Things I've Learned Not To Do Since My First Half-Marathon

Facebook. Ohhh Facebook. You are truly a lovely human being because you reminded me that 6 YEARS AGO I ran my first-ever half marathon! I seriously cannot believe it has been 6 years- I have learned so much since then (my oh my how much I have learned). I wanted to share with you some things that I've since learned do not work well when training/running a half-marathon (as well as some things that I DO still recommend doing). 

Mom's first race as well! She did the 5K then came and ran the last mile or so with me of my half marathon! She's a goddess. 

1. Do NOT skip on your last 2 long training runs. I was starting my senior year of high school and had trouble finding 'safe' routes to run around in Syracuse, so I either cut my runs short or did them on the treadmill (but I normally never hit my mileage goal). Terrible, terrible idea. 
2. Do NOT stay out until 12am at a Frat party the night before your 5am wake-up call. Yeah, I haven't made this mistake since then! Even when you are completely sober, it still is not so much fun to wake-up mere hours after you come home. 
3. Take some sort of energy gels/gus/ chews during your race AND training runs. I don't think I started doing this until I started training for my first marathon. Ohhh I was so inexperienced!
4. Invest in some body glide and use it all the time. This is a relatively newish thing for me and once you go body glide, you can't go back. It's a game-changer. 
5. Go pee before the race starts. I haven't made this mistake since this first race and I will never forget getting to mile 11ish and sprinting out to the woods to relieve myself because I never went before the race began!
6. Drink so much water the day before the race. Our bodies are made up of it and crave it, honor that and refuel properly afterwards.
7. Prepare to be sore after the race. Yeah, I had no idea how much pain I would be in....
8. Know your race route. I had no clue that this race included both trails and pavement and felt totally defeated once I hit a gravel section of the path because I didn't include those on my runs!
9. Be prepared to never forget your first experience! I still remember how absolutely elated I felt once I crossed that finish line. This race didn't even give out medals and I couldn't have card less (I had no idea that was even a thing)- the finish line experience was all I needed. 
10. Eat something before your race. I may have had a banana, but honestly can't even remember. I had no clue about nutrition and carbo-loading meant eat this entire giant plate of pasta and bread the night before your race whether you're super hungry or not. Yeah. Not the best idea to stuff-your-face before you run 13.1 miles the next morning. 

The t-shirt that they gave was pretty terrible and no medals at the finish line, but this small-town race still gives me chills everytime I remember how accomplished I felt at the end! I truly had no idea my body could run that far and I road that runners-high for sometime afterwards. I actually didn't run or train for anything particular after my first 13.1 miles for a year and a half later (then I did another race, shaved over 20 minutes off my previous time and haven't looked back)!

What are some of your most memorable 13.1 mile memories?

What was your first big race and was it a life-changing experience?

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!!!

Hanson's Marathon Method Week 6 Rundown

We are officially under 90 days from the Las Vegas Strip at Night Marathon! Wooohhooooo. This week of training had several low-points, but I honestly feel that those struggles make us stronger when we get to the finish line. If we're able to push through them, then it makes it THAT much easier to push through a little "marathon" pain (well, it's not SO little and it's actually pretty painful, but I'll keep telling myself that ;) ). 

I did 43.5 miles this week (I was planning on doing 47, but unforeseen circumstances I let those extra 3.5 miles slide :) ) and totally nailed my tempo workout outside! This was a HUGE confidence booster, as I've never tried a goal pace run for multiple miles in a row before and I couldn't believe how easy it felt. Talk about empowering! I also switched my rest days this week because my knee was giving me some trouble on Friday, so I did a bunch of leg strengthening exercises and iced it and it's feeling better now (I'm also determined to get more strength sessions in on my own throughout the rest of the training cycle). 

Monday: 6 miles easy on the treadmill @ 9:59

Tuesday: Track Tuesday! I actually made it out on the track this week! This one was super tough and it's really HARD to stay motivated to keep pushing yourself when you are pretty exhausted towards the end of the repeats. 7 miles total with 1.5 warm-up; 4 x 1200 (400 Recovery between sets); 1.5 cool-down. I wanted to hit them each at 5:27, but my average was 5:33. It wasn't perfect and I did hit a few splits, but really need to continue to work on boosting my confidence when things get tough and getting my legs to turnover faster. I also did a CoreBarre class at lunch.

Wednesday: 6 miles easy outside @ 10:01. I did this one during my lunch break and it was SO nice to sleep in (well, turn-off my alarm) and get some miles in during the day. 

Thursday: 10 miles outside with 1.5 warm-up; 7 miles at 8:46 (actual: 8:47); 1.5 cool-down

Friday: Knee was achy; 30 minutes of strength training and 35 minutes on the bike

Saturday: Planned 8 miles @ 10:00 (actual: 4.5 miles @ 9:17). This one was later in the day and I was working through ALOT of emotions, so I really had a need for speed and couldn't reign it in...

Sunday: 10 miles on the treadmill @ 10:00

Sunshine Goods:

• I hit my tempo work-out pace!
• I was able to do my track workout actually on the TRACK and OUTSIDE!
• I fit in 2 strength training sessions (including CoreBarre)
• I took 3 epsom salt baths (these are my favvvorrrittee recovery method)
• 4 out of 6 runs were done outside

Gloomy Goods:

• Oh, the tiredness. Hanson's wasn't kidding when they said it'd be normal to feel achy and exhausted throughout the workout
• Knee achiness. Hoping ice, salt baths, and more strength training will ease this!
• Slight head-cold going on and loss of grandfather/ friend this past week...

The Half Marathon I'm doing in 3 WEEKS & Unplugging

Alright, so I FINALLY pulled the plug on a half marathon that I'm racing during this training cycle and it's in 3 WEEKS! I'm so excited (especially after seeing the awesome race swag (you have to check out their facebook page) that they've done in past years and because it's in another state that I can check off) and will be running the Jackson Hole Half Marathon during Labor Day weekend! 

