Roxymama's 5k to Marathon, Time to Collect Another Castle

[ZellyB]

Welcome aboard!!! You can start by telling me if I need to spend a boatload of money on a race weekend purse or not.

I am not @Sailormoon2 , but given this is your first half marathon, I think a Dooney might be a lovely idea for a commemorative purchase. Plus, it's Mother's Day.

Plus, plus. Get the blue.

 

[ZellyB]

Plus, plus, plus - It's totally your fault that I now get nearly daily emails from Kate Spade taunting me with her bags.

 

[roxymama]

I am not @Sailormoon2 , but given this is your first half marathon, I think a Dooney might be a lovely idea for a commemorative purchase. Plus, it's Mother's Day.

Plus, plus. Get the blue.

But then you would have to as well. Since we already own the exact same Kate Spade purse...it would only be natural to continue the trend.

Why are Dooney's not like $44.99 though?

I wonder if my pre-order jacket is gonna be blue?????

 

[Sailormoon2]

Get the tote!! It's gorgeous! I hope the pre-order jacket will be all "spring" like, since the medals are?

 

[roxymama]

If the Dooneys are still there on the 24th then I'm like 99% sure I'll pre-order one. I've been given the green light after that date from my financial advisor aka roxyhubby.
And blue! Definitely the blue!

And if they're sold out then expo it is

 

[Ariel484]

I'd definitely go for the blue over the white.

 

[SarahDisney]

Why are Dooney's not like $44.99 though?

That's pretty much exactly how I feel.

Also, definitely get the blue one. That pattern is super cute and the blue is so beautiful.

 

[roxymama]

Leaving this as a placeholder to talk about it. First tempo run of the season outdoors. The last part of the CD involved a cute kiddo

 

[DopeyBadger]

View attachment 220822
Leaving this as a placeholder to talk about it. First tempo run of the season outdoors. The last part of the CD involved a cute kiddo

 

[roxymama]

Can I just start this post with OMG THE WEATHER IS SO NICE RIGHT NOW!!!

This weekend was jammed packed with everything I like about Spring. We walked to dinner, we walked to the park, we played tball in the backyard, I ran twice. It even hit 70 the one day and will again on Wedneday.
I know there is a big likelihood we have a huge snow storm just waiting for us on the other side between now and real Spring. But whatever...THE WEATHER is SO NICE!

So I basically just left my tempo run up there as a placeholder and then never posted. I was busy being a person who lives outside. Sorry about that. But there was another reason too. My warm-up was easy and my tempo run of 3 miles that were supposed to hit 9:39 each was better than expected. I ran it outdoors and it is easier for me to be fast outside than on the treadmill where I feel like at any moment I'm going to trip and bash my head in. It just feels way different. So first tempo mile was admittedly too fast 9:29 but at least I was able to check myself before I wrecked myself and settled down and was good at pace for the remainder of the run. At the end of the cooldowb I was feeling a bit of weirdness in the knee area. My kiddo who decided not to nap was in the front yard playing with my hubby when I ran past and said "I've got .6 to go" so I had a buddy cheering me on. I didn't make it the full .6 to go because my knee started feeling not good and I decided there was no reason to be a hero to finish out the Cool Down strong (whatever that means) and so you can see my pace dipped to almost 15 min avg.

So I was kind of waiting to see how my long run would go to comment about it. Maybe it was a fluke is what I was thinking. I will say I had a twinge of that feeling before after being stopped at stoplight back after mile 6 of my 8 mile LR last week as well. But running "fixed" it/loosened it up back to normal.

Ok, so Long Run was going just fine until again I had that weird knee feeling/some calf stiffness. I was in the high 10's and very very low 11's for pace looking back the entire time. So I'm proud of myself for that. But there was that sore knee thing (admittedly nowhere near as ouch as the previous run) and instead of stopping I just kept going at the end because I was only .5 miles from home. I should have probably just walked but I wanted to complete that mile. And then LSUlakes posted my exact question....when do you stop and when do you keep going when you feel soreness?

So long story short...after some conversations on the running thread and in my PM, I have a revised plan that now has 4 days of running per week.

WAIT, what? I'm sore, so I'm going to run MORE times a week? Yeah, it actually does make sense when you look at how it is spreading the miles out over the course of the week and adding in an extra day of easy, short running to keep me loose and my body used to it (and all the other things people were talking about on the running thread over the weekend.) Whatever will keep me from being ouchy is fine by me...so we shall see how this goes. I'm also going to try to add in light strength training in my basement on Wed nights (thanks for the link Ariel!) Starting slow with that...no need to completely break myself at first...but I really want to be strong enough not to go into "sore-mode" every time I have a long run.
The good news is my legs feel fine right now. Not even a little sore. So it's not like I have anything that's broken.

