MTP Week 4 and 5 Overview...

Week 4 Recap = GREAT!

Week 5 Recap = Sick as a DOG!!!

I love basset hounds (they are my favorite dog), so he seemed like the perfect mascot for my week o' misery...his name is Walter by the way!  Isn't he cute?!

Looking back, week 4 went really well, training-wise.  Here are the details:

Monday: 3 miles in 26 minutes flat...my best time yet.  I was tired at the end, but so proud of my time that I didn't even care!

Tuesday: 8x200 meter hill repeats with 1 mile run to the hill and one mile run back afterward.  My butt didn't hurt as bad this week as it did the week before, and I was also pretty proud of myself because I did the hill repeats on my own, without the motivation of the group, and finished the whole thing...even though there were moments when I definitely wanted to quit!

Wednesday: 7 miles in 67:42...Normally this would have been my rest day, but I was headed to Bend the next day to spend my 4 day weekend with Michael, and since I was going to be in the car most of the day getting to him (and I knew I wouldn't want to run the 7 miles once I got there) I decided to get it out of the way the day before...and ran it in a pretty good time if I do say so myself!

Thursday: Rest/Drive to Bend

Friday: 13 miles in 2:08:35...again, normally I would have run this on Saturday morning, but since Michael was in class until 3pm, I figured it was the perfect time to get my long run in.  I did my run through Eagle Crest Country Club, which after visiting Michael so much, I thought I knew pretty well...but apparently not.  I got lost on a couple of occasions, the routes of which took me up some pretty steep hills.  When I finally finished my run, I was a bit disappointed with my time...that is, until I plugged my Garmin into my computer and realized that along my journey, not only had I gone 13 miles, but I had gained almost 1000 ft of elevation!  No wonder I was so tired at the end!!!

Saturday: Rest/Quality time with the bf

Sunday: Rest/Quality time with the bf

After such a great week of runs, I was looking forward to seeing how well I would do on my Week 5 mileage.  There was only one thing standing in my way...the fact that my wonderful boyfriend had been horribly sick the entire weekend that I had been to visit him.  And there is one inevitable fact about boyfriends that never fails...if they are sick, you will eventually get sick as well.  Therefore, my recap of my Week 5 runs is unfortunately quite short:

Monday: 3 miles in 26:11...I wasn't feeling very sick at this point, so this run went fairly well, though I did feel pretty wiped out by the end.

Tuesday: 9 x 200 meter hill repeats with 1 mile before and 1 mile after...my brain was starting to get a little fuzzy at this point, and I lost track of how many hill repeats I'd completed until I checked my watch at the end and realized I'd done one too many.  If I'd known it was the last training run I was going to be able to complete this week, I'd have done several extra.

Wednesday: Stretch/Rest/The beginning of the cough, chest congestion, fever, and runny nose.

Thursday: This was supposed to be an 8 mile run, but unfortunately it ended up being a day of me coughing up a lung, running a fever, and generally feeling like crap...so no run for me.

Friday: Rest/Sick again...I was foolishly optimistic enough to think that I might be able to make up my 8 mile run today, but I was again so sick that I could barely make it to work, let alone manage an 8 mile run.  At that point, I was facing a major dilemma...I had a 14 mile run the next morning, and didn't want to miss it since I had already missed one of my runs this week, but I wasn't sure if trying to complete the mileage while I was so sick would in fact do me more harm than good.  So I called the amazing people from my Marathon Training Program at Fleet Feet...

                       
...and one of the coaches wisely recommended that I take the day off, get better, and come back strong and well next week. So that's exactly what I did.

Saturday: Rest/Sick as a dog...I thought there was maybe a slim chance I would miraculously wake up well enough Saturday morning to meet up with the group and go for our little 14 mile jaunt...

...but no such luck.  I was still unbelievably sick and could barely lift my head to drink my orange juice, let alone bend over to be able to lace up my running shoes.  I felt bad missing my mileage, but I have a feeling I would have felt worse had I tried to complete the mileage feeling the way I did.

Sunday: Rest/Still sick, but feeling a bit better...I'm trying to rest up today.  I'm starting to feel a bit better, and am hoping that if I lay low today and really take care of myself, I'll be able to get back on the training program schedule starting tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed for me as Week 6 posses quite a challenge after a 5 day hiatus from running...

Monday: 3 mile run
Tuesday: Our very first Interval Training workout!
Wednesday: Stretch/Rest
Thursday: 4 mile run
Friday: Stretch/Rest
Saturday: 15 mile run
Sunday: Stretch/Rest

What's your best strategy for getting back into your workout routine after you've been sick?

MTP Week 3 Overview...

The moral of the story this week: hill repeats = sore ass!

I don't know who the first runner was to decide that sprinting up a hill, jogging back down to the bottom, then sprinting back up again, over and over, was a good idea for a workout, but I've decided that that runner was definitely a masochist!  With or without the murderous hills, this week wasn't that great for me, time-wise or energy-wise.

