Recovery

This week was all about recovery from the marathon, so not much running.

Sunday night, after the marathon, my legs were so sore that I had a little trouble sleeping. Monday, I was really sore. Walking down stairs... well really just walking in general was hard, but walking down stairs was impossible. I walk around at work a lot and am on my feet a lot of the day, so by the end of the day monday I was ready to get home and rest my legs. I wore my new neon green compression socks (hot!) that I picked up at the race expo all day monday and tuesday. I have to say Tuesday was worse than monday. In addition to soreness my legs really hurt. Being sore and in pain was also starting to make me a little cranky. Luckily, Wednesday morning I woke up and finally felt pretty normal again. I was able to walk down stairs! HORAY! I thought about trying to take a short recovery jog, but decided to give it another day. Thursday I felt pretty good, so I went to the gym and ran on the dreadmill (mainly because I wasn't quite sure how far i'd make it!) for 2.5 miles easy. My legs were still very tired, but it felt good to use them again and I got a good stretch in after my run, then I walked 1.5 miles home, which also felt good. Friday, I decided just walking home from work would be enough. Saturday, I felt like I could have run, but really just wanted to take the opportunity to sleep in as late as I wanted and lay around all day reading. I did manage to drag myself out of bed to go and get a massage (life is rough). It was a very lazy day. Today I felt like a "real" run was in order. I went out for 6 miles and tried to just let my legs run at whatever pace they wanted (yes, they do have a mind of their own). It felt good, but it became apparent around mile 4 that my hamstrings and butt are still very sore. All in all, recovery is going well. Although in doing day to day activities I feel all the way back to normal, running still isn't quite there yet. Supposedly, it take 1 day for every mile of the marathon, so I guess this is normal. This next week i'm going to shoot for 15-20 miles, but basically just try to pay attention to how my body is feeling.

I'm toying with the idea of running a half-marathon in early november... I think i'm in shape for what could be a half-marathon PR... but we'll see how my legs feel over the next few weeks. Other than that I don't think i'm really going to train for any race in particular over the next few months. I've been searching for some fun shorter distance 5Ks and 10Ks to do. Over the winter I'd like to work on some speed, but for now I'm just going to give myself some time to enjoy running without a schedule.

Weekly update for 10/11 - 10/17

Sunday - 6.22 miles

Saturday - nothing

Friday - nothing

Thursday - 2.5 miles

Wednesday - nothing

Tuesday - nothing

Monday - nothing

Weekly Total : A measly 8.72 miles and some well deserved rest!

I am a Marathoner!

Well, I finished the marathon! It didn't go exactly as I had hoped, but i'm happy to have finished and I definitely learned some things from the experience.

(Pretty fall colors at the start)

The weather was absolutely perfect at the start of the race, in the 50's I think. The air felt nice and crisp and refreshing. The race started well. The first 10 miles flew by, easily. The path was beautiful with the fall colors and I was was just enjoying running and looking around at the scenery. I started too fast. Shocking (not!). I had planned on trying to run 9:30 minute miles then slowing down if I needed to. Instead, I ran 9 minute miles and hit the wall at around mile 18. Rookie mistake. I knew I was going too fast, I had been told not to go out too fast, I had been told about the infamous wall. I knew better. Why didn't I run slower at the beginning? For the first 10 miles, a 9 min. mile pace just felt good. It felt comfortable and easy. Around mile 14 I started feeling a little tired and did slow down to the pace I should have been running at the beginning. I think I ran about a 2 hour half.... too fast. The course was two out and back loops with the start and finish in the middle. The first loop went out 9 miles, so when I started feeling fatigued I just thought about getting to mile 17ish to see Daniel cheering for me.

(Just before mile 17....starting to feel tired)

Once I crossed through and started the second out and back loop I really started struggling. The last 8 miles felt 3 times as long as the first 18. At about mile 20 I threw all pace goals out the window and just tried to keep running/jogging/moving forward at whatever pace possible. Around mile 21 I almost broke into tears my legs were so tired and achy. I started telling myself to just work on one mile at a time and I started walking through the water stops. Mile 26 I broke down into 800's in my head. I just kept telling myself 3 800's to go, just like a track workout. I came through the finish line in 4:32:54, much slower than either of my pace goals, but I was so happy to have finished that it didn't even matter.

