training

so I ran…

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

…5.75 miles last night. My race pace workout. My most daunting workout of the week, as I have to run increasingly longer distances at my race pace, which is faster than I would run if I wasn’t pushing myself.

The first 4 weeks is 3 x 3000 meters w/ 800 meter recovery jog (walk!), and until last night I didn’t think I would be able to do this. I’m not there yet, but I’ve been using these 4 weeks to work up to it. Last night, I did 3 x 1.5 miles w/ 0.5 miles recovery (so about 2400/800 meters). And I did it. I didn’t die. I actually felt great when I was done!

Today, my knee hurts a bit, but nothing an ice pack (and an iPhone cable) can’t fix!

ice

is slow just a state of mind?

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

Earlier this week I wrote about how I have doubts about myself as a runner and my progress with my training. I came across this article shortly after: slow is a state of mind. This really hit home with me, as something that I’ve seen in myself and have been working to overcome.

It made me think — am I really slow, or am I holding myself back because I think I’m slow?

For my training, I’ve tried everything: C25K, free training programs from Adidas miCoach, training programs from RunKeeper, a custom plan from Greg McMillan, Jeff Galloway’s Run Walk Run method, and assorted others. Clearly part of the problem could be inconsistent training methods.  🙂  

Each training program or method that I have tried has taught me something.  For example, I learned that with Galloway’s method I allowed myself to walk too much, and rather than sticking to set intervals, I would try to run in the beginning, get tired, and then walk way more than run. I also discovered that a lot of these training plans are designed to work for everyone, and as such, they are not necessarily ideal for anyone.  I felt the best when I was using the custom plan from McMillan Running.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for the Disneyland 1/2. I was waiting to see how Santa Cruz was, since I had mostly used a free RunKeeper “1/2 marathon intermediate” training plan. Except that I skipped almost every single long run. It was not that I didn’t want to do those runs, but I was traveling, recovering from surgery, or just busy.

The free plan, in all honesty, was probably fine. It was just boring. And for whatever reason, RunKeeper insists that training plans start on certain days and the workouts are on set days. I think they want some sort of social aspect on their website, but it just makes their training plans a pain to use, because, ah-hem, I don’t want to run on the days of the week that they have selected.

RunKeeper has other free plans. They even have one called “Sub 2:30 half marathon.” The problem is the very first long run says “Steady pace is 11:20 to 11:40 pace”.  Umm, for 5 miles?  I don’t think I can’t do that. I’m not trying to psych myself out, but if I pick a training plan that’s too aggressive, or too ahead of where I am, then I’m just setting myself up for failure.

After being really frustrated with a seeming lack of options, I decided to try something new.  McMillan Running now has a “pro” account feature that gives you access to recommended runs and race pace workouts. It’s only $24 for access for a year, and that is way cheaper than a 16-20 week custom plan. Based on those workouts and what I know about myself, I have crafted my own custom training plan. 🙂

The basics of my plan are simple. Long runs have been replaced by race pace workouts. These are starting at 4.6 miles and will build up to 8-10 miles. The goal of these is to practice running at my race pace, just like the name says. I started with 1 mile with .25 mile recovery (3x) and have already increased to 1.25 miles. The second key run is the easy run. I’m going back to basics on this one. Slow, easy, but running. Starting with 30 minutes, and working up to 60. The third run for each week will focus on a speed workout.  Sometimes these will be simple pyramid runs or intervals, but most have been taken from McMillan Running’s recommended workouts. For those weeks that I’m feeling ambitious, I will add in another easy run for 4 days.

So far so good.  Except this week I’ve been sick and missed most of my running days.  I’m not going to worry though, there is still plenty of time between now and the 1/2 marathon.

I’ve also decided to work on cross training more over the next few months. I’ve been going to yoga once a week, and I’d like to add in at least one strength training or core exercise day. I am not super motivated to workout on my own (other than running), so we’ll see how this goes.

