Week in Review: 2 weeks to #Chimarathon

So I am very excited to say the least about going to Chicago and having the opportunity to run the marathon. So awesome!! I am happily tapering too! No taper madness or crazies with the reduction of miles.

I think my body was screaming for the taper last week as I developed a few aches and pains that I normally never have to deal with - one ITband and a very tight quad. I was able to run through it while having it worked on but it was touch and go. I admit to being slightly concerned. I had one ART treatment on it and a very deep tissue massage on both that left them quite sore for 3 days. By Sunday, I was feeling okay we are on top of this and everything is going to okay.

It was completely my bad I had done way too many miles on the roads and sidewalks. I needed to be getting a lot more of miles on soft surfaces. So that is my goal this week to run on all soft surfaces so my muscles can bounce back and be ready to take the pounding 26.2 miles.

Week in Review:

Monday 10.25 miles easy
Tuesday 16 miles with 2 x 6 miles (7:15 first step & 7:10 second set)
Wednesday Yoga class
Thursday 10.5 miles easy
Friday 16.25 miles moderate effort & Pilates Class
Saturday OFF
Sunday 13.75 miles

Mileage - 66ish miles on the week

Very happy with the taper mileage! Enough to keep the aerobic system up and enough to allow for some recovery on my legs. Very thankful for where I am right now!

Week in Review - Just keep running cause life is pretty awesome and funny!

Such a big and awesome week for me! I got a last minute entry into the Chicago Marathon. Truly amazed and feeling so blessed by this amazing opportunity to run my dream marathon. I have actually registered for it 2 times before and things just prevented me going and running. Life is amazing how when you least expect it a miraculous twist of fate has you doing something you have always wanted to do!

This week was a great last week of training before I taper for Chicago. I felt pretty strong all week. I did have a bit a achy arch on one foot after one of my long runs. I got a deep tissue massage on it and haven't heard from it since. And I will admit to feeling a bit snackered this weekend but still got the mileage in so I am happy.

Here is the week:

Monday (AM) 8.5 miles easy (PM) 4.5 easy
Tuesday 16 miles @ 8:01
Wednesday 18 miles @ 7:59
Thursday 8.5 recovery
Friday (AM) 14 with 3 x 3 mile reps with 3 minutes rest in  6:47, 6:45, 6:39 (PM) 5 miles + 1 hours Pilates Class
Saturday 7 recovery
Sunday 11 easy/recovery

Mileage Total - 93 miles

I am still standing - 2 weeks in the 90s! Yeah! Definitely gives me some confidence! I am mostly in awe that I am not smackdown tired at all. I am have been sleeping well and trying to get enough carbs too this week.

Week in Review: Biggest Week Ever

I am sort of stunned at how good I feel! I keep wondering how in the world I had the energy to complete this week. Totally in awe of the energy level and rhythm in found I high mileage.

I am getting better at fueling (eating enough) but still have room to really get this right running higher miles. I can really feel it on some runs and end up having to really knock back a few more gels that I thought I would need. I found out that I can get a terrific amount of carbs from black beans 41 grams of carbohydrate per cup! So I will be eating lots of black beans and rice to keep my energy stores high in coming weeks as I build to 100 miles a week.

I set the goal to hit 90 miles at the beginning of the week, never really doubting I could do it but run by run, mile by mile I felt so good and happy. Totally celebrating hitting this huge milestone for me and I ended up running 92 miles total!

Here is how it went:

Monday 10 easy
Tuesday 16 @ 8:07
Wednesday 16 @ 8:00
Thursday AM 8.50 Recovery PM 4 Easy
Friday AM 14.5 with 10 at 7;10  PM 4 easy & Pilates Class (1 hour)
Saturday 7 Recovery
Sunday 12 easy

Total miles - 92

I keep thanking God for the return to feel great running again! I am so blessed to be able to run this much and I keep thinking about how far God has taken me.

My goal is to keep my eyes on the stars, dreaming and believing! And enjoying the work as I so love running!

Week in Review: Keeping on Grooving

I had a great mileage week and a few workouts tossed in to keep the legs moving. I am pretty happy with the week as I felt strong for most of the miles and still feeling fresh after 3 weeks in the 80s and moving onto 90 this week.

Here is how my week looked overall:

Monday 8 easy
Tuesday AM 12 miles with 16 X 400 @ 6;18 pace PM 4 miles recovery
Wednesday 10 recovery
Thursday AM 8 with 2 x 2 miles @ 6:50 pace with 3 minute recovery PM - 5 easy miles
Friday 10 easy
Saturday 20 easy
Sunday 6 recovery

Total - 84 miles

I had hoped to get to 88 miles but with traveling for work/Running Camp and such. I will take it!

Feeling optimistic and just loving the groove of training.

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!!