(coming towards the finish line, looking very tired)

(Finished. I couldn't figure out if I should eat something or drink something. So I grabbed everything. Haha.)

I didn't really even want to post this.... but maybe it can serve as a warning to other first time marathoners about what happens if you go out too fast. If the goal was to run progressively slower each mile I definitely accomplished that.... unfortunately that wasn't the goal.

Here it is, the garmin splits.

Mile 1 - 8:55 (umm too fast!)

Mile 2 - 9:05 (okay... I ran a little bit slower)

Mile 3 - 9:06

Mile 4 - 9:07

Mile 5 - 9:09

Mile 6 - 9:04

Mile 7 - 9:15

Mile 8 - 9:13

Mile 9 - 9:17 (at this point i'm thinking okay this pace feels pretty good)

Mile 10 - 9:22

Mile 11 - 9:28

Mile 12 - 9:38

Mile 13 - 9:46

Mile 14 - 9:59

Mile 15 - 10:05 (my muscles start to hurt and I think okay, i'll just hold 10min/mile for the rest of the race no prob.)

Mile 16 - 10:03

Mile 17 - 10:02

Mile 18 - 10:50

Mile 19 - 11:07 (I want to cry and be done with the race, my legs hurt and are all crampy..oh and I also realized the consequences of going out too fast)

Mile 20 - 11:22 (I throw out all pace goals and just try to propel myself forwards)

Mile 21 - 12:16

Mile 22 - 12:36

Mile 23 - 11:44

Mile 24 - 12:08

Mile 25 - 11:57

Mile 26 - 11: 36

The last bit: 3:49 (11 min mile pace)

overall average: 10:15 min/mile - not great, but i'm still happy to have finished a marathon!

And the weekly milage recap:

Sunday - 26.2 miles! Yea!

Saturday - 1.05 miles (really? I put running clothes on to do this?)

Friday - rest

Thursday - 3.01 miles

Wednesday - Ab workout

Tuesday - 4.12 miles

Monday - off

Weekly total: 34.38 miles

Revisiting my Goals

Well, the day has come (almost!). The marathon is about 1 day away. Tasks for tomorrow include picking up my race packet, getting some power bars (my pre-run breakfast), finishing my ipod playlist, and trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. According to my marathon training plan i'm also supposed to do a 10 minute run. It almost doesn't even seem worth it to change into running clothes for something that short, but I do always like to get a short jog in the day before a race to loosen my muscles up and stretch afterwards.

When I began training for this marathon I had some training goals:

- Complete as many runs as possible. Check.

- Not get injured. Check

I also had some marathon goals:

- Finish alive and uninjured

- Run 10 minute miles or under

- Try to run a 4 hr 10 min marathon.

Now, at the end of training, my goals really haven't changed. My 20 milers were at about 10:50 min/mile pace.... so i'm definitely going to kick it up, but my experience has been that my race pace is much faster than my training pace, so I think 10 min miles are definitely possible. As for a 4hr 10 min marathon... we will see. My plan is to try to keep my pace at about 9:30/mile for as long as possible. I always go out to fast, so i'm really going to try not to do that.

I'm definitely feeling nervous!

I'll try to do a short blog tomorrow before the race. If not, i'll do a race recap after the race!

Last weeks recap

The race is less than a week away, I'll blog more about that as it gets closer... for now:

Weekly milage recap:

Sunday : 6.41 miles

Saturday: 4.04 miles

Friday: Pilates

Thursday: 5.33 miles

Wednesday: Core

Tuesday: Speedwork. 400/800/400/1200/400/1600/400 (200 rest interval after 400s, 400 rest interval all others) for 5.25 miles total

Monday: off

Weekly milage total: 21.03 miles

Holy Shit, this is real.

Well, this week was fairly uneventful running wise. It's taper time. I was expecting to feel a little stir crazy, but actually this week felt really good. Compared to running 20 miles last week running only 10 for the long run felt really really good and I was able to keep my pace/mile a full minute faster than my 20 mile run average. I've mainly been focusing on how happy I am to be running less, feeling a little less tired and having a little more time to relax (although i've still been spending way too much time in the lab!), then it hit me: "oh my god, in a few weeks I will be running a marathon!". This is real. Duh right? At this point I actually am looking forward to running the marathon!

