2 Weeks Post-Race

I had a feeling I would neglect the blog a bit after the marathon. Turns out I was right. 15 days later and I’m back!

It’s been so weird not training for the marathon. My life pretty much revolved around it for 18 weeks. I was either running or  thinking about running or talking about running all the time. I’m glad to be able to focus on other things now, but last Saturday I also found myself missing my long run! So strange.

The week following the marathon I took it very, very easy. I biked and ellipticalled everyday, but with very little resistance and very little speed. I wanted to run at the end of that week even though my legs were still a bit sore, but I ended up not fitting it in. It turns out it was a good thing I didn’t have the time because with a few extra days off of running I felt 100% better. I think it took 8 days to feel totally normal again, which isn’t too bad if you ask me! It was also a nice change to relax!

I went for 2 runs this past week. The first was a 3.5 miler on the treadmill. Now THAT was weird! I didn’t do one training run inside, and I have no idea what compelled me to run on the treadmill this past week. It is definitely less natural than running outside. The second was a speedy 5 miler outside. I kept the pace under 10 minute miles and it was the perfect weather. I ran around my neighborhood and then down to the river. It was fantastic.

I have also added back in strength training, which I am loving! I didn’t realize how much I missed it. I did some great work outs where I did circuits of cardio and strength to keep my heart rate up. It was really fun!

I wanted to run 7 miles this weekend, but the weekend seemed to slip away from me. I’m starting to realize that I will live (shocker!) if I skip a run or two. I don’t want to slack off completely because Broad Street is in a month. But I’m going to try and take a more relaxed approach with this race.

I’ll try to start weekly recaps again, but no promises!

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

Marathon Training – Week 18

Well, this is it! I don’t have any more work outs until Saturday. The next time I lace up my sneakers will be to run 26.2 miles.

So crazy.

This week (or half of a week) had some great work outs. Here they are:

Monday: Speed Work – I was a little surprised to see that I still had speed work on my schedule this week. It was a 10 minute warm up, 6×400 with 400 RI, and a 10 minute cool down. I killed it! I warmed up at a 10:07 pace. The fast 400 splits: 7:42, 7:16, 6:44, 8:41, 6:42, 7:42. Then I cooled down with a 1 mile jog and some walking for a total of 5.8 miles.

I didn’t mean to be that speedy, but it felt natural, so I went with it. I’ll admit for the resting intervals I just walked. I know I’m supposed to be tapering so I wanted to keep this “easy”.

Tuesday: Cross Training – I went to a Spinning class because I know they don’t make me sore and it’s still great cardio. Unfortunately, this was one of the worst Spinning classes I have ever been to. Actually, no, it was definitely THE WORST, ever. The class is supposed to be 45 minutes (which I actually prefer over an hour long class because my mind starts to wander), but the instructor cut it short at 35 minutes. The instructor did nothing but 2 count jumps for the majority of the class. It was so absurd that I started doing my own thing.  Since it was only 35 minutes, I went and ellipticalled for 15 minutes after and then stretched for a bit.

Wednesday: Short Run – This was the last run of training! I couldn’t believe it. This was a 3 mile run at planned marathon pace. Honestly, I don’t know what my PMP is. When I first started training I thought I could do it at 10:20/mile. Then once I got further into training I realized that was unrealistic. However, I haven’t really been consistent. Some of my longer runs have been great with paces around 10:45, others have been not so great, and I don’t even want to calculate my pace. So it really depends how I feel on race day. I’m going to push myself (obviously…I will be running 26.2 miles…) but pushing myself means different things on different days for me. So we will see! There was a part in the book, The Extra Mile, that I just finished that I liked:

“Training and experience can make you more ready and more likely to do better on any given day, but there will always be that occasion when, no matter how prepared you are, it just isn’t your day.”

Anyway, back to today’s run. I decided to just do a “comfortable run” this was definitely faster than PMP. The splits: 9:58, 9:48, 9:20. Then I cooled down for a couple minutes before I had to hustle home to get ready for work, for a total of 3.18 miles. I can’t remember the last time I just ran 3 miles! It felt amazing. It was also great because I hit snooze about a million times and I still had time to work out before work and still make it there on time!

Thursday and Friday will be rest days.

