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

[accm]

Training update for Aug 19-25

Tuesday - 3mi Easy pace on the tread. Did a trial run of the petticoat and skirt, and everything stayed in place. The only thing I need to do is add a couple of safety pins to keep the skirt attached to the petticoat, as the bottom wanted to bunch up a bit

Thursday - The plan was to do 0.75mi warm up, followed by 3x 1200m @5k and 4x 200m @R with a 0.75mi cool down. I ended up having to do this run on my treadmill. I run on a Peloton tread, which has an auto incline feature where it matches whatever the instructor calls out. For whatever stupid reason, I decided I'd leave the auto incline on for this run. Well that was a terrible idea. I ended up doing the majority of my first interval at 3% incline, which just killed me, and even after turning off the incline, I wasn't able to recover. I called it quits during the 3rd interval, when I could barely hold my easy pace. Lesson learned - don't add incline when doing 5k intervals. I ended up only doing 2.5mi of the scheduled 4.8.

Saturday - 6mi @ 10:30. We were in Toronto this weekend, and since hotels downtown were so expensive ($500/night), I booked something near the airport. There was nowhere to run outside, so I went to the gym. This run felt SO hard, and I almost quit multiple times. It was hot, there was no air flow, and the sun was beating down on me. I pushed through it though, and got it done

Sunday Monday - 8.67mi @ 10:18. I was scheduled to do 8mi at long run pace on Sunday, but by the time we got home, I was exhausted. So I got on the tread last night to get it done. Picked a 90 minute run with the intention of stopping at 8miles. We'll the run was going so well (especially compared to the last couple of runs), that I kept going. I didn't leave auto incline on, but I matched the inclines that were called.

Aug 26-Sep 1 Plan

Tue - 3mi @ EA
Thu - 800m + 1600m + 800m @5k + 4x 200m @ R
Sat - 5mi @ EB + strides
Sun - 3mi @ HM + 0.5mi @ T + 0.5mi @ 10k


No costume update, as my sewing table is a mess, and I need to somehow get a two new backpacks, pencil cases, and lunch bags sewn before next Tuesday for the first day of school. Wish me luck.

 

[accm]

My training might be completely screwed. I got transferred to a new job last week where we’re working 6 12s, which is great for my career and mental health, but awful for running. I ended up missing 2 runs last week because of it. I’m going to try to start waking up way earlier to run before work, but I’m not sure how that’s going to go since I’m far from a morning person.

I feel bad for E as well, since outside of Sundays, there’s no way we’ll be able to run anymore. His hockey season is starting up this weekend, and his natural state is running anyways, so he’ll be ok for race day.

 

[accm]

With this I might als be scrapping my costumes and only work on E’s. I don’t want to spend money on something I won’t have time to sew, or kill myself to get it done because I bought the material already

 

[accm]

First run before 5am was a success! The first half mile was tough, but once my body caught up with what was happening, it wasn’t bad. 2x 1600m at 5k pace and 4x 200m at mile pace. The paces felt comfortable, which was nice after my last attempt.

Only thing I’ll need to get dialed in is food, since I was starving by 9:30

 

[accm]

Update for Sep 2 -8

Tue - I planned on dropping my kids off at school today for the first day of school, so I woke up at my usual time for work, and got my run in. Thought it was going to be 3mi, since that's what I've done every Tuesday. Nope, 4 miles. Even with the surprise last mile, run was fine
Thu - It was surprisingly easy to wake up at 4:50 this morning. Like I said previously, the run went really well. The first half a mile or so of warm up felt tough, but I think it was because I was still asleep. Once I was more awake, the run went really well.
Sat - I have no idea what I was up to all day, but I didn't get to run until after 8. Did 7 miles at EB. Funny enough, my average HR was higher today than Thursday...
Sun - This was just not my day. Got ready for my run so I could finally go outside, but I couldn't find my Shokz. After looking for a while, I gave up since it was getting too close to dinner anyways. Ended up jumping on the tread after my kids were in bed, but it was just not happening. Was supposed to do 9mi at LR pace, but ended up doing only around 5. I don't know if the problem is that I went from mostly sitting down at work to now standing for 12hrs a day, or my nutrition, since I don't think I'm eating enough, but this run felt HARD. I tried pushing myself to just keep going, but I could tell it wasn't just a mental thing.

Plan for the Week
Tue - 3mi @ EA
Thu - 3x 1600m @ 5k pace
Sat - 3mi @ EB + Stides AND fly to Italy!

 

[GollyGadget]

It always takes me 2-3 miles to wake up for morning runs and that's at like 7am. I can't imagine my body would enjoy pre 5am. Great job getting up and at 'em!

 

[accm]

Hello? Is this thing on? Is 2025 the year where I actually keep my training journal updated?

