the Bedford Place Mall. This was basically the only route where the roads were semi clear. It was a nice night for a run. I sure do enjoy running in the cold. Yea, I'm a freak, I know.

Friday - 1.6 km. We were heading to Cape Breton early, early this morning, so I was up at 5 am to get this done.

Saturday - 6.75 km. I managed to get a run in this afternoon after the funeral. It was a very well needed run to get the cobwebs out of the attic. Gorgeous day on the Cabot Trail.


Sunday - 6 km. Headed home today. It was a very long and stressful couple of days. I didn't get the 23 km run, but when I got on the treadmill, I was only planning on running a mile, so I'm glad I had enough in me to run what I did.

Week 7 - 36 km run this week 

             - 355 km run in 2015
              - 1.2 lbs GAINED this week. Sooo many carbs this weekend. 

              - 8 lbs lost since January 1. 

              - 22 lbs to lose to goal. 11 weeks to go.
              - Streaking 459 days and counting
              - Alcohol free for 51 days. 
              - 30 minutes strength training this week.