Be Like Bamboo

“Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times.Your ability to thrive depends, in the end, on your attitude to your life circumstances. Take everything in stride with grace, putting forth energy when it is needed, yet always staying calm inwardly.”  Ping Fu

This week started beautifully. I got out the door at 5:30 on Monday and had my run, strides and lift done by 7:00 and was in my chair for class at 7:30. I got an extra hour of biking in when I had some reading to do. Sure, I had the beginnings of a cold and had sneezed through the entire day, but I didn’t feel THAT bad.

Today I feel THAT bad. Due to freezing temps, I swapped my workouts and planned to do an indoor tempo run tonight after coaching. I felt horrible while I was skiing (nauseous, dizzy) but thought it was just the temps. I headed to the gym as planned, warmed up with Joey then hit the treadmill. Where I made it exactly 8 minutes. When the display started spinning and I felt like I was going to die, I called it and came home deflated.

What I’m trying to remember is that above all else, I need to respect my body and I need to respect the weather. It’s hard, with forecasted wind chills of -40, but it is what it is and I just have to make the best of my cold and the cold this week.

Be Like Bamboo.

Well, at least I have something on the calendar?

Evidently 2015 is the year where I’ll fly by the seat of my pants racing wise. In some ways, this makes sense. At least from now until March 2nd, my priority is the USMLE Step 1 exam and everything else has to come second. This doesn’t leave a ton of time for focused training or high miles. After a decent performance on Thursday, I feel like I have enough fitness to start doing mini-cycles until I’m ready to commit to my “big” 2015 race. As such, I signed up for the 5 Colleges Realtors 10 Miler in Amherst on February 22nd. It’s the first of the USATF NE Grand Prix series, so I’m hopeful that I can get some early points on the board. I haven’t run that race before but in reading some blogs on the course, it sounds hilly and challenging. Perfect!

Over the next 6 weeks, I’ll be working on getting some longer runs back in, keep trucking on tempo work and adding in some hills both to restart speed development and prep for the 10 miler.

Anyone else joining me in Amherst? What’s your next race?

Week in Review: 12.15.14 to 12.21.14

Winter running is in full effect, including stutter step runs across ice and so many layers that one looks a bit like the kid in the Christmas Story.

Monday: 6.8 miles.

Tuesday: Workout! Ran to gym then 2 by 10 minutes on the treadmill at 170 bpm (T Pace) which turned out to be 6:40 pace. A little slower than in cycle but that’s to be expected. Lifted arms after.

Wednesday: Cross training, skied with the team.

Thursday: 4.25 mile recovery run plus hour ski with the team afterward.

Friday: 7 mile run. Legs wiped from a week of doubling.

Saturday: Hour of skiing at Sleepy then with Will. Scar and FHL bugging me.

Sunday: 9 mile run.

Total: 33.4 miles of running, 4 hours of skiing.

Happy to get some longer runs in this week and my first workout back. My foot is struggling with skiing right now (just hasn’t had to push off like that in a year), but hoping some stretching and scar cross friction will help resolve that. Looking forward to a week with a less insane schedule so that I can keep getting longer runs in.

Week in Review: 11.3.14 to 11.9.14

Finally feeling a little more like a real runner again including 2 runs where I felt borderline good!

Monday: Warmup, 6 minutes at MP then 4 by 800 at T pace and cool down. Quad finally calming down. 7.5 miles.

Tuesday: Clunky 7.4 mile recovery run.

Wednesday: Warmup, 3 by T pace on the track (6:07 pace) then a mile of 200 ins/outs plus cooldown. Then jetted out to MMU to coach and get another 4 in. 12.5 miles total.

Thursday: 7 mile recovery run in the sleety/windy/rain.

Friday: 7 mile run. Legs feeling pretty good!

Saturday: Warmup, then paced Flan to her first sub 21! Cooled down for a total of 7.7.

All smiles post race.

Sunday: Lovely long run on the Bike Path for World Run Day with the Olde Bones girls. 12.7 miles.

