Track Tuesday & 5 DAYS

in , ,

Started off the morning (my last early morning run until the Marathon) with an interval workout on the Track!

My training schedule called for 2 miles warm-up (10:00min/mi pace) then 6 x 400s at 1:56 pace (actual: 1:46, 1:52, 1:51, 1:52, 1:50, 1:47) with 200 recovery in-between sets then 1 mile cool-down. I felt so strong and definitely wanted to keep going, but I will save my legs for the race on Sunday! 5.25 miles total. 

I recovered tonight by putting my legs up the wall. I'm trying to do this and a foot stretch to help with any plantar facistis that I have at least once a day leading up to Sunday's race. Anyone else a fan of putting their feet up the wall? I normally try for just 5 minutes, but honestly love it so much that I've been like that for up to 15 minutes!

Also saw another gorgeous sunrise on my drive into town this morning. It's amazing what you can see when you're up and out of the house early!

We made Run Fast Eat Slow's Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes tonight and the Avocado Cream on the side. I didn't have any limes or jalapenos, so I subbed for some lemon juice and red pepper flakes--> IT WAS AMAZING! Highly recommend this recipe from their book if you haven't tried it already. It was pretty easy once I popped the sweet potato in my Instant Pot for about 20 minutes (this one was pretty large and took 10 minutes longer than most do). Prep and cook-time were ~25-30 minutes. 

Tomorrow's another rest day (all the rest days are ROUGH- I have way too much energy at night and need to fill them with some new projects)! I already scheduled a mani/pedi to treat myself after the race, so I know that will help push me towards that finish line! I haven't really started to feel too nervous yet and am mainly just excited for race day (I'm sure the nerves will come...). Happy Tuesday!

When do you like to do your speed work? Tuesdays? Wednesdays? Do you do it more than 1 time per week?

Favorite running recipe? 

Favorite way to rest & recover at the end of a long day?

How I Built Up Enough Running Confidence to Tackle the Track

in , ,

This marathon training cycle is the first one where I've actually tackled speed workouts on my own. For Goofy training I did some interval work on the treadmill through the CoreRunning class offered at Steamboat Pilates & Fitness, but this was honestly the first time I had ANY interval work at all. Well, I guess I did some mile repeats last year for the Revel Rockies Marathon, but I never seriously committed myself to them and never had any concept of time for them. I also had never heard of the concept of "easy" run days prior to this training cycle. My, how far I've come! 

For this training cycle, I've either resorted to doing my speed interval workouts in my 'safety net' AKA the treadmill, through a CoreRunning class, or I've taken the last few outside on the road, but never on a track. The track always intimated me (although no one else was there at 6am)-

I have always associated tracks with fast runners and I have never even been close to being fast. I was always that girl in gym class that would get picked last and would struggle through running a mile. 

Even now as an adult, I still thought of myself as a 'kind-of runner' and absolutely never FAST! But you know what I've always thought of recently, I am a 3-time marathoner and have finished a half-marathon under 2 hours. Maybe I'm not 'fast' in some peoples eyes, but my accomplishments are something that I once thought was impossible! 

So, I put on my 'big girl pants' armed with my running accomplishments and decided to tackle my last double-digit Yasso 800 workout not on the treadmill, in class, or on a road, but ON THE TRACK. 

Yasso 800s (which were once a completely foreign workout to me) are an extremely important workout in any training cycle and also helps for you to predict your race-readiness. So, before setting out on my workout this morning I decided to do a bit more research behind Yasso 800s. According to Runners World, the overall times are accurate depictions to what you can expect as a finish time for a marathon (Bart Yasso found that the 800s he did for several years leading up to marathons were a very close prediction to what his race time was). 

My training plan called for 8 x Yasso 800s in 4:00 minutes (with 400 recovery jog in-between), along with a 2 mile warm-up and 2 mile cool-down (800 is two-laps around a standard track; 10 miles total) . While the traditional predictor is for 10 x Yasso 800s, I'm confident that my overall fitness could easily have taken me over the last two 800s (I honestly didn't even feel THAT exhausted after the workout). 

My splits were:

3:57, 4:06, 3:56, 3:54, 3:51, 4:00, 3:53, 3:52 - averaged race time predictor: 3:55:30

SO, was the track as 'scary' as I made it out to be? Absolutely not. Did I have any reason to be 'ashamed' of my pace? Nope. I rocked it and feel awesome. I got in 10 miles total and have never felt stronger. 

It was actually kind of fun. 

Like I've said in past posts, maybe we just need to embrace the scary to build our confidence. Maybe we should start building ourselves up rather than breaking ourselves down. Acknowledge what your body has accomplished and don't let anyone (including yourself) make them smaller than what they are. 

Be proud of how far you've come and go rock that track. xo

Intervals, Power of Positivity, & My Love For Chulula

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My second-to-last longer interval training run was scheduled for Tuesday and I planned to wake-up at 4:45 to get it done with before heading to work. However, my cold was still causing me a sore throat and slight congestion so I turned my alarm off and decided to do it after work. During the taper, I try to take every precaution to not get sick and get more sleep, so afternoon taper it was! I was still exhausted, didn't eat as many carbs/proteins as I would have liked to, it was super windy, the trails were congested, and my throat was worse- I kept coming up with excuses the entire run!

