Hanson's Marathon Method- Week 12 Rundown

We are officially less than 6 weeks out from Race day! I cannot believe how time flies. I always feel like training weeks go by really slow in the beginning and then it somehow goes from 70 days left to 30 something days left! We are 39 days out and I am starting to cut out sugar from my diet until after the race. Overall, training this week went really well (it felt so nice to have a cut-back week too) and I was able to fit it all in despite all the traveling I did. I ran a total of 55 miles and ended up not taking a day off from running (since my plane was delayed 3.5 hours, no running was done when I finally arrived at 9pm that night)!

Monday: 11 miles total; 1.5 warm-up; 4 x 1.5 mile repeats @ 8:29 (800 R); 1.5 cool-down

Tuesday: 10 miles easy @ 10:00 pace

Wednesday: 12 miles total; 1.5 warm-up; 9 miles @ GMP 8:46 (actual: 8:53); 1.5 cool-down. I really think the cooler weather has been putting a damper on my slower goal race paces! Hoping it warms up soon or I may need to try this later in the day instead!

Thursday: 1.25 miles @ 3 am before my flight; was expecting to do the rest of my mileage after I landed @ 4pm, but ended up not getting in until 9pm and decided to do the rest of the mileage later in the week (needed 6 miles total)

Friday: 6 miles easy @ 9:41; whoops! was a little too fast on this one, but the air felt so great and I got to run at 8AM!! Dream come true

Saturday: 10 miles easy @ 10:10. I kept slowing myself down on this one, but felt strong and it was nice and cloudy/rainy out. Also got to do this one on the Rail Trail in Fryeburg, ME with my MOM!! She did 6 miles and is a rockstar. 

Sunday: needed 4.75 miles more to get to 6 miles. Ended up splitting it up to do 3.25 in the morning and 1.5 in the afternoon for a total of 4.75 (not sure on the paces- too fast I do know that!!)

Sunshine Goods:

• Hit my paces on my strength work-out and easy runs
• Fit in all my runs even when traveling like crazy
• Focused on drinking more water than normal
• Less chafing this week!
• Fit in one barre class
• Fit in one Hot Yoga class
• Took 2 Epsom Salt Baths!

Gloomy Goods:

• Didn't get a rest day
• Foam rolling was not a priority (bummer)
• Strength training sessions were little to non
• Ankle was feeling pretty stiff on Sunday, but it got better after icing/legs up the wall

Hanson's Marathon Method- Week 11 Rundown

61 miles this past week! Weeee! I felt amazing this week and didn't have the best Tempo Run, but nailed every other run, so I was pretty excited. My long run felt amazing (I finished and honestly felt like another 10 miles would have been easy) and my strength work-out was hard, but I powered through it. My nutrition was really great this week and I took recovery as a priority. I can't believe that we are less than 50 days out from the Rock 'n Roll LV Strip at Night! I'm super excited to be running back in Vegas at night and can't wait to see all those lights. I'm going to be traveling back to Maine for a few days this coming weekend, so it will be another week of mixing up when my runs will be, but no "long" runs are on the docket (strength & tempo runs will be the longest at 11 & 12 miles). I switched up when I did my strength & tempo runs this past week, since I wanted a weekend off (we were planning to go backpacking, but the weather looked rainy all weekend so I just ended up doing a 7 mile run on Saturday & my long run on Friday which worked out for the best).

Monday: Strength Session. 6 x 1 mile repeats at 10 seconds faster than Marathon pace with 400m recovery and 2 mile warm-up and 1.5 mile cool-down (actual: pace was: 8:34 for each split)

Tuesday: 8 mile recovery @ 10:16

Wednesday: 1.5 mile warm-up; 8 tempo miles @ GMP 8:46 (actual: 8:56); 1.5 mile cool-down. It was SO cold outside this morning (real feel in the 20's), so I think this and not extra fuel the day before really took a toll on my paces. I was a bit bummed that I couldn't get my legs to turnover like they did the week before, but that propelled me to be faster on my long run! Also did a 60 minute barre class at lunch; epsom salt bath to recover at night

Thursday: 8 miles recovery @ 10:20

Friday: 16 miles long-run @ 9:29 (actual: 9:25 min/mi). This run felt amazing & I wasn't as sore as I expected.

