Friday Feature- How To Fit In Strength Training While Also Running 50+ Miles a Week

It's FRIYAY! What are you doing this weekend? Anyone racing this weekend? Sunday is the Denver Rock 'n Roll Marathon and I'm SO bummed to be missing it this year. Definitely one of my favorites!!

I wanted to share with you a few tricks that's worked for me to keep fitting in (the ever-important) strength training while also running a pretty demanding 50+ mile-a-week training plan!

• Give yourself a time limit and work it in around that. I typically have around an hour and a half budgeted for both my runs/stretching/strength training in the mornings. I typically try to plan out my week for running/ training on Sundays, so I'm prepared and am focused each morning. I know that if I have a double-digit run to get done, I will not have enough time to fit in strength training that day. So, I work in my strength sessions during the other days of the week when I have less mileage on the schedule. 
• Take advantage of workout classes. This is probably my favorite way to sneak in a really REALLY good workout. I'm really loving Barre or Pilates classes right now and love how the class exercises change every week (working different muscles)! I can always fit in these classes during my lunch breaks, so I can still get in a good training run in the morning AND get strength sessions in the afternoon. Double workout days= SO tough but also really builds those muscles (*insert flex emoji*)
• Limit your exercises to a few REALLY REALLY good ones. I love exercises that work multiple muscle groups- you get more bang for your buck AND they take significantly less time (#winning when it comes to marathon training). Hoping to share a few of my staples over on the work-out page here soon!
• Do it before your run. I know that if I wait until AFTER my run, there is only about a 5% chance that I will get it done. If I do it before my run, I feel really warmed-up and SUPER accomplished afterwards. 
• Treat it like a run. Prep for it and never skimp on those exercises! They are what produces injury-free and PR-ready runners afterall, so why shouldn't they be just as important as our training runs?

Any hacks to fit in strength training?

Workout classes- yay or nay?

How many times do you strength train each week?

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?

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?

Intervals, Power of Positivity, & My Love For Chulula

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?

Workout Wednesday & Marathon Naps?

Started out the morning with a nice 30 minute total body strength training session, 10 minutes of foam rolling, and 20 minutes on the bike! 

My work-out this morning included:

• 2 sets of 15 squats on the bosu ball with 10 Ib free weights (with bicep curls transitioning to tricep extensions overhead)
• 2 sets of 15 curtsies on the bosu ball (15 on each side)
• 2 sets of 15 single leg deadlifts with 10 Ib free weights (15 on each side)
• 2 sets of 10 reverse v-ups (not sure what these are exactly called) with feet on the stability ball
• 2 sets of 20 mountain climbers with forearms on the stability ball
• 2 sets of 45 second side planks with side crunch (45 seconds on each side; about 12 crunches)
• 2 sets of 10 v-ups with alternating rotations with a 10 Ib medicine ball

Can we talk about how stunning my drives into work have been lately?! I love this time of year! Spring running is always amazing, I can leave my headlamp at home, and never need to stress about not being seen on the roads. 

The weather for us over the next few days is seriously bumming me out. It was SNOWING on-and-off here all day and higher elevations may get 3-9 inches of snow tonight! I want spring weather, Colorado! My skis have already been tucked away until next season...

This entire week I have seriously been SO exhausted. I always feel this way the last few training weeks of a marathon training cycle- anyone else feel this way too? I'm trying to keep myself well-hydrated and am determined to get more shut-eye the last three weeks before race day to help ease the marathon taper-craziness!

Some other things that I like to do to keep the taper-crazies at bay: 

Schedule some time to pamper yourself (new haircut or mani/pedi?), try out some new recipes that you pinned (curb the rungriness), take an extra nap (or three), craft time, spring cleaning, or take a day-trip to a National or State Park near you!

Hopefully these ideas will help you take advantage of all the free-time that you have now that you are tapering and stop those taper-crazies before they start!

Also how cute is she?! This is her "im sitting down like you wanted me to, now give me the food humans". Happy HUMPDAY