Week 12 of Marathon Training

Whew! I have been super busy lately and haven't really been in the mood to post anything, instead I have just been stalking all of you while you post about all of the yummy and healthy things you've been eating, the races you've been running and generally everything else out there in the blogosphere.

But I figured this morning I would update everyone on how my training is going for my upcoming FIRST MARATHON!

I took a look at my training plan this morning, and I am well on my way. This is week 12 and I have 5 more weeks to go until the race. I have 3 more weeks until taper time.

On Sunday I ran my long run, which was about 12ish miles. I say this because stupid me forgot to charge my Garmin so it died mid-run. For some reason I just couldn't get my ass moving Sunday morning, so after a few cups of coffee and some toast with homemade PB, I got ready to walk out the door and picked up my Garmin....and it was blank. UGH.

So I waited about 15 minutes until it was a bit charged up and then headed out on the road hoping it would last. At about mile 7.5 I looked down and it had finally hit the dust. And it was strange, because although I have only been running with this thing since January, I felt like I was going to be lost without it! My immediate reaction was, "Crap, well what do I do now? Do I keep going?" Then I thought about how absolutely ridiculous that thought was and how I basically knew the rest of my loop and how many miles it was, so why was I fretting?

The run was kind of a struggle, but nothing really out of the usual for long runs. I have been feeling pretty strong lately in my runs, and I think it is because my body is finally getting into the sync of training. My runs during the week have been going pretty well and although I dread the long runs and they get boring at times, they're pretty much okay.

If it's a particularly good run, I will still have enough juice left to sprint in the final few miles. But if I don't, I'm not really upset about it. I have been doing pretty good at listening to my body, going with the flow, and just enjoying my solo runs through town, next to the water, or over the Ravenel Bridge. I look for dolphins, tourist watch, be on the lookout for super cute dogs...it's been nice.

I had yesterday off of running with intentions to do a Core Yoga workout last night...but that never happened. Matt cooked me dinner and then I just did some cleaning and went to bed early. I have been feeling a bit rundown so I was hoping to get a good night's sleep but I managed to toss and turn and keep waking up last night...oh well, I feel pretty good today.

I realized yesterday that I was not in the slightest bit sore from Sunday's run, and that kind of made me happy. I must be doing something right finally :) This week's training schedule is going to be pretty tough (as it will be for the next 3 weeks until I start tapering) but it will all be worth it on May 2nd!

This week's schedule:
Tonight: 5-6 Mile Bridge Run + Short Track Workout
Wednesday: Easy 8 Miles
Thursday: Hooray for Spring 6 Miler!
Friday: No running, hopefully some Yoga for Runners :)
Saturday: 20 Miles!!!!
Sunday: REST + Yoga

Although I have only done yoga twice since the beginning of March when I said I wanted to do yoga more often (man I just looked back at that post and realized I also said I wanted to lose 6 pounds in March! I think I conveniently forgot about that one...), it is starting to grow on me. I like doing it out on my balcony when the weather is nice. I wish I could get up early in the mornings to do it, but lately I just have not been getting up as easily as I usually do...

Looking back on my training so far, I have come a long way since January. I never actually thought I would be able to run 18 miles and not walk any. I never thought I would feel prepared for my marathon, and not scared out of my mind (although we will see how that goes sooner to the date). But as of today, I feel like if I keep up with my schedule and keep my during the week mileage steady, I will be as ready as I can be for this thing.

People have told me that I will get hooked on marathons after I run my first one. I'm not sure about that, but I definitely know that I'm hooked on this running thing...and I like it more every day.

TGIF (and happy off day to me)

Well folks, it's been a tough running week. Monday I had a rough run over the bridge (shins are feeling much better today, thank you), Tuesday I was entirely too lazy to run (yet still managed to cook a fab dinner for the boo and I), and Wednesday evening I had a good run through the almost-dark almost-ghetto area of Chas, but managed to lose my left contact rendering me almost-blind for the runs entirety.

I was worried on Monday about my running this week because I had been out of town last Thursday-Sunday and had not done ANY exercising and had eaten way too much food (especially food that was not good for me). But now that it's Friday, I'm feeling pretty solid about my long run this weekend.