The race looks like it gains little elevation overall and honestly looks like an amazingly organized event. I'm so excited to go there with Alex and Stella and since it's early Saturday morning, we'll have the rest of the weekend to explore Yellowstone some more (we went there about 2 years ago) and just relax. It always makes it easier when a race is at the beginning of a vacation/ weekend away. 

We are camping for the weekend (one night in Grand Tetons Nat'l Park & the other two nights in Yellowstone) and the course is run mainly on their bike paths (which are seriously so amazing). I CAN'T WAIT! I'd like to try to get in under 1:55 (and utilize some miles as my marathon pace). I'm still thinking about my race strategy, but thinking my first 3 miles will be a warm-up (around 9:00 pace), then 7 miles at marathon goal pace (8:46ish), and if I'm feeling good bump it up to around 8:30ish pace for the last 3 miles (finishing under 1:55)! That's obviously a 'goal race time/paces', so I'm open to whatever and would just really like to enjoy the race. 

This morning, I had my Track Tuesday workout (5 x 1 km repeats @ 7:12 min/mi with 400m repeats) and did it on the treadmill since I really didn't feel like going to the Track again and having it being used. I think next week the track schedule should change (getting ready for school to start) and I'll be able to use it again!

8 miles total (1.65 mi warm-up & 2 mile cool-down). I felt pretty strong and while the last 1 k repeat was hard, I could definitely still do another one or two before really struggling (which I'm taking as a good sign).

I'm really focusing on fueling properly after my runs, so I had some of the Superhero Muffins I made from Run Fast Eat Slow cookbook and their Can't Beet Me Smoothie. YUM! Also, definitely needed some Iced Coffee to wash it down. I'm also a bit disappointed because our temperatures are already starting to feel cooler and Fall-ish which means I will need to switch back to hot coffee here shortly. 

I slept better last night (normally I don't sleep as well before my speedworkouts) and I really think it was because I didn't overthink my workout that I had on the schedule the next morning! I actually totally forgot what my paces were supposed to be when I was getting ready to leave the house this morning and had to go back and double check it!

I'm going to try to NOT overthink my workouts for the rest of this training cycle because really, what's the point? We overthink things, stress about them, lose sleep, adjust our eating habits (maybe), and all for what? We typically don't gain much from overstressing situations, expect negative habits. Having confidence in yourself and these situations can be difficult to gain (especially in the beginning of a new endeavor), but it helps you tackle situations SO much easier (even IF they don't go exactly as planned). While it's definitely still a work-in-progress for me to have confidence going into each training run or difficult personal/work situation, I notice a large difference when I am able to really 'own' it and believe in myself. 

I saw this quote on my Facebook Timehop the other day and was really moved by it again. Maybe if we are able to 'unplug' ourselves from our destructive habits and thoughts, we'll be able to see the other side of each situation and believe in ourselves? Before tearing yourself apart, unplug. think. reset. and plug yourself back in. 

Remaining Positive During the Tough Times

This morning as I was entering mile 3 of my 6 mile tempo run, I had a really difficult time staying positive. My stomach was feeling funky and I was tired and the miles weren't flying by as fast as they normally do. I really just wanted to be done, but I knew I would be super bummed at myself if I just gave into these 'silly' feelings! So, I figured others could also be feeling this way either in their runs/ life/ work-outs/ your job/ personal life etc. and wanted to put out a few tricks that I do to help me get out of my 'rut'. 

1. Remember how far you've come. This doesn't have to necessarily relate to running (although it definitely can). Thinking back to other obstacles that you've overcome, goals you've accomplished that once were seen as impossible or difficult, places you've been able to experience that you never thought you would set foot on, or miles you've ran that you once thought seemed impossible-for-you can really help put things into perspective. I know this morning when I started to get really down and thinking there's no way I can go on like this for 2 or 3 more miles, I think back to when I've really ROCKED training runs or races and how at some points, they were hard too (and I once even thought those runs/races were impossible for me to accomplish). Know where you've started and be PROUD of that. You may not be where you want to be right now, but think of how far you've come during your journey- you are more badass than you give yourself credit for!

2. Take yourself out of the moment. This really really helps me when things get really tough. I start to day-dream. I might think about my day ahead or something I'm looking forward to. Sometimes when I'm having a really tough time, I think to something I've excited for MONTHS from now (i.e. Las Vegas or Dopey Challenge!). Knowing that you've got something to look forward to and plan for can help switch your mind from those negative self-talk to positive self-talk and happy thoughts. Maybe while thinking about these fun things that you have planned, you'll realize that where you are right now is a stepping stone towards reaching those trips/experiences etc. This is also a good time to daydream about those trips that aren't yet scheduled! I love to daydream about the places I want to visit someday or experiences that I want to partake in. 

3. Know that the pain is temporary. I'm really not a big fan of this saying, but it is really true and helps me push through the hurt (especially during races). I also like thinking that the faster I go (unless I'm in serious 'injuring myself territory'), the quicker I'll be done. That normally always does the trick because when you're in pain you really just want it to be over with! This also helps me get out of funks sometimes- know that the storm may be intense now, but there will be sunny skies up ahead and to just keep pushing through. Try to find the silver lining in your situation and just focus on that. It could be something as simple as being done with your day and going home to snuggle with your cat/dog/significant other (if they aren't a furnace like Alex is- too hot for snuggling!). 

What tips do you use to get you through tough times or hard runs?

Are you a fan of mantras? If so, what are some of your favorites?

Also, head over to the fitness tab- I've added 2 new arm exercises with the Bosu Ball that I'm loving lately!