Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

This looks super interesting and I will definitely need to go over it closely tomorrow when the kids are at school.

Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together
 
Ok so I looked everything over yesterday a few times, and this really looks doable for me. There are a few of the more “technical” looking runs a month+ down the line that I will have some questions about, but I’ll wait until we get there for that. The only thing I’m seeing is that my 5k in July is on Sunday the 4th, not Monday the 5th.

I did my 2 mile run yesterday and HOLY HAMSTRINGS.

Question: can my SIL, who is much faster than I am, also follow the plan using HER pace chart, or will she not have enough training TIME in since she would complete things much more quickly that me? Idk what her summer run plan is at this point, so I’m NOT asking for you to re-work it for her paces.

Today is the last day of school for the kids, so after get our celebratory ice cream, we are headed to the running store to get my oldest 2 fitted for shoes since they are going to do the cross country summer running workout/training plan. Ds2 has decided to run XC next year instead of playing soccer, and we currently do not have a varsity soccer coach (job has been posted for 2 months with no applicants) so ds1 is considering XC as an alternative fall sport. Our coaches are former D1 college runners and so so so knowledgeable. It could be a very different fall sports season for us in a few months.
 
Ok so I looked everything over yesterday a few times, and this really looks doable for me. There are a few of the more “technical” looking runs a month+ down the line that I will have some questions about, but I’ll wait until we get there for that. The only thing I’m seeing is that my 5k in July is on Sunday the 4th, not Monday the 5th.

I thought it odd when you said your July 4th race was on July 5th. I've fixed that for you. In order to make sure things stay good on the ramp rate, I've included a 1.5 mile WU prior to the 5k. I think this will aid in performance as well.

Question: can my SIL, who is much faster than I am, also follow the plan using HER pace chart, or will she not have enough training TIME in since she would complete things much more quickly that me? Idk what her summer run plan is at this point, so I’m NOT asking for you to re-work it for her paces.

Yes and no. If she interprets the plan as written in terms of time, then she could do the plan at her paces. For instance on 6/24 and 6/25, you're scheduled for 3 miles EB and 7 mile LR. If she were to do 3 miles EB and 7 miles LR at her paces, then this would be an insufficient workout. But if she instead, looked at the "Easy" and "Hard" time columns, she would see the 3 miles EB is scheduled for 40 min and the 7 miles LR is scheduled for 91 min. So if your sister did 40 min at her EB pace, and 91 min at her LR pace, then it would be a sufficient workout. When I write the plan, I write it based on effort and time. The calculation to determine mileage is simply for the end users (you) preference as most everyone prefers mileage based plans. So for 95% of the plan, it could work for her if she interprets time and not mileage. Workouts like 7/9 are also easily convertible for her, but take a little more time to calculate:

3 mi @ WU + 8 x 5 min @ T w/ 1 min RI @ WU + 1 mi @ CD

So the 3 mile WU is 45 min of easy pace, then the 8x5 min workout with 1 min rest is easy for her to do the same because it's already written in time, and then a 15 min CD.

For the R pace, you can see that 100m R is 36 seconds, 150m R is 54 seconds, and 200m R is 71 seconds. So she would just focus on those durations rather than the distances. The workout was written with the idea of trying to get reps of ~30, 60, and 75 seconds of mile pace.

At the end of the day, it's doable with a little leg work on interpretation. However, if the scheduling system or amount of time per day is not something that works with her personal schedule, then just let me know. I can easily write something that is specific to her from the ground-up and not based on your schedule.
 

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Yes and no. If she interprets the plan as written in terms of time, then she could do the plan at her paces.

At the end of the day, it's doable with a little leg work on interpretation. However, if the scheduling system or amount of time per day is not something that works with her personal schedule, then just let me know. I can easily write something that is specific to her from the ground-up and not based on your schedule.

Ok that's what I figured since we had talked in the past about how a slower runner and a faster runner doing the same mileage based workouts...the slower running might actually get more benefit because of the duration (up to a certain point) than the faster runner. I'm trying to not pester her about October because this is her first week out of school, but she also has 3 kids, so she's still super busy.
 


Weekly wrap up!

Back to work, armed with my shiny new DopeyBadger plan! It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time. I’m also starting my food plan AND going to be reincorporating some lifting for (hopefully) the summer. I don’t *need* to lose weight, but I’d like to see what it does for my speed/pace if I can drop 5-10 pounds. My body usually has a pretty strong cortisol response when I start a workout program, and it takes me about 6 weeks to see any changes on the scale, so here’s hoping I don’t get too annoyed and give up on it too early. (I’m going to be using “portion fix” level B, even though my “weight loss” bracket is at the higher end of level a, just because if I’m lifting AND running I will need the extra few calories, and I don’t want to sacrifice performance by or feel wiped out because I’m not eating enough.)

