[S]he Conquers Who Endures

Nice early morning run. 2 warmup miles, 6 threshold miles, 2 cool down miles. I wanted to slow down my paces slightly this week and I did just that. 6 threshold miles were at 7:34 average pace. Perfect! Overall pace for the entire run was somewhere around 8:02 I think. Time to recover and get ready for 21 miles Saturday!! :)

Easy recovery run. 9:15 min/mi average pace. Working on maintaining McMillian paces for finishing a 3:29:59 marathon.

21 mile long run in Chicago. Ran the first 6 miles solo, then met up with my partner with 15 miles to go. Last week's 18 miler was a 8:12 pace and I wanted to pull back on the pace because I think I'm pushing too hard on my long run. I just want to BQ (8:12 pace)! My friend and I were talking most the way and kept trying to pull back on our pace. One of the problem's is that I don't really know what pace I'm actually running on this path until I'm done running because it's through a forest preserve and my watch is always off in comparison to the mile markers of the path. I felt like we were sandbagging, which ended up being an 8:16 average pace! I don't know what to think. My legs didn't feel torn up at the end, in fact, at mile 20 I felt like I could throw down the hammer if I needed to (don't worry, I didn't test that one out!). I'm getting sooooo obsessed now, I am gaining more confidence I can BQ at Disney. I watched the youtube of the course. It's slightly different than last time I ran it, which moves the overpass "hills" to miles 15, 16 instead of 22, 23 (30 ft climb max, whoop-dee-doo). I'm not complaining. The only thing I'm worried about is the curveous miles 19-20 where they now have you run through the Wide World of Sports Complex around the track and baseball field. I can't worry myself about this, I keep telling myself the curves will break up the monotony of the flat course. I'm excited for this upcoming week of more recovery runs, no tempo and speed and reaping the benefits of this awesome run! As long as I can make it into my recovery run Monday pain-free, I will make it past the point of injury with this schedule!! 55 miles this week. I'm reaching the peak mileage of my marathon training!! :)

6 miles of recovery at 9:15 min/mi average pace. Not sure why, but my legs felt so brand new and fresh on this run!! After a faster than planned 21 miler this was so unexpected. I'm not sure how I recovered so quickly. I stretched a lot immediately after my long run Saturday, then was freezing cold to the core so had to take a warm epsom salt bath (figured the epsom added to the hot water would negate the terribleness of a warm bath after a long run), read on my iPhone during the bath that a warm epsom salt bath after a long run is pretty much the worse thing you can do, freaked out and got out, iced everything from my waist down for 20 mins (calves, hammies, knees, and glutes), then strapped on my recovery pants and vegged. I don't know, maybe the "contrast" from epsom bath to ice helped? Regardless, I'm so encouraged because I made it past the point in the schedule where I got injured this summer and I'm pain-free!!!

Got me some new Pegasus today to add to my list! I'm not OCD I swear! Okay, so the story is, I have a pair of Pegasus in FL and 2 pair in Chicago (shield and normal) since I travel so much and don't want to cart stinky running shoes around. I feel like the cushioning of the Shields are somewhat stiffer than the normal Pegasus (Shields are the gortex version) and I really don't like to do faster runs and long runs in the Shields because it feels like more pounding. Thus, I had to get another pair of normal Shields since I only have Shields in Cambridge. 

Okay, I feel better having explained myself...This was the longest midweek run of my entire 18 week schedule - 14 miles. Since it was the one and only 14 miles, naturally I had to kick that 14 miler midweek's butt! 7:45 min/mi average pace. Oh, and after watching the Disney marathon course video, I decided to alter my route to include more "bridges" so I'm prepared for the 2 overpasses in the marathon. So that's a 7:45 min/mi pace with 10 bridges!!! I didn't want to stop because I knew I'd get a rush of tightness and soreness, but it actually wasn't too bad. Although it may be a little faster than desired, I'm glad I did it to know how my body will feel if I try to pull that pace in the marathon!

Ahh...no tempo run this week, instead, an extra recovery day. I'm going to need it to reap these benefits!!! :) 

6 miles of recovery on the dreadmill thanks to the nor'easter (1% incline, 9:13 min/mi pace). Well, thank you, nor'easter really because I needed some zero technical terrain for this recovery run! My calves have been so, so tight from my super fast 14 miles the day before. I was starting to get pains in the bottoms of my feet and started worrying about the kiss of death, aka PF! I am so freaked out of my mind after much needed recovery runs. I go into them feeling like my legs are about to explode and come out feeling like they reached a zen point normally only obtainable by a really good massage therapist. WEIRD!! I'm not complaining! Stretched really, really well. Spent some extra time stretching my calves and feet different ways.

