Week in Review: Found my Groove

Well this week was fabulous running wise! After getting Acupuncture done on Monday and some cooler less humid weather I was feeling amazing running this week. Put in the mileage I had hope to hit and everything feels good. I think I was able to eat enough to support the runs as I felt pretty great in all my runs this week.

I got in my first back to back long run this week as well! Ultramarathoning, here I come!

Monday 11 easy
Tuesday 16 @ 8:18
Wednesday 16 @8:11
Thursday 7 recovery
Friday 14 with 5 x 1.5 miles @ 6:40-6:55 with 60 sec rest
Saturday 7 recovery treadmill (slow @9:39)
Sunday 13 easy

Mileage total - 84 miles

Sleeping and Eating has been great so I need to keep up with the little things to stay healthy. My energy level was high this week so that makes me hopeful. I really hope to hit 12-14 weeks of high mileage like this before my marathon and 50K.

Here in a couple weeks - we'll get some cooler temps and I just know I will feel amazing! I have never started a fall training cycle this strong before so I my hope is the strong and consistent mileage will help me breakthrough in the marathon and than help me be really strong in the 50K.

Week in Review and Trying start a fire

I will first do a week in review for last week. After feeling pretty behind the 8 ball with training, I was able to rally last week and put in a solid week.

Monday 8 miles recovery
Tuesday 10 miles with 5 tempo @7:16 average + Pilates Class
Wednesday 7 miles Recovery
Thursday AM 5 miles easy PM 4 miles easy
Friday 18 miles easy - slow and Hilly/hot
Saturday 6 recovery miles - treadmill
Sunday 13 miles easy

Mileage total - 71 miles

I had a few really good days and a few really slow days but nothing to build momentum off of so I went into this week feeling mentally and emotionally lackluster about training and the fall season. Keep trying to "fake it till you make it" but deep down I have not been feeling it. The pure excitement of training hasn't been there. I keep thinking I will find it if I put the work in and it will find me out there working the motivation and inspiration.

Well today I finally found some inspiration and mojo doing work! I had woke up to do my first speed work session in my training cycle and since the blood donation. I wasn't totally into it which concerned me a bit. I was sort low on energy and enthusiasm this AM. I keep thinking what is wrong with me - where is my totally usually happy chirpier excitement.

Well it wasn't there at all. I listen to a podcast of Joel Osteen in my warm up and that at least got my mind in the right space. Than during my workout and the music I just got happier and happier and more confidence that I will rise again and be stronger.

By the time I completed the workout, I was happy and positive and more me! Funny how running hard can bring me back to myself. I found my excitement for training and running and motivated to run and train.

I will let todays run breed excitement and hope for all the good to come this fall.

Doing the best I can in Summer

Geez..I have so not been writing in here much lately. Why? I have no idea but summer is sort of a distracting and demanding time.

Today I got the bug to get my thoughts out.  So I thought should write a bit about what I have been doing and where I am intend to do this fall. I am so excited that I am going to do a 50K and than a 50 miler in the  early spring.

Very excited by these new goals and looking forward to the adventures that they will bring.

I will have 2 marathons in route to the 50K and than hopefully be ready for the 50 miler by early spring. That is what has been in the planning stages.

I just now have to get really rolling on towards my goals. Summer is always so distracting and hard to stay focused due to vacations and kids being home and the frickin heat making running higher mileages so difficult.

Additionally I got a bit more behind on mileage due to recently being diagnosed with an Blood disorder where my body is holding on to Iron. I had my iron levels checked due to a routine blood work up and they found too much Iron in my blood stream basically Iron overload which is dangerous and high levels of Iron in your blood is toxic and can result in tissue and organ damage.

Anyway they only way to address is through blood donation. I knew going into the blood donation that giving blood would definitely affect my running for a couple months but I also knew that it was the only way to correct this iron overload. Hopefully I will also feel way better too with all that iron out of my system and will feel better running wise down the road in a couple of months.

I donated blood on July 21st which is almost 3 weeks ago. It takes the body 56 days to regenerate blood levels to pre donated state. It was especially difficult to run the first week after blood donation so my mileage was lower. Last week, I started feeling better and got my mileage up 59 miles and this week will be like 51 miles which is a bit low but acceptable given we were on vacation at the beach and I took 2 days off.

In just over a week, I will have my kids back to school and hopefully the heat and humidity will keep going down for the next two months. I got through 3 months of heat and humidity and only 2 more to go.

I hope to really start building mileage and getting back into the routine of life and working towards my goals.

This next week I will try to enjoy the last few days of summer break but also really focused on getting my mileage up into the mid 60s. I have 12 weeks till my first marathon this fall and that is going come up pretty quickly.

Week in Review

Monday Off
Tuesday 8 miles (10 X 1 minute on, 1 minute off fartlek)
Wedneday 7 miles easy
Thursday Off
Friday 16 miles with 9 @ 7:20-7:53
Saturday 8 miles
Sunday 12 miles

Total - 51 miles

Next week I get on track!! Yippee!!