Key:
Red = HM
Yellow = M
Green = 5K
Blue = Mile
Purple = no race
Highlights:
-
2nd attempt at a BQ in March, with the stricter 3:35 goal. Missed it by under 3. Will go for cooler weather, train for more fatigue resistance, fuel and caffeinate even more. Will get it next time. At the same time, won 3rd AG and the bag I was so desperate to get, haha.
- Did a
BM Pyramid workout for the first time in a while. Tried my first partial Yasso 800 workout ever.
- Unexpected
Mile PR!!!! 5:48!!!
- Started building in a bit more hill training. Will come in handy in Philly in November at mile 9.
- Came in at 494.8 miles for the first half of the year. A little under pace for hitting the 1000 miles in a year goal, which I've never done before, but with a second marathon training cycle within 2012, I think I should be able to hit it.
- Running London's 3 royal parks, seeing the Olympic village under construction
- Watching Olympic Trials for the marathon and track on TV.
Weekly Comments in my Log:
(warning - journey into my mind...)
1. HM not on a PR course, and stacked on a 20 miler, but good race practice.
Learned: 1) Pack the day before, 2) remember to fuel during the run, 3) maybe practice to see the amt of fuel I can tolerate, 4) remember to stay relaxed, and 5) healthy, no late carbs the day before, not junky carb overdose.
Good: 1) dealt with unexpected hills well w/ quick small steps, 2) still healthy – stretching and foam rolling is great, 3) 2 rest days b/f a race is good.
2. Another good week, good LR, nice to have a negative split. Though I wonder if I should have higher mileage like other runners or more intensity like the FIRST plan.
I don’t do well with chips and self-control, I liked having church on Saturday,
It was good to delay my LR due to tiredness and a dry throat, though I did it more for scheduling reasons, and
I went to bed a wee bit able to eat – may be effective?
3. Realized I must give my runs more effort – worked well – beat my last 20 mile time by 30s/min, w/ same effort.
Work is stressful. Thank goodness for weekends.
Remember to try: During taper, acclimatize to heat to prep for the possibility of warmth on race day – don’t leave things to hope/chance. It may mean wearing extra clothes.
~300 cal during the 20 miler. Didn’t enjoy the sweetness so much. Maybe it would’ve been ok if I had had some water mixed in.
4. A second good-effort week. Ready for a rest week. Focused more on form – did pretty well.
5. Squeezing in runs this week. Survived crazy work week – thanks to God. Long hrs, less food and sleep during the week. Made up for it during the weekend. Same w/ eating produce. I think I have good form.
6. Another week of 13 hr days, used to it now, though. Restaurant on most days. Made up for produce on the weekend. Inspired to do hills from hungryrunnergirl.com. Finally done w/ training! Though wanna squeeze in another quality session or 2 next week. Practiced during-run fueling: did well. Difficulty warming up and having energy pre-LR. I think the warmup shower is essential. Will also need to wake up early to drink and eat.
7. 13 hr workdays make it really hard – mostly b/c not much gym time left and need dinner and maybe nap.
Practicing specificity
- Race pace (-15) during “LR”
- Drink cals every 2 mi
- Wear kinvaras.
Real Taper, extra recovery, care!
- Nutrition (fruits and veg, protein, calcium, carbs)
- No crap, weight-gain food
- Sleep for rebuild
- Green tea and supplements
- Stretching and foam rolling, self-massage
- Don’t overdo training
8. Taper week 2 pretty good.
Don’t feel particularly peppy, but it’lll come.
Minor kink in inner left Achilles, bit of inner right knee stingy one day
Fueling is good
Excited about race, making plans
9. Taper was good, execution ok, too bad about the weather.
Next time:
- Remember to relax arms/shoulders, especially on downhills
- I need 4 gels (8, 13.5, 18, 23) or more
- Maybe should’ve drank more towards the end
- More fatigue-resistance training to help in final miles? Quads had trouble lifting legs and calves/ankles had less power to move forward by the end.
