Week 9 (September 8 - September 14): Finally feeling like a true 'runner' :D

Tuesday Figure 8s at Woodward:
Lots of hills but I'm feeling stronger for sure and faster maybe a smidgen.  I'm gonna try to get better at this techno stuff and see if I can post elevation graphs too of the runs...as a kudos to myself mainly lol and bragging/shout-outs to my fellow marathon training buddies that had to go through the same pain:)

Thursday Fun Run:
Yup, gonna blame it on the Benadryl I took for allergies - knocked me out and I overnapped the SRC run;  Definitely was not due to my nightly 5 hour "power naps" I've been taking before work.  Well, listening to the body and taking a break from my running "schedule".

Friday! Yay I did it- I just packed my run clothes to work with me then splurged on a new pair of Brooks running shoe (replacements) at SRC and made up my Thursday run !! Lol whatever it takes right? Sooo glad I did - helped me not feel mentally behind and possible sabotage by will to completed this Saturday's longest run to date... 

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday - 

Done and done. Haha what is there to say except its definitely been getting darker and harder to wake up for our 6:00am sharp run starts.  But after I joined my awesome marathon training peeps at Railroad Park this morning... The group pretty much made the 16 mile route today smooth runnings:) love 'em! Everyone is super positive:)

So really, what tricks and tips did I pull out to survive this Saturday's practice?

-  Running group/ partner to meet and get me out of bed (check)

-  Light breakfast of half bagel w/cream cheese and couple sips of Folger's instant coffee to get a little starting pep (check)

-  Favorite pink running skirt with 2 side pockets to hold my gels and chomps (check) ... No reason why ya can't run AND be cute:)

- Water bottle (check)

- Visored running cap (check)

- Selected my pacing buddies for the run: Rosa and Connie (check) - today we tried out a 8 and 2 strategy (run 8 min walk 2 min) - a fan after today ... Much more enjoyable than the 9 and 1 I trialed last week.

- Just went out, didnt think too much about it pre-run, and just did it!!:)

Note to self : Ice bath fail this week - must freeze more than 1 OJ empty carton of water and must give the other bottles at least overnight to freeze completedly haha... Instead had a somewhat cool water soak ***sigh*** will try again next week and buy more ice cube trays!

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Run stats:

WEEK 9		Mileage	Duration (hr:min:sec)	Pace (min/mile)
Mon	09-Sep	rest	n/a	n/a
Tues	10-Sep	6.07	1:20:24	14.15 (Figure 8s)
Wed	11-Sep	rest	n/a	n/a
Thurs Fri	12-Sep 13-Sep	overnapped 5.02	n/a 48:45	sleep speed!   9:42
Sat	14-Sep	17.02	3:19:39	11:43
Total weekly mileage		28.11 miles

Week 8 (September 1 - 7): Yasso 800 and Ice, ice baby!

Coach John introduced a new Tuesday speed interval workout this week -> the Yasso 800s
Basically the Yasso 800 is a training tool to help you achieve your goal marathon time.

For example, for 2Cities I would love to get a marathon time of 4hr 50min (anything sub-5!).
This would translate to running a 1/2 mile (aka Yasso 800) at a pace of 4min 50sec.

So the practice interval training would go...run 1/2 mile at 4min 50 sec; rest 4min 50sec (equal time) then repeat for maybe 3 total Yasso 800s.

For our Tuesday workout we actually ran our Yasso 800 pace then jogged 800m (instead of resting) in between....toughie! Felt like slow motion lol.  And here is where if you have a Garmin or sports watch that can report pace time - it helps you keep you at your Yasso pace and avoid going too fast or slow.  **sigh** I just moved apartments and I've found my charger and instruction manual but no Garmin watch yet!! arg.

Still doing my Thursday runs with SRC - joining their open Thursday night fun runs definitely helping me get out there and completing my "marathon" running homework on the official training team off days.  Love it!  Yes, the runs are now feeling like homework lol than get healthy runs...probably cause the distances are increasing and the Tuesday "short runs" are elevating in intensity.

