Miler Method (Week 5 of 7)

Week beginning thoughts: Ummm... still feeling "off" since missing my weekend long run. Hopefully can get things back on track.

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength
Felt good about today's lift. Finally think I've "graduated" to the 25# dumbbells for curls, which is exciting. My form isn't awesome through the end of all of the reps, but I'll get there.

Tuesday
Planned: #10kTuesday, tempo + interval edition
10 min warm-up
2x5 min tempo / 3 min recovery
6x30s mile pace / 90s recovery
15 min cool-down

Did: as planned, 6.29 @ 8:25/mi avg
So my GPS did something wonky and I might not have actually run the whole 10k... NOT MY FAULT. It thought I started way over in the woods then ran a 2:00/mi for the first ~0.3 mi until it actually started tracking me.

Uhhh... no.

Oh well.
Got this done early in the neighborhood before leaving for work... hate that 4:30 a.m. alarm but I NEVER regret doing it once it's done.
First part of this was two 5-minute tempo segments... ran those at 7:27 and 7:02... not bad! They felt fast though, which I guess is accurate for the second one since that's pretty close to 5k PR pace.
Next was the 6x30s repeats of mile pace... which did NOT go according to plan... though it really depends on whether I look at "avg pace" or "avg moving pace".
Paces based on Avg Pace - 5:48, 6:52, 6:25, 6:33, 5:56, 7:05
Paces based on Moving Pace - 5:02, 5:43, 5:34, 6:20, 5:44, 6:51
Either way, I was all over the place (which I partially blame on the hills in my neighborhood). Need to work on consistency, though maybe it was a consistent effort just affected by hills? Eh.
Cooldown ended perfectly as I hit the 10k mark just as I had about 60s left in my cooldown and approached my house.

Creepy shadows on the dark streets

Wednesday
Planned: bike
Did: 800m time trial
Working from home today, so decided to go over to Furman and do last week's time trial workout on the TRACK. I parked near the physical activities center on campus, ran down the mall and back, then headed over to the track. I realized I knew where the track was located but I'd never actually figured out how to get to it. Wasn't difficult, just something I hadn't done before. I was worried there woudl be some summer camp or sports teams working out there, but thankfully there was just one dude walking the outside lane when I arrived and he finished up right as I got started.
There were cones every 100m around the track, but no marks for 70m so I ended up just doing 4x100m instead of 4x70m strides, then walked/slow jogged to the next 100m mark for recovery. I used the manual lap button on my watch, which sometimes I wasn't quick enough to press.

4x100m splits-  0:18.5, 0:21.5, 0:24.1, 0:21.1  (all but one sub-5/mi pace!)
These were short enough that they didn't feel too bad.

2x200m splits-  0:36.6, 0:38.5 (both sub-5/mi)
... oops, too fast. These were supposed to be at 800m pace (goal mile pace -20s, so 5:30-5:40/mi). Clearly I need to work on my pacing by feel. I definitely could feel my quads yelling at my towards the end of both of these.

I stopped my watch and rested for a bit... actually felt myself getting nervous!

I finally decided it was time to just go for it... so off I went... and within the first 100m I felt "off", like I'd hit a wall and red-lined... so I backed off, hoping I could recover then pick things back up to finish strong.

Nope.

Goal time: 2:45-2:50 (
Actual time: 3:09... that's a 6:18 mile pace.

womp womp

Clearly, I have things to learn. But here's what I'm taking away from today:

1) I haven't been on a track since 8th grade. i.e. I have NO clue how to effectively run on a track. Now that I've actually been here, I will feel much better going back.

Exhibit A: 8th Grade Track Team

2) It's hot. I'm not acclimated like I should be, and I need to force myself to do a few easy miles in the heat occasionally to help that.
3) I need work on pacing myself... that's the challenge with short distances. There's so little room for error and adjustment. Things don't "average out" like they do on longer runs.

The positive thing I'm taking away is that I have to push really hard to feel like I'm running fast enough for this goal time... so really, my goal pace doesn't feel as fast to me as I think it should. This seems like a good thing.

Anyway, a learning experience for sure.

I'll be back!

Thursday
Planned: tempo + interval
10-20 min WU
10 min tempo / 5-10 min rest
4x400m mile pace / 90s recovery
10-15 min CD

Did: rest

Hard track workout yesterday, and a weekend full of mountain biking ahead... yep, time for a rest day.

Friday
Planned: maybe mountain bike?
Did: 13.5 mi mountain biking
We got up to Tsali mid-afternoon, set up camp, and then decided to go out on a preview ride of the course for tomorrow's event.

Home Sweet Tent

Took a leisurely pace and included an extra 2-ish mile loop to an overlook point which was really pretty.

Overlook views

We also got caught in a light rain shower that we thought would blow over, but ended up lasting the remainder of the ride and through the evening. The ride was a good preview, but it made me a little nervous about tackling it multiple times the next day. There were definitely some tough parts! The entire loop we did had a bit over 2,000 ft of climbing.