- Cloud cover good
- Crusty sweat on me afterwards – endurolytes probably good
- Pacer good – don’t need to worry a/b pace, can draft
10. Should’ve stretched and slept more. Doritos undo me, but otherwise good nutrition. Itched to run all week, and to race, too. Work very blah.
11. Good 5K close to PR. Hope to get back to doing LRs soon.
Tried:
o Liked running as fast as 7.5mph with little steps
- Efficient
- Used different muscles
o For fun…. Grabbing bottle 3x during run
- Probably different w/ flexible h2o bottle
- Won’t ever use it in practice
Slept bad @ start of the week, miserable mentally
12. Another week of little sleep. More sleep = less hunger. Overdid strength session = back strain. Intense hill session. Pumped from Hunger Games!
13. Hunger-games obsessed. Reading/hearing about HG, instead of running articles. Only excited to train for HG purposes. HG gear, activities. Back-to-back run days seem more than fine this week.
14. Legs not so fresh this week, but still some training and a post-marathon distance PR of 13.3.
15. All-nighter impacts running performance this week, though no more tired than usual. End of week – psychologically foggy and not feeling like doing anything – unprecedented, scary dullness. Right outer knee issue. Poundy knees in LR – need to go back to using insoles.
16. Normal decent training, then travel to London. Drank protein powder daily for a week or 2, just to have protein at lunch besides cheese. Effective for satisfying morning hunger.
17. Even less sleep than usual, but necessary and worth it for London travel. Ate cookies daily, but quantities ok overall. Fewer produce, but didn’t miss it much. Didn’t seem to miss not stretching much. Jet lag ok – can’t tell the difference btwn normal tiredness and jetlag b/c my sleep’s so messed up anyway.
18. Nice to be back and training. Crazy catchup of work = shorter runs during the week. Unintentional mile PR! Super training mojo.
Wonder what led to PR
- Taper?
- Road fartlek?
- Accumulated marathon training?
- 3 coffee beans pre-race?
- Competition?
- Negative splitting?
- Not the heat…
19. Insanity DVD – must ease back into it. Smart to limit it to just 1 dvd that night. Lower key mileage due to family visit and need to recover from Insanity.
20. Head felt a bit swimmy, mentally no mood to run even if body was fine – odd. Still dunno why. Got better over weekend, though. Nice to run outside, though dunno that this helped it.
21. Finished record 7-day workout streak. Could’ve gone on, but wise to take a break. Still feeling able to keep up the volume… may do it. Tip: neg split great for track workouts, too. Theory helped me complete the BM pyramid more easily!
22. Built up sleep debt got paid some this week. Need a vacation and miss my friends. Love God.
23. Trying to catch up on sleep, prioritize it. Want a big goal race to shoot for. Haven’t raced in a while. Soleus stretching (should’ve been a good thing) causes plantar fasciitis in left foot to return. Had not hint of it before.
24. Interesting tactical race experience (trained through). Settled in and hoped to kick, but would’ve done better pushing it from the start, maybe. Wanna race and train hard core for another marathon badly. Need the drive. Pounding away at work. Inspired to train more, log more miles, though family can make it hard to schedule. Same w/ other social obligations.
25. Miles came kinda ez this week, though still no LR. Signed up for Philly. Motivating to watch all the Olympic Trials; never saw them before. Insanity shocks the system when you haven’t done them in a while. Kind of energizing and quickening to imagine yourself running purely from oxygen turned into speed.
26. First LR in a while! 2 months! 1st attempt at Yasso 800 (x7) was good. Felt a bit dizzy/sickish in head most days.
Types of Mileage:
boils down to
LR is 30% vs. the suggested 25% b/c my overall mileage is low compared to most peoples'. Everything else is pretty standard... 10% for intervals, at least. I don't do recovery runs, but I only run about 3x per week, with a bit of biking when I want some cardio while resting my legs.
Statistics:
Running:
2.7mi/day
21.8 min/day
Ave pace: 8:05 unless I messed up somewhere
Cross-training:
10.6 min/day
Total workout time per day: 32.4min/day
(where most of my weekday runs take place, although with different shoes... I've only worn the Green Silence's once, for like a mile... haven't officially broken them in yet.)
.jpg)
