Have I mentioned how much I love Virginia weather??? It's 70 degrees one day and icing two days later, go figure...
Anyway, really great week for training, despite the cold!! I'm getting much better at swimming, and that makes me very happy. Maybe I can actually do halfway decent at my tri's this year in the swim phase! I had to bundle up for a freezing cold and windy 8mi, but it ended up being a fairy good workout.
Long run this week was 15mi. I ran it in C-ville on the 10-miler course. Sid ran the 10 with me, then when we got back to the start, I turned around and did 5 more by myself. We had no water or food with us on the run, so I felt myself start hitting a wall around mile 12. I knew I was starting to feel the effects of dehydration, but luckily I was right by one of the Rec centers at UVA, so I could get some water. That was exactly what I needed and I was able to complete the last 3mi just fine.
This is the point I made it to last year, so from here on out is uncharted territory for me!! I'm 11.2mi away from the goal distance, and I have confidence I can make it there. I know race day is gonna be slow going, but my goal for this first marathon is just to finish.
8 weeks to go!! :)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Overtrained??
Well, the week was going great training wise until the weekend rolled around...
Had several low-medium distance workouts throuhout the week, including a GREAT 5mi Farlek run of 2min easy, 30 sec push. Doesn't sound hard, but do that for several miles and it will catch up to you! I was slightly, yet wonderfully sore that night and the next morning. Haha, that must definitely be a runner thing, to enjoy being slightly sore!
I know that this marathon is something I want soooo bad. But a small part of me wants to be a college student, and especially enjoy this last semester before having to face the real world. Let's just say this weekend was a TON of fun, but fairly worthless in terms of getting stuff done, both schoolwork and otherwise.
I woke up early on Sunday morning with every intention of doing my 14mi long run. Had my bagel with peanut butter breakfast, got dressed and everything. But when I headed out in my car to drop water and Gu, I just couldn't motivate myself to start the run. It was cold and rain was coming, and I just really didn't feel like getting rained on for 14mi. So, I turned ass around and climbed back in bed. I guess I needed the sleep anyway cause I didn't wake up til noon! Yup! Pretty much useless!
I really was worried about how unmotivated I was. I've had several pretty tough weeks here in a row, and it may be catching up with me. In addition, I've started swimming 3x per week and since it's started getting warm again, I'm back out on the bike. Perhaps it was just too much of an increase in everything too quickly (well, and maybe the fun weekend had something to do with it too). Pehaps I needed the break.
The marathon is 9 weeks out. I'm still doing OK training wise, but I really cannot be missing these long runs!! 15 long/30 total for this week - I may run the C-ville 10 miler route when home this weekend, so that should be fun!
Had several low-medium distance workouts throuhout the week, including a GREAT 5mi Farlek run of 2min easy, 30 sec push. Doesn't sound hard, but do that for several miles and it will catch up to you! I was slightly, yet wonderfully sore that night and the next morning. Haha, that must definitely be a runner thing, to enjoy being slightly sore!
I know that this marathon is something I want soooo bad. But a small part of me wants to be a college student, and especially enjoy this last semester before having to face the real world. Let's just say this weekend was a TON of fun, but fairly worthless in terms of getting stuff done, both schoolwork and otherwise.
I woke up early on Sunday morning with every intention of doing my 14mi long run. Had my bagel with peanut butter breakfast, got dressed and everything. But when I headed out in my car to drop water and Gu, I just couldn't motivate myself to start the run. It was cold and rain was coming, and I just really didn't feel like getting rained on for 14mi. So, I turned ass around and climbed back in bed. I guess I needed the sleep anyway cause I didn't wake up til noon! Yup! Pretty much useless!
I really was worried about how unmotivated I was. I've had several pretty tough weeks here in a row, and it may be catching up with me. In addition, I've started swimming 3x per week and since it's started getting warm again, I'm back out on the bike. Perhaps it was just too much of an increase in everything too quickly (well, and maybe the fun weekend had something to do with it too). Pehaps I needed the break.
The marathon is 9 weeks out. I'm still doing OK training wise, but I really cannot be missing these long runs!! 15 long/30 total for this week - I may run the C-ville 10 miler route when home this weekend, so that should be fun!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Whew, what a weekend!
I'm starting to remember how it became so that I had to stop the marathon training this time last year. Spring semester is quite busy, and I'm only doing about half as much as last spring! But I'm determined to finish the marathon this time, even if it does mean always staying busy and perhaps having to tweek my schedule here and there.
This past week was very well thought out in terms of when I knew I would have time and how I should plan my workouts accordingly. Still, I missed the weekly mileage goal by 4, but I'd say I had a pretty good excuse!
I happened to not be working on Thursday, so I did my 13mi long run that morning. Not the best long run I've had, but I wouldn't say it was horrible. My legs were definitely feeling it towards the end, but they weren't sore all day which is probably a good sign. I've heard the C-ville Marathon offers gummi bears at the fuel stops, so I did an experiment with gummi bears on this long run - it was probably good thing to find out NOW that the gummies don't sit too well with me, haha! No gummies on race day! :)
I had a great tempo run in Scottsville on Saturday after my EMT-Enhanced state test (which I PASSED by the way!!!). I would have made it a little longer, but daylight cut me short, so I knew I had to do 4mi the next day to complete out my week - no problem.
