Importance of SLEEP & all the food

Hi Friends! I hope everyone had a great weekend. It was two beautiful, sunny, cloudless days here and I did.not.want.it.to.end. On Sunday, we went into town to do some sightseeing and visit a few of the shops. The Steamboat Marathon was still going on and I felt both sad (this was the first year that I haven't done it since I moved to town) and excited (the energy was contagious and got me pretty pumped for my race next weekend)! It definitely is a small-town race (I did the marathon one year and half-marathon the next two years) and gets to be pretty hot with not a lot of shade along the course, but the scenery is fantastic. HIGHLY recommend if you're looking for an early-June race next year! 

We visited a few of the local springs in town (the one above is Steamboat Spring)- we have a total of 7 natural hot springs in the center of town (only one you can actually go soak in). Unfortunately, the riverfest that we planned on going to wasn't happening, but we made the best of it and walked the town then headed to lunch before relaxing back home! One of Alexs' close friends also had his parent visiting (him & his friend grew up together) from Maine, so we took them all out to eat at the Ore House--> a MUST visit if you are ever remotely close to Steamboat. They have a sunset happy hour menu (5-6pm) and all entrees are typically ~$2 off regular price. I had the green chile chicken and off-course filled up on their all you can eat salad bar and dinner rolls (they have a cinnamon roll flavored one and it's amazing). 

On our drive home, Alex's dad had us stop to get a picture of the pelicans that we have at the lake by our home. They're always there every morning and the gray swan (alittle to the right of the pelican group) is also in this photo! 

Who knew that there were pelicans in Colorado?! This ended our weekend and it was so great. 

I bought some rustic sourdough bread this week and had to have some for my breakfast this morning! Half had a smashed avocado, red pepper flakes, and a egg and the other half had butter & raspberry jam with a side of oj :) Is it just me or does anyone else get even more hungry when they're tapering?? I think it's because our metabolism is still really high from all the miles we've put it through and is trying to play catch-up. Definitely not complaining and I'm trying to eat as much healthy light food that I can!

Met Alex & his dad for one final meal together before he left and of course we had to go to CREEKSIDE! I was torn between breakfast or lunch (they serve both all-day), but wanted to try something new so I got the falafel salad and it was so amazing! After about two hours, I was hungry again so had some fresh watermelon that we got this weekend.

Watermelon- definitely one of my favorite summertime treats. I also managed to squeeze in a short run before lunch (on my lunch break from work) and a few strength moves (did some dips on the assisted pull-up machine and calf raises on the side of a stair). I don't like to completely cut-out strength training the week of my marathon, but do stay away from any leg exercises and focus on just a few core/upper-body exercises to keep myself feeling fresh and strong, but not over-worked. I'll do one more day of a few strength training moves on Wednesday or Thursday, then that will be all before race day on Sunday! I've already started to pack a few things for my race and create a list. Tonight I'll work on  my playlist and packing some food/ more clothes. The more I plan ahead and pre-pack, I've found the less-likely I am to either 1. forget something or 2. stress about the race. I will probably finalize my race-day plan on Wednesday, so I can start visualizing it and feeling confident leading up to the race. We will leave Saturday late-morning for Denver (about 3 hour drive) to allow enough time to go to the expo, do a short shake-out run, drive along a portion of the course, check-in to our hotel, and get some dinner!

Anyone race this weekend? How'd you do?

Any big races scheduled this Summer?

What are some necessary things you do the week of a race?

Last long run & Saturday Wrap-Up

My last "long" run was Saturday and it was beautiful out! I slept in and got out for 8 miles around my 'hood (normally it's pretty hilly/ mix of trails, so I try not to do my longer runs on this). Not a cloud in the sky yesterday!

The trail winds around the lake for a total of 10 miles, so I managed to get about 5 miles in on the trails. It's crazy to think that this was my last 8 miler and that I started my training cycle with 8 miles. 

The rest of the day was spent cooking up some goodies and enjoying the beautiful sunshine! 

Alex's dad is here visiting, so we are heading off to the Riverfest today and hitting up some local shops! Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Long sun Saturday or Sunday?

Favorite things to do on the weekend?

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Thursday Things & What I'm Currently Reading!

You know when you sometimes just aren't in the mood to do something? For me, it was not wanting to run this morning. Or well, let me rephrase that. I WANTED to run, but my stomach was definitely not feeling it and that altered my mood. I knew that if my stomach could hold it together during my run, at least my mind would feel more clear (even if my stomach didn't). So, I slept in a bit (trying to get as much sleep as possible leading up to the race next weekend) and then headed out 30 minutes later than normal for my run. It was stunning outside!

