Mill Race Training Week 3 - Something is Better Than Nothing

This is not me but I ended up running in the evening all week

This was my down week. The way my training plan is structured I have two weeks where I'm building mileage and then a lower mileage recovery week... and a darn good thing it was a recovery week as I ended up having a difficult time finding the time or energy to run.

Sunday 6/11 - Rest. Got up at 4 am and spent the whole day at work.

Monday 6/12 - 3 miles. Got up at 4 am to go to work again. Crawled onto the couch as soon as I got home, then finally made it out in the evening to run 3 miles indoors on the hamster track.

Tuesday 6/13 - 7 miles. Run club in the evening. It was another 80+ degree day. Did a 1 mile warm up to the track. Workout was 5 x 1000 meter repeats where you run 800 meters at 10K (80-85% effort) pace, then sprint all out the last 200 meters, with about a 4:00 recovery jog in between which I translated into a lap around the track. I did three repeats, then had to cut my fourth one to 600 meters at 10K pace and a 200 meter sprint, then recovered enough to do my last one at 800m/200m. Cool down after that to get 7 miles total. The track was black asphalt and it was HOT. I had to walk a bit on my cool down until we got back on the Monon where it was shadier.

Wednesday 6/14. Zero miles. My alarm went off at 5:30 am as I had 10 miles on my schedule. However, alarm went off and I couldn't move. Gave up on running in the morning. Thought about running in the afternoon but it was blazing hot, then thought about doing it on the Monon in the evening but finally gave up on the idea because I was simply too tired. I decided I needed another rest day.

Thursday 6/15 - 7 miles. Got up at 6:30 am to make cupcakes. I'm making them for a friend's daughter's Open House. Got the first 4 dozen done, then had to take G to a pediatrician's appointment.

This was appointment week. Tuesday I took the cats to the vet for their yearly check up in the morning. Actually, it was one cat. Stella went. Styx, who lives outdoors, was nowhere to be found. Wednesday G had an orthodontist appointment in the morning. Then today, it was the pediatrician... and of course Styx decided to saunter back on the porch this morning... but I decided there was no way I was going to reschedule his appointment now as it was only a well cat check and he's not due for any shots until next year.

Went grocery shopping for fresh fruit for the cupcakes then baked the other 4 dozen until 5 pm when I had a conference call for a medical review panel. Call got done and it back to frosting and decorating all the cupcakes. Got done with all the cupcakes sometime after 8 pm.

My training schedule had called for 3 miles today but sometime mid-afternoon I had given up on the idea of running until all the cupcakes were done. Now that they were done, I was tired. The easy thing seemed to be to call it a day. But... OK... it's only 3 miles. Something is better than nothing.

I drove myself to the hamster track to run, partly because I didn't want to deal with the heat and partly because I didn't want to get stuck out on the road after dark. Clock on my car dash said 8:45pm as I pulled into the parking lot. The fitness center closes at 10 pm. Started running and I didn't feel too bad. Something is better than nothing, I told myself. Since I missed the 10 miler yesterday, maybe I should run 5. That should be doable before the fitness center closes. Then I thought, well what about 7? Seven miles was pushing it. I'd have to hurry my butt to do that. I wasn't wearing a watch and there are no clocks that I can see while I run but I just picked up the pace as I watched the sun set through the windows and tried to guess the time.

There was a men's basketball game going on on the court below the track. After 3 miles, I realized that they had 15:30 left in their game. Run, run run... try to get a mile in by 6:30. Did it. Continued on the same pace and got to mile 5 shortly after the buzzer rang. Then... I saw that they had reset the game clock for another 20:00. The guys had another period of play. The fitness center wouldn't close until they were done. I was golden!

Got all 7 miles in then checked the clock inside the weight room. 9:55 pm. Figured I must've run close to 9:00 pace. Immensely satisfied with myself!

Friday 6/16 - Zero miles. Today was totally the opposite of Thursday. An incredibly unproductive run day. Got up at 4 am to go to work. Plan was to go to the fitness center as soon as I got back to Greenwood and get at least 3 miles in on the hamster track before they closed at 7 pm, then shower and go to my friend's daughter's Open House. Well... stayed an hour over at work then hit highway construction traffic on the way home and was so so incredibly sleepy that it was a miserably treacherous drive home. All I could do was crawl onto the couch as soon as I got home and napped until it was time to go to the Open House. Grabbed dinner at the Open House, then had to go shopping with J for some things she needed and that was pretty much the whole evening.