Here's the rundown of my mediocre week in training:

Monday: 3 miles in 28:44...I missed my headlamp run with the group because the plumbing in my house was on the fritz and the plumber decided the explanation of what needed to be done should go on ad nauseum until it was too late to make my run, and too dark to run outside by myself.  So to the gym I went, and it just wasn't a very good workout for me.  I did the cross country course on the treadmill, but I wasn't able to finish in a time I was used to, and so overall the night was extremely frustrating.

Tuesday: 8x200 meter hill repeats...with a mile run to the hill, and a mile run back from the hill...oh, and did I mention that you basically sprint up a hill that has a 15-18% grade EIGHT TIMES IN A ROW with a 2 minute break in between each repeat...oh yeah, and part of that 2 minutes get used up jogging back down to the bottom of the hill so that you can start over again.  I know that this will help make me faster and be an essential part of dropping my time so I can qualify for Boston, but I'd be lying if I said I liked it.

Wednesday: Stretching/rest...I don't think I could even begin to explain how sore my ass was after all those hills!

Thursday: 7 miles in 1:08:20...surprise, surprise, my ass was still sore, so I wasn't able to run as well as I thought I was going to, and after dropping 5 minutes off my 7 mile time the previous week, I only dropped 1 minute off my time this week.

Friday: Stretching/rest...umm, ASS.STILL.SORE!

Saturday: 11 miles in 1:45:44...this run didn't feel very good at all, I got tired almost immediately, even though I wasn't running any faster than I had the weekend before, and by the end I was completely exhausted.  I know I should be happy that I'm completing my mileage, but I just feel like, at this point, I should be making progress and feeling better each time.  I just got a little discouraged that I felt worse this week even though the run was only two miles longer than the previous week.  Hopefully this coming week's long run will be better!

Sunday: Stretching/rest...so sore and tired.

So as you can tell, this past week wasn't a combination of my best performances, but hopefully it can only go up from here.  Week 4 is going to look a little like this:

Monday: 3 miles

Tuesday: 8x200 meter hill repeats

Wednesday: Stretching/rest

Thursday: 7 miles

Friday: Stretching/rest

Saturday: 13 miles

Sunday: Stretching/rest

Here's to better weeks...any suggestions to bounce back from a rough training week?

MTP Week 2 Overview...

New shoes, head lamps, and bald eagles...the three things that characterized this week's training runs.

Here's the low down on my weekly runs:

Monday: This was the first week where we did an evening group run, complete with reflective gear and head lamps!

 I had never run with a head lamp, so this was a totally new experience for me...and I thrived!  I felt invigorated running in the dark, probably because no one could really see me, so I didn't have to worry about looking funny or people watching/judging my running.  I ended up being the first member of the group to finish the 3 mile run, and I ran those 3 miles in 26:59!  Fastest time yet.

Tuesday: 7 miles in 1:09:13...I was suffering from the three blisters and bum toenail I had earned the week before from my too small running shoes, so I decided to complete this particular run on the elliptical machine at the gym to try to give my feet a bit of a break since I wasn't going to be able to purchase a new pair of shoes until the next day.  I used the Cross Country setting on the machine to simulate a hill workout, so I still got a pretty good 'run' in.

Wednesday: Stretching/rest...Headed out to Fleet Feet in Bonney Lake and used my day off to get a new, bigger pair of running shoes.  Tried several pairs on, and at first I had a very hard time trying to pick out a pair of shoes that were a full size too big, but eventually I ended up choosing my very first pair of Brooks running shoes, the Brooks Ghost 4!

Aren't they beautiful?!?!?!  I'm normally an Asics girl, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how comfortable these shoes are to run in!  I would recommend them with two thumbs way up.

Thursday: 8 miles in 1:17:32...used my new shoes for the first time as I did my 8 miler along Ruston Way, and dropped 4 minutes off my time from the previous Saturday.  Pretty freaking awesome if I do say so myself!

Friday: Stretching/rest...calves and shins were a little sore from the previous day's long run in a brand new pair of shoes, but other than that I felt great.

Saturday: 9 miles in 1:25:49...the Saturday morning group run was a little on the cold side when we started out, but I was feeling pretty good, and ended up keeping all of my mile splits under 10 minutes.  Additionally, I was spurred on/inspired by a bald eagle that flew directly over my head as I was cruising along at around mile 4.

It couldn't have been more than 50 feet above me, and it was an amazing experience!  I even ended up finishing my last mile with a 9:10 split, my fastest split of the run!

Sunday: Stretching/rest

Overall, this was a great running week.  I'm starting to feel more confident that I'm going to slowly, but surely, work my way toward my ultimate goal...qualifying for Boston!  This coming week should be interesting as not only do we start our hill training, but we also hit double digits on our long run...

Monday: 3 mile head lamp group night run
Tuesday: 3.5 mile with hill repeats (yikes!)
Wednesday: Stretching/rest
Thursday: 7 mile run
Friday: Stretching/rest
Saturday: 12 mile run (double yikes!)
Sunday: Stretching/rest

MTP Week 3...HERE I COME!!!