Ok, that was long winded. Here's my "tinkered with plan" for this week. (pun copyright @DopeyBadger 2017) I was expecting a 9 mile LR on Sunday, but you will see that has changed. My new plan maxes me out at 10 mile as my longest run pre-Tink instead of 12. But more days out running pre-tink as well.

Tink Training Week #6!
Monday: Bachelor - home town dates! Let's see how many fathers he asks for their daughters hand in marriage?
Tuesday: 4 mi @ EB 11:16
Wed: basement strength
Thursday: 1.5 WU 12:49, 3 mi Tempo 9:39, 1.5 mi CD 12:49
Fri: OFF
Sat: 4 mi @ EA 12:03
Sun: 4 mi @ LR 10:52

So let's see how my legs feel as we go along this week and next before I hit a week with a size-able LR.

On a personal note: sometimes it is hard for me to admit to you all and to myself when I need to change something. Because I often feel like I'm failing my plan if something is not working out perfectly. I felt a bit sad-sack about running only 5.9 instead of 6 miles on Thursday after hitting my tempo portion so well, and that's silly looking back at it. And then I was debating how to tell everyone my knee wasn't feeling great during my LR. Which is also silly because none of you would ever be like "Boo- you are a failure." I know it's more important that I speak up with the questions right away when something doesn't go as planned, and not just feel bad about myself for not being invincible. I hope I'm not the only one that gets weird mentally about stuff like that. I want y'all to think I'm an awesome athlete but I also don't want to break myself trying to prove that.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Here's my "tinkered with plan" for this week. (pun copyright @DopeyBadger 2017)

I'm hopeful this will make a difference. It was a stretch to see if we could make 3 days a week happen and do the necessary training properly. I have a feeling this will feel much more balanced. More days per week. Same weekly mileage. Lower duration long runs.

On a personal note: sometimes it is hard for me to admit to you all and to myself when I need to change something. Because I often feel like I'm failing my plan if something is not working out perfectly. I felt a bit sad-sack about running only 5.9 instead of 6 miles on Thursday after hitting my tempo portion so well, and that's silly looking back at it. And then I was debating how to tell everyone my knee wasn't feeling great during my LR. Which is also silly because none of you would ever be like "Boo- you are a failure." I know it's more important that I speak up with the questions right away when something doesn't go as planned, and not just feel bad about myself for not being invincible. I hope I'm not the only one that gets weird mentally about stuff like that. I want y'all to think I'm an awesome athlete but I also don't want to break myself trying to prove that.

You and I are old hat. You're one of the first people I worked with, so you don't get to see the same "instructions" as anyone else. But I feel this section of the instructions is appropriate.

What can I expect?

A training plan is a fluid process. The more you keep me in the loop the more I can help you. The gains you make will be dependent on how well you can stick to the plan. Making adjustments is not a bad thing. If we have to shift the paces up/down, or the duration up/down it's not a sign of failure. It's a sign that we missed the mark on the plan. The number one thing to watch in your training is you should always feel like at the end of every workout you could have done "one more". That's one more mile or one more interval. This plan should not push you so hard you can't finish a day's workout, or start to see a "fade" at the end of a workout. If you see this let me know. We can always make changes.

So don't feel like this is a "you" thing, or a failure. Several of the people I've written plans for message me multiple times a week updating me on the little things going on and I've made tons of small edits or changes to their plans along the way. We all need to maximize gains while minimizing risk. This includes speaking up whenever you might have an issue because the earlier we can identify a potential issue the easier the fix may very well be. You'll have good days and bad days, up days and down days, effortless days and slog days, but I think the single most important part of the training journal is for you to tell the truth.



*Said in a non-yelling way.

We all read your journal as a source of inspiration and realism. Which means you have to let people know the good with the bad so it makes the capturing of your experience real. So I try to always defer to the truth, whatever that may be. I want you to be the best you you want to be.

You're doing a great job!

 

[roxymama]

Thanks for the pep-talk, genie! I think the first step is not being in denial aka being honest with myself.
I should have probably spoken up the moment I posted my tempo run results but was a bit in denial over how I felt there at the end. Little bit of pride got in the way of admitting something might be off and a little bit of denial that I could be hurting leading up to my big half/scared that admitting it would make it more true. And was hoping my LR would "fix it."
D'oh.

 

[Ariel484]

It's not just you. I like and don't like having a thread about my training - it's hard to go there and "admit" when things aren't going right. I get that.

I think your 4-day running plan is a good one! I think you'll notice that you feel stronger compared to running 3 days per week - that's what happened for me. Hope the knee continues to feel better!

 

[ZellyB]

BOO - you are a failure!!












Hey, you read my journal, so you know all the difficulties I've had. I figure it's fine to put it all out there - good, bad and ugly. We all go through it.