But holla! 14 miles Saturday booyah!  On like 4 hours of tossing and turning sleep...subconsciously dreading the long run??? Not sure because I really wasn't consciously nervous...just another run right?  Either way kudos to all of us especially the Level 2s that were out for 16 - 18 miles already.

Longest distance I've run since Chicago (10/2012) and I completed my first "1/2" of 2013 :)
To treat myself I decided to try the ice bath finally this week after the Saturday run.  Seriously, I was looking forward to cooling off (100F+ Fresno heat) and providing miraculous soothing comfort I had heard rave reviews of from my fellow marathon training colleagues.

OMG!  Ok so wasn't so bad but post-1st time ice bath lessons learned:

• 5lb ice bag from VONS - NOT enough ice for 1/2 bath, lower body soak - ice melted almost to all gone by the time I got the bath half filled
• Should have taken Coach John's tips on filling up old milk cartons/jugs/bottles with water and freezing those to throw in the tub
• Yes the water is FREEZING - but just get in quick and you numb up pretty quick then its not so bad and I would rate the discomfort of the freezing water almost equal to the discomfort of my super sore muscles post-run so not a bad trade off at all - they distract from each other:)
• 10 minutes is about my tolerance level and I had my iPod playing to help pass the time...maybe a magazine too might help lol
• I think I wasn't as sore as I could have been post-bath (so beneficial) but will see next Sat when I actually have the bath fully iced vs already melted.
• Finally, not as bad as I was fearing yay!  Another tool in my arsenal to prevent injury :) Ice, ice baby:D

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Run stats:

WEEK 8		Mileage	Duration (hr:min:sec)	Pace (min/mile)
Mon	02-Sep	rest	n/a	n/a
Tues	03-Sep	6.45	1:18:50	14:12 (Yasso 800s)
Wed	04-Sep	rest	n/a	n/a
Thurs	05-Sep	5.31	56:43	10:41
Sat	07-Sep	14.02	1:50:44	10:53
Total weekly mileage		25.78 miles

Week 7 (August 25 - August 31): Making up the mileage - 1st missed long-run

The intensity of our Tuesday workouts is starting to increase in now that we are doing interval training where we run a path (this week the "Figure 8" path at Woodward Park), rest and then do it again x 3 total. 

During interval training, I do try to push myself a little faster without sprinting since the distance is shorter.  Pretty much I run as fast as I can maintain a comfortable steady breathing pattern and not feel like throwing up or winded when I finish the interval.  Hmm, yeah I still want to "like" running haha so don't want to overdo it.

This week unfortunately for my training - life is intervening- and I have a wedding to attend to which yes....I could run in lovely San Diego my scheduled 12 mile Saturday run.  And to give myself partial credit I did think about it for one hot minute! 

Alas, my running shoes couldn't fit in my carry-on (on top of the two pairs of heels that I needed to take) so I decided to add in an extra Wednesday run to try and make up some mileage and then cross-train Saturday with dancing!!!! lol yeah well, ya do what you can:)

This week was a lovely week of rest and I enjoyed every minute of it:)  I promise I'll make up for it next week!!


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Run stats:

WEEK 7		Mileage	Duration (hr:min:sec)	Pace (min/mile)
Mon	26-Aug	rest	n/a	n/a
Tues	27-Aug	6.02	1:14:35	12.24 - Figure 8s
Wed	28-Aug	*5.01	*1:00:00	*12:00
Thurs	29-Aug	5.24	54:28	10:23
Sat	31-Aug	dancing!	2:00:00	n/a
Total weekly mileage		16.27 miles	*estimated (forgot to start watch:P)

Week 6 (August 18 - August 24): Mileage up! Feeling good:)

This week I pretty much ran the paces a.k.a. I was pretty much mentally on auto-pilot.
Tuesday was pretty short overall.  Our training group went to the local high school track at Clovis North and ran a 1-2 mile warm-up around the track at an easy peasy pace:)

Sun was down by the time Coach John had us line up for the goal of today's practice --> recording our 1st timed mile of the training season.  This was mainly to get something timed and down on the books so that we can see our improvement when we do this timed mile again later in the season...joy hehe.