As for feeling slow, well, guess what? I feel faster already. I went from looking at my race pace workouts and thinking “no way in hell I can do that” to thinking “hmm, I can modify it early on to something I can do and gradually work up to that.”

I am a runner. There, I said it. And whether I am slow or fast, it doesn’t matter. Because what matters is that I love the feeling of being free, of taking Roxy and just going out for the fun of it. Because it’s not about winning, it’s about becoming a better me.

training…

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about training. Am I training enough? Am I training correctly? Why am I not faster???

There is so much information available on the internet, it’s hard to know what advice to follow. Should I train less but with increased intensity? Should I train more with less intensity? Is it ok to run on an empty stomach in the morning?

I’m sort of a nut, so I have over 2 years worth of training data. In 2011, my average distance was 1.89 miles. In 2012, that went up to 2.71.  So far this year, I’m at an average of 3.67.  Does this increase in distance warrant a 0.27 drop in mph?  I feel slow.  I don’t see any improvement speed-wise  and when I run races of the same distances, my times go UP.  The one exception to this is the 5K, where my time has gone down from 36:43 in 2010 to 35:02 in 2012.  However, I was expecting to see a much greater improvement.    The first 5k was before I really considered myself a runner.

So, what am I doing wrong?  Or am I doing anything wrong?  Is it unrealistic to expect as-good-as-or-better results from each race?

In 2011, my training strategy was this — run 1 to 1.5 miles as fast as possible without stopping. Sometimes I would run just 1 mile and then run/walk the next mile (or 1/2 mile). But pretty much every run was an “I want to run at least one mile as fast as I can” run. I don’t think this was very effective, and it certainly did nothing for my endurance or distance running. Only 11 out of 110 (10%) runs were 3 miles or longer.  My longest run that year was just 3.71 miles and I bet I walked a fair amount.

2012 brought more of the same. And then, at some point, I slowly starting adding more distance.  Not a lot, as my average distance for the year went up by less than a mile. However, 37 out 116 (31%) runs were 3 miles or longer and 10 (9%) were over 5 miles.

This year, 65% of my runs so far have been 3 miles or longer, and almost 10% have been 5 miles or more. I am trying to work on easy runs that build endurance and distance (no walking breaks!) and race pace workouts that slowly increase in distance (from 1 mile intervals to closer to race distance).

I signed up for the San Jose Rock ‘N Roll 1/2 Marathon in 2012 on a whim. I don’t think I trained enough, but I did invest in a custom training plan from Greg McMillan. In retrospect, this was a wise move, but something that I should have done much earlier. I had 5 weeks to train for the 1/2, and I had only logged 1 run at or above 5 miles…ever.

2 weeks before the race, I got sick. I didn’t run at all during those two weeks. I completed the race, and I made it just under my goal time fo 3 hours, but just barely. I was elated to have done it, but disappointed with my performance. I set a goal to run another 1/2, and to be more prepared. I decided on the Santa Cruz 1/2, which would be in April 2013.

Unfortunately, some times life gets in the way. Earlier this year, I discovered that I would need laparoscopic surgery to remove a tumor (no cancer, thank goodness). My surgery was scheduled for shortly after I returned from a 2 week business trip and just 6 weeks before the 1/2 marathon.

Once again, I decided to run anyway, despite the setbacks in my training. And once again, I was disappointed with my time. I knew I was under prepared, but yet somehow I felt faster. I finished 4 minutes slower than I had in the previous race, and just missed my original goal time.

My next 1/2 marathon will be the Disneyland 1/2 on September 1st. I’ll talk more in my next post about some of the training “plans” that I’ve tried to follow and what my plan is get ready for Disneyland.  I do have some answers (albeit only my own) to the questions I posed at the beginning of this post.

Until next time!  Happy Earth Day!

PS.  Just for fun, here’s some of the graphs that I have based on all my data —