Sanibel Race for FISH 10k 2015/Virtual Runner's World Hat Trick

This year, when the Sub30Club rolled out its second annual Virtual Runner's World Festival races, I decided to run the hat trick. I felt like it would be a good challenge and the mileage would coincide nicely with my marathon training.

Completing the hat trick meant completing a 5k, 10k, and half marathon between the dates of October 15-18.

Thursday evening, I ran my 10k. I definitely felt my mentally shift this week, and this run helped to trigger that. There was nothing spectacular about it, but usually my weekday runs are 4-5 miles, and it felt good to have a real reason to push beyond my usual mileage.

Saturday, I had the Sanibel 10k. I love this race, and this was my fourth year running it. Because I needed to get enough mileage to cover the half of the hat trick, I woke up at 4am and ran just short of seven miles. Then, I drove to Sanibel.

My conversation with Matt when I left the house:
Me: Bye honey, I love you.
Him: Bring a towel; you're going to be so smelly!

I timed my arrival at Sanibel to be just 30 minutes before the start, because I already had my bib and wouldn't need time to warm up.

I parked and got situated, used the bathroom, etc, with plenty of time. In fact, almost too much time; my legs started to really cool down! I did some dynamic stretching to keep them warm and lined up toward the back of the start.

My mentality for the race was to go very slow and very easy. I ended up finishing with possibly my slowest 10k ever, but I was perfectly happy with it! I was proud of how steadily I held my pace, especially given that I'd run beforehand.

This is one of those races that attracts lots of inexperienced runners. Usually there's a lot of dodging and weaving in the beginning, but this year felt smoother. I did play leap-frog with a couple who were running/walking, and didn't seem to know that walkers should move to the side...That was a little frustrating to deal with the entire race. But you now, sometimes things like that just happen and we can't let it get to us on the course!

This was my first race of fall, and I got a little emotional in the first couple miles.

The most frustrating thing was being the only one who knew that the reason I was so lethargic toward the end was those earlier miles! Around mile 5 I took a walk break while I unwrapped a lifesaver and a couple of ladies passed me; one said, "Come on, cutie! You're almost there!" I wanted to shout, "I'm usually much stronger in a 10k! This is mile 12 for me!"

The packed-shell road from mile 4 to 5.5 is a little narrow, but I appreciated the shade!

This was the first time I've run Sanibel without a buddy. Because of the logistics of running beforehand and Matt's own training, I went alone.

I also had to head out immediately after finishing because Elizabeth was coming over with her husband to help with drywall in our kitchen, so I didn't enjoy the usual post-race celebration this year. Although I really enjoyed the race and got a little emotional at the thought of race season starting again, this one felt a little more practical than festive.

(Oh, and just to clarify: Elizabeth and I hung out on the lanai while the guys worked in the kitchen.)

Roniel and Matt making progress on the kitchen.

Anyway, my stats aren't stellar for this race, which is fine! I saw Sean afterward; he did really well. I also saw Lisa, one of my Ragnar teammates, and we exchanged a high-five as we passed each other. That really helped! Here's my long-run fueling reminder for next time:

Obviously I'm going by chip time here.

Total mileage and pace Saturday.

Finally, Sunday was the last run of the hat trick: the 5k. Elizabeth joined me at 6:45 and we just went out nice and slow and enjoyed the morning.

The temperature was 69 when we began, which was surprising and refreshing. My legs felt great! Elizabeth isn't really a runner (she prefers pretty much any other type of exercise over running) but wanted to come along.

Three virtual races and my first real race of the season, done! I'm feeling really accomplished and a little impressed with my mileage this week!

27 miles...not bad! I actually feel like I'm marathon training!

Now, it's time for a much-deserved rest day!

Do you like virtual races? I like that they motivate me to get running, but I don't really count them as a real race.
Have you ever done a multi-race challenge over a weekend?

ABK

While the Cat's Away...

I was both gratified and a little saddened that so many people could identify with my last post. It's nice to know I'm not alone in those kinds of thoughts, but it totally sucks that so many awesome people - particularly women - struggle with such negative thinking. Here's to us and overcoming the negativity!

This week, Matt bought a new race board for paddling and put his other race board up for sale. And wasn't it just perfect kismet that the person who wanted to buy his board lives in Orlando, and wanted to meet the same weekend as alumni weekend?

I chose not to go on this trip; I absolutely cannot travel and stay up until 3am partying with only three weeks until race day! So Matt went on his own, and I was left to answer the age-old question of how to entertain myself while home alone.

 Friday after work I baked brownies and gave myself a manicure.

I used Krusteaz's new GF mix and it was a total success. YUM!

This picture may be my latest argument against people going gluten free to "lose weight."