I had thoughts last week of maybe getting up in the morning (at like 6-630 instead of just sleeping in until whenever the baby wakes up) and trying to get my shorter runs or some lifting in before I have to turn on “Mom mode.” Yeah. Guess who decided to start waking up at 630. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Fingers crossed that it’s a short lived phase.

Got DH, Ds 1&2, and myself signed up for the July 4th 5k last night, and our XC summer running club starts tonight. DH and ds1 have basketball (so they will not make it), but I’ll be taking kids 2-4 and see what that’s all about. I got 1&2 fitted for running shoes on Friday and they WILL use them. 😂
 
Weekly wrap up:
Week 2/17 of my DopeyBadger marathon plan.

Did ALL of my scheduled runs. Wooho! 15.5mi

Monday: 3 miles while ds2 was at cross country

Tuesday: 2 miles while ds3 was at baseball practice

Thursday: 2 miles on the treadmill before heading to the campground for the weekend

Friday’s run got moved to Saturday

Saturday: 4 miles “with” ds2 (he’s waaay faster than me and wasn’t interested in going slow with his mom) that had lots of hills. So many hills. Managed to hit my appropriate pace average too!

Sunday: 4.5 miles on the treadmill. Threw in some inclines for .1mi after I completed each mile just because I know I need to work on them. Kept them short because of all the hills on Saturday.

Sil and I decided to try out “9 week control freak” (the dumbbells version) for cross training since we typically like Autumn’s workouts and they’re short enough that we won’t have to shoehorn them into our days.

Ds1 (and by extension, DH) is on his last packed week of summer basketball so I will have a more reliable baby sitter and hopefully I can continue to get outside for running. It’s supposed to be pretty cool this week which will be a nice respite from the upper 80s. And I won’t feel like I HAVE to run in the morning.
 
Posting while it’s fresh in my brain

Did my first T pace interval run today and wow did it kick my butt. Not in a “I can’t do this any more” kind of way, but it was definitely a “turn up the music and turn off the brain to get through this” way. I ran it on the treadmill and I wonder if that might be the best plan for these interval runs because I think my tendency when left it my own devices will be to either stare at my watch trying to keep my pace or end up too slow during the hard portion of the run. I have a pretty good sense of what my EA/B feels like when I run outside (although I almost always do the first mile too fast) so I’m grappling with whether it will be better in the long run(no pun intended) to figure out what T feels like on the treadmill vs outdoors since it looks like I have 1 of these just about every week. Also, my WU pace is pretty close to my very fast walking pace. Is it ok if I walk some of the recovery intervals to get my heart rate back down more quickly?

It took 45 minutes and kicking everyone else in the house off the wifi (and resetting the router...gosh our internet is awful) to get my workout to stream. Which of course meant I had completely cooled off from my run. And when I was finally done I couldn’t get food fast enough and I was very much on the edge of bonking. If this continues I might have to consider going up a calorie bracket on my food plan (although I have no idea how I’ll manage to eat that much food and lose any weight.)
 


Did my first T pace interval run today and wow did it kick my butt. Not in a “I can’t do this any more” kind of way, but it was definitely a “turn up the music and turn off the brain to get through this” way. I ran it on the treadmill and I wonder if that might be the best plan for these interval runs because I think my tendency when left it my own devices will be to either stare at my watch trying to keep my pace or end up too slow during the hard portion of the run. I have a pretty good sense of what my EA/B feels like when I run outside (although I almost always do the first mile too fast) so I’m grappling with whether it will be better in the long run(no pun intended) to figure out what T feels like on the treadmill vs outdoors since it looks like I have 1 of these just about every week.

In my view, the treadmill should be used in the event of last resort. If the choice is no run or treadmill, then run on the treadmill. But if there is a choice between outside vs inside, then the answer is always outside. Your race will be outside and having training runs where you have to learn to gauge your pace over time in real world situations is invaluable training for the long term. So I'd rather you run them too slow, then run them on the treadmill. You'll learn the effort, but it'll take time. I'd describe T pace as comfortably difficult. You can't relax at it, but it isn't a devastating pace like 3k.

Plus as an extra bonus in your specific case, the T pace is near your personal goal HM pace come October. So that's even more the reason to be doing it outside. Ideally with any pace at or faster than T though it's done on as flat a road as you can get.

Just remember to adjust your pace goals based on the T+D as well as in the moment realize when running uphill your pace should not be constant but the effort should.