And, I also spent a lot of time thinking about the discussions in the running thread about increasing the number of days running. I'll save my musings for my training journal one of these days - but I found the whole discussion very interesting and it has me rethinking my own training.

 

[roxymama]

BOO - you are a failure!!












Hey, you read my journal, so you know all the difficulties I've had. I figure it's fine to put it all out there - good, bad and ugly. We all go through it.

And, I also spent a lot of time thinking about the discussions in the running thread about increasing the number of days running. I'll save my musings for my training journal one of these days - but I found the whole discussion very interesting and it has me rethinking my own training.

You really know what to say to make a gal feel special

I've always been nervous to commit to more days because I trade off run days with the hubby. However, he hasn't started his big Tri training just yet this year and so there is zero excuse for me to not add one more run in (especially a weekend run.) So although 4 days may not be easy in the summer or early Fall...now is the time to try it. I'm just hoping I don't end up looking like this and instead look like this

 

[FFigawi]

On a personal note: sometimes it is hard for me to admit to you all and to myself when I need to change something. Because I often feel like I'm failing my plan if something is not working out perfectly. I felt a bit sad-sack about running only 5.9 instead of 6 miles on Thursday after hitting my tempo portion so well, and that's silly looking back at it. And then I was debating how to tell everyone my knee wasn't feeling great during my LR. Which is also silly because none of you would ever be like "Boo- you are a failure." I know it's more important that I speak up with the questions right away when something doesn't go as planned, and not just feel bad about myself for not being invincible. I hope I'm not the only one that gets weird mentally about stuff like that. I want y'all to think I'm an awesome athlete but I also don't want to break myself trying to prove that.

Actually, we want to think you're as human as the rest of us, complete with ups, downs, troubles, triumphs, and all that falls in between.

 

[dancingtodisney]

Totally off topic, but I just saw that Wilderness Lodge has a new large outdoor bar and grill called "Geyser Point." It's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the menu has kids stuff on it too. So I'm hoping we have nice weather for our fall trip because this type of place is right up our alley for times we just want to grab a relaxing bite at the hotel.

Doesn't that look lovely?
Looking forward to people trying it so I can read reviews.

This looks awesome!!

I can't remember where you are staying? This is an awesome addition for anyone staying at WL, it looks so relaxing and snug! We don't have plans to visit WL this year (no Whispering Canyon reservation planned this time) but maybe we need to reconsider!

Also I totally understand how you feel about not wanting to admit stuff, I was exactly the same when writing my journal and in the end just stopped writing! But in reality you're going to have to change your plans because things change so don't stress about it and of course as you already know, nobody judges you for it!

 

[roxymama]

Actually, we want to think you're as human as the rest of us, complete with ups, downs, troubles, triumphs, and all that falls in between.

Well in that case, let's just get it all out there.
I burnt my homemade pita chips in the oven while attempting to be cool baker girl...they were almost black...and they tasted bad...but I ate them anyways...because I was hungry. And the pasta and salad that I did make last night to pack for lunch today...I forget them at home. But at least my kid dressed herself this morning (TRIUMPH!)

I have my easy Tuesday run tonight...and the rain gods will determine treadmill or outside. So say a little prayer for my knee and my sanity that it all goes swimmingly (rain pun). But if it sucks, I'll let you all know too. but I still hope it doesn't suck

 

[ZellyB]

OK, your pita chip story made me snort out loud at my desk. Fortunately nobody was nearby to hear.

It won't suck.

 

[roxymama]

This looks awesome!!

I can't remember where you are staying? This is an awesome addition for anyone staying at WL, it looks so relaxing and snug! We don't have plans to visit WL this year (no Whispering Canyon reservation planned this time) but maybe we need to reconsider!

Also I totally understand how you feel about not wanting to admit stuff, I was exactly the same when writing my journal and in the end just stopped writing! But in reality you're going to have to change your plans because things change so don't stress about it and of course as you already know, nobody judges you for it!

We are booked for the Wilderness Lodge for late October/early Nov!!! We were at first thinking Beach Club or Yacht Club (have stayed there before) because of location and the pool. But then we saw the WL was $100+ less per night. So we booked WL and then thought if there is a fall discount for Beach or Yacht that we could perhaps switch if it seemed right. But the more I'm studying up on WL the more I just want to keep it. And maybe there will be a fall discount on WL!! Let's hope so.
My very early planning brain is wanting to maybe take the kiddo to the priority seating for the Mickey Backyard BBQ (I don't think she'll sit still or be as "into" hoop de doo) and spend some time in the splash pad part of the pool. Maybe take a boat ride to Fort Wilderness to see the little horses and do the family surrey bikes. Got lots of ideas a brewing in my head.