Tuesday, January 12, 2021

53 Days Until Race Day

 Every night since Saturday when I made gumbo and watched a movie, I have occupied myself with activities in my kitchen rather than sitting on my couch on social media, and I must say it has been SUCH a welcome change. On Sunday I made and iced cookies. Yesterday, I prepared some purple and gold royal icing. Today, I baked and decorated cookies. I should probably be distracting myself with my dissertation, but I'm giving myself a few more days of cooking and baking before I get into that. (I might regret this choice later.)

Running continues to go well for me, and I am so excited about my progress! 

  • Monday 1/11 - I had 5 easy miles on the schedule. Jennie and I resumed our "Runch" tradition yesterday, so we did 3.6 miles together, and I did the remaining 1.4 miles solo. 
  • Tuesday 1/12 - Speed work day! I am out of the shorter 5K-10K pace intervals and into longer intervals "marathon pace minus 10 seconds," which for me is 10:42-11:17. Today's workout called for six 1-mile intervals with 400 meters of recovery and 1.5 miles of warmup and cooldown on each end. I rocked my intervals and met up with Ellen during the cooldown while she did her training run. 
    • Added bonus: I did about 1 minute of light jogging in the first 4 recoveries, so my recovery pace was a little faster today than it has been. However, I realized I was going to finish a little ahead of the time I told Ellen I would be ready, so I allowed myself to walk all of the last two recoveries. 


Something that made today great: I had to run errands this afternoon, but they were all super quick! Yay!

Time I woke up: 9:30 am

Sunday, January 10, 2021

55 Days Until Race Day

Short post today because I am running out of time!

Training wise, my total mileage today was around 11.7 miles: 3.33 miles of running with Ellen, 8.28 miles of running by myself, plus a cool down that I did not log but was somewhere between .1 and .2 miles. My plan called for 10 miles at 11:41-12:16 minutes per mile, but since I did the wrong thing yesterday, I was mostly concerned with time on my feet. For the 8.28 miles I did solo, I had a moving average of 11:36 min/mi, but Jesse drove by, and I took advantage of the opportunity to chat for a few minutes (2 minutes and 26 seconds according to my watch) with my favorite ole glue stick. Including the break, I still averaged 11:52 min/mi, which was in the prescribed range. Boom.


Tonight, rather than doomscrolling through social media, I baked cookies. I count that as a victory for multiple reasons.

Something that made today great: I got to video chat with all of the BAKErs today! It'd been a little while since we'd seen Brittany. 

Time I woke up: 9:50 am

Saturday, January 9, 2021

56 Days Until Race Day

Well, it's been a few days since I have updated. Wednesday's events hit me really hard (I plan to write a separate post about that later...hopefully...), and I spent a lot of Wednesday night and early Thursday doomscrolling through Facebook posts before I finally decided to pull myself away. I knew that the constant scrolling and comment reading was awful for me, yet I couldn't pull myself away. 

Today, however, I took a break from social media for most of the day, and it was fantastic! I started my day with an early 8-mile run with Sandra, then I came back home and took a big fat nap. Then I woke up and met my Slow Mode friends for a 4-mile run at the LSU lakes. I had the paces for my Saturday and Sunday runs flipped in my head, so I was actually a little speedy on this morning's run. That's okay, though! I might take tomorrow a little slower depending on how I feel in the morning.

After several days of chili for dinner, I decided to break the monotony by picking up dinner from Raising Cane's. I was a bit ambitious and bought a Caniac Combo that ended up being dinner and a fourth meal all in one...no complaints. Tonight, I made gumbo, did some laundry, and straightened up my closet while listening to a Spotify playlist, and it was such a nice change of pace. Now that I have had my Raising Cane's 4th meal, I'm propped up on my couch under a heated blanket watching "You've Got Mail" and writing my daily blog post while a Christmas-tree scented candle burns...not a bad way to spend an evening.

I remain three workouts behind, but I have managed to make up all of my tempo runs and speedwork. I had a good chat with Ellen while we walked on Wednesday, and I think it's best for me to continue following my plan without trying to catch up the missed workouts. The last thing I want to do is injure myself because I was trying to make sure I did every workout on my plan, so I am giving myself some grace. While I am going to try to stick to the plan going forward, I imagine this will not be the last time I end up missing a workout. 