So there you have it. 18 weeks of training. Over 410 miles of running. (Honestly I thought this would be more! But still cool. And totally time for a new pair of sneakers after the race!) I can hardly believe I made it through training. I woke up before the sun most days and gave up a lot of sleep, but I did it (despite people telling me I shouldn’t even try)! Anyway, here we are, with just TWO days until the marathon!

I’m so nervous for a few reasons (warning, the rest of this is a lot of rambling, but it’s helping me get out some of the jitters!):

1. I’m afraid I won’t finish. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to give it my all. But, you never know what might happen.

2. I’m afraid I won’t finish in time. This course has a 5 and half hour time limit. From what I’ve read, this is pretty short for a marathon, most seem to be 6-7 hour time limits (though I could be wrong). When I signed up for the race it said the course time limit was TBD, so I didn’t think much of it and assumed it would be something reasonable for a race like a Rock and Roll race which caters towards more casual runners. There is a cut off point around mile 12 and if you aren’t there in time they will make you go towards the half marathon finish instead of continuing on to do the full marathon. I don’t anticipate needing to go to the half marathon finish. I have run 12 miles many, many times in an hour less than the cut off time, but I’m concerned about when I cross the START line, because that will cut into my time to get to mile 12. I guess the worst that happens is I run a half marathon on Saturday.

3. I am having back pain again. I scheduled an acupuncture appointment for this afternoon, so I’m hoping that she gets all the kinks out, and FAST! because the last time I had this back pain I made it less than a mile into my long run before quitting and running straight to the place where I get massages.

4. The weather. I have been stalking the weather in DC like it is my job. First it said it was going to be hot. Then it said rain. Then it said thunderstorms. Now it says hot again. I have done every one of my training runs in 30-40 degree weather (except for the 18 miler which was sooo chilly). I am used to bundling up just a bit and feeling warm but not too warm in all my layers. I have done all my long runs with a jacket also. I put my phone (which has my music) in one pocket and my Gu in the other pocket. I wear my Camelbak too (I have decided to wear this for race day also. I’d rather have it and not use it than want it) but it’s annoying to get anything out of the pockets because you have to take it off.

I think I have decided that I will wear a tank top instead of my usual long sleeve turtleneck as my 1st layer, and then a long sleeved tech tee as my top layer (which I usually wear as my middle layer). Then I will put my phone in my Camelbak because I don’t think I will need to take it out for any reason, and in the off chance that I do need to, I’ll just take off my Camelbak, which isn’t the end of the world. Then I’ll put my Gu in my Spi Belt. Yes, I will feel like a pack mule and a little ridiculous with all these “extras” with me while I run, but I think this is the best bet. I want to carry my own Gu even though they have it on the course, because the flavors (Strawberry Banana and Blueberry Pomegranate) sound terrible to me. I also plan to wear my ear warmer because my headphones fall out otherwise, and if I get too hot I’ll just toss it.

Even with all these fears, I am SO excited too. I am already itching to run and I can’t wait to get out there and give it my all!

And since this post is already very random and long, how about a Dad picture:

Ready or not…

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

Another Week, Another Race

Since I’ve been pretty busy lately it’s much easier to post once or twice with a recap of the whole or half week. So that’s what I’m going with until I have more time! Since Wednesday here’s what has gone down:

Thursday: Upper body workout. Guess who bench pressed 115 pounds?! Me! I ran into Mom at the gym and she gave me a spot. I might have chickened out otherwise but I didn’t even need much help and I did 10 reps! Woo hoo! I also did assisted pull ups/ lat pull down, shoulder press/ lateral raises, bicep curls/ one armed curls and tricep pull downs/ skull crushers. I think this might be my favorite workout right now.

Friday: Spinning class. I hadn’t spun in a long time. I had been thinking about going to my favorite teacher’s class for weeks, but I kept missing it. I finally made it this week and it was great.

Saturday: Lower body workout. Not much different here except I changed my regular lunges to a combination of regular, reverse and side lunges. I try to keep things interesting 😉

Today: Treadmill intervals. I warmed up for 10 minutes of walking at an incline (5 minutes at 4.0 and 5 minutes at 4.5). Then I did 20 minutes of 1 minute at 4.0 and 1 minute at 8.0 at a 1.0 incline. Then I cooled down for 10 minutes of walking (5 minutes at 4.0 and 5 minutes at 4.5) at a smaller incline than the warm up. I was drenched when it was over!