I'm really loving this black-purple shade.

As soon as I'd finished I remembered why I never paint my nails. Archie hates nail polish and hasn't let me give him scratches all weekend. He's still hanging out with me, but he's avoiding my hands at all costs.

PJs, classic rom-com, and a sleeping birdie. My Saturday night in one photo.

What can I say, I'm a complex woman with eclectic tastes in TV.

 Saturday I woke up for a run with Kristin, and immediately afterward realized that my plan to get new shoes after the race wasn't going to pan out. How am I already at 360 miles?!

Not my best run. This was good proof to me that tapering happens for a reason.

Bubblegum pink and brand new! It's going to take me awhile to get used to the color!

I spent the day resting and researching/planning for the marathon.

My favorite running shorts are the 3.5" Epic Run, and I wore them for my 20-miler without any problems, but I ordered a pair of the 5.5" to test out and compare before race-day.

I've been spending some time figuring out my running plan for race day. I don't want to hit the wall earlier than necessary (because I'm sure it will happen sometime over the course of 26.2 miles!), so starting at a conservative pace seems smart. But sometimes it's hard to crank up the pace if I've started too conservatively. So I need to play around with what my "yellow zone" pace really is.

Food for thought!

Truthfully, although I get lonely and a little scared alone at night, it's nice to have a couple days to myself to relax and indulge in junk TV and other girlie pleasures.

How do you pass the time when you're home alone?

What junk TV do you enjoy?

How was your weekend?

ABK

This Week in Training

After all the excitement of the week, is it any wonder that my training suffered? Every run was tough this week because my legs were heavy, and I didn't get in any cross-training (unless you count speed-walking through airports, climbing stairs, and touring Minneapolis on foot...or building a bookshelf, which I did Friday).

That's right, I built it myself! Loading the books on was no small task, either.

But I got them done...mostly.

On Monday, I had my nice 4-miler through the parks of Minneapolis. I finished that run just as people were walking to work, so my last half mile consisted mostly of dodging between briefcase-toting business-people. There were also a lot of stops at cross-walks, which kind of took the wind out of my sails.

I wish we had parks with cool fountains, statues, and lots of trees here in my part of Florida!

I pushed my speedwork from Wednesday (when we flew home) to Thursday. I made the mistake of doing this at night. I think if I had gone in the morning, I would have been more successful. This was my first time ever doing repeats, and the plan called for 1600s at 9:12 with 800 recovery jogs. Before I even began, I went to the bathroom and was sick. (Maybe my intestines were all jumbled from airport fare?) After my mile warmup, I went to the bathroom again...with the same results. My 4-mile repeats became a 2-miler.

I shook it off and was looking forward to my long run this weekend. Saturday morning I ran my scheduled 9 miles. It was already ridiculously humid when I got started, and by the time I finished it was in the 80s. 

At 6:10 when I started the run, it was 77 with a humidity of 94%. WTH Florida.

Seriously my new favorite fuel for these shorter long runs. Thanks, Heather, for the tip!

My legs were still exhausted, but luckily I had no tummy troubles.

Post-run chocolate milk and a shot of my #RUNootd.

My biggest setback on this run was that I was chugging too much water. It was so hot and I found myself gulping down about 32 ounces over the course of the run. By the halfway point, I was cramping up and felt like I might vomit from all the sloshing. So I adjusted my plan and finished the run doing run/walk intervals.

You can see where I walked in orange on the map. (Not to be confused with the awesome orange splotches meant to protect my location haha.)

I saw a huge bunny on the run, which marks the first time I've seen one close to home (as opposed to at my parents' house or out of state)!

So yeah, this week was rough. But rough weeks make us stronger, and I'm not concerned in any way. The fact that I powered through the full 9 when I could have cut it short speaks volumes...even if the run was one of my slowest to date.

In other fun news, I made the banner of the Sub-30 Club group (which, by the way, has expanded to over 1,900 members after Runner's World Magazine published a little blurb on it!), along with a few other awesome people...

Can you spot me? (Yes, I wore the shirt on my run Monday to represent the club in Minnesota!)

The entry is here...see if you can figure out which is me!

...and Janae at Hungry Runner Girl featured me as part of her Finish Line Photos post this week!

I'm looking forward to a much more consistent week next week!

How do you deal with a tough running week?

How do you adjust a run that's not going your way?

How does travel affect your workout/run schedule?

ABK

Pre-Training Preparation & a Recipe

Earlier this week, I broke out my colored Sharpies and my marathon training plan and went to work on my calendar.

Week 1 begins July 7!

The plan I'm using is Runner's World's Smart Coach. I really like the program because it allows you to choose your intensity and how many weeks of training you prefer. What I really like is that the plan is flexible.

