It's Not the Years, It's the Mileage - birthday marathon training journal

[RuntheMouse]

Have a great race!

 

[Naomeri]

Have a great race!

 

[NYC_MW]

Have fun!

 

[nancipants]

The good: it was cloudy.

The bad: it felt like running in a sauna.

The better:

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Woohoo! Congrats!

 

[azrivest]

Way to go!!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Nice!

 

[NYC_MW]

Yahoo!!!

 

[GollyGadget]

Great job! You look so happy!!!

 

[RuntheMouse]

Great job! Crushed your main goal!!

 

[Naomeri]

Great job!!

 

[Scootin'By]

That's a great race time! Congratulations!!!

 

[avondale]

Congratulations! Great photo, too!

 

[kps7795]

Congratulations! I hope that you're happy with your PR. You did a great job.

 

[nancipants]

*tap tap* Is this thing on? I haven't updated in over a month so I should fix that!

As I last posted, I achieved my goal of a sub-40 minute 5k! I was very proud of myself, especially because the weather did not cooperate and it was low 70s with a low 70 dew point during the race. AKA, basically the same as all summer during training. At least I was prepared for it! And thankfully, it was cloudy, which I was extremely grateful for because there is absolutely no shade on the course. It was a fun race, not as fun as rD obviously, but it was close and cheap, so I might do it again next year just for fun. I kept leapfrogging a few women during the race since they were doing run/walk intervals as well, and by the end of the race I kept picking out people to pass one at a time. I also laughed because at about the 2 mile walk, a man ran by me with a stroller. Stroller runners were the last to start, so he was flying.

After the race, I celebrated by going on a two-week cruise! Actually, it was for my 10-year anniversary, my husband's birthday, and because Panama Canal has always been on our bucket list and I finally have a job where I can take off 2.5 weeks in the middle of October. Plus, we wanted to do it before my son was school age. The cruise was absolutely amazing and I'm ruined for shorter cruises now. My son was old enough to go to the kids club this time, and he loved it, so my husband and I had lots of free time, which was so nice. We'd spend the mornings at the kids pool watching my son go on the water slide 8 million times, then take a nap after lunch, then send him to the kids club while we did stuff in the adult areas. I had grand plans to run a lot, but I only ran once on the treadmill and once on deck. It was SUPER hot on the cruise, and we were having too much fun, so I took a break. I did get well over 10k steps a day, though.

When I got back, I ran a few times, just easy runs, to get myself back into the swing of things. And then I got sick for a week! Fun times. I kept testing for covid but it kept coming back negative, so I have no idea what it was. I finally felt better last week, just in time to start my Princess half training plan from DopeyBadger. My goal is to finish in less than 3 hours, but I'm way less serious about that than I was the 5k goal, because I definitely want to stop for a castle photo, and if Clarabelle is on the course I will wait however long it takes to get a pic with her. If my moving time is less than 3 hours, I'll be happy! And of course, I just want to finish, as this will be my longest race to date. A friend of mine is flying in for the race and we're going to run together. She's way faster than me but hasn't done a half before either, so I'm really looking forward to having a running buddy.

Monday, November 6: 2 mile easy run. 29:00 total, avg pace 14:29.

Wednesday, November 8: 2 mile easy run. 28:35 total. avg pace 14:01.

Thursday, November 9: 2 mile easy run with strides. 28:52 total. avg pace 14:22. This was a continuous run with strides.

Friday, November 10: 3 mile marathon pace (13:21). Did 3.15 miles to get the Garmin 5k weekend badge. 41:40 total. avg pace 13:13. I was slightly faster than is should have been, and I definitely felt it.

Sunday, November 12: 3 mile easy run. 3.29 miles (including walking warm up and cool down). 47:47 total. avg pace 14:31.

Monday, November 13: HM tempo run. 3.55 miles (including walking warm up and cool down). 50:22 total. avg pace 14:10.

1 mile easy pace, .5 miles at HM pace (12:28) 2x with a 2 min rest interval, 1 mile easy.
I was about 30 seconds faster than HM pace for both intervals, and I definitely felt it. Ooops. I'll have to pull back on the speed for the next tempo run.

 

[avondale]

Fantastic that you had such a great vacation! Funny that I've never thought about the Panama Canal as a place to visit/vacation. What made it interesting for you?

 

[nancipants]

Fantastic that you had such a great vacation! Funny that I've never thought about the Panama Canal as a place to visit/vacation. What made it interesting for you?