Saturday 6/17 - 3 miles. Got to "sleep in" until 6:30 am since I didn't have to be at work until 9 am. Actually got off an hour early too at 5 pm so I wasn't as trashed as Friday by the time I got home from work. It had rained in the afternoon so it was not only hot again, but now it was humid. I waited until almost 8 pm, then ran the paved trail around New Hope Church. I briefly entertained the thought of running more but after 3 I was DONE.

20 miles this week.

Mill Race Training Week 2 - I'm a Slow Learner

It was another hot week of training this week and it took another crash and burn experience to make me get up early for my long run.

Sunday 6/4 - Rest. There was a lot of other stuff going on today. J graduated  from high school. We got to the school at 12:45 pm to stand in line in 80+ degree heat until the doors opened at 1:15 pm for the 2 pm ceremony. The parking lot and line to get in looked like Black Friday except it was swelteringly hot. After the ceremony it took another HOUR to get out of the school parking lot. Family went out to dinner after that so this pretty much consumed the whole day.

Monday 6/5 - 7 miles. Ended up running indoors as it was another hot day and the miserable 12.5 mile run from last week was still somewhat fresh in my memory so I went to the fitness center. Ran a 2 mile warm up on the hamster track then hit the dreadmill to run 3 miles, averaging 8:33 a mile, then did a 2 mile cool down back on the hamster track. Felt good overall about this run.

Tuesday 6/6 - 3 miles. Ran in the evening on the county road after work. It was hot but tolerable. I was super proud of myself for getting a run in after work since, lately, when I have to work the 6 am shift all I've managed to do is make it home and to the couch before falling asleep.

Wednesday 6/7 - Rest. Another 6 am work day. Glad I got my run in yesterday so I could rest today!

Thursday 6/8 - 3 miles. Mid-morning run on the county road before going to work. I didn't have to leave for work until 1 pm. It's hard to believe that during some of my other training cycles I would run 19-20 miles in the morning before going in for this shift. Today I was proud of myself for getting 3 in.

Friday 6/9 - 7 miles. So... it was my day off and I slept in. Then, around 11:30 am I decided it was time to run. It was another 80+ degree day but it kinda sorta felt cooler than last week. Since my 7 indoors on Monday had gone well I decided to do a similar run on the county road. 2 mile warm up wasn't bad. Then a mile in 8:30. That mile finished on an uphill and I could feel myself working for it. Next mile in 8:51. There were some rollers and if that mile hadn't finished on a downhill I wouldn't have made sub-9:00. After that I was cooked. Started seeing black spots again and had to walk a bit. It was a miserable last 3 miles back to the house where I had to walk-jog-drag myself back. Arghhhh. Why didn't I run earlier in the day when it was cooler? I just don't learn, do I?

Saturday 6/10 - 14 miles. Well, after the misery on Friday I set my alarm for 5:30 am so I had time to wake up, eat a bowl of oatmeal, let it digest, then run while it was still relatively cool out. I still didn't make it out the door til 7:30 am but that is a whole heck of a lot better than 11 am. Plus, the temperatures were suppose to rise into the 90's today so if I was going to run long outdoors I pretty much HAD to do it in the morning.

This time I had a fuel belt with water and Gatorade chews, plus my phone. My friend John was running the San Diego 100 that had started on Friday morning. After running through the night he was in 13th place this morning with about 15 more miles to go. I knew he had a great shot at breaking 24:00 so I wanted to continue tracking him as he finished. I ran a nice easy pace. As John's race entered the 23 hour mark I found myself stopping every mile, then half mile, to check my phone to see if he had finished. I finally got the update that he had finished in 23:08 (the results are delayed so the official race clock was at 24:00 when I got the update), still in 13th place, when I got to mile 8 of my run. Finished my run uneventfully after that.

So, starting early and running with water, I ran 14 in less time than it took to run 12.5 last week, mainly because I didn't have to walk. It reached 80 degrees by the time I was done. I will probably have to start my longer runs closer to 6 am as the summer progresses. It was a nice feeling to know the run was done though and I had completed all my scheduled runs for the week.

34 miles this week.

