"What am I even doing with my life?" Comments Welcome!

Billy provided me with these new training paces last week based off of my MagicMile:

Since I run/walk, my Easy run will be at 15:24.
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I was/am a little worried about them because it increases my M/HM/10k paces by about 40 seconds each! However, I know they are based on my Magic Mile, so I know that if I stick to it and train properly, I should be able to hit these (or close to them)!

Below is what I came up with for my run/walk intervals (with Coach's help, of course):

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I am very excited and nervous to see how my upcoming training does with these new paces! Especially my I Pace run coming up on Thursday!

I have been thinking a lot about what my 2020 race schedule would look like. Obviously, I am doing the Princess 10k and Half in February, but I've begun to look at Chicago races.

These are the ones I am looking at so far:

1. Shamrock Shuffle - March 22 - $40
This one seems fun and it's not too expensive.

2. Chicago Spring Half - May 17 - $60
I need to decide ASAP if I want to do this one. It's on sale today. I think it might be a good idea to do another half after Princess, but is it too soon? Princess will likely not be a all out effort because I will be with other people/the 10k/park time, so a "best effort" half would be nice to do.

3. Soldier Field 10 Mile - May 23 - $69
I wouldn't do this one AND the Spring Half. I am a Bears fan, so this one seems cool.

4. North Shore Classic 5k - June 7 - $39

5. Rock n Roll 5k - July 18 - $35

I'm thinking of a mid-summer 5k. It was SO hot this year. It doesn't have to be this race, but thinking something short and sweet for mid summer

6. Hoka One One Chicago Half - September 27 - $60
This one is also on sale today. I could do this one instead of the Spring Half. Or maybe do the Series and get both of them? Is 3 Half's too much when I still haven't even ran ONE yet? I also want to look at the weather at the end of September. For some reason, my brain is blocking it out.

7. Hot Chocolate 15k - November 8th - $59
Even though I was really really sick, I liked this one a lot. I'd like to redeem myself!!!! This one is pretty much a "yes."

I also plan on doing the January 2021 5k, 10k, and Half during Marathon Weekend at Disney. I'm tentatively planning on entering the lottery for the October 2021 Chicago Marathon...

Welp, that's where I am at. There's no way I am doing all of those though. That's crazy. I have decisions to make.
 
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This was a pretty bad week for me. A lot of not so good stuff is going on in my personal/family life and it affected my running. I had to take Thursday off - I just didn't have the energy or headspace to get that run in. I ended up pushing it until Saturday and just skipping the 2.5 miles prescribed for Saturday.

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Anywho, I finally tried out my new running shoes on Tuesday and it was SPRINGY. Seriously, the first couple steps I took, I felt like I was going to bounce right off the pavement. These are my first pair of cushioned shoes, so it was definitely different. My pace was supposed to be 15:24, but I felt like I couldn't slow down because of the springyness!

Saturday's run was my I pace. It was hard, but I got it done. With warm up/cool down, the pace averaged out at 14:11. The I Pace section with the RI's averaged 13:21. (ETA - My math shows my I pace was about 11:13 and RI was 16:30. Goal was an 11:30 I pace.)

Today was another easy day. Again, it felt hard to go slower than 15 minutes per mile. I definitely think it's the shoes, which seems crazy to me.
 
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A stressful personal week was followed by an insanely busy work week. I had to work into the evening every day. Some colleagues were out and I had to cover all their work. BUT, I got all my runs in. Unfortunately, I did need to push Tuesday's run to Wednesday.
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My Thursday run was definitely hard, but I am happy with how it went! The run could be broken down into 3 portions.
  • Goal = 1.25 miles Easy @ 15:24
    • Actual = 1.25 miles @ 15:11 pace
  • Goal = 3 miles @ 13:24 pace
    • Actual = 3 miles @ 12:58 pace (oops)
  • Goal = 1 mile @ 12:51 pace
    • Actual = 1 mile @ 12:24 (oops)
Overall, my pace for Thursday's run was 13:23.

Nothing exciting to day about my easy runs this week. They happened. Today's was a little rough because it was EARLY (for me). I had to do it before meeting my mom/siblings for an early Christmas celebration. My mom got me the New Balance vest I wanted!

Hope ya'll had a great week. 10ish weeks until Princess!
 
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I started the week in two long sleeves, a vest, winter leggings, gloves, and a headband and ended it.............in shorts and a t-shirt? Two and half days before Christmas.....WEIRD.

My easy 2.5 miles all went fine. They felt good, albeit a little boring. My Tuesday run was with a friend. The first two miles were pretty slow because she is coming back from a knee injury that she sustained during the last mile of Hot Chocolate. I worry she won't be healthy enough to train for Princess :(. She stopped after two miles due to knee pain flaring back up and I continued.

