I Made It To Taper Week!

Always love running with Jess

A week and a half to go and the Lincoln National Guard Half Marathon will FINALLY be here. Really it seems like forever ago that I convinced Jess (yes THE Run With Jess) to go to Lincoln Nebraska and run with me. She has a quest to run all 50 and when she said that race was on under consideration, I threw the dice and said “I’ll go with you and my BFF lives there so she’ll provide a place to stay!” Jess replied with a simple “Done”.  

When I started the training for this race I knew right off I wanted to be aggressive with training because this race is just 9 days shy of my one year cancer free anniversary! I know the marathon was like my big comeback but it didn’t feel like. Everything about that race was hard and it sucked and I hated all of it! Now here I am one year later, I’m finally back at my pre-hysterectomy weight (when they say it takes a year to heal, they weren't joking) and I’m feeling like the strong runner I was a year ago. To say I wanna ‘rock this bitch’ is to say the least. 

Last weekend was my last long run and I wanted to test my limits so I asked my boyfriend to pace me about an 8:45 pace, after an easy warm up mile. I knew he would push me, I was terrified of it but I was ready for it. My time trial splits were: 8:40, 8:35, 8:37, 8:35, 8:30, 8:30, 8:25 & 8:24! With  just a few miles left I was tired but each mile I knocked off my confidence grew and when I hit my cool down mile I was spent but I knew I could finish the half very close to that pace. 

I have a few short runs left this week and next, my longest being 8 this weekend and 7 on Tuesday. All I can say is I’m ready! Let’s do this!

Altering Your Training Plans

This weeks training plan 

 

GASP! NO!!!! I can't alter my training plan!!!

Yes...you can!

Let's face it life gets in the way, trust me, it's OKAY to change your training plans. From doing your fartleks on Tuesday to Monday, your tempo from Thursday to Friday and yes even...GASP...cancel your long run! Now, don't get in the habit of axing your runs all the time but sometimes, you have to, there's no way around it. Guess what? The rest could even do you good!

Welcome to my next 3 weeks of training. First there is training, that's #1 in my world but I'm running anywhere from 5 to even 6 days a week and that is on top of a full time job, a house to take care of and a part time job teaching fitness classes (5 classes in 4 days to be exact). Sometimes, I gotta adjust and more times than not.

Training is going excellent, each run I'm so happy at how well my body is responding. I'm challenging myself but not killing myself either. However, this week is NUTS. First I was in St. Louis for a Blues game (they won woo hoo) so I had to change my Monday rest day to my Tuesday Fartlek run, then on Saturday I'm going to Chicago to partake in the Les Mills Quarterly (I'm a LM instructor) so I'll be doing all of the LM classes from like 8AM-5pm, then coming home Sunday. That means I have NO weekend to hit my 12 miler! I could do it Friday but then I'd have to find a sub for my RPM class but I'm already doing that NEXT WEEKEND because I'm going back to St. Louis for another hockey game and that's a 14 miler.

So...I cancelled it...my long run...yes...I'm axing this weeks LR. I am adding a 5 mile progression run to the mix today and following the program the remainder of the week, so I'll run each day this week but skip the long run. And honestly each week I usually have to cut a mile or more from my training schedule because I just don't have the time or energy sometimes to complete them all.

Will this hurt me? Absolutely not. Will it benefit me? Absolutely!

Let's face it, I'm not going for gold, I'm just going for MY personal best. Training shouldn't be difficult and shouldn't stress you out, now if your cancelling LR after LR, then we need to talk but once or twice, wont hurt and like I said the extra rest could even do you some good.

Keep it simple, have fun and just get out there and run.

Illinois Marathon: Taper Down and Problematic Shoes

Yesterday was the 116th running of the Boston Marathon, the most prestigious of marathons, the race was held in record heat and was the slowest running of the race since 1985. The winner, Kenyan Wesley Korir finished the race in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 40 seconds, that was 10 minutes behind last years worlds best established at last years race.



In just 11 days I will take on my first running of a marathon, 26.2 miles, I'll be happy to finish in 4 hours and 15 minutes, however my dream finish is in 4 hours. As the race grows nearer and nearer all I can think about is "O-M-G I'll be running a marathon next weekend!".


Once hiccup I had this past week was with my shoes. The heal on my right shoe has been digging into me and cause quit a bit of discomfort, normally I just keep going and hope that it will just go away. However, I've been going with that mindset for about 2 weeks now with out it going away. I made the decision that I should go in for a second pair of shoes, that way I have two weeks to break them in. Luckily, when I purchased my Saucony's I had also really liked a pair of Brooks shoes, so I just made a quick stop into Running Central and got the 2nd pair. Adam, the owner, also showed me a trick I can do to the Saucony's to alleviate the pain, simply cut the heal of the shoe down a bit to relieve that pressure and I should still be able to use the shoes. He showed me his running shoes and he said he is always cutting them up and altering them. I never even thought of that. I haven't done this yet, I'm too chicken to cut up such an expensive pair of shoes, but I really need to do it so I can try them out and see if it helps. The Brooks in the meantime worked remarkable well on my 12 miles last weekend. I really need to do the alterations so I can figure out which shoes will be on my feet for the marathon. If the alteration works then I'll simply have two pairs of shoes that I can alter between on my runs. I've never purchased two pairs of running shoes to use in tandem, so this is a first for me.


In the meantime I am now on my taper down period, meaning I slowly back off the mileage leading up to the marathon, the photo you see up top is the calender (yes its a Rivermen calender) of my scheduled mileage. I'm ready, Illinois Marathon-here I come!