Just look up and reach to the sky, we all have the courage to fly! (comments welcome)

[accm]

I think it's about time I start a training journal. I've been wanting to for a while, but could never think of a good title. So I went to the firework show that makes me cry literally every time (much to the annoyance of my two boys) and here we are.

A quick background on myself. I was never a runner. I actually hated running. Couldn't run for 30 seconds without being completely out of breath. Fast forward to 2016. Hy husband and I are planning a trip to France. As a huge Disney fan, we're planning on visiting Disneyland Paris. And then runDisney announces the inaugural Disneyland Paris half marathon. I'm not a runner. In fact, I hate running. And yet, I decide to sign up. I do a mediocre at best job of following the Galloway training plan on runDisney's site. The actual race itself doesn't go super well, but I still had so much fun. I end up running on and off (but mostly off) after that.

Fast forward to 2020. I just had our second son. I can't go to the gym. runDisney announces the virtual series, so I sign up to get myself moving again. We end up buying a Peloton bike, and I focus on that, with random outside runs. Then in 2021, when Wine and Dine is announced, my husband and I sign up. I do a terrible job of following the Galloway training plan. The 10k goes well, but between mile 4 and 5 of the half, I feel a sharp pain on my knee. I slow my pace significantly and finish, but I'm disappointed in myself.

I see a doctor to help me fix my knee, and decide to get serious about training so that doesn't happen again. I contact @DopeyBadger to get a custom training plan for a local half to prove to myself that I can finish without injury/pain. Not only did I finish, but I got a time I was truly proud of.

Since then, I've fallen in love with running. It's one of the few times where my brain can just turn off. When everything in my life feels like too much, I just put on my running shoes and go outside. Sometime with a plan, sometimes I just let my body do whatever it wants.

This got way longer than I intended it to. TLDR: I hated running, runDisney got me to sign up for my first race, after dealing with injuries, I now love it.

 

[accm]

Right now I'm training for the DC Cherry Blossom 10 miler, which is in 4 weeks. I once again have a @DopeyBadger custom plan. I'm on a Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun schedule.

Work has unfortunately been extremely demanding recently, so I've had to miss or rearrange more runs than I would've like.
This week's plan called for:

T: 4mi @ WU pace
Th: 1mi @ WU 4mi @ M pace
Sat: 6mi @ EA with strides
Sun: 9mi @ LR

Work kicked my *** last weekend, so I ended up doing last Sunday's run on Tuesday, Tuesday's run on Wednesday, and now I'm trying to decide if I should do Thursday's run today, or just let it be a missed run so I don't negatively impact this weekend's runs.

 

[nancipants]

I love how many of us start our training journals with something like "I always hated running but then I found runDisney and Jeff Galloway."

 

[accm]

I love how many of us start our training journals with something like "I always hated running but then I found runDisney and Jeff Galloway."

Jeff Galloway really lowers the bar for running, and I mean that in a positive way. Instead of, I need to run *blank* miles, it's now, I only need to run 30 seconds, and then I'll have a break. And you keep repeating that until you ran all the miles. I don't do run/walk/run anymore, but it's what got me started, and made me realize that I can do it

 

[Herding_Cats]

I think it's about time I start a training journal. I've been wanting to for a while, but could never think of a good title. So I went to the firework show that makes me cry literally every time (much to the annoyance of my two boys) and here we are.

to quote nancipants(I think?!) on my post where I said pretty much the exact same thing ....

as god intended.


I'm right there with you though....runDisney is pretty much the only thing that keeps me coming back to running. (That, and this board.)

 

[Cabius]

Yay! Excited to follow along. <3

 

[accm]

Unsurprisingly, I suck at having a journal.

My 9mi run last Sunday felt really good, even though I ended up doing it on the tread. I tried Skratch energy chews for the first time, and really liked them. I still really hate GU energy gels, but they work, and I haven't been able to find a substitute I like yet.

I've been wanting to do some light strength workouts on Wednesdays, and yesterday was the first time I actually managed it. Except now my glutes and quads are sore, and I have 5 miles at LR planned for tonight. I kept the weights light, but there were a lot of reps, which is probably why I'm feeling it today. Hopefully it doesn't negatively affect my run tonight.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

I've been wanting to do some light strength workouts on Wednesdays, and yesterday was the first time I actually managed it. Except now my glutes and quads are sore, and I have 5 miles at LR planned for tonight. I kept the weights light, but there were a lot of reps, which is probably why I'm feeling it today. Hopefully it doesn't negatively affect my run tonight.

I find that, except maybe if I'm super achy, running actually helps loosen sore muscles up. Good luck!

 

[accm]

I find that, except maybe if I'm super achy, running actually helps loosen sore muscles up. Good luck!

So the soreness ended up not being an issue while I was running, but as soon as I stopped, it came back. I'm taking it to mean that I should be doing more strength workouts, as I shouldn't be feeling that sore after an easy workout.

 

[accm]

Weekly recap:

Tue: 4mi at 12:00. On the treadmill, so it was even.