Cruising is one of my favorite types of vacations, and the process of going through the Panama Canal is fascinating. We got to the first set of locks early, before 7 am, and the process took about 1.5 hours to get through all three. Then we sailed through the rest of the canal, which is made up of Gatun Lake and a bunch of other smaller lakes, before getting to the Pacific locks. That took about 2 hours to get through, and we were finished right before dinner, around 5:30. We went under two bridges, which is always sort of terrifying on a large cruise ship because it feels like you're going to hit! There were tons of other ships anchored off both sides of the canal waiting for their turns to go through, and we could see the same ships following/in front of us throughout the day. Not to mention the number of containers waiting to be loaded onto ships in the port of Panama.

A bonus is that the Panama Canal cruise is one of the longest offered by Disney Cruise Line at 14 days, and it was sooooo relaxing.

 

[Scootin'By]

That sounds like a really cool experience!

 

[nancipants]

WDW 10k / Princess Half Marathon training

For this training cycle, my main race is the Princess half marathon on February 25. It will be my longest race. I am running with a friend of mine who is faster than me, but has also never run a half. We'll be going by my pace and I have a goal of finishing in 3 hours. However, I'm okay if my total time is more than that, because I do want to stop for some photos along the course to commemorate my first half, and my friend lives in Wisconsin and we've never met in person before, so we definitely need a castle photo! (I will also stop for Clarabelle and anyone from the Haunted Mansion). So basically, I want my moving time to be less than 3 hours and to not want to die when I finish.

My secondary race is the 10k on January 5. I have only done one other 10k (Princess weekend this year), and my current PR is from a training run, so I'm pretty sure I can handily PR this one. Goal is 1:15 but I'll be satisfied with anything less than 1:24.


November 15: 3 mile easy run. 42:50 total. 14:16 avg pace. Did the big hill on this run.

November 16: 4 mile treadmill run with strides. 58:44 total. 14:41 avg pace. I don't remember why I did this on the treadmill. I watched a runDisney video and it inspired me.

November 17: 6.01 mile easy run. 1:23:33 total. 13:55 avg pace. Slightly faster than I should have been. Don't remember anything else about this, lol.

November 19: 2.01 mile easy run. 27:49 total. 13:52 avg pace. The first mile was really fast as it was downhill and the second mile was much slower as I went up the big hill.

November 20: HM tempo run. 3.74 miles. 50:47 miles. 13:35 avg pace. I programmed this as a workout in my watch and can't get a good screenshot, but basically my run intervals should have been 11 min/mile and my avg was 10:48. Rest intervals should have been 17:00 and my avg was 16:50. So I was right on track!

November 22: 2 mile treadmill run. We got off early for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I did my run at 2:30 instead of the morning, and it was way too hot to run outside then. Yes, the day before Thanksgiving. 28:48 total. 14:24 avg pace.

November 23: 2.25 mile easy run with strides. 31:22 total. 13:58 avg pace. I went down and up the hill again and am getting better at it! Yay. Mostly I was proud of myself for running on Thanksgiving even when we were cooking. And my son didn't freak out when I left! Maybe at 4 we've finally turned that page? Please please please. It was also 57 when I ran, which felt AMAZING.

November 24: 3 mile M tempo. 39:50 total. 13:16 avg pace. My M pace is 13:21 so I did well! Thanks to the 61 degree weather.

November 26: 3 mile easy run. 41:47 total. 13:54 avg pace. I tried to run mostly by feel on this run since it got hot again. My second mile was WAY too fast at 13:34. In my defense, Mr. Brightside came on right at the beginning of the mile, and was followed by a set of EDM bangers.

This week my mileage increases and I have my first long run on Friday (7 miles), so I'm going to practice my fuel again. Crossing fingers!

 

[Scootin'By]

November 20: HM tempo run. 3.74 miles. 50:47 miles. 13:35 avg pace. I programmed this as a workout in my watch and can't get a good screenshot, but basically my run intervals should have been 11 min/mile and my avg was 10:48. Rest intervals should have been 17:00 and my avg was 16:50. So I was right on track!

Great job!

November 22: 2 mile treadmill run. We got off early for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I did my run at 2:30 instead of the morning, and it was way too hot to run outside then.

I'm still not sure which I dislike more, too cold or too hot. But this morning I ran in 28F with a breeze and was fine (besides a runny nose).