I did a short and sweet 4.5 miler last night on flat ground, and felt pretty good about it. Although lately I have been doing a great job of listening to my body and not starting out too fast, I was over-confident last night and started out thinking I could run the whole 4.5 at a 8:30 to 9 min pace--this was not to be.

After 1.5 miles I was like WHOA! slow down...which I did, and the rest of the run went smoothly. I don't have exact split times as my Garmin failed me yet again...or rather, I failed it by starting and then STOPPING it without realizing until about a mile in. But I'm going to assume I ran between 9:30 and 10:15 pace, not too bad.

On other fronts, the weekly budget of groceries has been going well! I only needed to stop by the Teet once to grab a few personal items, and I also picked up a cucumber (for Wednesday's night's salad, more below) and a package of fresh strawberries that were on sale (to add to my morning oatmeal). I also snagged a bunch of green bananas since I haven't been able to find an entire bunch of green ones in months! So all in all I would say that yes, we could survive on around $70 a week.

I haven't even eaten lunch out at all this week! It's amazing what you can do if you only prepare.

So although I am not going to post about everything I eat/make (it's just not my style, plus I am way to lazy to keep up with all that) I will share with you all a few things that I either managed to grab a pic of, or was particularly proud of.

Wednesday night was salad night (marinated portobello for me, marinated chicken breast for the BF) which I had prepared the night before, by prepare I mean I had started the toppers marinating in a balsamic/olive oil/garlic marinade. Boy was that worth it! They were delish.

I didn't get any pics of my salad but I did make enough portobello to use yesterday for a sandwich.

It was very good! I used:

• 2 slices of regular wheat bread, toasted
• 1 slice of provolone cheese
• A few slices of cucumber
• A few slices of tomato
• 2 marinated portobello mushroom caps, small ones
• Tribe roasted garlic hummus
• A small bit of low fat mayo
• A dash of sea salt

All in all a definite winner, I want to make these tasty fungi more often. :)

This weekend's running schedule:
I think I might switch it up and start running my long runs on Saturday's for a few reasons. 1) The actuaal marathon I am training for is on a Saturday, 2) This would make it much easier to go out Saurday night and not worry about drinking/coming in early and most importanly, 3) To get it OVER with!

So I am conflicted over what mileage I should run this weekend. My training schedule says 16 (my last long run was 15, two weekends ago), joyRuN's schedule that she so graciously shared for me says to do 11 this weekend and 17 next weekend, and I am thinking maybe I should try for at least 17? Input welcome! So I will be doing one of those distances, hopefully tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, I have a relatively simple weekend planned. Lots of running, lots of cleaning the apartment, and possibly a fun Charleston day with my boyfriend, complete with picinic! I have a few things on my list to (finally!) get done this weekend, now that we aren't traveling/hosting anyone from out of town:

1. Organize the area underneath our bathroom sink so more stuff stays there rather than on the counter.
   
2. Purchase and install two ceiling bike hooks so mine and the BF's bikes aren't taking up precious floor space anymore.
   
3. Finally buy some litter box liners. That thing smells rank.
4. Mop the kitchen floor!
5. Do laundry--wash all of my work pants. They seriously need it.
   
6. Buy som WIN! detergent for my stinky running clothes. I think everyone would appreciate that.
   

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

One contact + darkness = one pretty quick 5.75 miler?

Happy Thursday!!

Since I missed last weekend's long run, had a really crappy run on Monday, and was lazy on Tuesday, I was pretty worried that my run last night (Wednesday) wouldn't be easy. I have this theory that if I don't follow a training schedule exactly, then it's like I'm starting all over again. Which is a valid theory/worry.

So I set off last night with no goals, no certain mileage that I wanted to accomplish (after all, I said I was running 10 on Monday and ended up running 3...), no pace that I wanted to maintain or strides that I wanted to finish. All I knew is that I was NOT going to run over the bridge and back, because my shins have been bothering me and I didn't think I could handle all that downhill.

When I got home from work I set out for a run around the Peninsula (short loop is about 4.5, but I can extend it if I run in some not-so-friendly areas, which I try not to do when the sun is setting and the crazies are coming out to play) and at first I was worried that it was going to be a bad run.

My stomach was a bit too full for my liking, I had eaten a few spoonfulls too many of peanut butter around 3 PM at work, and my legs were feeling kind of heavy. But I was determined to make this a good run so I pushed on.