Well, the next day, Sunday, I went hiking up in the Shenandoah National Park. I figured we'd get back to Scottsville mid-afternoon and I'd have plenty of time for my easy 4. Yes, we got back early afternoon with plenty of daylight, but anyone in VA can tell you Sunday was absolutely surreal! High winds caused powerlines all over the place to go down and the downed lines caused huge brush fires which were fueled and expanded by the winds. As soon as I got back to Scottsville, I was out with the fire dept fighting various brush fires and didn't get back to Farmville until almost midnight. So much for my easy 4! Well, in addition to hiking that morning I'd just trampsed all over the southern-Albemarle countryside helping contain brush fires, so I definitely got lots of miles in...just a little bit slower than planned ;)
14 long/28 total on the schedule for next week. I know I'm going to be pretty busy again, so I may have to do some wigglin!
This past week was very well thought out in terms of when I knew I would have time and how I should plan my workouts accordingly. Still, I missed the weekly mileage goal by 4, but I'd say I had a pretty good excuse!
I happened to not be working on Thursday, so I did my 13mi long run that morning. Not the best long run I've had, but I wouldn't say it was horrible. My legs were definitely feeling it towards the end, but they weren't sore all day which is probably a good sign. I've heard the C-ville Marathon offers gummi bears at the fuel stops, so I did an experiment with gummi bears on this long run - it was probably good thing to find out NOW that the gummies don't sit too well with me, haha! No gummies on race day! :)
I had a great tempo run in Scottsville on Saturday after my EMT-Enhanced state test (which I PASSED by the way!!!). I would have made it a little longer, but daylight cut me short, so I knew I had to do 4mi the next day to complete out my week - no problem.
Well, the next day, Sunday, I went hiking up in the Shenandoah National Park. I figured we'd get back to Scottsville mid-afternoon and I'd have plenty of time for my easy 4. Yes, we got back early afternoon with plenty of daylight, but anyone in VA can tell you Sunday was absolutely surreal! High winds caused powerlines all over the place to go down and the downed lines caused huge brush fires which were fueled and expanded by the winds. As soon as I got back to Scottsville, I was out with the fire dept fighting various brush fires and didn't get back to Farmville until almost midnight. So much for my easy 4! Well, in addition to hiking that morning I'd just trampsed all over the southern-Albemarle countryside helping contain brush fires, so I definitely got lots of miles in...just a little bit slower than planned ;)
14 long/28 total on the schedule for next week. I know I'm going to be pretty busy again, so I may have to do some wigglin!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Up and up!
I wasn't sure how last week was going to play out, since I was SUPER busy and didn't really know when I was going to fit my workouts in. All of them (except the long run) ended up being in the evenings inside, either on Longwood's indoor track or on a treadmill.
I really wasn't looking forward to doing the weekend long run of 12mi in the freezing cold, but it turned out that the weather was gorgeous and i was actually able to run in shorts and a tee-shirt!! The run was amazing, and I think, just like last year, I'm going to become VERY familiar with Back Hampden Sydney Rd - fairly flat, not much traffic and nice long distances. At the end of the 12, I felt like I could have kept going!
The total mileage was supposed to be 24 for the week, but since that was a 4 mile increase from my last full mileage week, I dropped the total down to 22. I ran 4 easy miles the day after the long run and never would have known I'd just run TWELVE the day before.
I really just can't get over how effortless this week's long run was, and so I'm VERY encouraged for the next 11 weeks that follow! I'm really getting into the thick of the training schedule now. I remember in the past making it up to 10 miles was a big milestone for me, and now I'm able to breeze past that. I'm thinking the next hard-ish milestone for me to hit is going to be about 18, and from there it's up and onto 26.2!!
I have a 12/26 on the schedule for this week, but I think I'm going to change that to 13/25 to give myself a extra mile for the long :)
I really wasn't looking forward to doing the weekend long run of 12mi in the freezing cold, but it turned out that the weather was gorgeous and i was actually able to run in shorts and a tee-shirt!! The run was amazing, and I think, just like last year, I'm going to become VERY familiar with Back Hampden Sydney Rd - fairly flat, not much traffic and nice long distances. At the end of the 12, I felt like I could have kept going!
The total mileage was supposed to be 24 for the week, but since that was a 4 mile increase from my last full mileage week, I dropped the total down to 22. I ran 4 easy miles the day after the long run and never would have known I'd just run TWELVE the day before.
I really just can't get over how effortless this week's long run was, and so I'm VERY encouraged for the next 11 weeks that follow! I'm really getting into the thick of the training schedule now. I remember in the past making it up to 10 miles was a big milestone for me, and now I'm able to breeze past that. I'm thinking the next hard-ish milestone for me to hit is going to be about 18, and from there it's up and onto 26.2!!
I have a 12/26 on the schedule for this week, but I think I'm going to change that to 13/25 to give myself a extra mile for the long :)
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