Marathon Monday: Week 11

Week 11 was a fantastic one! It included my longest run ever and my highest weekly mileage. :) If you want to read about previous weeks in my training plan, check them out here: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4,Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, and Week 10.

Monday was a cross training day and our last full day in Southern California. I didn't do any specific cross training, but we did walk a lot, and spent some time playing in the water at the beach. We also went on a whale watching boat ride, which was a lot of fun (although I suppose doesn't count as cross training ha).

Dolphins swimming near the boat!

Tuesday had 5 miles on the schedule. We flew out of LAX around 11 am, and got back to Chicago around 7 pm after a layover in Denver. By the time we got to my parents house, it was 9 pm, and we were starving. After we ate, I pulled on my running clothes and grabbed Nova to go for a run around 11 pm. Normally I'd be a little nervous about going for a run that late, but my parents live in a town of about 1000 people, so I'm not too worried about it there. :) I did 4 miles with Nova, and she was dead tired, so I dropped her off before the last mile. I was pretty proud of myself for getting my run in even after travelling for the majority of the day!

On Wednesday I had to run 8 miles. The local running club in our area offers a monthly 5k at the Farmer's Market, and the August one was on Wednesday. I knew this was a high mileage week, so I didn't want to go all out on a 5k, but I figured I'd still go to the race and run with other people. I ran two and a half miles to the start of the race, then ran the 5k in 26:40. I did a cool down of 0.75 miles, and then ran home after hanging out for a few minutes. This turned out to be a great way to finish my 8 miles--they flew right by. :)

Thursday included another 5 miles. My friend invited me to a yoga class, and I thought that would be a good idea while I'm in the heat of marathon training. I planned to run after the class, but as soon as we were done, it had started to rain. I decided to go to the University's co-rec to run my 5 miles on the treadmill. Luckily, the Olympics were on, so the miles flew right by. :) These were the first miles I have done on a treadmill during marathon training!

The co-rec was super crowded because all the students are returning to campus

Friday was a rest day, which I definitely needed! I am going to a conference this week (Monday-Wednesday), so I had to make some changes to my presentation and then meet with my advisor. Always appreciative of rest days!

This week, the run on Saturday was 8 pace miles. I woke up, had part of a banana, and was off. I ran 1.5 miles warm up, then 5 miles at a 9:38 pace. Then I finished up with a cool down of 1.5 miles. It was much cooler than it has been in weeks, which probably explains why this run wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I stopped for water a couple times, but other than that, was cruising right along.

Sunday was the monster run. 18 miles. I tried not to think about it too much, because I didn't want to psych myself out. I bought some Clif Shot Bloks to eat during the run, and decided to focus on completing hour after hour of the run. I knew it would take me about three hours and twenty minutes, so at each hour I had a few Shot Bloks and water.

The run went surprisingly well, and I felt good throughout the entire run. The Shot Bloks were delicious, and didn't both my stomach at all--very reassuring! I will plan to use them as my fuel during the marathon. I went a little slower than I have been, but I figured that was a good decision if it meant I could make it through the whole 18 miles. I  ended up with an 11:08 pace, and a smile on my face! We went to a family reunion later in the day, and I wasn't even overly tired.

Overall this was a great week! I completed all of my runs without too much trouble, and finished with 44 miles for the week. This is only my second time running more than 40 miles in a week, and although I slept more than usual, I felt great. I'm starting to feel excited to run the marathon in 7 weeks (but still slightly terrified ha)!

Marathon Update: Week 10

Sorry for the delay this week, it's been a busy one! I have now finished Week 10 of my marathon training--I can't believe it. If you haven't been following along, but want to catch up, you can see Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, and Week 9. Wow, that is a lot of weeks already completed! :)

As usual, Monday was a cross training day. I usually either bike or swim in addition to playing racquetball, but this week I decided that just playing racquetball would be enough. There are 6-8 graduate students who play once a week, and it's a nice way to be social and active all at once. :)

Tuesday had 4 miles on the schedule. I have a trail half marathon coming up, so I figured I better head over to the trails near my house to get a little bit of practice in. I tried to keep my heart rate low during this run, so my pace was rather slow, but I felt strong and full of energy. I ended up running 4.25 miles and felt like I could have kept going.