The weather has been SO MUCH nicer. Cooler temperatures, less humidity. I love fall. It is the best running weather. He's a shot of the path that has become one of my favorites.

Here's the weekly recap:

Sunday- 10.01 miles

Saturday - 6.25 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 7.01 miles

Wednesday - weights

Tuesday 5.26 miles. No speedwork this week, I couldn't get out of work to make it to the track. It's probably best, my legs were feeling like lead weights still from sunday's 20 miles.

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 28.53 miles

Taper Time!

Whew! Last week was rough. It was my highest weekly mileage, and Thursday afternoon I came down with a cold. Ugh. I had planned on breaking up my planned 10 miler into 6 in the morning and 4 in the evening. I managed to get the 6 in the morning, but by thursday afternoon there was no way I was putting in 4 more. I went straight to bed, slept for 12 hours and actually felt better when I woke up, so Friday evening I put in 6 more miles. Sunday's 20 miles didn't go quite as easily as the first 20 miler, but I made it through taking a couple of walk breaks.

Now, it's taper time. I'm a little torn. On the one hand i'm excited to be running less milage, to hopefully be less tired, and to have a little more time to do other things. On the other hand, I know i'm going to start to feel restless and crazy.

I have myself a new pair of shoes and a new race day shirt! Don't worry, I wore them both on Sunday's 20 miler with no problems. I got the shirt off the clearance rack for $10 and was wondering why it was so cheap since there were others that I thought were just like it on the regular rack for $40. Turns out, there is a blue dot on the front of the shirt which i'm fairly sure is supposed to be in the middle, but it's way off to one side. Oh well. It's a race, not a beauty pageant and the shirt is super comfy :-)

My task for the next week: put together a playlist for the race.

It's strange, I have always been very against running races with music, but so many people have recommended it for this race in particular (due to lack of crowd support), and its not against the race rules.... so I figure I'll give it a go.

Here's the weekly update:

Sunday - 20.01 miles

Saturday - off

Friday - 6.11 miles

Thursday - 6.15 miles

Wednesday - weights

Tuesday - 3.05 miles in the morning

6 x 800 with 400 rests for a total of 4.77 in the afternoon

(total of 7.82 for the day)

Monday - off

Weekly total : 40.09 miles

One week until taper

I've been a bad blogger lately. I got through my first committee meeting at the new school! Yay! It feels good to have that off my plate, but i've been working like a mad women, weekends, nights, etc, to try to get out a publication by November. Oh yea, and i've been training for the marathon! It's been tiring. I have to say i'm feeling better about the training than I was a few months ago when all of these super long runs were looming over my head. It's crazy to think that my "short" runs during the week have become the distance that my "long" runs were at the beginning of training. The truth is that they really do feel "short" at this point! I have been noticing that my body seems to bounce back a little quicker than it did after that first 15 miler, or even the first 20 miler. This is the last week of building milage (and the highest week of milage) before taper. I'm looking forward to taper, but i'm also a little leery of how strange i'm going to feel not running much after all of this running!

Here's my missing weekly recaps for the past few weeks:

Sunday: 18.31 miles

Saturday 6.01 mile tempo run

Friday: off

Thursday: 8.14 miles

Wednesday Weights

Tuesday: 5.0 miles total. Speedwork 400/400/800/800/400/400/800/800 (200 recovery after 400s, 400 recovery after 800s)

Monday: 14.21 miles

Weekly total: 51.67 miles

Sunday: In Niagara Falls for labor day :-)

Saturday: off vacationing

Friday 4.01 miles

Thursday 8.10 miles

Wednesday: weights

Tuesday 4.0 miles

Monday: off

Weekly Total: 16.11 miles

Sunday: 3.16 miles. It felt worse than running the 20!

Saturday: 20.0 miles

Friday: off

Thursday 7.0 miles

Wednesday off

Tuesday 6.24 miles

Monday off

Weekly Total 36.40 miles