Wed: 20 minute Strength for Runners on Peloton. Low weight, reverse lunges with arnold press and squats.

Thu: 5mi at 10:20. Again on the treadmill. Even though my heart rate was a little higher than I expected, it still felt pretty easy

Sat: after a full week of great weather, I was so looking forward to running outside. Not. It was miserable outside. Slushy rain/show. Had it been a normal winter, I would've just dealt with it, but my mind is already on spring, and I just didn't want to deal with winter, so onto the treadmill I went. 4mi at 11:19, with some striders at the end, bringing the overall pace down to 11:15.

Sun: again, was looking forward to running outside, but between a playdate for my younger son, and then my 6 year old wanting to make dinner (homemade pasta sauce and meatballs), I didn't get to run until after dinner. So I'm once again so grateful for my Peloton tread. Today's workout was 2mi WU + 18min HM pace + 2x 90s hard w/ 90s float + 4x 60s/60s + 4x 30s/30s + 6x 15s/15s + 1mi CD. It's my third time doing this style of workout (Mona Fartlek), and I love it. WU was 12:00, HM pace was 9:05, and then the hard efforts were between 7:53 and 8:19, and the recovery was between 10:31 and 11:32. Overall, I did 7.25mi in 1:15:20, so 10:24 pace.

I don't remember if I shared what I'm training for/my goal earlier? I'm doing the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC in 3 weeks and trying to get a corral A POT, so under 1:31:00. That means running the 10 miles at my HM pace. I'm not sure if I'm quite at that level, but I'm going to keep training, and hope I can manage it on race day. That's all I can do at this point.

 

[accm]

Weekly recap time!

Wednesday: I did yesteday's run this morning before work. 4mi at 12:00. On the tread, so nothing exciting about it.

Thusday: 1mi warmup, followed by 4 at marathon pace. Ended up with 5mi at an avg 9:52 pace. On the tread again.

Saturday: finally, nice weather on a weekend, so I was able to do my run outside. It was about -5C, but sunny, so really good running conditions. My training plan had me doing 6 miles at EA (11:22) with strides. The run felt great the whole time. I felt like I was doing a really good job keeping it easy, and not going faster than my target pace. When I finished my run, I expected a highish execution score from Garmin. Nope. Only 35%. Ended up doing 6mi at 11:08.

Sunday: another great day for running outside. Similar weather to yesterday, -3C and sunny. Plan was to do 10 miles at LR (10:19). I haven't run this pace outside in a while, so my pace was all over the place, especially at the beginning. I managed to settle ok on a pace, but was a little faster than planned. I also ended the run with my legs feeling tired, but cardio wise I felt fine still. This is new for me, as I find usually my legs are fine, and cardio is the limiting factor. Even with my legs feeling tired at the end, I felt really strong for the duration of the run. In the end, I did 10 miles at 10:07.


I'm starting at a new job site tomorrow. I'm going to need to go shopping for new work boots, which I'm not looking forward to. My body does not like steel toed boots. I was able to pinpoint at least two of my last "running" injuries to actually have been from work. I hate that I'm having to get new boots 2 weeks from my race.

 

[accm]

Weekly recap for March 25-31

One week until my 10 miler. I go back and forth between feeling like I can do it, and thinking theres no way in hell. I need to remind myself that I've done what I could with my training plan, and that I'm as prepared as I can be. It's been an overall really successful training cycle, with no injuries. I missed more runs than I wanted to at the beginning, due to to work, but overall, I'm really happy with this training cycle.

Tue: 2.5mi at WU

Fri: I had a long day at work on Thursday, and didn't get to eat lunch, so I made the decision to do Thursday's scheduled run on Friday. Plan was for 1mi at WU (12min) and 4mi at M pace (9:28min). I don't remember why, but I ended up doing the run on the tread. 1mi at 12min, then 4mi at 9:22.

Sat: Plan called for 4mi at EA, but after a few nights of really crappy sleep, I had no energy to do anything, so I skipped today's run

Sun: Mona Fartlek workout. This has become one of my favourite runs. Today was 1mi at WU (12min), 8min HM (9:05), 2x 90s hard/90s float, 4x 60s hard/60s float, 4x 30s hard/30s float, 6x 15s hard/15s float. I was so happy with today's run, and ended it feeling so strong. I ended up doing the HM interval at 8:44, the hard intervals at an average of 8:01, and float at 9:58. I also got an unofficial 5k PR of 26:46.

 

[NYC_MW]

Good luck in DC and have fun!

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Good luck this weekend! You got this!

 

[accm]

I posted a way too long recap of the race in the running thread, but the TLDR is that I managed to finish in 1:28:56 feeling very strong (ran the first 10km at 9:05, then the next 5km at 8:43, and the last .7mi at 8:11). I'm hopeful that this will get me into corral A.