Wednesday was an 8 mile run. I was not very excited about this because 8 miles in the middle of the week just seems like a lot! I ran around campus, which was a good choice because it was hot (90 degrees) and that gave me plenty of options for water fountains along the way. Overall, the run went much better than expected. Afterwards, Dustin and I had dinner, and made a very spontaneous decision to take a trip to California...leaving Friday! I have never made plans that quickly before, but we just bought plane tickets and decided we were doing it.

Thursday was mostly spent getting ready for our trip by renting a car, and trying to make a general plan for our trip, but of course I had to fit in my 4 mile run. It was hot and humid, but surprisingly my legs didn't feel too tired from the 8 miles the day before. I suppose this means I am getting stronger! :) Below you can see Nova chewing on a stick while I stretched in the backyard after the run.

I mostly took this picture because my watch and shoes match! :)

We flew out of Ohare on Friday, so I was glad that it was my scheduled rest day. We dropped Nova off with my parents, then headed to the airport rather early. Our flight arrived in LA around noon, and I couldn't be more excited to get into Southern California. :) By the time we got our rental car and the obligatory In-n-Out, it was around 3 pm, and we immediately headed to the beach. We stayed in Costa Mesa which is near both Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

Saturday I had an 8 mile run scheduled and I was ready to do it along the boardwalk. We drove the 5 minutes to Newport Beach, and started off running north. Dustin ran a little bit with me, but mostly it was just me running to the sound of waves hitting the shore.

When do I get to move here?!

I ran 4.25 miles north, which got me to some of the beaches in Huntington Beach. I was incredibly amazed at this entire area because there were SO many active people. I went running at 7 am and there were hundreds of people cycling, running, rollerblading, surfing, playing beach volleyball, and in general just being out and about on a Saturday morning. Also, and I don't think I'm exaggerating here, every single person I passed said hello or good morning. I thought people in the Midwest were friendly, but these people took it to a whole new level. I loved it! Such a wonderful way to start the day.

Beach volleyball

I ran the 4 miles back to Newport Beach, and met Dustin at the coffee shop that he had been hanging out in. We each got a breakfast burrito, and then swapped halves so that we could try both. They were delicious, and a perfect way to end an already perfect 8 mile run.

Cool breakfast place

Sunday we were in San Diego--we had driven down Saturday afternoon to see friends and family. Dustin has a good friend who moved to San Diego when he finished his PhD over two years ago, and I have a good friend who just moved there to start grad school. Also, my grandpa and uncle live there, so we had lots of people we wanted to see. We saw our friends Saturday, and were planning a family day on Sunday, but first, I had to run 17 miles. Eek! This number still scares me just writing it. I originally planned to run in Balboa Park, but after talking to some people, I realized it might be a little hillier than I had expected (and this Indiana girl is not used to hills), so I changed my plan. I instead decided to run around Mission Bay based on a route I found on MapMyRun.

The plan for the 17 mile run

I thought this would be perfect because it would be flat, cool, and beautiful. I started around 7 am--ready to do this! The first mistake I made was missing that little island shown there which contains about 4 miles of the run. I saw the island, but there was no sidewalk or trail, and there were tons of cars/trucks, so I decided that I didn't really want to subject myself to that. I figured I'd find somewhere to make the miles up. 

The island from my spot along the trail

Around the south part of the route, I kept getting lost and having to stop and check the map on my phone. It wasn't too big of a deal, but it was stressing me out which doesn't help when you are trying to do your longest run ever. I did see some beautiful sights though--here is a picture from the bridge to Mission Beach.

I could have sat here for hours

I went farther south than the original route suggested, to try to make up some of the miles I missed from skipping the island. Dustin was again waiting for me at a coffee shop, with some food and water, so I was ready to get to him. I ended up about at mile 10 when I got to him, and happily devoured part of a chocolate croissant and a whole glass of water. I decided to run north up the coast for more mileage, before I went back around the bay to the original starting point. However, after about a mile and a half, I realized that this part of the coast line wasn't flat anymore, and I wasn't ready for the hills of La Jolla after 11 miles of running. It was gorgeous, but I turned around and head back to the original route.