It was kind of windy along the waterfront (nothing unusual really) and as I was about to make the turn at the corner of the Battery something flew into my eye. As a wearer of contacts, I tried to not rub my eye and was just hoping it would slide it's way out...but it didn't. So I stopped, and was forced to remove my left contact. When I did, I immediately knew that I had corrected the problem, but now I had to put the contact back in, which rarely works the way it is supposed to outside of the bathroom.

As I was trying to gently re-insert said contact, the wind blew the tiny thing away from me to be lost forever in the ocean/on the street/somewhere NOT in my eye.

I thought, well f**k. Here it is getting darker by the second and when I looked ahead of me I could barely tell if that was a man walking his dog or a light post. But being the determined runner that I am, I kept going. This can't be too hard, right? One contact is better than none, right? Wrong, definitely wrong.

So anyways the run actually went pretty smoothly, I decided to venture off East Bay street to run closer along the water (hence, further from people and lit streets, don't tell my boyfriend he will yell) so that I could get some extra distance in, because all things considered, I was feeling pretty good.

I rounded out 4 miles and realized I was going at a pretty quick pace (I think I was racing the sunset, trying to get through the ghetto before it was too dark) but I would NOT look at my Garmin, I didn't want to ruin it.

I ended up running about 5.75 (would have been more had the crazy man on the bicycle not screamed at me forcing me to turn around and sprint in the opposite direction) in 56:18, which makes my average pace 9:47. Although that doesn't sound that quick, I spent probably about 2 minutes or so messing with my stupid contact. I even sprinted the last .75 and felt great!

Moral of the story: If you want better split times, either A) Run with one contact (why that makes one faster, no clue) or B) Run through the ghetto at night. Nothing will get you running faster than FEAR.

Here are my split times & totals:

1	00:09:53	1.00 mi	09:53 min/mi	--	--	121 C
2	00:11:05	1.00 mi	11:05 min/mi	--	--	112 C
3	00:09:59	1.00 mi	09:59 min/mi	--	--	114 C
4	00:09:34	1.00 mi	09:34 min/mi	--	--	111 C
5	00:09:23	1.00 mi	09:23 min/mi	--	--	112 C
6	00:06:21	0.75 mi	08:30min/mi	--	--	82 C

Total Time: 00:56:18

Avg Pace: 09:47 min/mi

Distance: 5.75 mi

Elevation Gain/Loss: 1,159 ft / 1,027 ft

Calories: 652 C

On a sidenote, joyRuN was kind enough to send me her training schedule (I liked the Excel layout and I really didn't want to re-invent the wheel) and since we're both running a marathon on the same weekend, I think I might change mine a bit to look more like hers. The more I was looking at mine the more convinced I was that it wasn't going to be good enough. So on the schedule for this weekend for her is 11, but I'm going to try to at least do 15 since I missed last week. Ideally I would like to do 17, but we will see how that goes.

Also, check out Julianne's exciting news at i heart running; help her spread the word to raise money for the Hope Runs 777 Challenge!

This weekend's "long run"

Well my long run today turned into a measly 6.8 mile loop around the peninsula. I thought I was taking a longer route, but it ended up not being as long as I thought. When I got back to my normal loop at East Bay, I looked down at my Garmin and it had only been about 3.5 miles....so much for trying to mix it up!

My usual long run is running from my apartment on Lockwood, down Calhoun and up East Bay, over the Ravenel and back. That's usually anywhere between 8-10 miles depending on if I go completely over the bridge.

Today's run wasn't even an easy 6.8, I was definitely struggling to keep going. Definitely have got to turn up the training this week since I won't be in town to do a long run this coming weekend.

Currently looking for a training program to follow for the marathon, have to get started on that ASAP.

Also looking for a good (yet inexpensive) gym in Charleston. My boyfriend and I live downtown, so we wanted one that was close enough to run to. Were considering Eco Fitness, but they're $40 a month....seems a bit steep to me since that doesn't even include classes. Need to go check out Bluefish Fitness, East Shore Athletic Club, and the YMCA. Any suggestions (if anyone is out there reading)?

Going to pick a marathon plan by tomorrow. Stay tuned! I'm also trying to figure out if I can import my Garmin data onto here somehow....