Now I need to figure out what to do next. Right now I don't have any races in the schedule until Wine and Dine. I'm trying to decide between 2 options:

1. Continue focus on running. There's a local 5k on May 26th. I've never run a 5k for time, and after getting a Garmin PR of 26:33, I'm curious how I could do if I was focusing only on the 5k. Right now I'd have 6 weeks to work on it, which I think should be enough.

2. Focus on strength before getting back into half marathon training. I've been slacking off on strength training, and this in between period would be a good time to focus on working on some muscle imbalances that had lead to injuries in the past. The problem with this is that I'm worried I'll neglect running, and then have to start half marathon training from scratch again.

As I type this, I guess there's also a 3rd option, which is to do both. Train for the 5k, and then work on strength until I'd need to start training for wine and dine around the beginning of August (assuming a 12 week training plan). That would give me 2 months of focusing on strength, and an opportunity to see how I can do in the 5k. Best of both worlds?

I'm open to suggestions or alternatives that I haven't thought of yet.

 

[accm]

I've decided to just start training for the 5k, and decide later if I want to register. Apparently I need a training plan to follow, or else I end up too indecisive and do nothing.
After not running last week, even though I intended on running a few times, I've decided to follow the Hal Higdon Advanced 5k plan. I feel like a fraud following the advanced plan (I definitely do not feel advanced), but the intermediate didn't have what I was looking for in terms of speed workouts, so here I am.
I start today with a 3mi easy run, which feels weird, since Mondays have always been a rest day for me. But it's a beautiful, sunny, 54F day, so I'm hoping I can manage to run outside while my husband gets dinner ready.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Just be careful stringing together too many training plans without enough down time between them. Allowing the training load to drop is when you give yourself to make gains in the next one. If the plans are too similar or cover too long of a period of time collectively, that's when you reach stagnation and burnout. So if you decide to carry on the nine week 10 miler training plan into a 16 week 5k training plan, then you'll need to see an increase in intensity or volume to keep the training load increasing. But that's always a hard pivot coming off a taper. It's like trying to make the Titanic do a tight turn.

 

[accm]

Just be careful stringing together too many training plans without enough down time between them. Allowing the training load to drop is when you give yourself to make gains in the next one. If the plans are too similar or cover too long of a period of time collectively, that's when you reach stagnation and burnout. So if you decide to carry on the nine week 10 miler training plan into a 16 week 5k training plan, then you'll need to see an increase in intensity or volume to keep the training load increasing. But that's always a hard pivot coming off a taper. It's like trying to make the Titanic do a tight turn.

The 5k training plan is 8 weeks, but since I only have 6 weeks, I’m skipping the first 2 weeks. Is that a good idea? Who knows (you probably do, I definitely do not). I’m not planning on registering until a lot closer to the race, so right now I’ll start following a plan so I can at least have something to follow, and if things aren’t feeling great, I’ll pivot. Do you think that’s a terrible idea?

 

[DopeyBadger]

The 5k training plan is 8 weeks, but since I only have 6 weeks, I’m skipping the first 2 weeks. Is that a good idea? Who knows (you probably do, I definitely do not). I’m not planning on registering until a lot closer to the race, so right now I’ll start following a plan so I can at least have something to follow, and if things aren’t feeling great, I’ll pivot. Do you think that’s a terrible idea?

It's workable to do a 10 week training plan + 6 week training plan (but only doing 6 of 8 weeks). The trick is making sure they're appropriately bridged. Otherwise you run the risk of putting in good training and not yielding the desired outcome on race day because you're not peaking. Spend too much time in neutral training zone and it'll come back to bite you (either through injury or a less than stellar performance). It's hard to say what direction you'll head without knowing more about the 5k plan you choose. But I'd seriously consider, which it sounds like you are, a drop in training load or a pivot in focus after the 5k plan because being in a constant state of strung together training plans doesn't have the same long term effect as having periods of high and low.

 

[accm]

It's workable to do a 10 week training plan + 6 week training plan (but only doing 6 of 8 weeks). The trick is making sure they're appropriately bridged. Otherwise you run the risk of putting in good training and not yielding the desired outcome on race day because you're not peaking. Spend too much time in neutral training zone and it'll come back to bite you (either through injury or a less than stellar performance). It's hard to say what direction you'll head without knowing more about the 5k plan you choose. But I'd seriously consider, which it sounds like you are, a drop in training load or a pivot in focus after the 5k plan because being in a constant state of strung together training plans doesn't have the same long term effect as having periods of high and low.

I'm planning on following the Hal Higdon advanced 5k plan https://www.halhigdon.com/training-programs/5k-training/advanced-5k/ I'm also open to other suggestions. I found with my last training plan, I really enjoyed the workouts with more speed work/faster paces, and really looked forward to those, so I'm hoping to incorporate them more without going too far that it causes injury. The good news is that I've learned from past mistakes, and will actually stop if I think it's too much stress on my body.

And yes, after the 5k, I'll be changing my focus from running to strength training. I'll just need to find the balance where I'm still doing some running, so I'm not starting from scratch when it comes to training for Wine and Dine.