You can see I'm a bit above the beach. After this, the trail just kept going up and up

Around Mile 12, I started to realize that I was rather warm, thirsty, and feeling the effect of being in the sun for the past 2+ hours. I took off my shirt to try to cool down, which I think helped, but I still stopped at every single water fountain I saw to try to quench my thirst. In retrospect, I probably should have planned a route with at least some shade. 

The beach on the bay

When I got to mile 15, I was ready to be done. I was still running along, but wasn't feeling very good. When I got back to the agreed upon ending point just after mile 16, I decided to run until 3 hours, and then quit. I ended up with 16.36 miles, a little short of 17, but I knew I wasn't doing myself any favors staying out in the sun any longer. 

Actual route that I ended up running

Once I was in the car cooling down (Dustin brought me a smoothie which was the most delicious thing ever), I realized my face and my shoulders were a little pink. Uh oh, probably should have worn sunscreen. :-o Luckily, it wasn't too bad, but a good reminder to always wear sunscreen on your runs. 

Overall, this was a good week, especially considering that two of the runs were during vacation. It was the first time I've ever had more than 40 miles in a week; I ended up with 40.9 miles. Woo, improvement! :) Bring on Week 11!

Do you ever cut your runs short?

Do you like running on vacation?

Marathon Monday: Week 9 and I'm Feeling Fine

I have officially completed Week 9 of my marathon training plan, which means that I am halfway done! What! It's amazing [and terrifying] that I'm halfway to my first marathon.

Monday was a cross training day. I almost always play racquetball on Mondays, but I decided to also bike to the gym to get a little extra cross training in for the day. I biked 8.3 miles in 31 minutes, played racquetball for about 50 minutes, and then biked home [only 1.5 miles].

Tuesday was a 4 mile run. I have been feeling so slow, that I just wanted to go faster. I know the importance of going slow during the majority of your runs, but I figured one quick run wouldn't be the end of the world. I held a 9:45 pace for 4.05 miles, finishing in 39:35. This isn't even THAT much faster than normal, but it felt good to get my HR up and to really feel like I was challenging myself.

Nova staring at me while I was stretching after my run

Wednesday was a 5 mile run. This is significantly shorter than it has been, since this was a cutback week. I went out in the morning and ended up with 5 miles at a 10:14 pace.

Thursday was another 4 miler, and I tried to keep it easy so it could feel like a true recovery run. I ended up with 4.1 miles at 10:47 pace. Thursday evening my friend had a peach party (she had bought 50 lbs of peaches, what!). We made peach muffins, peach pie, and peach margaritas. All delicious. :)

Only some of the peaches we used that night

Friday was a rest day, and I did almost nothing. However, we did drive to my parents' house to watch the Olympics opening ceremonies with them, which was fun. I love the Olympics so much! My favorite events are diving (I was a diver in high school), swimming (I also swam in high school), track & field (specifically the marathon), and gymnastics. I don't even care which event is on though, I will watch it.

Saturday was an 8 mile pace run. I was a little nervous about this since I haven't done a pace run over 5 miles in a really long time. I was going to run out in the country at my parents' house, but I'm not a huge fan of country runs (you typically get a lot of wind), so I waited until we got home. I ended up doing 7 miles at 10:00 pace, and then a cool down mile at 10:47. This run really knocked me out, both my legs and my lungs, but I was happy to get it done. I am trying to run pace runs around 10:00 pace, but I do not think there is any way that I will actually run that pace in the marathon. It just feels so hard even for 7 miles!

Splits for my pace run

Sunday was a long run; I had 13 miles on the schedule. I went to bed really early on Saturday night--around 10 pm, which is about 2 hours earlier than usual for me. I wanted to get up at 6:30 and get going on the long run before it got too hot/sunny outside. Apparently, my body really wanted to sleep, because I turned off my alarm when it went off in the morning and I ended up waking up at 8:30. :-| I considered moving my run to the evening, but I checked the weather and it was still rather cool, so I decided to go asap. I ate a piece of toast with peanut butter and banana, waited about 45 minutes while I drank some water and caught up on Olympics info :), and then I was off. I decided to try eating chocolate as my fuel during my run, and left strawberries in the mailbox to get around mile 7. My legs were dead at the beginning from the run the day before, but they started to feel a little better around mile 4. When I got back to the house and had strawberries and water at mile 7, I was feeling pretty good. I kept it slow until mile 10, and then I let myself speed up a little bit. Overall, I had an average time of 10:47/mile, and felt good to the end, which was great after my rough run last week.