This is funny because I was just saying the other night how I was needing to start to be more positive. My mental strength definitely starts to weaken during the later miles in a marathon and I am determined to work on staying positive. However, here I was in the middle of my speedwork session and I could not get out of my head! I started feeling like Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka and how an oompa loompa would need to roll me home because I was feeling round like a blueberry. 

Then, as I began my cool down miles I started to switch my thinking from negative thoughts to positive ones. I started to think about how lucky I was to live in such a beautiful place and how wonderful the sun felt. It made a huge difference in how I mentally finished out my run. While my splits were not all 100% perfect, I hit the majority of them after a tough day and while still being SO sore from my reformer pilates class the day before.

Ended up finishing the day with 9.2 miles:

  • 2.10 miles warm-up
    • 1 mile @ 7:50-8:00 (actual: 7:58 min/mi)- 800 recovery
    • 1200 @ 5:52 (actual: 5:50 min/mi)- 400 recovery
    • 800 @ 3:55 (actual: 3:55 min/mi)-400 recovery
    • 400 @ 1:56 (actual: 1:56 min/mi)-400 recovery
    • 1200 @ 5:52 (actual: 5:55 min/mi)-400 recovery
    • 800 @ 3:55 (actual: 4:04 min/mi w/ 100 short)-400 recovery
    • 400 @ 1:56 (actual: 2:02 min/mi)- 400 recovery
  • 2.10 miles cool-down

I think working with positivity will continue to be a work in progress for many months, but am hopeful that I will be able to mentally concur the marathon when I get it down! 

This morning I felt so much better (thanks to my 7:30 bedtime last night) and headed to the gym to get in a 30 minute strength training session and easy 3.25 bike ride & 1.5 mi recovery run. 

We finished out our day with TACOS and chulula on top of everything. It was seriously so amazing. My love for chulula may rival my love for Alex...or Stella....maybe....

We're over humpday and SO close to the long weekend! The weather doesn't look too great here, so our plans for camping or backpacking are still up in the air. Hoping it clears up for us to enjoy some much-needed fresh air and sunshine!

What are your go-to thoughts to improve your mood?

Ever tried to be more mentally tough or positive? How'd it go? Any tips?

Are you a hot sauce lover?

Setting BIG Goals & Embracing the Scary

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Goal setting. Sometimes our favorite thing to do and sometimes really intimidating, scary, and nerve-racking. Talking today about how actually writing down those goals makes it seem 'real' and that scary goals can sometimes be the best ones!

Please forgive that super long piece of grass right in the middle of my photo....

Please forgive that super long piece of grass right in the middle of my photo....

I am a huge dreamer and believer, but it takes me a LONG time to actually come to terms with my goals and embrace them. Sometimes the journey to achieve our goals can be scary, intimidating, and come with big change/sacrifices/set-backs etc. I set some pretty big goals for myself this year including breaking 2 hours in the half-marathon, breaking 4 hours in the marathon, and taking charge of my career path. 

I was honestly SO scared that I won't achieve my goal of a sub-4 marathon this year, however I'm slowly starting to realize that it's OK to be scared/nervous/anxious/excited (all of the above & more) and that this 'scary' goal of mine is good and it means that I'm pushing myself. Sure, I may not achieve it at this marathon next month, but I've got another one planned for in November and if I don't achieve it then? It's ok, I know I'll get there and I'll come out stronger in the end. 

Scary goals are OK. They mean that we're able to look past what we're currently capable of and believe that we can achieve so much more. 

I finally realized that I could very well be ready to break that 4 hour marathon goal on my biggest interval training cycle this morning. 10 miles with 4 mile repeats at 7:50-8:00min/mi pace. I honestly almost passed-out the first time I read this plan and thought there was no way I would EVER run a mile under 8 minutes, let alone 4! However, I continued to persevere through my training plan and the workout came on the docket this morning (I may have lost some sleep last night stressing about it...). I woke up and 4:45am to fit it in before work this morning and was determined to do this ENTIRE work-out outside. I absolutely love the treadmill for speed workouts, but have recently started switching them to outside as I know my mental toughness needs some work before reaching my sub 4-hour goal. 

I did a 2 mile warm-up then settled into a half-mile stretch of road that is pretty quiet with traffic (and no homes so less people to see me run by them 10+ times...) and flat. I settled into my first mile and was surprised with how easy it felt at 7:59 pace. 800 recovery then pushed into the second one (7:55), 800 recovery, third one (7:57), 800 recovery, and last one (7:58). I couldn't believe it- I had reached my goal and TOTALLY ROCKED IT. I basically felt like I was on cloud nine and still can't believe how easy it felt. 2 mile easy cool-down to follow.

I still have 26 days until my race, but I will be riding this cloud nine feeling for quiet some time! Despite the results that race day brings, I know that my big goal will be obtained whether it is in the cards for next month, November, or 5 years from now!

So embrace those crazy-scary dreams with open arms and know that you're badass for pushing yourself beyond your current limits. The journey to your destination will always teach you a thing or two and make you stronger, no matter the outcome. 

 

Do you have any big, scary goals for 2017?

What's your tactic for overcoming those nerves and embracing the scary?