Also, my WU pace is pretty close to my very fast walking pace. Is it ok if I walk some of the recovery intervals to get my heart rate back down more quickly?

Unless otherwise scheduled (which you don't have anything in your plan), you can do whatever you want during the RI. The goal is to be prepared as best as possible for the next interval such that you can be consistent throughout the workout. Which means what you do during the RI may change during the workout or between workouts. Some times you might be feeling good and stick to EA/EB pace, and other days you're not feeling it as much and need just a simple walk between intervals. Do what you need to to have good hard intervals.
 
Running outside takes SO much more planning and work than running on the treadmill 😂

I have been making an effort to run outside a lot more though. I always run during baseball practice (and there’s a hill....Tuesdays and Saturdays) and I’m planning on doing runs when the kids are at XC run club (which has the possibility of 5 days a week), but I think that’s usually pretty flat/on a converted railroad bed. I know they do some hill workouts, but I’m not doing those with a stroller.
 
Doing my weekly wrap up now so I won't have to think about it tomorrow. It's basically rained for 2 days now, and the humidity is in the 90s, and the dewpoint has been around 70. Thank goodness the temperature is a manageable low 70s today, and not the nearly-80 of yesterday. Ahhhh the joys of the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

I put my training plan into a calendar with what I'm supposed to run and what the "goal" time is for it so I have a super-quick reference each day, and can easily look ahead to make sure I'm allowing/planning for enough time. I'm going to cram in 2 of my lifting workouts tomorrow (shoulders and total body) to keep pace with that.

Did all of my runs for this week. WOO HOO!

Monday:
4.1 miles T intervals on the treadmill. These were discussed a couple of posts ago.
Lifting: back and biceps
Goal Time: 53:45 (unadjusted)
Actual Time: 54:14
about right for pacing, not surprising since i can force it with the treadmill.

Tuesday: 65*T + 43*D = 108
2.5 miles EA while DS3 was at baseball practice.
Goal Time: 35:45 (unadjusted)
Actual Time: 33:44
too fast.

Wenesday: off/no running
Lifting: chest and tris

Thursday: 70*T + 59*D= 129
3.13 miles EB with strides. I had played with my watch settings on Wednesday and accidentally turned off the auto lap function, so I ended up running a little too long, although I did manage to press the lap key around each mile. Also ran with the stroller, minus the strides.
Goal Time: 40:03 (unadjusted)
Actual Time: 42:33
probably too fast once you factor in the stroller.
Yoga


Friday: Too many things going on, moved my LR to Saturday (plus I was hoping for a break in the rain on Saturday)

Saturday: 70*T + 69*D= 139
7 mile long run. My watch was flashing low battery 2 miles in so I switched over to strava tracking, only to find out when I got home that it's cumbersome or impossible to reverse-sync stuff. So the last 5miles were entered as a manual workout. It rained THE WHOLE TIME. I thought I had a blister on my right big toe at around mile 6 (from wet feet for over an hour at that point), and ended up walking the last mile-ish. Got home and examined things to realize that what I had was NOT a blister, but a "hair splinter." If you've never gotten one of these before, it feels kind of like someone is jabbing a needle into you, or like you have a piece of glass in your foot. This is not the first time I've had these.
Goal Time: 1:30:57 (unadjusted)
Actual Time: 1:36:05
about right for pacing, all things considered?


Sunday: off/no running. I'm going to catch up on my lifting.
 
I need to remember that I am "allowed" to have an additional carb with my current food plan. And that it would be a good idea to have 2 additional carbs the day before a long run, or a run that I know will kick my butt. Today was a T interval run that had me feeling really "off" by interval 5. None of those things ended up happening, and I'm not 100% sure what the issue was, but I have some really strange vague light-headedness going on. Might be my contacts, could be my headphones (aftershokz) coupled with sunglasses that I don't usually wear for running. Probably a little bit of low blood sugar.
 
I need to remember that I am "allowed" to have an additional carb with my current food plan. And that it would be a good idea to have 2 additional carbs the day before a long run, or a run that I know will kick my butt. Today was a T interval run that had me feeling really "off" by interval 5. None of those things ended up happening, and I'm not 100% sure what the issue was, but I have some really strange vague light-headedness going on. Might be my contacts, could be my headphones (aftershokz) coupled with sunglasses that I don't usually wear for running. Probably a little bit of low blood sugar.

Pacing too aggressive in the conditions? How were the splits compared against each other?
 
My splits were shockingly even. T+D was 122. I was a little fast, but not horribly. Chart said 5min was 0.46mi and all of my splits were between .51 (2nd round) and .44 (last round...only one that was below .46)

I really feel like it was food related...eating for weight loss and balancing a new lifting routine with slowly increasing mileage. I chugged about 20oz of Gatorade when I got home and that helped a lot.
 