2025 is looking to be a great running year. I'm already signed up for one half, with plans to sign up for a 5k, 10 miler, and hopefully a marathon and Dopey. Here's the plan:
May 4 - Vancouver Half Marathon. This will be my sister's first race/half marathon, so I'm planning on running it with her
May 25 - Local 5k. My work is likely doing a team building event around this 5k, so the goal is to run sub 25 and beat all my coworkers
Sep 28* - 10 Milhas Garoto. This is a 10 Miler in the city where I'm from in Brazil. They haven't announced the dates yet, but if I go off of last year's dates, it'll be the last Sunday in September.
Nov 2 - Hopefully getting into the NYC marathon
Jan 7-11 - Dopey #3. I know that this is technically in 2026, but since all the training is in 2025, I'm including it.

Other than lots of running, the goal for 2025 is to remain consistent with stretching and mobility work.

So with that, here's how last week went

January 5 - 11
Monday - 30min Progression Run on Peloton. I should not have done this run after about 2 weeks of no workouts from being sick. It was way too hard, even though I did manage pretty decent negative splits. 3.10 miles in 30 minutes.
Tuesday - 30 minutes of foam rolling/stretching/mobility. It felt very nice
Wednesday - 4.86 miles in honour of everyone at Marathon Weekend. 52:28 minutes with an average pace of 10:48
Thursday AM - 30 minutes mobility and 10 minutes barre
Thursday PM - 20 minute run at recovery pace. 1.66 miles at 12:00
Sunday - 45 minute run. I forgot I had set our thermostat to hold a higher temperature, so I was HOT. Ran 4.04 miles at an average pace of 11:08. Followed it up with 15 minutes of mobility.

Plan for this week? 4 runs and at least 5 days of mobility/stretching.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

My work is likely doing a team building event around this 5k, so the goal is to run sub 25 and beat all my coworkers

Hahahahaha I love this

 

[accm]

Hahahahaha I love this

I am nothing if not competitive, and this is something I can actually beat them all in

 

[accm]

Weekly update time! Last week sucked. I was so tired I couldn't get myself to do anything. And then my husband was out of town for the weekend, and my parents were visiting. I spent my whole weekend going from hockey practice to game, swimming, and birthday party. I'm happy both my boys love hockey, which is a great form of exercise, but I would really appreciate it if it didn't start at 7am in the dead of winter.

Now what I actually got done vs goal:
Runs: 1/4 - only managed a 30min easy run on Monday
Mobility/stretching: 2/5 - 10 minutes on Monday and 20 minutes on Tuesday

Bonus: I did manage to do 10 minutes of barre on Tuesday as well, so I guess that's something?

We're leaving for Disney on Friday, so goal this week will be only 2 runs and 3 days of mobility/stretching.

 

[accm]

I suck at keeping this training journal updated...

After being sick all of last week (thanks children), I finally got back into running this week. The 3 miles easy run was no problem, but doing a bunch of 200m and 400m intervals at mile pace was NOT fun. I had to walk for part of a couple of the recoveries, but managed to get it done AND Garmin called it productive, so I'm taking it as a win.
Now if I could just stay healthy for the next two months that would be great!

 

[LSUlakes]

I suck at keeping this training journal updated...

After being sick all of last week (thanks children), I finally got back into running this week. The 3 miles easy run was no problem, but doing a bunch of 200m and 400m intervals at mile pace was NOT fun. I had to walk for part of a couple of the recoveries, but managed to get it done AND Garmin called it productive, so I'm taking it as a win.
Now if I could just stay healthy for the next two months that would be great!

Garmin has me a "recovering" during my taper but switched to productive after a 3 mile run this morning lol. Between that and looking at the race predictor my mental state takes a beating lol.

 

[accm]

Garmin has me a "recovering" during my taper but switched to productive after a 3 mile run this morning lol. Between that and looking at the race predictor my mental state takes a beating lol.

I have a love hate relationship with my Garmin. It's always wanting me to do more, but then when I do more, it tells me I'm overreaching. Or if I listen to it and rest, it tells me I slept poorly because I was lazy. You just can't win!

 

[accm]

Update on the rest of the week - the roads and sidewalks here are a mess. Lots of ice and potholes everywhere, so I'm stuck inside until it feels safer to run outside.

Sat - easy 3mi
Sun - 2x 2.5mi at marathon pace with WU/CD. Total 7.5 miles. I didn't eat properly earlier in the day, so this run felt hard. I also made the questionable decision to add some incline during the first interval, so I was feeling like crap at the end. *whining for the sake of whining alert* Then we had to immediately go to my son's hockey, where the canteen was closed, and I was starving and regretting all my life choices. Oh, Garmin also changed my training status from productive to overreaching, so that was nice.

Plan for this week:

Tue: 4mi @ EB
Wed: A bunch of 200m and 400m intervals at mile pace
Thu: 4mi @ EA
Sat: 6mi @ Ea
Sun: 7.5mi @ WU

I also want to fit in 3 arm workouts this week.