Saturday: 7 miles recovery @ 9:48. This was on the trails and I was a bit too fast! The weather was cooler and rainy, perfect running temps! 20 minutes of strength followed by 20 minutes of recovery yoga & epsom salt bath

Sunday: Rest Day

Hanson's Marathon Method Week 10 Rundown

This week went 10 x better than previous weeks and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with this training plan! I finally didn't feel defeated after any run this week and I crushed both of my SOS (something of substance) workouts. If nothing else comes out of this training plan, I'm happy to embrace the almost-euphoric runners high that I got from each training run this week. Hoping this feeling continues. I did also start to feel a bit of tightness in my left foot (thinking it's a touch of plantar faciitis- I get a few days of pain then I focus on a lot of stretching/ rolling my foot out/ epsom salt baths and it improves), but it went away after a few days of extra TLC. Otherwise, I'm feeling strong and ready to head into my one of three high mileage weeks (over 60 miles!) before the taper/ race-day (which is only 54 days away now!). 

Monday: 6 miles easy on the treadmill @ 10:20 & 20 minutes of strength

Tuesday: 7 miles. 1.5 warm-up; 3 x 1 mile @ 7:20 (actual: 7:19, 7:19, 7:23) w/ 400R; 1.5 cool-down. This run also includes two of my FASTEST MILES EVER RUN! I ran a 7:19 in my first split, then beat that with an even faster 7:19! 

Wednesday: 6 miles easy @ 10:09 & 20 minutes of strength

Thursday: 11 miles- 1.5 warm-up; 8 miles @ MGP 8:46 (actual: 8:35); 1.5 cool-down. This run felt amazing!

Friday: 10 miles easy on the treadmill @ 10:01

Saturday: 10 miles easy on the trails around the lake @ 10:30. I was super happy with my pace since this was a total trail run and on some pretty tough hilly terrain. It was perfect weather out!

Sunday: Rest day. 6 mile hike with Stella

Sunshine Goods:

• Hit my Tempo Run with pace 11 seconds faster than expected
• Hit my mile repeats on the track (with no cheer squad)
• Fit in 2 strength training sessions
• Foam rolled the majority of days
• Took 3 epsom salt baths
• Diet was on-point & super hungry all the time!!
• Running schedule is finally starting to feel easier and less overwhelmingly hard/difficult/impossible to fit it all in
• Sleep was priority

Gloomy Goods:

• Foot started to hurt a bit after my amazing tempo run
• Always hungry!! 
• Chafing. Ugh. This should just always be a negative to any training

Hanson's Marathon Method Week 9 Run Down

Week 9 is complete and I'm starting to get back into my groove (despite a pretty tough long run this week)! I can't believe that the Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Strip At Night will be here in less than 63 days! This week was really challenging because I tried to fit in my Monday Mileage (was on the schedule to do 8 miles) throughout the week since I could only fit in 2.10 miles before we left Yellowstone and were stuck in the car for 10 hours. It was also really difficult because the wildfires made for harsh air conditions and not the best for running outside (so I did most of my runs on the treadmill). I was able to make it outside for my Track Tuesday speedwork and for a few nighttime runs near my neighborhood (which is farther away from the haze and smokiness that surrounds Steamboat currently). The good news is that the haze has gone down and I can run outside again! My cold is slowly improving (finally gave in and got some Mucinex-D, which dries me out like no other), so that's another plus!