Overall I had 34.3 miles for the week, and felt good. I'm starting to feel like this weekly mileage is normal, which is good because it is just going to keep going up in the upcoming weeks.

Are you a fan of the Olympics? What are your favorite events?

New GPS Watch: Garmin 235

I can't believe that I've barely mentioned the fact that I got a new GPS watch last week!! I started running in the Spring of 2013, and ran for a year without a watch (just used my phone). I wanted to step it up, so in Spring of 2014, I bought the 310xt, and have been using it since then. It's certainly older technology, which is why it looks like a giant brick on my wrist, but it's a really great watch. It's a triathlon watch, so it is fully waterproof (although it doesn't really track well in the water with GPS...I typically just use the stopwatch). It also has modes for other sports such as cycling, which I use quite a bit.

See that giant computer on my wrist?!

The size of the watch actually didn't bother me that much, although people always commented on it if I happened to wear it anywhere; this only happened if I had to go in somewhere like a gas station or a convenience store after a run. The main issue with the watch was that it had started freezing. It wasn't doing it consistently, but once in awhile the screen would just freeze, and I would have no idea what my distance/time/pace was. This is fine for shorter runs, but now that I'm doing marathon training, I didn't want to be 5 miles into a 16 mile run and have my watch freeze on me. Also, the watch was sometimes having issues communicating with the computer. Usually it worked perfectly, but once in awhile it refused to sync. None of these are huge issues, and I admit, they all first world problems to say the least, but I figured I'd keep my eye out for a good deal while continuing to use the watch I had.

I spent a lot of time on DC Rainmaker's site reading about watches. If you do not already know about this site, it is the most complete resource about fitness technology. He reviews GPS watches, bike computers, cycling meters, etc, and does the most thorough reviews that I've ever seen. Plus, now that he's been doing it for awhile, he has lots of comparison tools that are very useful for deciding which watch is best for you.

I decided that I wanted the Garmin Forerunner 235. I like the built-in HR monitor, which the 225 also has, although the 235 does continuous HR monitoring while the 225 does not. I also liked that you were given more information about your running such as cadence. The 235 (and 225) act as fitness trackers, so they count steps and monitor your sleep. The 235 also has smart notifications, but that wasn't something that I cared about too much. Overall, I thought the 225 and the 235 were both good options, but I was strongly leaning towards the 235. I watched for it to go on sale for about a month, but that number on Amazon never budged.

Description and price on Amazon. I was guilty of checking on this daily to see if the price had dropped.

On Prime Day, the 225 went on sale for $175 (normally $250), so I went ahead and bought it. I thought maybe I could learn to love it (and if not, Amazon is the best for free returns). I got it the next day, and just wasn't that excited about it. It was red and black (the only colors it comes in), and I'm not a huge fan of that color scheme. It was also very bulky. I didn't even wear it the first day I got it, which should have been a sign that it wasn't the right purchase for me.

The next day, I saw the 235 for $250 (normally $329). I took this as a sign and immediately purchased it and returned the 225. I bought it from a company in the UK, so it took a little over a week to get here, but the whole time I was extremely excited. It's definitely a lot to spend for a GPS watch, but I knew that if I would wear it everyday as a fitness tracker, in addition to using it for runs, it would provide a good value to me.

I have only had it since last Monday, but so far, I absolutely love it. The face is almost the same diameter as the 225, but the watch feels much lighter and less bulky. I barely even notice it as I wear it throughout the day, and I love being able to see my HR whenever I want.

The left and top-right pictures don't have the backlight on. The screen is very easy to see in all conditions with the light on

For running, the GPS is ready almost instantly, and the tracking has been perfect (although, I haven't done any runs in tricky areas like heavy tree coverage or near tall buildings). I have been using the HR more than I ever used the strap I had with my 310xt. You can set the screen to see 4 different fields at once, which I like, and the screen is very easy to read. The only downfall so far is that the battery life isn't great...depending on how much I run, I have to charge it every 3-4 days. This isn't a big deal, I was just used to my Garmin Vivofit which only had to have a battery change about once a year! I have used it for cycling and several runs, but I feel like I need to spend a little more time with it before I give it a full review. So far, the status is that I love it and I am very excited that I decided to buy it!