Saturday
Planned: 12 Hours of Tsali
Did: 20.5 mi mountain biking (2 laps) 

So, the way this race works: our team of 4 people has 12 hours to complete as many loops as possible on the race course (Right Loop, ~10 miles). We rotated off every lap, and each hand-off also included a beer hand-off to the person who just finished their lap. Other teams seemed jealous of this set-up (as they should be). Race started at 9 a.m. and Scott took the first lap.

 

Ready to go & the start "line"

He smoked everybody up the climb and actually finished his loop before the next person was even up at the transition area because he went so fast. We learned!

Our friend Waylon was Rider #2, and he also did a faster-than-predicted lap. Next it was my turn! I pedaled out, which began with a ~2.5-mile climb on a gravel road. Not terribly steep, but enough to definitely get the legs warmed up. Finally getting into the singletrack, the terrain rolls a bit and finishes with a fairly rocky climb up to the one and only turn on the course at about the halfway mark. I felt happy to reach that point because then I knew I had about 5 miles to go. The rain from the day before had mostly dried, except for some ever-present mud puddles along the trail. A few steep sections of climbing more, then saw the 2-mile trail marker, which meant I was 2 miles from the finish line for my loop. Hooray! I was tired, but thankfully the last 2 miles is pretty flat with no major climbs or challenging features. Rolled in and made the hand-off to Jason.

 

One down, more to go!

Went back to camp, ate lunch, hung out, then before I knew it, it was time for loop #2. Right about the time I was expecting Waylon to return from his second loop, dark clouds rolled in and brought wind, thunder, downpour, and a few flashes of lightning. I hesitated leaving for a bit, but seemed like the storm was heading through pretty quickly, so I went ahead. I decided to take it just very slow and steady since the trail had basically turned into a mountain stream. It was ridiculous how much of the trail was completely covered in water... I had no choice but to just keep going through it! At least it wasn't hot, I suppose? I was pretty timid on the downhills due to the slick surface, so my time on the second lap was MUCH slower than the first... not to mention that I was tired. Once the rain finally subsided, I did enjoy splashing through the muddy trail and just having fun. 

Finished!

 

Well-deserved beer. I got a little muddy.

I was happy to be done, and very happy I didn't have to anticipate a 3rd lap (we'd decided to call it after everyone finished 2 laps... it would have been a close call to get in one more lap before the 9pm cut-off). 

Lap 1: 1hr 11min

Lap 2: 1hr 29min

We didn't win the event (not even close) but I think we did have the most fun of any team out there.

Sunday
Planned: long easy run?
Did: lol nope
Rest day. And cleaning the entire house, because everything seems dirty after you've lived in the woods for a weekend.


Week-ending thoughts: Fun weekend, but man I'm tired! Disappointed in the lack of (another) long run but at least I got some solid endurance work in.

Miler Method (Week 4 of 7)

Week Beginning thoughts: This whole week is up in the air with work travel and such. Just hoping I can hit most of the training goals.

Monday
Planned: strength
Did: strength + 1.5 mi run/walk
Traveled to Baltimore for a work conference today, and lucky me (?) my room wasn't ready when I arrived at 12:30pm... so I worked for a couple of hours while I ate the sandwich I'd bought at the airport when I landed, changed in the lobby bathroom, and went to workout until 4pm which is when regular check-in hours start.
Got in a decent lift, though a little scattered because of the different equipment I had to figure out. Did all of my PT, some stretching, and even a 1.5 mile run/walk on the treadmill because it wasn't quite 4pm yet when I'd done everything else. This hotel gym, though... y'all, they have equipment PACKED IN there. I have to give them kudos, they put a LOT in this little space.... but I'd almost rather have half the equipment and be able to not touch knees with the person across from me (not literally... there were only 2 other people in there... but if another person were on the equipment, it could totally happen).
Anyway, I did 3 rounds of:

• tri cable pulldown
• deadlift
• curls
• goblet squat
• overhead press
• curtsey squat
• rotators
• reverse fly
• jump squats
• overhead lat pulls
• pushups

In addition to stability ball, leg lifts, clamshells, firehydrants, and donkey kicks.

Whee! I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. Here's hoping I can control myself and not stay out TOO late so I get in my early 10k tomorrow morning... (on the treadmill, blerg).

Tuesday

Planned: #10kTuesday

Did: 6.2 mi @ 9:08/mi avg
Ughhhhhh stayed up too late catching up with industry friends at this conference, so this morning was a struggle. I almostALMOST bailed out entirely, but finally got myself onto the hotel treadmill and cranked it out. I did 3x 1-mile repeats at a progressively faster pace each time (8:15/8:00/7:45) with breaks in between. So glad to have that done. 

