The (mental) games we play

#flystyle

One of the things I am really working on this year is my mental game.  Getting faster requires breaking that mental barrier.

I find I struggle most mentally when I am doing speedwork.  Sometimes I haven't even started speedwork and I'm already psyching myself out.

Last nights speed workout called for 4 x 1 mile repeats at 7:50-7:55 pace.  I had done 1/2 mile repeats two weeks before at that pace and it was hard.

Already doing my warm up, I was psyching myself out.  "My legs feel stiff."  "I am really tired."

You know the drill.

But this time, I decided to do something different.  You know when you hit ice when driving they say to steer into the slide?  Okay, I haven't really driven in 10 years, but I feel like I remember that saying.

Anyway, that's what I decided to do on my repeats yesterday.  I slide into the negative thoughts (just a little, I didn't give myself an out for the workout completely).  I gave myself a little leeway during the first one.  I told myself just to do my best and then I could go from there.

The first one was a little tough, but because I had no pressure on myself for that first one, I loosened up quickly.  And my pace picked up.  In the end, I was able to finish the first mile at 7:54.

From there, the remaining three weren't as mentally challenging.  I knew I could do it, even when originally it had seemed impossible.

I completed my remaining three mile repeats at 7:53. 7:51 and 7:46, getting faster with each one.

I am not sure if I will use this way of thinking all the time, but if it helped me with this speed workout, that works for me! 

What do you do to get over the mental hurdle?

How is it December already and some Sunday rambles?

Holy cow, folks, how is it December already?  I feel as though the year just started.  I can't believe it is almost over already.  I am so not ready for Christmas yet.

I am heading back to NYC as I type this (love free wi-fi on Amtrak).  It's been a busy trip home with lots of running.  I ran a 5 mile race today and (spoiler alert) had a great race with a new 5M PR at a 7:53 pace!  That's right - sub 8's!  I'll have a full recap soon (after a Wine and Dine recap, Philly Half recap and Turkey Trot 5K recap) I promise!

Yesterdays long run went well.  I went out despite the temps and got my 12 miles in.  The trail turned out to be beautiful.  It was a paved 2.5 mile path (5 miles round trip).  There is a tiny stream running next to it as well.  I bet in the summer it's beautiful.  Mostly flat, just a couple of tiny hills.  I did attempt some trail running towards the end, but mostly to see something (you'll see below).  Will definitely be putting this trail to use in the future!

View on the trail

As I said, I attempted a little bit of actual trail running (off the paved path).  Mostly because I could see a little bit of the below from the trail and I wanted to see it up close!  Was the stone remains of an old house.  One of the benefits of living in an older area!

I followed up my run with a trip to Wawa for some coffee and a breakfast burrito.  I seriously love Wawa coffee.  If I could finish all runs with some Wawa coffee, it would make winter running so much easier!  The burrito was even more delicious then normal.  I may have sat in the car in the parking lot and eaten the whole thing.

Wawa coffee, a thing of beauty

Happy December everyone!

Attempting to psych myself up...

I am sitting at my mom's kitchen table right now attempting to psych myself up for my 12 mile run.  I had no problem getting out of bed at an early hour (6:15am), so what is the problem?  This lovely weather report:

At least it's warmer than last week, right?

The other issue is I still don't know a ton of routes to run here.  When I was growing up here, I didn't run.  I usually just run around the neighborhood, but it gets so boring.  It's like a 3 mile loop (or something).

So this morning I am going to be trying something new.  My mom told me there is a new trail (or she just noticed it, not 100% sure) not far from her house.  A little googling tells me it's just over 5 miles.  I figured I'd rather do 2 of those and then a little extra to get to my 12 then loops of the neighborhood.  Hopefully it's flat and not windy out!

In other news, I had a solid time in my 5K outing on Thursday - just over an 8 minute per mile pace.  Woohoo!  I'll have a full recap coming up.

Until then, happy Saturday!

Did anyone brave the Black Friday crowds?
I did not, I took my niece to see Frozen instead.

Dumbo Training

Dopey image via

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!  Mine was good, but a bit busy.  Saturday I went to NJ to have Crab Day with my family.  It's exactly as it sounds - we cook a bunch of crabs and BBQ and hang out. The weather yesterday was perfect for it and we had a blast.  It was a long day and I wasn't able to get a lot done at home, but it was worth it.  

I still need to get done my posts of Dumbo Double Dare, but as today is officially 18 weeks out from Dopey and tomorrow starts my training for it, I thought I'd share my plan for that insanity.