The I Pace run was HARD but also felt really good. I wasn't sore the next day, which is great. The warm up ended up being 1.02 miles @ 15:21. The I Pace section was 2.29 miles @ 13:05 (including the RIs). The cool down was 1 mile @ 15:06.

Yesterday and today's were normal. Yesterday I was a bit warm in a long sleeve and a vest. Today was the aforementioned shorts and t-shirt and I was SWEATING. 52 degrees! Soooo messed up.

In more personal news, today is Jose and my EIGHT year anniversary. 8 whole years. Almost a decade! As I type this he is snoring next to me, so clearly we are celebrating hard. We will be going out for ramen and pork belly buns tonight at one of our favorite spots though, so I am SO excited.

Some photos of us through the years because <3

Years 1, 5, 7, and 8!
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Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!!!
 

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I am posting today mainly because I wanted to get the insight of @DopeyBadger

Assuming I complete all my runs as scheduled through the end of the year, I will be 1.5 miles away from 500 for the year. That kind of kills me a little. I was trying to figure out where I could squeeze them in. Do you think adding 1.5 miles today is okay or would tacking on 1.5 miles to my Tuesday 12/31 run be better?

Anywho, yesterday's run went well, but it was too fast and therefore felt probably a little too hard. I felt great/accomplished after though. Just a tiny bit of soreness today.

  • Goal = 1.25 miles Easy @ 15:24
    • Actual = 1.27 miles @ 15:19 pace
  • Goal = 2.5 miles @ 13:24 pace
    • Actual = 2.5 miles @ 12:38 pace (oops)
  • Goal = 1.5 mile @ 12:51 pace
    • Actual = 1.5 miles @ 12:09 (oops)
I'm struggling a bit to get a hang of the new paces. My M tempo runs end up being faster than my HM tempo pace and then my HM tempo runs end up being faster than my 10k pace. If I slow down, I end up going too slow. I'm struggling getting it "just right."
 
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Assuming I complete all my runs as scheduled through the end of the year, I will be 1.5 miles away from 500 for the year. That kind of kills me a little. I was trying to figure out where I could squeeze them in. Do you think adding 1.5 miles today is okay or would tacking on 1.5 miles to my Tuesday 12/31 run be better?

Run 5 on Saturday and 3 on Tuesday.
 
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Not a super great week, but okay overall.

Tuesday's I Pace run went better than I anticipated. It my first time running I Pace (11:30 for me) longer than 3 minutes. My warmup was 1 mile at 15:13 (15:24 goal). The I Paced section ended up being 2.45 miles at a 13:05 pace (including the rest intervals). That matched my last I Pace run pace from 12/19/19 exactly, so at least it was consistent. On the plus side, my heart rate was 5 BPM lower this time. The cool down was 1.02 miles at 15:10 (15:24 goal). Overall, pretty good!

Saturday's run though? Easy pace? IT. WAS. ROUGH. I don't know what was going on. I felt a little off the night before. I didn't want to go run when I got up Saturday. I did anyway. It felt awful. Every half mile I kept thinking "I should go home. This hurts. I'm so tired. Why is this so hard?" I kept at it and ran 5.02 miles at a 15:07 pace, but really did not enjoy a minute of it. That night I went out for a friend's birthday. I only had one beer, but didn't get home until after 2am, which leads to Sunday.....

I skipped this run. I felt really guilty about it after, but by the end of the night, I was really glad I decided to stay home. I overslept and didn't get out of bed until 11am. I'm usually an early riser. I have just felt off all weekend and I really think my body needed the break. I'm feeling a bit better looking to get back out there tomorrow.

This is my second missed run this training cycle, which is not great, but IS a lot better than last training cycle. Hopefully that extra rest day gave my body what it needed and won't be a hinderance.
 
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This was a weird week. It was my first 5 run week.

My M/HM tempo run ended up getting cut short. I did the WU and M pace fine (albeit a little fast), but 1.2 miles into the HM pace, I started to get SEVERE side stitch on my left side. I slowed down, but it didn't help. Then, I started walking more, but that still didn't help. I decided to call it after about a tenth of a mile. I was going to do an easy pace for the remainder of the mile, but I couldn't. Every step felt like death, so I made my way home.

Saturday's 4.5 was super windy. 20+mph winds. My HR was higher than it should have been, but I'm wondering if that had to do with the wind.

Sunday's 9 was fine. Lower HR than I expected. I rarely looked at my watch on this one. - just 2-3 times to check on mileage. I was comfortable for the first 4.5 miles, but got super cold the second half. Nothing too bad and I finished, but was definitely a little underdressed.