I was, however, looking forward to running a marathoner's version of a sprint:) during practice and seeing what I would clock my mile time in...my last official time being 6:59 (min:sec) in high school um....18 years ago omg...why did I calculate that?!

And the cool dark of night made it more fun since the sun was going to beating down on us and dripping sunscreen sweat in my eyes while I tried to do my best.

The result --> 8:32 (min:sec) mile...whoo hoo!  I'll admit I didn't run it all out 'cause I didn't want my heart to explode or feel nauseous but I did run it as fast I felt my body could handle:D  Yay one and done!

1-2 mile cool down around the track after waiting for other running groups to do their exercise and shortest Tuesday workout ever!  (1/2 marathon training group has now started their training for the 2 cities HALF and the purple Team in Training group was also out sharing the track).  It was great to see runners of all levels - motivation:)

Just for perspective - our fastest runner JW ran his mile in 5:07 - Insane!!! *sigh* some people just have in the genes I say...

Ooh one shout out to myself - ran 12 miles for the long run!!!  Shout out because schedule-wise and mental-wise, was totally prepped for running 10 miles but due to a fluke of substitute coaches this weekend....we did an extra 2 mile warm-up hehe.  (Coach John was out running yet another 1/2 - the man is a running machine!)

 Additionally it's the longest distance I've run since the Chicago marathon last October...go Ann!


Question of the week -->  What's your personal best mile time?  (Perfectly fine to use your all-time best 'cause YOU did it!)

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Run stats:

WEEK6		Mileage	Duration (hr:min:sec)	Pace (min/mile)
Mon	26-Aug	rest	n/a	n/a
Tues	27-Aug	1.10*	0:8:49	7:59
Wed	28-Aug	rest	n/a	n/a
Thurs	29-Aug	5.25	n/a	10:54
Sat	31-Aug	12.32	2:32:56	12:23
Total weekly mileage  *1st timed mile of the season (actual total ~2-3 miles including warm up and cool down.		18.67 miles

Week 5 (August 11 - August 17): CORE engaged! Yay!

Stepping it up this week to a more advanced level...level 1.5 lol - right in between the fast group and the faster group.

Basically I ran faster and longer on the short run (Tuesday) day and Thursdays on the public run at SRC I'm running a minimum of 5 miles no matter how long it takes or how hot it is!!!  Luckily the Tuesday runs are getting a little cooler as the sun is setting earlier now and we start at 7pm.  Thursday runs are designed to be mostly in the shade like 75% of the run which is awesome!!!

Even a tiny stretching before my run is helping my legs from the knee down not feel so tight (ie like 'dead legs') so will continue.

One of the improvements I've definitely noticed in my form while running is that I can now feel my CORE engaging!!! Yay!  Not sure if its because I upped my intensity but love feeling those side and stomach muscles working...2 pack here I come!

Core exercises that we do during warm up on Tuesdays and that Coach John encourages us to continue on our non-official training days are:
- Holding plank (yoga) position for at least 30 seconds and we will build up to eventually 1 min over the weeks.
- Side plank on each side with legs stacked and hand behind ear with elbow up.
- Crunches with legs bent in the air and arms crossed over the chest (set of 10 and build up from there)
- Dog pointer exercises (also strengthens hips)

Goals to improve for next week:
- Continue the improvement in intensity but watch out for injury....will continue to listen to my 'broken' body haha...

Question for the week --> What exercises do you do to strengthen your core that are fun and effective?

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Run stats:

WEEK 5		Mileage	Duration (hr:min:sec)	Pace (min/mile)
Mon	12-Aug	rest	n/a	n/a
Tues	13-Aug	5.48	1:17:50	14:12
Wed	14-Aug	rest	n/a	n/a
Thurs	15-Aug	5.23	n/a	10:54
Sat	17-Aug	9.56	1:50:44	11:35
Total weekly mileage		20.27 miles