Total Miles: 62

Happy to have gotten a little more work in this week. It wasn’t as structured as I would like but glad to vary my pace a little and to see my regular run pace dropping back down. I’ll get a couple of early workouts in this week then taper for Vegas!

Week in Review 8.18.14 to 8.24.14

This was just one of those weeks where I did not feel like a runner. In fact, I felt a lot more like this baby horse trying to stand up every time I tried to walk.

Monday: 9.35 mile run. Tried to do my workout and it just wasn’t going to happen.

Tuesday: 8 mile run plus lifted arms.

Wednesday AM: 1.5 miles with the Girls for the Relay.

Wednesday PM: 7.4 miles with some shakeout strides.

Thursday: 9.55 miles with 7 by 5 minutes at T pace. Still felt clunky and awkward. Lifted legs afterward.

Friday: 8 mile recovery run out in Underhill.

Saturday: 4.5 mile easy run just to move, out of miles for the week!

Sunday: 17 mile long run in the heat with 20 minutes at T pace. Felt horrible from the start so just glad to get through it.

Total Miles: 65.3

Arm Lift, Leg Lift

Plank Set every night.

I’m hoping that this funky week passes and my legs feel better through this week. I’m hoping for a Wednesday workout which gives me plenty of time to recover before my race on Sunday even in the midst of an 80 mile week.

How was your week of training? Anyone else have the mid-cycle blues?

 

Week in Review 8.4.14 to 8.10.14

As I alluded in a tweet earlier this week, this was one of those weeks in marathon training that grinds on you. Almost every run felt like a struggle and even keeping my eyes open is a feat. I did reinstate my daily plank habit (1 minute plank, 30 second side plank on each side) so I’m happy about that. I also finally got to the real gym again to lift, so happy with that as well.

Monday: 8.25 miles in the hot sun in San Diego with a serious sunburn.

Tuesday: 11 miles back home. Forgot what hills felt like. Lifted arms after.

Wednesday: 12.5 miles with 35 minutes at tempo pace on a rolling course. Fatigue/time change settling in big time.

Thursday am: 7.4 miles with XC girls.

Thursday pm: 3 miles plus leg lift at the gym. Not the optimal day for it but have to keep strength up.

Friday: 10 miles easy. And by easy, mean it felt incredibly hard even though it was an easy pace.

Saturday: 18 miles with 9 at MP which was 6:50 this week. Not where I want to be but happy at the end of a big week of travel on yet another hot early morning.

Bike-fie? My fearless escort Erin made my long run fly by with her tales from summer in India.

About 7 miles into my MP work.

Sunday: 9 miles at the most recovery focused of paces.

Total Mileage: 79 miles.

This coming week is our last week off before school starts again, so I have to start planning more carefully for getting runs in. It worked really well for me to do runs bright and early on our road trip and I’m thinking about starting that again, at least through the fall. I’m lucky because coaching gives me some extra miles but I still need to get workouts and long runs in.

Just a huge helicopter parked in the dog park, nothing to see here.

Day 2: Harrisonburg to Memphis

800 miles
2 states

Yesterday was a much better day of travel. We got on the road for good by 8:15 and didn’t have any traffic or weather snafus. In fact, we saw very little of anything besides mountains and 18 wheelers. We popped off I81 in Blacksburg to see Virginia Tech; I have a dear friend who went there and Suzanne had never seen it. We spent the rest of the day on 81 and 40 with a quick stop in Nashville for Martin’s BBQ. By the time we arrived in Memphis, we didn’t even care that our hotel was filthy.

The bonus of changing to Central Time was that 5 am wasn’t too bad. I was nervous that it wouldn’t be safe enough to run but was happy to find that it was much nicer by daylight. I ran down to the Shelby Farms Greenline which is absolutely beautiful. Flat, cool and empty enough to do a workout on without being creepy. I did 5 by mile at tempo pace and although my back was killing me, the workout was a success. I’m starting to think Vermont isn’t that cool of a place to be in the summer; both of my morning runs have been lovely in the South with manageable heat and humidity.

Today we’re rolling through Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas with a final destination of Amarillo. Driving over the Mississippi today was a great way to kick off the morning so we have high hopes for Day 3.