Let's back up a little though and talk about my amazing snack that I had last night before bed. Whole wheat toast with crunchy PB, honey drizzle, and a few chocolate chips. 

So, now fast forward to my run. I managed to get out 4 miles- felt better overall, but my stomach still felt all funky. Chocking it up to something I ate yesterday and hope it makes a turn for the better today!

Also totally loving my momentum bracelet that I got at a local running store the other day! Perfect reminder for me to dig deep when things get tough and the bracelet material is breathable and I don't even notice it's there on my run (unless I look at it to remind me to keep pushing). I had another bracelet that I somehow misplaced over the summer and it was customized to a motivational saying that I picked out (and custom band color too). Still on the search for it and hope to come across it sometime soon....

I grabbed breakfast from Starbucks this morning since my stomach wasn't liking the idea of yogurt and got a sprouted bagel and iced tea. Put some peanut butter and banana on it and boom. happy runner breakfast (slightly less angry stomach).

Switching topics!: What I'm Currently Reading

Lost on the Appalachian Trail by Kyle Rohrig (you can find it here). I've got about 150 pages left of the book and it is definitely a big novel! I absolutely love any thru-hiking related books and typically devour them quickly, however this one is a large book and small print so it's taken me over a month to get 200 pages into it (I normally read before going to sleep and sometimes can only make it through a page or two before I'm OUT). It's a really detailed account and I think it would be a great read for anyone currently thru-hiking the AT or getting ready to. I'm mainly excited to get to his recaps of hiking through the White Mountains & Maine (since that's where I grew up and absolutely love hiking when I visit)! 

Leaving you with this stunning early morning shot of my run this morning!

What kind of books do you like to read? Any good recommendations?

What's the weather like where you are? Anything fun planned for the weekend?

Favorite night-time snack?

Workout Wednesday & Monthly Mileage

Todays the last day of May and you know what that means! Calculating up your monthly running mileage! 

This is honestly the first training cycle that I've 1. kept track of my mileage each week and month and 2. kept a running training journal. I know, I know. I'm behind the times, but I'm finally caught up and doing these two things have been SO helpful! I've been able to know when I should cut-back my mileage based on how much weekly mileage I've been doing/will do (and compare it to what I've done in past weeks), as well as be honest about how I felt after certain runs (and when things felt bad, go over what I did (and ate) the day before. If you aren't keeping a training journal and keeping track of your mileage- definitely start! Even if you aren't training for anything specific, it's super helpful to know where you are when you do start training for a race.

Started off my morning with a little over strength workout that included:

• 2 x 30 lateral band squat-walks (not sure the exact term on this one, so I just made it up!)
• 2 x 15 single leg deadlifts with 10 Ib dumbbells
• 2 x 15 squats with 10 Ib dumbbell overhead extensions
• 3 x 10 single leg calf raises on the seated leg press (10 Ib weight)
• 2 x 10 dips on the assisted weight machine (20 Ib weight)
• 2 x 20 medicine ball (10 Ib) twists in a seated v-up position
• 2 x 45 second side planks (45 seconds on each side) with 10 side crunches in plank position

Then did a few easy miles on the treadmill to round off my May mileage to 155 miles!

After work, Stella and I headed out to get a quick walk in before a thunderstorm rolled in. 

Stella's really only excited about eating grass, sniffing everything in sight, and cooling off in the water. It was an exceptionally beautiful day out and finally feels like summer here in Colorado! Let's hope it stays this way!!

We stopped at the store to grab some fresh flowers and a few other groceries before heading home. I got some kodiak cake mix for pancakes & waffles- anyone tried this? It's 100% whole grains, oats, and honey mix and you can even use it for making muffins! I've wanted to try it for a while and will let you know what I think!

Love using growlers for vases! Anyone else do this? Had to get some fresh flowers before Alex's dad arrives on Saturday (I always feel like it is more welcoming with fresh flowers). Also love the mixture of yellow & green flowers (yellow roses- one of my favorites).

Also, how CUTE are these salt and pepper shakers I got at wal-mart? They were less than 5 dollars! What a steal. 

Now, off to relax for a bit with compression socks before going to bed super early (feeling a bit sleep-deprived the last two nights) and sleep in a bit since I've only got 4 miles to do in the morning! Happy humpday!

Favorite work-out exercises? Do you still do some strength training while tapering for a race?

Favorite flower?

Do you keep a training log? If so, any tricks or suggestions to those just beginning?

How I Built Up Enough Running Confidence to Tackle the Track

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