I usually make sure to take one rest day per week but I didn’t take one this week for 2 reasons. 1. I was feeling great and didn’t think I needed one and 2. I have a very busy week coming up and might need more than 1 or 2 days off if things get too overwhelming. Hopefully this won’t happen!

I also signed up for another race! I get about a million deal saving emails everyday. Most of the time I delete them right away because they are for things that I don’t want or need or they have fine print that I have learned to read carefully! (One time I got a deal for a restaurant and you could only use it on certain nights and I ended up having to go to a mediocre restaurant on my street 3 times to use the stupid thing!!!) Anyway, one caught my eye for a Scavenger Hunt Dash for super cheap for 2 people. I texted my friend Becca and asked if she would be interested and she said yes, so on October 1 we will be doing the Philadelphia Scavenger Hunt Dash! There isn’t a set course because you are basically just running around the city but the FAQ on the website estimates it’s about 5 miles. I don’t really care, I just think it will be fun!

Game face is on for this week!!!

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

Lunch Time Legs (and Run)

I’ve been really busy with not much time to write, but figured I would write something really quickly now! Monday and today I had to be at work really early and waking up in the 5’s just wasn’t happening to work out.

But, I started studying again and like to have my nights free for that. So, I decided to do lunchtime work outs!

Yesterday was legs. I did lots of squats and lunges. My tush was hurting today.

Today I did intervals. Last week after I did intervals I was really tired and barely moved for the rest of the night. Today was the same thing, but I had to go back to work and focus! Terrible!

I started with incline walking, switched to running at 6.5 while increasing the incline, then started with run (8.0) and walk (4.5) intervals, then I ran at 6.5 again, with a few more sprints throughout so I could hit 3 miles in 30 minutes. Then I cooled down for a minute or two and quickly showered and headed back to work.

Luckily tomorrow I don’t have to be at work until normal time and I have plans for the night (so much for studying…) so I will (yes! I will!) wake up early and do upper body weights. Last week I upped the weight I could bench to 110! I’m going to try and do that a few more times before I increase again.

I’m debating if I should stay home this weekend and study or head to the beach. Tough decision! Time to sleep on it…

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

First City Run

This afternoon I did my first run through the city. My Garmin battery is dead so I don’t know how far I ran. I’ll have to get that fixed. But I ran for 31 minutes and then walked for 3 to cool down. It was really fun running through the city, but traffic lights were kind of annoying towards the end. For the first half of my run I was making every light but during the second half I kept missing them and I would have to stop for a few seconds. Annoying.

Now I’m off to Chicago for the week. So sad to be leaving my new place!

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

Running Makes You Shady

Today I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. I wanted to do an outside run and I needed to go to the ATM and get deodorant, mascara, nail polish and gum (technically I only needed the deodorant, but I wanted the rest). So I decided to run to the ATM then I ran to the Rite Aid.

Before my run I was trying to open my new iPod charger (I lost my old one and I won’t be able to share Mom’s in a week so I sprung for a new one). As I was opening it I sliced my finger on the little plastic thingy that is on the top of the package to hang it up. Ow. I freaked out and grabbed some gauze to stop the bleeding. Luckily Mom came in from the gym minutes later and I made her look at it. She said it wasn’t that bad. But I decided bugs and blood are the top 2 reasons I should not be allowed to live alone. Ah well, 8 days to get over my fears.

Ouch! Ignore the boxes in the back...I'm packing!

On to the run! The side walks were a little icy so my run turned into a run/walk. The outside of my foot is also bugging me. Yikes. Maybe that’s what I get for running 4 days in a row. Tomorrow will be a hangover rest day so hopefully that will help.

Anyway, the title of the post. Normally you don’t see sweaty people trying to shove deodorant, mascara, gum, and nail polish into a fuel belt in the Rite Aid. I’m pretty sure the store people thought I was trying to shop lift. Awkward. With my fuel belt stuffed to the gills I headed off to finish the rest of my run. I probably looked like I had a hump under my jacket because it was so big. Ha.

Fuel belt with the goods

I ended up doing 3.37 miles in 42:29. Much slower than normal, but with the ice and my foot and the fact that I walked a decent amount, whatever.

Bye 2010!

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

The Basics

I forgot to write about the most important thing of my little mini xmas break yesterday. Mom and I were swimming and I stopped after maybe 2 laps and I asked “how do I swim without feeling like I’m going to die?”