My splits were shockingly even. T+D was 122. I was a little fast, but not horribly. Chart said 5min was 0.46mi and all of my splits were between .51 (2nd round) and .44 (last round...only one that was below .46)

Alright so goal was 11:03 min/mile with T+D adjustment (range goal of 10:53-11:13). So 0.45 miles. You did 0.44 to 0.51 which is a range of 9:48 min/mile to 11:22 min/mile. That's a huge range and the 0.51 miles would be way off target if accurate. Under these conditions a 9:48 min/mile is the equivalent of mile pace (can be held for about 9.5 min for you) vs LT pace (can be held for 60 min in a race). So I'd say if the 0.51 miles is accurate, that's a major issue. You essentially ran a 1/2 of a mile time trial in the middle of the run. Was that split per chance all downhill and could help explain it a bit?

The other things could be an issue as well, but I'd look at the 0.51 mile split as well. Although I won't discount trying to train well for endurance and trying weight loss at the same time is a very tricky tight rope.
 
Dang it and I thought I did so well because it was such a small difference! 😂😂😂 sigh. This is the full thing. I used the lap key so some of them are a couple of seconds off.
 

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It was pretty flat. I ran the same section for all the of intervals. I was glad to be done, but I could have done more if I “had” to.
 
Dang it and I thought I did so well because it was such a small difference! 😂😂😂 sigh. This is the full thing. I used the lap key so some of them are a couple of seconds off.

Chalk it up to a good learning lesson, and trust me it won't be the last. The workout was a 6 x 5 min at T w/ 1 min RI. I would qualify this as a relatively easy speed workout. The volume is at 50% maximum and the run duration is at 25% maximum. It's meant to be a good introductory workout. But it does have a notable pitfall. It's easy to overrun the workout because it is easy. And that's what looks like happened here.

So the goal was an 11:03 min/mile (adjusted for T+D). Your splits were 10:15, 10:02, 10:17, 10:22, 10:51, 11:14 for an average of a 10:30, with the first four at 10:14. Now compare that to your estimated fitness level:

586109

At the T+D 122, you're looking at the first four reps at 10:14 being close to Daniels I pace. The last two being closer to the goal, or CV pace (which is meant to be a touch faster than LT). Now what was considered an easy introductory T paced workout, becomes a 4 x 5 min at I pace workout + 2 x 5 min at CV. Daniels I pace is literally considered to be the hardest endurance pace. And 5 min actually represents the highest duration interval for Daniels I (something typically reserved to when you're peaking). And then the rest for a 5 min Daniels I would be 2.5 min at a minimum (compared to the 1 min RI). Honestly, as described this is close to an impossible high end workout. I'm positive I would very likely fail at replicating this workout.

So on one side, don't do that again. But on the other side, congrats. You accomplished something that most everyone is going to struggle or not be able to complete.

So based on this, I would say your issues were 99% pace related and possibly 1% or less related to the other ancillary explanations.
 
This is why I asked about using the treadmill for it last week. I’m soooo bad at pacing. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I knew I was close-ish. But it looks like I still need to work on slowing down.
 
This is why I asked about using the treadmill for it last week. I’m soooo bad at pacing. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I knew I was close-ish. But it looks like I still need to work on slowing down.

All part of the process. It'll take time to get it right. But when your goal is 11:03, and you look down after the first rep and see 10:15, then you know you're going too fast. No matter how good it may feel, it's against the goal. But if you adjust to run slower and then run a 10:02, you know you're really really really got to rein in it before you sabotage the workout. But be patient with yourself as you learn pacing as it'll take time. Failing at it outside will definitely be better than allowing the treadmill to do the pacing. Because eventually you'll learn, whereas on the treadmill you're far less likely to learn. And when it comes to race day, adjusting by effort is worth it's weight in gold. I'd rather see you run a 11:20, 11:10, 11:15, 11:00, 10:55, 10:50 where you start too slow and have to continue to adjust to hit the faster goal pace. Slower is ok. Faster is going to cause downstream problems. You've got this!
 
Part of that might be that I need to set up my watch display/info differently. when i would finish a lap it would tell me the lap number and the duration (duh on that since I had an interval timer going) but NOT the pace. And I feel like the real-time pace on my watch fluctuates sooooo much that I have a hard time trusting it. So i kind of ran it blind, except I knew that what I was doing was really close to half mile loops (which was my goal at 0.46) in the 5 minutes of the "hard" interval. I'll have to play around with the setting and see if I can get the pace for the lap to show when i'm using the lap key.
 

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