Even months after registering, I am still having a little trouble wrapping my head around what is going to happen.  It most definitely seems insane.  But I feel like I have a good base coming off Dumbo training with some of my highest mileage yet and Dumbo was like a mini Dopey (good practice!).  I know the next couple of months will be intense and will require a lot of dedication, but I am excited.

I have a good base and am ready to get into the schedule.  I am trying to not freak out over it and take it one week at a time, but make no mistake - I am not taking this easy.  It's a tough 4 days and requires the appropriate training.

I debated a lot of plans.  Do I use a modified Hanson's plan?  Create something on my own?  Modify the runDisney plan?  In the end, I have decided to go with a slightly modified plan created by Hal Higdon (see the plan here).

I like that he alternates the back to back weekend runs (something I incorporated into the end of my Dumbo training) and includes tempo work.  My modification to the plan will be to add in some speed and strength work as I do not want all the hard work I did for Dumbo training to fade.

While I don't want my new speed from my Dumbo training to fade, I am also being realistic that I won't be doing this race for a new personal record.  This race is all about endurance and time on my feet.  While I will be doing speed/strength work, it will be at a slower pace.  My goal is to make my marathon pace feel easy without being crazy slow.  I think the new speed and base I acquired for Dumbo will help with this.  I'll be running slower, but longer and it should (fingers crossed) work well for me.

I'll be continuing to recap my training each week as we go through.  I've got a bunch of halves in the schedule (Philly, Providence, Wine and Dine) and will keep you posted as it goes on.

Wish me luck!

Training Schedule Update

A peak at my training calendar...

Today marked the end of Week 12 of my training for the Dumbo Double Dare.  At officially 2/3 of the way through, I am starting to make my first official changes to the schedule. 

I said when I started this, it was an experiment for me.  I used to be a 3 day a week runner, but this schedule was significantly more.  I did run this much when I was training for Dublin, but I was working with a coach at the time who could make adjustments when needed to my schedule.

It's not that the Hanson's plan doesn't work.  In the 12 weeks I've been running on it, I have definitely gotten stronger and faster.  In all honesty, if Dumbo Double Dare was the only race I was running, I don't know if I would be making as many changes to the schedule.  But it's not and I need to think long term.  I've got Dopey in January and I don't want to be injured.  I am starting to feel some of the signs of overtraining (fatigue, easy runs feeling hard, aches I don't normally get) and I need to adjust accordingly.

To start, I am going to be switching my Monday runs to either cross training or rest days.  I am also going to go to back to back weekend runs every other weekend (an idea I got from Hal Higdon's Dopey plan, more on that to come).  This will give me some time to recover and not over due it.

I have 6 weeks until Dumbo (cannot wait!) and I think this plan is the way to get to the finish line.  I'll keep you posted as I recap my training each week.

Hope you all had good weekends and runs! 

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice over Stonehedge

Today is both my favorite and least favorite day of the year: Summer Solstice.  Why?

Well, today marks the first day of summer - which is obviously why it is one of my favorite days of the year.  Despite the fact that it has already been blazingly hot and I always feel that summer unofficially starts Memorial Day weekend, I always love the official first day of summer.  It's finally officially here.  Summer is the farthest we can get from winter and we know how I feel about winter.

But sadly, the summer solstice is also the longest day of the year.  Which means after today, it is going to get earlier every night.  Which means there will be less daylight for me to run in and reminds me that in the not too distant future, I'll be doing most of my runs in the dark (damn you winter!).

But, we do have a while before it gets dark early, so I am going to continue to take advantage of the daylight after work.

Does anyone else feel this way about the summer solstice?  Or am I the only weirdo?

Morning runs

What is it about morning runs that I cannot get on board with?  I am getting better, but it is so hard to get motivated for them.

My schedule had me doing a 5 mile tempo run today and I knew with the weather report calling for heavy rain, I did not want to do it after work.  Plus, I have a some errands I need to do before leaving for SF tomorrow (and I still need to pack...grrrr, I hate packing), so I just knew it was not going to be possible for me to do it after work.

But when my alarm went off this morning, I could not get moving.  I snoozed until I could not anymore if I wanted to get my run in and I still had to cut a mile from the tempo portion (ended up 1 mile warmup, 4 miles tempo and 1 mile cooldown).  It was to the point were I was waiting for my Garmin to sync with the satellites and I was thinking to myself - 'If I went back to bed right now I could get an extra 60 minutes of sleep'.