Monday: Scheduled to do 8 easy miles; Actual: did 2.10 miles around the campground in Yellowstone & fit in 3 miles Tuesday evening & fit in another 2.90 miles Thursday evening

Tuesday: 1.5 warm-up; 6 x 800 @ 3:40 (with 400R); 1.5 cool-down. 7.5 miles total. Splits were: 3:35, 3:35, 3:39, 3:38, 3:40, 3:38 I was SO happy with this work-out considering I did it a few weeks prior and it didn't go as well. It's the little things : )

Wednesday: 7 miles easy on the treadmill @ 10:10 & 20 minutes of strength training

Thursday: 1.5 warm-up; 8 miles @ MGP 8:46; 1.5 cool-down. 11 miles total. Actual pace was: 8:41. Had to do this one on the treadmill due to the poor air quality.

Friday: 8 miles easy on the treadmill @ 10:20 & Power Barre Class

Saturday: Rest Day. I volunteered at the Run Rabbit Run 100 miler and had to work a shift from 4am-10am (meaning I had to get-up at 3am and was so tired, so I decided to push my long run to Sunday instead). I was seriously so exhausted I slept for almost 12 hours on Sunday to make-up for it!

Sunday: 15 miles at 9:29. Actual: 15 miles @ 9:45. This run was pretty terrible. I was super dehydrated and it was hotter out than I was expecting. I think I was so off from my strange hours on Saturday and dried-out from the mucinex that I just couldn't push myself. I had to stop a few times and finally finished my run with the last 3 miles on the treadmill to try and cool myself down (didn't really work too well). Oh well, next time is another opportunity!

Sunshine Goods:

• Hit my track paces perfectly and still felt like I had a lot more gas in the tank!
• Fit in one strength training session & one barre class
• Did 3 Epsom Salt Baths to recover
• Nutrition was really good
• Sleep was better than previous weeks
• Tempo run felt hard, but I powered through
• Foam rolled 3 times last week= SUPER WIN!

Gloomy Goods:

• Long run sucked. just totally sucked.
• Oh the chafing. so.much.chafing.
• Headcolds & mucinex= no fun.
• Unpacking after a fun-filled weekend, no fun either

Hanson's Marathon Method Week 8 Run down

What a week it was! This week was pretty low mileage since I had a headcold come on and wanted to get rested up for my half marathon on Saturday. I originally had wanted to race my half, but with my head still staying pretty congested I decided to just have fun and not push myself into a deeper sickness (plus I wanted to enjoy our weekend full of camping!). I still ended up getting fourth in my age group (!!!) at my race and honestly had SO MUCH FUN! It was by far the best half marathon I can ever remember having (race recap to come soon). 

Besides getting sick, I did hit my mile repeats on Tuesday so that was a huge bonus and I just ultimately took the rest of the week off from any hard runs and just focused on recovery and easy paces. 

Monday: 6 miles Easy @ 10:20 on the treadmill

Tuesday: 1.5 warm-up; 3 @ 7:20 (600 R) ; 1.5 cool-down- 7 miles total

Wednesday: Sick- took a rest day

Watching Sheep Herders because what else are you supposed to do when you're sick?! 

Thursday: 3 miles easy on the trails @ 9:54

Friday: 3.25 miles easy @ 10:00

Saturday: RACE DAY! 13.2 miles @ 9:17 - 2:01:37- I turned off my auto alerts for mile splits on my Garmin and just went by feel. I negative-split my race time by over 2 and a half minutes and kept my heart rate under 160. I never pushed myself too hard and felt super recovered after I finished. I also got 4th in my age group!

Sunday: Rest Day

Sunshine Goods:

• Kept my health and rest a priority
• Fitness is still there!
• 4th in my age group
• Negative-split by a huge amount!!
• Kept positive the entire race and never felt like I had 'hit the wall'
• Hit my mile repeats

Gloomy Goods:

• Got sick (bummer!)
• Didn't hit my mileage for the week 
• Didn't get a PR for the half like originally planned
• Took an extra rest day
• So much running = so much laundry!!!