Notice today's theme: RECOVERY! :) 

AM Bikram. Ahhh, this felt sooo good. It's such a good gauge of recovery and muscle tightness! I was able to do the balance poses much better than last week and the pain at the top of my right hammie is subsiding thanks to my deep tissue last week. I came out feeling rejuvenating and gave myself a pat on the back for my impulse purchase of GRAPE flavored Nuun earlier this week. Cause, hey, you can't sweat out all your electrolytes in Bikram when you need them for much more important things in life - running!! :) 

PM 1.5 h deep tissue massage 

6 miles recovery with 6x100 m strides. I guess my watch decided to reverse charge again, boo!!! At least it was just a recovery run. Gotta get that sucker figured out because I will be crushed if that happens during the marathon!!

Ended up using mapmyrun with telly in hand. I was considering going by feel, but I don't trust myself and want to make sure I'm running a slow, recovery pace. 9:10 average pace minus strides. I'm not sure what my stride paces were. I think they were all below 6:00 min/mi pace because my current pace at the end of the stride was always around 5:35ish or less. I noticed towards the end of my stride repeats that my legs were stretching a lot more than I think they have ever stretched in my runs. It felt really, really good and I attribute that to dedicating more time to stretching. :)

I always so excited for my Saturday long runs! Haha. Tomorrow is 16 miles with 12 miles MP. I no longer feel intimidated to do these long runs with MP pace miles since I can hit faster than MP for that mileage in my midweek mid-long runs! :) 

16 mile long run with 12 marathon pace miles. This course is kinda cheating for the marathon pace miles because it's a 200 ft climb over the first 6 miles so that means the last 6 miles are a 200 ft decline. Oh well, if I look at my average pace I still can say I rocked this run! 7:57 average pace for 16 miles 7:48 pace for the marathon pace miles. This course isn't similar to Disney in any way, shape or form, but I think it still improves my running because of the up and down. I still have an 18 mile long run with 14 marathon pace miles in my schedule and my tickets are already booked to FL for that training run in December!! 

Pretty proud of myself today. It was kinda weird running with it being light out and being able to see in my peripheral after most of my runs in the last two weeks being in the dark.

Already iced my hammies and calves and looking forward to cut back week this week! :) 

5 mile recovery run 9:10 pace. The back of my right leg where my hammie meets my glute is acting up on me again. I don't think I have a tear, I think it's from the long run with the hills and the speed. This week is recovery week so I'll try to back off my paces and choose flatter routes. Hopefully that will help. :)

8 mile run at steady state pace 7:50 min/mi average. Puddle-jumping around the path because of the rain. My hammie felt sooo much better and I didn't want to push too hard this run because I was worried about it. I think I was "guarding" it during my run subconsciously anyway. It's recovery week so the decrease mileage AND intensity will do me good. Supercompensate, baby! :)

AM: Bikram

PM: massage

Recovery Wednesday is the theme today. :) Hammie felt 100% today during Bikram. I think I say this after every Bikram session, but I love Bikram. It's such a great tool to gauge your body's status at a much more magnified level. I can tell what areas are tightening up on me and what areas are weak. My hammie has done better than it has in a number of weeks during some of the poses that gave me minor trouble. I also noticed my right quad is starting to tighten up on me, and I didn't notice that otherwise. Looking back to stretching, I have been stretching my quads less to focus more on my hammies! Gotta even things out. Could also be tighter if I was compensating my gait to protect my hammie. I love Bikram! :) 

1.5 mile warmup then 4x1200m with 600m recovery jog at the indoor track (200m). I am just entering the mesocycle to start track workouts and I normally track my pace outside with my Garmin. I wasn't a runner in high school, so the track math is new to me. Hence, I had no idea what pace I was going. I just went by effort. 50 sec around the 200 m track felt hard but like I could push a little faster. Calculating my paces later I did 1200m (well the first was 1400m cause I can't count) at 6:38, 6:42, 6:38, 6:32 min/mi paces! I'm pretty happy about this. The last time I did 1200m repeats was in April and my old PR was 7:11 min/mi pace, which ended up being close to my 5k race pace in April (7:18 min/mi). The marathon BQ is my primary goal, but I'd love to hit sub 21:00 for a 5k (6:45 min/mi) so I can get into corral A for the Shamrock Shuffle!! I think that's doable especially since I'm just STARTING track workouts again! :)

Oh and if you add up the total mileage for my repeats including my extra lap, I ran 5k in 20:38! I'm getting close to my 5k goal! :) 