Marathon Monday: Week 8 Started Out Great!

Week 8 turned out pretty well, although I was again 3 miles short compared to what I was supposed to do. :( I also took 0 pictures this week, so this post is going to be rather text heavy.

Monday is typically cross training, but after a full weekend of biking last weekend, I decided to take Monday as a rest day instead. In other exciting news, I got a new GPS watch on Monday--the Garmin 235! Post coming soon with more details. :)

Tuesday had four miles on the schedule. This was a rather uneventful run, and I ended up with 4.25 miles at 10:34 pace.

Tuesday's run stats

Wednesday had seven miles for me to complete. I went in the morning, so it was cooler, but with 100% humidity. I think I still prefer this to later in the day once the sun is beating down. I felt strong this whole run and ended up doing 7.05 miles at 10:18 pace.

Thursday was another 4 mile run. Now that I have an HR monitor on me all the time, I figured I would try to do a run based on HR. I wanted the run to be very easy, so it could be a recovery run, and tried to keep my HR under 155. Towards the end I was getting rather warm, so I let it go higher, but still kept it under 170. I don't know how people keep their HR at really low numbers like 140! My pace was 10:54, which is slower than I usually go, and my HR was still higher than it should be for recovery runs.

Lots of info from my new watch. :) HR much too high for a recovery run!

Friday was a rest day on the schedule.

Saturday had 7 miles on the schedule. I wanted to try again to do a slow, easy run while keeping an eye on my HR. This was much easier on Saturday, so I guess having the rest day really does help. :) I completed 7.05 miles at a 10:50 pace, with an average HR of 155.

Sunday is where the week unraveled a little bit for me. I had 15 miles on the schedule. Saturday night we had a neighborhood dinner, and some of our neighbors invited me over to their house to hang out after the dinner. After way too much wine, I finally went home, unsure how I was going to run 15 miles the next day. I didn't even set an alarm, and let myself sleep as long as I wanted to. I woke up around 11:30, and we decided to have potato bowls for breakfast (probably my favorite weekend breakfast). I have never had this before running, but I didn't really think it'd be an issue. Around 1, we ate, and then I had to get going because we were going to Indianapolis for dinner with Dustin's parents. I left the house around 2 pm hoping for the best.

The first 7 miles went very well. I made a big loop and came back to our house where I had grapes and Gatorade waiting for me in the mailbox. I set back out, and felt a little tired, but ok. By mile 9, however, I was feeling pretty bad. It was very sunny and warm, and I had only had a sip of water from a fountain around mile 5. Around mile 10 I ran into Walmart for another drink and a minute of AC. I texted Dustin saying I wasn't sure if I could make it to 15 or not. I struggled through two more miles, stopping twice thinking I was going to throw up. Once I hit 12 miles, I was feeling so bad that I knew I couldn't (and shouldn't) continue. I texted Dustin to come pick me up. About 15 minutes later, I threw up my entire breakfast. :(

I have never thrown up from exercise, although I think this was a combination of drinking the night before, not having enough water, and being out in the middle of the day. I'm pretty down about cutting a long run short, but I don't think I really had any other option. I considered trying to run another 3 miles once we got home from Indianapolis, but we didn't get back until 11:30, and that just didn't seem like a great idea considering my stomach was still rather uneasy. :(

Overall, the week was good until I got to the long run on Sunday. This was a major reminder that I need to respect the long runs, and prepare adequately. No more late night drinking before a long run, and I need to have a plan so that I'm not running in the middle of the heat of the day. I still was able to get more miles than I've ever had in a week: 34.4. I'm thinking that I might make next Sunday's 13 mile run a 15 mile run instead so that I can get my confidence back up. It is a bit of a recovery week, but I figure adding 2 miles onto the long run shouldn't make too much of a difference overall.

Have you ever gotten sick from running?
Do you try to make up for missed miles, or just leave them out and move on?