Week in Review 7.21 to 7.27

We started our road trip today! As such, all of these posts will be on my phone for the week so please excuse any funky formatting.

It was a solid week of training and a nice confidence boost to start off Phase 3. I’m looking forward to my adaptation week and to doing runs all across the country this week. I’m also looking forward to hotel gyms; for some reason, I love lifting in hotels.

Monday: 15.5 mile tempo run. 2 by 20 minutes at T pace. Since it was 86, I did this with a HR monitor on and kept my heart at 170. First 20 was 6:53 pace, second 20 was 6:43. Given the heat, I’m happy with this.

Tuesday: 8 mile recovery run.

Wednesday am: 9 miles easy.

Wednesday pm: 5.5 miles easy.

Thursday: 18 mile long run. No workout, just long run for time. Pretty tired by the end of this.

Friday: 7.5 mile recovery run.

Saturday: 16 by 400 with 1:1 recovery. Total of 10.5 miles. So nice to have Will pacing me! Quads over this week by the last rep.

Sunday am: 5 miles at the crack of dawn.

Sunday pm: 3 miles on the hotel treadmill in Virginia.

Total Miles: 82 and change.

Looks like marathon training…

Week in Review 7.7.14 to 7.13.14

NOW it feels like marathon training! Solid week with solid miles and workouts.

Monday: Pretty wiped out from my long run. 8.25 recovery miles.

Tuesday: Still feeling wiped and it was about 100% humidity out, so l just did a regular run of 9.4 miles while LT did her workout.

Wednesday: Keeping my workout train rolling! Hot day but headed out for 3 by 2 miles at tempo pace and nailed it. Total of 10.4 miles.

Thursday: Crunched on time and needed to let the dogs spend some time out of their crates so I hit the spin bike for 45 minutes, prorated 5 miles.

Friday: Recovery 10. Miserably hot. Gotta stop doing my runs at 3 pm.

Saturday: Easy 10. Still hot but new shoes feel great!

Sunday: BAM! 20 miles with 6 miles at marathon pace in the middle (at my current VDOT, that’s 6:57 pace). Felt totally doable. Really psyched to have this done.

Total Miles: 73 miles

I did a lot better on core, stretching and foam rolling this week because we finally got our gym set up. Still need to work on getting over to the UVM gym or MMU more for real lifting. Aiming for about 80 this week so I’ll add in a couple doubles to make that happen.

How was your week of training? Get any great workouts in? Anyone else get new shoes?

 

Week in Review 6.30.14 to 7.6.14

Finally a great week, even with insane temperatures. It was an adaptation week and included a scheduled off day (my favorite combination), so I feel pretty darn good writing this one up.

Gorgeous long weekend for some beach time

Monday: 7 miles. Sore post move but happy to get out there and run.

Tuesday: Best surprise ever. Decided to go for my tempo run despite 90 degree temps and was pleasantly surprised. 30 minutes at continuous tempo pace. Due to the heat, I just did it on effort and it came out to be 6:51 pace, which isn’t too far off the planned 6:45 pace. Total of 9 miles.

Wednesday: 6 miles easy with Will. Heat starting to get to me, felt really crappy on this. Core after.

Thursday: Scheduled off day. Walked dogs for a while in Centennial Woods.

Friday: Another great workout. 12 by 400 at I pace. Accidentally did 13 apparently. Average pace of 86 which is 5 seconds faster than the last time I did this. Felt better and better as the run went on. 9 miles total. Total body lift and flexibility afterward.

Saturday: 7 miles easy in Shelburne while the boys did their long run.

Sunday: 18.25 hot ones at 2 pm. Weird schedule so had to do this at the heat of the day but psyched to have the first real long run done. Felt fantastic, although finishing up Maple Street sucked.

Maple Street: .9 miles, literally straight up. Humbling every.single.time.

Total: 63.2

2 times up Maple Street

2 core sessions

1 full lift

2 successful workouts

Looking forward to the coming week, to getting back up in mileage and to pressing onward towards October! 14 weeks to go.