Here's how running went since my last post:

  • Tuesday, 1/5 - Made up the tempo run from 12/31 - 1 mile warmup, 8 tempo miles (10:52-11:27 min/mile), 1 mile cooldown - my actual pace was 11:00. Woo!
  • Wednesday, 1/6 - Day off/walk only day
  • Thursday, 1/7 - Made up the speed work from 1/5 - 1.5 mile warmup, 4 x 1000 m (9:10-9:50) + 400 m recovery, 1.5 mile cooldown - my average pace on the speed intervals was 9:06, so I was actually a little fast
  • Friday, 1/8 - Made up the tempo run from 1/7 - 1 mile warmup, 8 tempo miles (10:52-11:27 min/mile), 1 mile cooldown - my actual pace was 10:50. 
  • Saturday, 1/9 - Finally did a workout on the assigned day! I was supposed to do 8 miles easy (12:05-12:41) but had long run paces (11:41-12:16) in my head...and then Sandra and I beat those by averaging 11:18. 
I am starting to feel like I could actually run a sub-5:00 marathon in 8 weeks, which is a good feeling. I know a lot can happen in 56 days, so I am trying to stay grounded. Watching my paces improve (especially meeting those speework intervals under 10:00!) is good motivation not to miss workouts, but we'll see if that holds true once the weekend is over.




Something that made today great: Tough to pick just one, but I have to go with the nap I took after my first run

Time I woke up: 5:40 am

Monday, January 4, 2021

61 Days Until Race Day

 I missed another post yesterday, so I guess it's safe to say that I have not fully committed to blogging every day. (Haha).

To catch up, yesterday's run was rough! I set out to do Thursday's missed tempo run (10 miles total, 8 miles of tempo), and my body was not feeling it at all. My warmup mile was fine, and my first tempo mile was decent, but then the wheels fell off. Mentally and physically I wasn't feeling it, so I took a walking break and regrouped. Since I needed to do 8 miles for my Waybetter Half Marathon Trainer, I decided to do 8 miles and count it for last Monday's easy 5 miles that I needed to make up. My overall pace of 13:27 min/mile was slower than prescribed for an easy run, but the three extra miles evened it out in my brain.

I am pleased to report that today's run, 7 miles easy, went much better. The prescribed pace is 12:05-12:41, and I averaged 11:57...just a little fast, but within reason. Being back in flat Baton Rouge probably helped, and I didn't eat as much nonsense today as I have been the last few days. ("As much nonsense" is highly subjective...I had a McDonald's meal with large fries and a Coke for lunch, and then I ate some of Scooter's chicken nuggets.) Maybe I'll have a short reprieve from ridiculous eating before king cake season begins.

I remain three workouts behind, and two of those are double-digit workouts (weekend long run and Thursday tempo run). I think I need to get at least one of those in before I attempt tomorrow's prescribed speed workout. Taking three extra rest days isn't exactly building the cumulative fatigue that is integral to the Hansons Marathon Plan. So, double-digit miles, and maybe double workouts should happen tomorrow. We'll see if they actually do.


Some other exciting news is that my medal from the Trans-Texas Virtual Run arrived while we were away! I ran/walked more than 879 miles between July 1 and December 31, which is enough to get across Texas on the route identified by the fine folks at Trail Racing Over Texas. I really like this medal but don't know what to do with it.

Something that made today great: On our way back from Ruston, Richard, Scooter, and I had a tailgate picnic at McDonald's.

Time I woke up: 10:40 am

Saturday, January 2, 2021

63 Days Until Race Day

Well, I am holding steady at being three workouts behind. Today, I did 6 “easy” miles and averaged a 12:06 pace, which is closer to the recommended pace for a 4:45 marathon than 5:00. As a bonus, I threw some hills into the route and managed to gain 568 feet of elevation (according to my watch). That’s something different!

Tomorrow I will either make up Thursday’s tempo run or do the prescribed 15 mile long run. The weather is looking lovely for the afternoon, but I’m not sure I’ll be feeling like 15 miles. Then again, I might prefer 15 slower miles to 8 faster ones. Decisions, decisions!



Something that made today great: I had a mostly lazy day with Richard!
Time I woke up: 10:24 am

Friday, January 1, 2021

64 Days Until Race Day

I have a number of excuses, not all great, for why I have slacked off on training this week, including:

  • Heavy rain
  • A change in schedule/routine
  • Poor time management
  • Eating too much fried catfish
  • Eating too much in general
Today, it was a combination of poor time management and eating too much fried catfish. Yesterday, it was the heavy rain and poor time management. I think this puts me a total of three workouts behind. I think the change of race date has led me to be comfortable taking it a little easier or making excuses. 

To my credit, I did get out tonight after dinner to try to do 5-6 easy miles. I felt weighed down with everything I have eaten over the past few days, especially the pile of fried catfish I ate at dinner tonight. I have no regrets, but I decided to call it early tonight. So, I did 2.66 miles. Usually I fight through the "I'm not having fun" or "I have not been treating my body like a temple lately" feelings, but today I caved.

I could say that cutting my workout shot is no way to start 2021 out strong, but instead, I'm going to celebrate that I went out at all. Boom.

Photo by BiZkettE1 from https://www.freepik.com/


Something that made today great: Cooking New Year's food for lunch with Rebecca
Time I woke up: 7:30 am...but then went back to sleep until about noon.