 

[accm]

Weekly update: it looks like I'm decorating my Garmin's training status for Christmas:



But I had a big achievement today. Garmin considered 3/4 of my easy runs as base runs! For as long as I've had my Garmin, every run, no matter how easy, I spent the majority of the time in Zone 3. For the first time, my HR is staying mostly in Zone 2. Will this translate to better race times? Who knows. But at least I got Garmin's approval

Here's this week's recap:

Tue: 4.34mi @ 10:31 with 5 striders at the end making avg pace 10:25
Wed: 4.67mi @ avg 10:43. Did mile pace intervals - 2x 200m + 3x 400m + 2x 200m. I almost cut my cooldown short, but forced myself to finish it
Thu: 4mi @ 11:19 - This is my first week with 5 scheduled runs in a while. My knees felt a bit icky by the end of this run. I need to remember to wear different shoes next time I have a 5 run week, to see if the issue are the shoes being near retirement, or if my body just doesn't like the additional day of running.
Sat: 6.73mi @ 11:19 - Was supposed to be 6mi, but since I was on the tread, and had lined up 1:15 of classes, I figured I might as well finish it.
Sun 7.5mi @ 12 - Long run. Practiced fuelling. Had a Skratch energy chew every 5 minutes until 55 minutes. I would generally have a gel half an hour later, but since I was only running for 90 minutes it wasn't needed. I never felt a crash or fade or lower energy, so I'm thinking I might be able to wait longer than half an hour for the gel.

Also managed to do 3 days of arm and light weights on the Peloton this week, so that was a success.


Plan for this coming week:
Tue: 4mi @ EA
Wed: 7:55 (3k) pace intervals. Slower than the mile pace intervals I've been doing, but they're LONG. I'm a bit intimidated by this one
Sat: 4mi @ EA
Sun: 2.5mi @ Tempo + 4x 200m @ Mile pace + 1mi @ Tempo - scratch what I said above. I'm REALLY intimidated by this one.

Wish me luck, because @DopeyBadger did not take it easy on me this week!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Plan for this coming week:
Tue: 4mi @ EA
Wed: 7:55 (3k) pace intervals. Slower than the mile pace intervals I've been doing, but they're LONG. I'm a bit intimidated by this one
Sat: 4mi @ EA
Sun: 2.5mi @ Tempo + 4x 200m @ Mile pace + 1mi @ Tempo - scratch what I said above. I'm REALLY intimidated by this one.

You can do it! Daniels I (Wednesday) is the hardest pace physiologically speaking. You should notice a dramatic increase in effort around 2 min. So really this workout is only 2 actual min of very hard training (the 3rd min of the first two reps). The backend when it moves to 2 min reps is filler on tired legs. But you can certainly handle it. Be calm. Keep the jaw loose. And force that rhythm breathing early before you feel like you need it.

The Sunday run will certainly challenge you. That opener is near max. But what I'm hoping to see is your body truly rally during the mile pace, such that the second tempo split for a mile feels much much better. We'll see.

 

[accm]

You can do it! Daniels I (Wednesday) is the hardest pace physiologically speaking. You should notice a dramatic increase in effort around 2 min. So really this workout is only 2 actual min of very hard training (the 3rd min of the first two reps). The backend when it moves to 2 min reps is filler on tired legs. But you can certainly handle it. Be calm. Keep the jaw loose. And force that rhythm breathing early before you feel like you need it.

The Sunday run will certainly challenge you. That opener is near max. But what I'm hoping to see is your body truly rally during the mile pace, such that the second tempo split for a mile feels much much better. We'll see.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'll also say - the runs that most intimidate me are the ones that I feel the best after finishing. So as much as I dread them at first, deep down they're my favourite.

 

[accm]

You can do it! Daniels I (Wednesday) is the hardest pace physiologically speaking. You should notice a dramatic increase in effort around 2 min. So really this workout is only 2 actual min of very hard training (the 3rd min of the first two reps). The backend when it moves to 2 min reps is filler on tired legs. But you can certainly handle it. Be calm. Keep the jaw loose. And force that rhythm breathing early before you feel like you need it.

Remind me to never doubt you again (not that I ever did, I doubted myself). The intervals did not feel long at all, and somehow felt shorter than the R intervals I've been doing!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Remind me to never doubt you again (not that I ever did, I doubted myself). The intervals did not feel long at all, and somehow felt shorter than the R intervals I've been doing!!

That’s a great sign.

 

[accm]

Another month with no updates, but there was really nothing to update anyways, since there hasn't really been anything noteworthy.

I'm a week from my half, and had probably my worst run yet yesterday. I set myself up to fail by not eating lunch. Then, as soon as my warmup was done and I started the real workout, my head went to a bad place and I just kept telling myself I couldn't do it. Lots of negative self talk, which is not usual. I could not shake it off, and skipped the last interval of the run. Now I'm questioning if can I even help pace my sister for this half on Sunday (logically I know I can, but emotionally? That's a whole different story).