I did it, but my paces were definitely a little off.  It probably didn't help that I (obviously) did not get up with enough time to eat something prior to my run so I was running on an empty stomach.  

I used to not be able to run in the AM at all, but I've gotten better and now it seems like just speed workouts are hard.  At least I can get my easy runs in in the AM (when I can get out of bed).  Since it seems I can run in the AM as long as my pace isn't a priority, I am going try to start doing them in the AM and see if I can train myself to get better at it.

But, at least I got my run in today (even if it was short)!

Back in the groove

I was in Boston today for work, so I had moved today's scheduled run to last night.  I worked late last night so I didn't get to run as long as I planned.  My Hansons training book says it's better to do a shorter run then a longer run, so that's what I did. 

And you know what?  I am really excited to get out for my run tomorrow morning.  I may have even described it as 'jonesing' for one.  It has been a long time since I've felt this way.  I was so burnt out over the winter that I barely ever wanted to run, so I am pretty glad I am feeling this way again.

Just in time to start speedwork next week! 

Training Epiphany

I had an training epiphany this weekend.  I've been reading the Hansons Marathon Method book and was surprised at the amount of miles and the number of running days a week the schedule entailed (starting with 4-5 days, increasing to 6 days).  I've always thought I was a less is more runner - any more then 3-4 days a week and I over due it.

But reading this book got me thinking about my past marathon training schedules and what kind of a schedule I was running back when I did Dublin (which is currently my marathon PR).  At the time I was training with a coach (mainly because in a leap before looking moment I had signed up to do a half ironman triathlon and since I had no idea how to train for one, I joined a local tri club and eventually did private coaching for the tri and then just kept going for the marathon).  Since that race was 3.5 years, I don't remember my schedule.

However, since I am a huge nerd, I knew I had saved them (yep, HUGE nerd).  I found them this weekend and looked through them.  I was shocked to realize that my schedule had me running 5-6 days a week.  WHAT?  I really don't remember it, but I do know that when training for that race I was in the best running shape of my life.  Not long after Dublin, I ran my half marathon PR so apparently running that much was good for my times.

It was a pretty big moment for me to realize that apparently when I run well, I am not a less is more runner.  The Hansons Method has a half marathon plan which I think I am going to follow for the Disneyland Half and see how it goes.  Given the number of miles involved in the Dopey challenge, I think the marathon plan could work since it does include 6 days of running which will prepare me for all the back to back running.

Going to give it ago for Disneyland Half and go from there.  We'll see!

Is it Spring yet?

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Depending on where you live, you may already have gotten or will be getting soon some kind of massive snow storm (basically the entire East Coast).  It hasn't started snowing in New York yet, but I know it will.  Is it spring yet?  I am so ready for spring.  Any who...

I'm back from another successful Disney trip!  I had such a great time at the Princess Half Marathon weekend and a great trip with my mom.  A full race report will be coming soon, I promise.  I've been back a week and am getting back into the swing of things.

While I had a great time at the race, it was by no means a PR for me.  Yes, I did stop and take pictures everywhere which affected my time, but even if I hadn't, I was no where in PR shape.  I knew I had been half-a**ing my workouts for a while now, but this race really hit home for me that I am not in the best of running shape.

So this week, I am stepping up my running workouts.  Going to start doing speedwork again and really focusing on cross training.  On the cross training side, I took a Refine class this weekend.  I'm not really sure how to explain a Refine class.  It's kind of like TRX.  You use a pulley system attached to a wall and kettle bells and other items for an hour of interval training.  Think lots of squats and lunges and the like.  It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I have to say I really enjoyed it.  So much I am going to try and go once a week (I'd like to go more, but it's not that cheap and I am not made of money).  I was definitely sore on Monday!

And in terms of running, I am going to start adding speedwork (starting slowly since it's been so long since I have done it) with a 'B' goal race of Flying Pigs in May and then continue to build on the base I have been building with some more intense speedwork with a 'A' race sometime in the fall (not sure what that will be).  I am using a race plan for Flying Pigs I found through Nike and am doing some research for a race plan for the  all.

It's not going to be easy, my speed is definitely off.  But for the first time in a long time, I am excited to run again.  Might be because it is starting to get warmer or because I didn't do speedwork for a while that I am excited, but I am glad I am.  I even got up this morning for an easy run before work.  I haven't done that in so long (in all honestly, I actually can't remember the last time I got up and ran before work).  It felt awesome and I am excited to get back into the habit.

Tell me, how do you get motivated to run?