After sleeping on the couch (parents in town) and having a track workout last night, I thought I'd be dragging on this recovery run. Um, I had to focus on SLOWING down to hit above 9:00 min/mi recovery pace! Whut?! Is that from super compensation from this recovery week or from muscle memory from last nights track session? Who knows but the run felt good. I did 8x100m strides, and didn't break any records but didn't break anything in my legs either. :P Paces for strides were: 6:00, 5:39, 6:08, 5:26, 5:48, 5:34, 5:49, 5:18 min/mi. Finished with 1 mile easy which felt super weird after the strides. I think that's from my muscles working more efficiently! :)

Cut back week! 14 miles at 8:14 min/mi average pace. Felt pretty easy in the beginning but not as easy as I thought towards the end. Guess that's why the training plan is structured that way! And, another week bites the dust. I'm so stoked for next week's turkey trot and 22 mile long run!!!

So, I'm pretty sure I solved my hamstring issue, which turns out to not be a hamstring issue but piriformis syndrome!!! I realized sitting at my desk that my hamstring started to hurt more while sitting. This didn't make sense since the hamstring should be relaxed in that position. I came across piriformis syndrome on a google search and found exercises for stretching the muscle and sciatica nerve flossing. I tried the flossing and...bam!! My pain went almost entirely away!! A dull pain that has been hanging around 3-4 weeks, almost gone...hallelujah! I spent the rest of the day sitting in positions to stretch my piriformis. Then headed out for a 12 mile run after dark. I limit my glance to my watch to check my pace during dark runs so I don't break things in my legs. After a mile and some even asphalt, I did a pace check and realized my first mile was 7:31 pace!!! Opps! Too fast. Tried to slow up just a little (normally these runs are 7:45 to 7:50 pace for me), 2nd mile 7:26!! What?!! Just went with it because it didn't feel like a threshold pace. My heart rate, breathing, and soft tissue felt in sync and working comfortably. I did 8 small bridge repeats to prep for overpasses at Disney and finished in a 7:22 min/mi average pace for 12 miles!! My theory is that flossing the sciatica not only helped the pain, but I think my pinched sciatica was limiting my ability to use my muscles (at least I read that muscle weakness can result). Also, I did notice I was "guarding" during runs when I had more pain. Oh my gosh, it felt so good to run pain free and it felt amazing to fly! I never thought I'd hit these paces for that far in this training cycle. I'm reaching my 5k race pace pr for 12 miles!! So awesome. After the run I focused on recovery - epsom salt bath and ice contrast therapy (works wonders for me) followed by going to bed in my recovery pants. :P Gotta recover for my 10k turkey trot Thanksgiving day and 22 miler Saturday! I'm not planning on racing the 10k, I was going to use it as a threshold run, which used to be around 7:20 to 7:30 pace for me. Now I'm not sure what pace that is!!! I will start by feel and try to go no faster than 7:10 min/mi pace, don't want to blow out my legs before my 22 miler. 

7 miles recovery including 6x0.1 mile strides with 0.1 mile walking recovery. First 4.7 miles were an easy 9:00 min/mi pace trying to focus on slowing down. This pace is getting to be uncomfortably slow, but this is a big week of running so why push it. Paces for strides were: 5:59, 5:27, 5:16, 5:51, 5:26, 5:32 min/mi. No PRs, but I think this may be the first set of strides all below 6:00 min/mi pace! :)

Recovery day.

Bikram AM. I can tell I am getting fitter and fitter. Bikram was pretty easy today and I was nailing the poses better than ever. My entire body felt so zen and peaceful afterward. Whoa, I'm starting to sound like a yogi! Weird...namaste...

Passing out on the plane PM 

2.5 mile warmup to the race at a 9:00 min/mi pace, felt like I was dragging. The course is a lot of rolling hills (I guess that's why they call it "Highland Park"), and the forecast says we will have 18 MPH sustained winds. Great, won't be a fun, fast race. Oh well, I had a great 12 miler earlier in the week so what should I expect? Took a honey stinger before the race, just for the caffeine. :) Started out comfortably fast not looking at my watch to go by feel. First mile was 7:12. Okay, I'll take that. This course is rolling hills and I new the first mile had a nice net downhill. The second and third miles were supposed to be more uphills, those splits were: 7:14, 7:23. Was feeling very fortunate for running all those bridge repeats in Boston/Cambridge! Mile 4 was a little easier, 7:10. Mile 5 to finish was supposed to be pretty tough. Mile 5 was: 7:20. Okay, feeling very fatigued but it's only 1.2 miles left. I haven't done this kind of running in a while, just focus on improving your threshold up a treacherous hill wind a terrible headwind!! Ahhh! Mile 6: 7:20. Last 0.2 mile was 6:44 pace. Watch time after crossing the finish and stopped running: 44:43.97. Expected chip time: 44:42 or 44:43. Posted finish time: 44:46?? Whatevs. Still an awesome run for me. 2.5 mile jog home at 9:00 pace basking in my glory. :)

5 mile recovery run with whippy wind. 9:15 min/mi average pace.