Mill Race Training Week 1 - I Can't Count, Heat Training, and Abby Brinkman 5K

First off, I guess I can't count. I thought I had 18 weeks until the Mill Race Marathon on September 23rd. Turns out it's 17 weeks. Somehow when I was marking off the weeks on my calendar I counted the last couple days of May as Week 1, then turned the page and counted the first couple days of June as Week 2 when it was all the same week. Oh well...

Sunday May 28th - Rest

Monday May 29th - 3 miles. Easy road miles by my house. It was hot but tolerable for the distance.

Tuesday May 30th - 6 miles. Run Club workout. Did a 1 mile warm up, then 1:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 2:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 3:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 4:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, 5:00 hard, 2:00 recovery, then back down again. Cooled down to make 6 miles. It was another hot night but the miles went by faster broken up in intervals. I hit around 7:30 pace for the 1-3 minute intervals and around 8:30 pace for the 4-5 minute intervals. Averaged 9:30 pace for the whole thing, which included the warm up, cool down, and stopping for the light at 75th Street on the way back (which just KILLS your momentum... or at least mine!)

Wednesday May 31st - 12.5 miles. Couple of bad decisions today. First off, I should have run earlier in the day... but I had to help my husband drop a car off for repairs in the morning and then baby sit the air conditioning people at our house until hubs got back from running errands, so I didn't get out the door until after 10 am.

I had a fuel belt strapped around my waist with two bottles of water and some Gatorade chews when I left the house. However, I REALLY hate carrying stuff with me when I run. So, mistake number two... as I walked down my driveway it was shady with a little breeze going and I decided I really didn't need to bring all this stuff with me. It was only 13 miles. I run 10 all the time without water. I left the fuel belt at the end of the driveway.

I could have run loops that came by my house so I could have water if needed, however I always risk not going back out and finishing my run when I do this so I decided I was going an out and back route instead. Another bad choice. I was doing OK until mile 9 when I completely overheated. It was well over 80 degrees and I was running a stretch with no shade when I started seeing all kinds of black dots in my visual field and had to walk about a tenth of a mile to clear my head. Once I started walking, it was all over... 4 miles is a freaking long way when your pace slows to a crawl. I ended up walking a couple more stretches and was half a mile short of my intended 13 when I finally made it back to my driveway well past 12:30 pm. Ugh. Definitely got my heat training in today.
Then I had to go to work.

Thursday June 1st - Rest. If you can call it that. Got home from work at 3:30 am. Slept til 6:30 am, then got up to go to the Honor's Day activities for my kids' last day of school. G's started at 7:40 am and J's at 8:30 am. The high school program didn't get over until 11 am. The high school kids got out early so I had to go back and pick G up from the middle school at 2:45 pm. Then I tried to lay down a little bit before leaving for work again at 4 pm.

Friday June 2nd - 3 miles. Got home from work at 4 am. Slept for a couple hours, then picked G up in Carmel at 2 pm. Got my miles in on the road by my house in the early evening. Hot again.
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Saturday June 3rd - 6 miles. Worked on more speed at the Abby Brinkman 5K this morning. I haven't really done much racing or speed work lately so I didn't have any huge expectations for this race but I wanted to get some speed in. Started off with a 2 mile warm up and decided it was a beautiful morning... not terribly hot yet and the People Trail was mostly shaded. Race started at 8 am.

Well, OUR race started at 8 am. The Girls on the Run/Trailblazers race started on the same course at 8:05 am. There were 94 people in our race. There were over 400 people for Girls on the Run/Trailblazers... and all of us were on the out and back course on the People Trail. My goal was to get as far as I could before I ran smack dab into 400 people, which happened right after the 2 mile mark. It got a bit hairy and I almost mowed down two little boys who couldn't follow directions and stay on their side of the trail. That being said, my splits...

Mile 1 - 7:41. Felt pretty good.
Mile 2 - 8:16. Eewww.
Mile 3 - 8:32. Bleck... pretty much sucking wind and dodging kids.

Official finish time - 24:48.
Ended up 2nd in the women's race and 1st in the 40-49 age group.

1 mile cool down after that.

30.5 miles this week.

Looking back, I think I'm the poster child of inconsistency. Last week I ran 12 miles, 11 the week before that, then 9 the week before that. Not the greatest lead up to marathon training but Week 1 is done.