Anyone know how to alleviate side stitch or prevent it from happening in the future?
 
Anyone know how to alleviate side stitch or prevent it from happening in the future?

More often than not it's related to breathing patterns. Be it, that you aren't breathing enough, or you're breathing is too one-sided. But even on the best of days, I can still get side stitches as well. Just try to stick to rhythmic breathing and if the stitches always appear on the same side, then consider odd-numbered patterns for breathing.
 
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I missed today. My birthday is tomorrow so this weekend has been pretty hectic. I didn't have time + I was feeling a little under the weather (plus it's like 8 degrees out).

My I Pace run was slightly faster than prior I Pace runs. I definitely started the first couple I pace intervals too fast. I really felt it in the last two intervals and needed to walk more of my RI than the prior intervals. My HR was probably a little too high. However, I finished and that's what matters! @DopeyBadger, I know HR is a secondary measure, but what "zone" should I pace workouts fall into? Something like 10k pace HR because of the RIs? Just curious if my HR on that run was way too high.

My three miles yesterday were fine. Low HR. My calves were still a bit sore from the I Pace, but otherwise nothing to report.
 
My I Pace run was slightly faster than prior I Pace runs. I definitely started the first couple I pace intervals too fast. I really felt it in the last two intervals and needed to walk more of my RI than the prior intervals. My HR was probably a little too high. However, I finished and that's what matters! @DopeyBadger, I know HR is a secondary measure, but what "zone" should I pace workouts fall into? Something like 10k pace HR because of the RIs? Just curious if my HR on that run was way too high.

I would use caution on evaluating HR on an I paced run. It gets tricky because the duration is short and wrist based monitors aren't great at that. With that being said, I would expect the HR to be relatively high. I think something you'd really like to see is the HR drop fairly dramatically during the RI.
 
Thanks. That does make sense. It looked something like this (a little easy running mixed in with my RIs that account for the little blips).
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I wanted to post about today's run while it's fresh in my mind. I have some takeaways that I really need to drill into myself.

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To start, yesterday's run was pretty uneventful. I will say that short runs *feel* more difficult sometimes, . It's absolutely a mental thing because my HR is low, but they are just so boring. I always look at my watch and grumble at the fact that I *still* have a mile left, etc., yet on longer runs those short miles feel like nothing.

Alright. Today's run. As a reminder, here are what my paces are supposed to be. I was to run 1 mile easy (15:24), 2 miles at M tempo (13:24), and 3 miles at HM tempo (12:51).

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Things started out on track. I purposefully tried to keep my warm up mile slow. My easy runs have been a little fast this whole training plans. I was successful and finished the mile at 15:25.

My 2 mile M tempo interval did not go quite as well. I finished the 2 miles at an average pace of 12:47. You'll notice that this is a couple seconds faster than my HM tempo. What's frustrating is that while running it, I did try to be cognizant of my pace, but attempted not to glance down at my watch all too much. I didn't want to hurt my breathing either. Clearly, not successful. Still, it was hard, but it went pretty well.

My 3 miles HM tempo interval is where things really went off the rails. I finished the 3 miles at an average pace of 12:22 - very close to 10k pace. The splits were:
  • Mile 1: 12:20
  • Mile 2: 12:29
  • Mile 3: 12:15
I was able to finish, but not without a case of some pretty unpleasant side stitch again. It popped up at about mile 4.2 of the run (just after I started Mile 2 of the HM tempo interval). I was able to push through it. I took @JAMIESMITH 's advice, which did help a bit (thanks!). It's crazy to look at mile 2 and see that it was only 9 seconds slower than mile one. I started walking a portion of my run intervals for most of mile 2. This means that when i was running, I was running way too fast. I'm beginning to think running too fast during these runs is negatively affecting me. Not only is it making the runs harder than they should be, but they are also affecting my breathing and causing side stitch.

I'm not purposefully running faster than I should. I'm very frustrated by how poorly I am at pacing myself. I've been on a DB plan since last April and I STILL struggle with pacing. I seem to go a full "tempo" faster than I should be at all times, even when I *think* I'm going slower and actively try to slow down. I don't know how to get my mind and my body to figure it out, but something really needs to give or I'm going to keep getting side stitch or end up injuring myself.

Anywho, just about a month until Princess and I'm very excited! The trip is super chaotic (outside the races) at the moment because a very large friend group is going, but no one can seem to figure out what they are doing and have put me and a one other friend in charge of making plans. Yet, getting answers from anyone is like pulling teeth. Gah!

Looking forward, Sunday will be my longest run ever at 10 miles! Slowly working toward that half marathon!
 
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