Went to an injury screening yesterday to be sure I do in fact have piriformis syndrome and no hamstring issues. Turns out I have a bit of both. Fortunately the problem with my hamstrings is that I'm getting a significant buildup of adhesions, and I know the reason. I just can't seem to find a decent massage therapist in Cambridge/Boston. I've gone to 5 different ones in the past month and a half. I need trigger point! I was sticking with Massage Envy, but now thinking I should just drop some Benjamins and go to some higher quality places. The physical therapist said I should be getting 3 massages a week to break these suckers up initially!! Luckily, I had a 1.5 hour massage lined up with my awesome massage therapist in Chicago right after the appointment. He was very surprised with how bad my adhesions got but did a great job breaking things up. So happy I had this lined up the day before my 22 miler!!

Onto my long run. I was supposed to run 7 miles early and meet up with my friend for the final 15. Got to the path ahead of schedule and realized I forgot my running shoes of all things! Got my shoes, and was able to get in 3 miles before meeting my friend. I decided not to hold back as much as normal on my long runs. My friend and I were scooting along at a comfortable pace chit chatting. I was a little oblivious of the pace and wasn't really checking my watch, but she kept calling out our paces. "Woa, were going 7:59...7:52! Maybe we should slow up for the middle of your run?" She felt good after her 15 miles, and joined me for 3 more miles. Mile 21 was pretty tough, but mile 22 was easier than 21! My GPS is always off quite a bit on this route so I always recalculate my pace based on the watch time and mile markers after the run. 8:03 min/mile average pace for 22 miles!!! Holy cow, I may just BQ in January!!!! 

I was planning on running 12 miles today, but after my 22 miler Saturday and how my legs feel today I think a recovery run is in order! 5 miles at 9:15 min/mi pace with 6x0.1 mile strides and 0.1 mile walking recoveries. Stride paces were: 6:25, 5:47, 5:39, 5:46, 5:32, 5:40 min/mile. For avg pace of 5:48 min/mi - conservative. My legs felt like they were going to break in the beginning of the run and I felt a little spring in my step towards the end. :)

Dangit! I just found out I was "given" one of my running goals. I have been working towards earning a spot in Corral A for the past couple years in Chicago's Shamrock Shuffle (the largest 8k in the US). They just announced that now that I'm so close to going sub 21:00 in a 5k (time to get into Corral A), they are now only requiring a time of < 23:00 in a 5k to get into Corral A for females! That's it, no mental battles during a race, no adrenaline rush when I cross the finish just shy of 21:00, no sense of accomplishment. Boo!! Now that they shifted all time goals for females (5k, 8k, 10k, etc), I don't know what to put as my shorter race running goals!!! Someone help a sister out, I have a 10k Saturday!!

12 miles at steady state pace. I was worried how this would go after my super hard run Saturday. Pulled a 7:39 min/mi average pace for 12 miles. Not too shabby on tired legs! My legs felt very injury prone so I focused on running with good form so I would break anything. I think this is good training for learning to run with fatigue like at the end of the marathon. :)

Stretch, recovery drink, epsom salt bath, trigger point ball massage, ice, recovery socks, and to bed early. Can't do much more than that to speed recovery! 

8 miles total with 5x600m repeats 400m recovery jog. This was supposed to be an indoor track workout, but all of Cambridge lost power so hit the outdoor track instead. It was really, really cold and windy but nothing is going to stop me from reaching my goal. Suggested pace by Pfitzinger is 5k race pace, by Cambridge coach 6 sec faster than 5k race pace. I haven't run a 5k since April (7:18 min/mi) so I have no idea what my 5k race pace is so just going by "feel". I haven't done a whole lot of track work in my life, so I'm assuming a VO2max feel is where you are out of breath and gasping for air at the end? My splits were:

2:22.49

2:24.15

2:26.12

2:23.97

2:19.62

First 2 repeats where painful and I had jello legs. The last repeat felt the best. My average pace was 6:24 min/mi!!! I have no idea how I could pull a 6:30 min/mi pace for a 5k. Hmm...Maybe I was just pushing too hard? 

Recovery day. Bikram am, massage pm. I am supposed to race a 10k tomorrow and run 17 miles Sunday. Kinda worried about this, my knee is starting to act up from an old injury, but I think it's from muscle tightness. Hopefully massage will work it out and my legs will hold up. I'm getting close to the marathon, body please don't fail me now!