Each run is hyper-linked to further detail about the workout.

I'm not a naturally organized person; I figured color-coding my planner would help. I'm still a little conflicted on how I want to go about cross-training because speedwork/tempo runs usually leave me feeling a little weak. But right now, my plan looks like this:

Red = speedwork; Fuschia = tempo; Light Blue = easy; Purple = race; Blue = long run; Teal = XT

So I'll definitely cross-train Tuesdays, and I'll leave Thursdays optional depending on how I feel and how long my long-run is that weekend. 

One thing I'm not really sure about is that the plan calls for four 20-milers! Most plans call for two at most. I already know I'll be missing one as I'll be doing an 80-mile relay that weekend, but I don't have any other races set up yet. Maybe all the 20-milers will have me feeling really confident by marathon-day!

So, part of pre-training is cleaning up my eating habits. It's no secret that I'm a fiend for all things sugary. I'm pretty notorious for having dessert with every meal. Over the past few weeks, I've given Matt permission to monitor my snacking. That pretty much boils down to me allowing myself one dessert a day; I make sure to eat it when I'm not alone so I have to be held accountable. It's amazing how quickly I've noticed a difference in my cravings for sugar, my energy level, and the fit of my pants!

Instead of sugary cereal, breakfast is now gluten free oatmeal with a tablespoon of peanut butter. Yum!

Now for a recipe! Elizabeth gave me this one and it was a hit! I changed some things up to have more control over the salt content. It's super easy; all you need is a crock-pot.

Ingredients:

-Frozen chicken breast

-1 can of black beans

-1 can of corn

-1 can diced tomatoes

-1 can mild green chiles (or spicy...but Matt isn't a fan of heat so I kept it mild)

-Cilantro to taste

-Salt & pepper to taste

-1-2 cups cream cheese

-Avocado for garnish

Drain all the cans and dump them into your crock-pot.

I didn't drain the beans well enough. Oops

Place the chicken on top, season it with salt & pepper, cover, and cook on high for four hours.

Four hours later, add the cream cheese and cover and cook for another thirty minutes. While that cooks, whip up some brown rice.

Stir the crock pot so the cream cheese is all mixed in and serve it over rice. Top with your avocado. 

The chicken was fork-tender and so flavorful. I seriously can't stomach dry or bland chicken, so I was beyond happy that this turned out so well. Plus, there was plenty leftover for lunch the next day. We'll be having this again for sure.

Do you have a sweet tooth?

How do you prefer to keep track of your training plan? 

Do you ever use a crock-pot?

ABK

 

Plans and Schedules

Isn't it funny how motivation works? Leading up to my 10k this past weekend, I was really struggling to stay motivated enough to continue training for it. Now, with no races lined up in the very near future, I'm suddenly brimming with it; I guess that's a good thing, seeing as I'm planning to tackle a marathon in November.

I've been reflecting on the last few weeks of running and what's been going on for me mentally and physically. Looking back through Daily Mile, I can easily track what my runs - and only my runs - have looked like in the last four weeks. Putting aside cross-training, here's my pattern lately:

As you can see, my weeks have been pretty spotty as far as running goes. Now, this isn't to say I'm not exercising on days I'm not running; the week after traveling for the wedding and all that, I didn't run at all, but I did T25 three days, including a double session on Friday.

I've also noticed that some of my shorter runs have been really hard. My legs feel tired and stiff more often lately. I know it's starting to warm up and get humid again, and my effort feels the same (or more intense), but my paces are slowing down.

My conclusion here is that I need to mix up my cross-training and make sure I'm giving my legs rest days; I also need to run at least three days a week to maintain my fitness and the mileage I feel happiest with.

Now, here's the first five weeks of the prescribed marathon plan from Runner's World's Smart Coach:

It has three days of running scheduled; I think this is ideal. Based on how I've been faring lately, I think three days a week of purposeful runs is a solid foundation. I like the idea that I could add a fun/easy run once in awhile if I wanted, and still avoid over-training.

Taking a cue from Kristina, who has been running 10 miles every weekend and is seeing physical and mental results, I'm going to start adding consistent long runs back into my "non-training" schedule. Even though I'm not training for a specific race, I need to keep doing LSD runs if I want to maintain my confidence.

So, from this point in April through July, when I begin following the plan above, my schedule will look roughly as follows:

So there's that. This week I've already done my bridge run at moderate effort (Monday), so everything else may shift a bit, but I'm looking forward to having a steady schedule to get used to.

How do you plan your weekly workouts?
How often do you cross-train?
How many days a week do you try to run when you're not following a race plan?

ABK