Mom re-taught me (I assume I knew at one point) how to breathe when swimming. Umm….blowing out when you are under water– instead of holding your breath and gasping for air when you turn your head– is SO much easier. Duh.

Today I hit the gym for a treadmill run (I’m a big fan of doing what I feel like these days, and if it means consecutive running days, so be it). I was planning on a longer run than usual but I ran into a bunch of people I know and I got yelled at by the front desk people because I’m technically not a member of the gym anymore. I belonged there for 8 years and Mom has about 38980982 guest passes (a rough estimate), so I figured the last few weeks before the move I could just use those. I was wrong. The front desk people didn’t like my logic. At all.

Anyway by the time I finally got on the treadmill I had killed about twenty minutes. So I decided to drastically cut my run to 15 minutes. I did sprint intervals (30 seconds at 6.0, 30 seconds at 9.0), after some strength training I called it a day so I could get back to the books. Studying really gets in the way of the things I would rather be doing. Grr.

Happy New Years Eve Eve!

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

A lot

I haven’t been the greatest at updating here. On Christmas day I did an outdoor run. I forget exactly what it was and again I feel silly about posting about a run days later. I think it was something like 3.5 miles plus .5 cool down in 45 minutes? Sounds about right. I forgot how much I missed outdoor running. –> a lot.

I did a spinning class on Monday. I forgot how much I missed spinning –> a lot.

Since my last half marathon I haven’t been pushing myself quite as hard. I needed a mental and physical break and it’s partially cause it’s cold and partially cause I’m super busy. But that doesn’t mean I can’t get in some tough workouts in the gym in a short amount of time.

Last night I did a treadmill workout, 3 miles in just under 27 minutes. Today I did another treadmill workout, 3 miles in 26 minutes. Two different interval workouts, both left me drenched in sweat and I was in and out of the gym in a half hour. Not bad considering that’s about all the time I should be spending away from studying if I don’t want to have to take audit for a 4th time. Which might happen anyway. In which case I’ll be pissed that I wasn’t doing 6 mile runs instead. But I digress. These workouts were excellent.

Also worth noting, this is the first time in a year that I have ran 2 days in a row. On a treadmill no less. I miss that. –> a lot.

Now sleep. Tomorrow lots of studying, plus some form of exercise. Probably strength, though studying makes me want to do cardio. We will see.

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

Countdowns

I have been SO busy lately. And it has been SO cold. I honestly have no idea how I trained last winter in the snow, sleet, and rain. I haven’t run outside in over a week. And when I did I completely forgot to post about it. I actually did write the post, but I forgot to hit publish. Now it seems silly to publish a post about a run I did on December 11. It was a good one though, trust me.

I have been running inside on the dreadmill. Hips have been pretty much ok! I’ve been doing other stuff too. Like HIIT workouts on the elliptical. And regular workouts on the elliptical. And some strength training. Fun stuff, I assure you.

I’m hoping to resume training for some sort of race once the craziness dies down. But I’m not sure that will happen anytime soon.

4 days til xmas (not that we celebrate, but whatever it’s still a thing)

10 days til new years (overrated, but whatever….it’s still a thing)

15 days til my next cpa exam (a big thing!)

18 days til I move (a huge thing!)

I’m taking some days off of work in there to study (sadly not for vacation) and I hope to get out on my bike at least once since I’ll be able to workout when the sun is up.

Goodnight!

–Melissa

Read Full Post »

Intervals

I said I wouldn’t run on the treadmill ever again. But, I lied. I decided I needed some extra sleep today and skipped my morning workout. I regretted this all day as I was antsy to get to the gym.

I originally planned on 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical and some strength training. A few minutes into my intervals I was feeling the running itch in my legs. After 10 minutes of tough intervals on the elliptical I switched over to the treadmill.

I was going to do 8.0/6.0 for a minute each for 10 minutes, but changed my mind once I was going. Here’s what I did:

Minute	Speed
0-1	8.0
1-2	8.5
2-3	6.0
3-4	9.0
4-5	6.0
5-6	9.0
6-7	6.0
7-8	9.5
8-9	6.0
9-10	4.0

I finished 1 mile in 7:51. Yeeeaaah!

After I hit the weight room and did a bunch of stuff. My favorite thing of the moment is assisted pull ups. Never thought I would say this…but LOVE assisted pull ups!

Bed time! Hopefully I can get up for a run in the morning, but we’ll see.

–Melissa

Read Full Post »