Tag: Fenugreek training logs

Fenugreek Training Log – 10.23.16
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Train hard, recover hard, right? That’s my mantra as I approach the peak weeks of training for CIM. Week 12 of 18 included my first ever 20 mile long run. I followed the Hansons Marathon Method for my first marathon and capped out at 16 miles. Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of the Hansons plan for my own training and am enjoying these marathon training long runs. lately-october-5

I’m self-coached (the perks of being a running coach!) so I make my training up a few weeks at time and am constantly tweaking it to fit the weather (because it’s rainy season in Seattle!) and the areas I need to work on before the race. I didn’t even plan on doing 20 this week until the weather was right and I decided it was the appropriate progression.

Monday:
8 miles: 2 mile warm up, 6 miles at marathon pace or slightly faster over gently rolling hills (8:06, 7:59, 7:43, 8:07, 7:44, 7:51)

Tuesday:
AM: 7 miles easy
PM: 20 minutes strength training: side step-ups, 3-way lunges, side planks, push ups, and lateral band walks

Wednesday:
AM: 10 miles: 2.5 mile warm up + 4 x 2K at tempo pace (7:20-7:25) with 3 minute recovery jog, 1.5 mile cool down
PM: 15 minutes core work + foam rolling

Thursday:
AM: 5 mile recovery run
PM: 25 minutes advanced Pilates

Friday:
AM: 20 mile long run at an easy pace – 8:58/mile. I negative split all of my long runs just by the fact that it takes me what feels like an hour to warm up on a long run.

Saturday & Sunday:
Rest! My husband and I decided to take ourselves and our dogs on an impromptu end-of-season camping trip. I was happy with my 50 miles of the week and glad to just kick back by a campfire and drink a beer.

Fenugreek Training Log, 10/10-10/16
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Fenugreek Training Log 10/9-10/16The weather this week transformed from perfectly beautiful fall weather to a torrential start of rainy season. I have become stubborn about running outside as much as possible, but this week’s weather moved me inside for a run.

I’m now at week 11 out of 18 for training for the California International Marathon and had my first 50 mile week of this training cycle. I’m a proponent of a moderate mileage approach to the marathon, especially for someone like myself who is (a) training for only her second marathon and (b) aiming for a 3:30-3:40 marathon.

Monday: 10 mile progression run on rolling hills. I started at an easy effort – 8:50 min/miles – and worked down until the last 3 miles were at or slightly faster than goal marathon pace at 8:10 (uphill), 7:48 (downhill), and 7:53.

Tuesday: Easy 7 mile run in the morning and 20 minutes of strength training with dumbbells and resistance bands in the evening.

Wednesday: 7 mile easy run in perfect fall weather – crisp, sunny, and under 40 degrees.

Thursday: 18 mile long run with last 4 miles at goal marathon pace. I rearranged my training week to get this run in on Thursday, since high winds and heavy rains were predicted for the Seattle area for Thursday night through Sunday. It was already raining and windy but I’d rather run in wind and rain than attempt a long run on the treadmill. My last 4 miles were 7:58, 8:02, 7:49, and 7:51.

Friday: 40 minutes advanced Pilates.

Saturday: 8 miles with 3 x 10 minutes at 7:30/mile on the treadmill. Tempo runs always feel harder on the treadmill for some reason.

Sunday: Complete rest. I’m a firm believer in rest days during peak training. Plus, hiking was out of the question with the weather!

 

Fenugreek’s Training Logs: 9/26 – 10/9
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Life has been an enjoyable whirlwind over the past couple weeks – flying from the Pacific Northwest to New England and back again, prepping my athletes for fall races – that my first official Salty training log will compile those two weeks.

Since I’m new to Salty running, I will catch you up on my training: I started training on August 1 for the California International Marathon, which will be my second marathon. Part of me wants to run a BQ, but another part of me doesn’t want to put that pressure on myself. I want to grit it out and on race day, give my best, and run a strong race – whether that ends up being a BQ time, a PR, or neither.

Week of September 26-October 2

This week I attended the Rise.Run.Retreat with nine other runners and bloggers/social media influencers. What an incredible experience! The hills of Vermont killed my West Coast butt, but I ran a strong half marathon at the end of the week even though I missed by PR by 9 minutes.

Monday: 8 miles easy – just your bread and butter marathon training easy day.

Tuesday: Usually running helps with stress, but sometimes the stress wins out. My breathing was all out of whack on what would normally be considered an “easier” tempo run – 2 mile warm up, 4 miles at half marathon pace, 1 mile cool down. I still managed to hit my paces – 7:30, 7:27, 7:28, and 7:16 – but I just felt off.

Pilates in the evening helped me chill out mentally – for me, it does for the mind and body what yoga does for others.

Wednesday: 8 miles easy again – this time split between 6 on my own and 2 with my Labraheeler, who is learning how to run.

Thursday: Does pacing nervously around the airport during flight delays count as cross-training?

Friday: 5.5 mile on some crazy, crazy Vermont hills.  Yes, I live in East Seattle – but my routes have rolling hills, not grueling mountain climbs. (Note to self: run more hills. Hills may kick your butt, but they are fun!)

Saturday: As part of the retreat, we had an instructor lead us through recovery yoga – or more accurately, the other nine women did yoga as I struggled with the simplest moves. To say that flying gives me tight hips is an understatement, but at least I felt better afterward.

Sunday: The Leaf Peeper Half Marathon! After a leaf-peeper-half-1short warm up (3/4 of a mile?), I ran the hardest course of my running career so far. The first 3 miles gained approximately 800 feet (1000 total for the course!) and featured a grueling 17% incline. For the first 9 miles, I maintained a comfortable pace. But something clicked in my head and I drew from the support and inspiration of the women around me. I chiseled down to half marathon pace and clocked a 7:01 as my final full mile for a finish time of 1:47:55.

Week of October 3-9

Monday: Complete rest day. The combination of running a hard half marathon then hopping on a long flight back to Seattle took a toll on my body.

Tuesday: Back to the marathon grind! Another easy 8 mile run, split with the Labraheeler, followed by 25 minutes of Pilates in the evening.cim-training-week-10-6

Wednesday: I eased back in with one easy workout of the week – 9 miles with 6 miles at goal marathon pace over rolling hills. My miles ranged from 7:46 (oops! too fast on the flat) to 8:01, which I was quite pleased to see.

In the evening, I did a simple strength routine at home with the resistance band: clamshells, jump squats, regular squats, bridges, push ups, etc. The theme of this week was going a bit easy on my body after the race, before cranking it up hard for the final push of training.

Thursday: 7 miles easy. Can you see a theme here? I like those easy days right around 5-8 miles. CIM will only be my second marathon and I see no point in piling on crazy mileage at this point in my running.

Friday: 16 mile long run through the windiest weather I’ve experienced in a while. Running in 25 mph winds is no easy feat but I was proud of not wimping out and maintaining a decent pace on this run.

Saturday: 5 miles easy with my husband and our two dogs. We ran along gentle rolling hills at a very easy pace.

Sunday: 4.5 mile hike with moderate elevation gain. My husband and I are still training our new dog how to hike…and plus he has giardia (he’s a rescue so who knows what he got into before he came to us). So we kept our hike short and easy, but even then it still took us 3 hours with having to stop frequently and coax him over all the water crossings.

So now…it’s time to train hard for CIM. I’m ready to bump up to 50-55 mile weeks and put in the hard work of those 18-20 mile long runs.