Wednesday

Planned: stationary bike

Did: 10.0 mi @ 15.2 mph stationary bike
I had to convince myself to get out of bed this morning... I even got dressed in my workout clothes, then crawled back in bed for just 10 more minutes of sleep before I headed down to the gym. I didn't even stay out late last night, I was just exhausted! Didn't really push too hard on the bike today, just got something in, which is always better than nothing. 

Thursday

Planned: 800m time trial

Did: hill repeats, 4x45s 4x60s
Decided to do Tuesday's intended hill repeat workout today in the early morning because I knew coming back from 3 days out of the office would mean limited time during the day for a workout. I shorted the warmup and cooldown for time limitations, but got all the hill repeats done. I'm finding that it's really hard to find a hill that takes 60s to get up in my neighborhood... I know there's one out the back of the neighborhood that would work, but it'll have to wait for daylight hours to do because there have been bear sightings. That would probably do wonders for my pace though!
45s hill repeat paces: 6:36, 6:38, 6:44, 6:59 (uh, wrong progression direction...)
60s hill repeat paces: 7:26, 7:31, 7:06, 6:22 (!!)

Meh, not all that impressive on the paces today, but it is what it is.

Friday

Planned: yoga

Did: yoga

Saturday

Planned: tempo + long run

Did: 9.6 mi mountain bike ride
Had the opportunity to ride with friends today, so headed up to Dupont State Forest for a beautiful (ok, it was still hot and humid...) morning ride through the woods. We had a large group (11 people) but kept it fun and casual for the few hours out on the trails. We got to see two great features of the forest - the air strip that sits on top of the mountain and gives a beautiful view, and Bridal Veil Falls. Wonderful!

Stop at Lake Julia

Airstrip

View from Airstrip

Panorama!

Those mountains

Bridal Veil

Bridal Veil

The Group

It was overall a much more casual pace than I would have preferred, but a day in the woods with friends is always good. :)

Sunday

Planned: bike

Did: nothing
Today did NOT go as planned. Wanted to get a morning stroller run w/ D this morning while Scott was out riding... but we woke up to a leak in the ceiling over our garage. Called an emergency plumber and came out... burst pipe. UGH. So yeah... once it got to be past 10 a.m. I knew a run was not going to happen with the ridiculous heat. Pretty blah about that, but life happens.

Week-ending thoughts: Blergh. Not how I wanted to end the week. :/

Miler Method (Week 3 of 7)

Week Beginning Thoughts:
I'll get around to complaining about the heat, I'm sure, but for right now... NO RAIN. YAY.

Also, I changed this from 6-week training to 7-week training since my event is a little bit later... I'll just repeat the last week. Or something.

Monday
Planned: strength 
Did: strength
Good lift today. Didn't have time for extensive PT at the end, but the rest was pretty solid.

Tuesday
Planned: hill repeats with 10kTuesday
10-20 min WU
8x45s  hills (60-100% effort)
10-15 min CD

Did: as-planned, 6.23 mi @ 9:03/mi avg
Ran this at work this morning and it was actually a pretty nice temperature and humidity level... thank goodness! Took an easy warm-up and went over to the pair of hills near USC Upstate. I ran 4x on one hill, then 4x on the other hill, both were of about a 5-6% grade. I forgot my heart rate strap so I don't know how hard I was pushing, but it felt pretty tough. Was about a minute per mile faster on the second half vs the first half of repeats... didn't think I was that much faster or slower but maybe there was enough of a different elevation gain that my Garmin didn't pick up but affected my pace. I dunno. But these were tough!

Wednesday
Planned: bike
Did: rest
Felt blah, got some kind of post-nasal drip. Decided on a rest day.

Thursday
Planned: tempo + intervals
10-20 min WU
10 min tempo/5 min rest
8x300m / 90s rest (goal mile pace)
10-15 min CD

Did: as-planned
omg this was hard to do during the heat of lunch hour, and my paces show it. I mean, they're OK but not as fast as what I was running last week in the early morning.

Tempo

Not bad on the tempo pace, felt like I was pushing but not too bad. Pretty happy with this result - solidly between a 5k and 10k pace.

300s

Oy, 300m feels SO FAR. I flubbed on the first one because I forgot I'd set a separate rest period segment on my workout program, in case I needed more time to get to a good flat spot on the road. So I took off on what I thought was my first 300, and kept running and running and running until I looked at my watch and it was still telling me to "recover" - oops! I hit the lap button then hit it again to end the first 300m interval. That's what happens when you forget what you programmed in your watch. :P

Got into a decent groove after that, though I wasn't very consistent on my splits (1:01-1:15)... I guess <15 seconds isn't all that big of a difference time-wise, but I could tell which ones I pushed on and which ones I kind of just let happen.

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: yoga
Yay, yoga Friday.

Saturday
Planned: 8k Race + mountain bike ride
Did: Simpsonville Sunrise 8k + 8 mi mountain biking 

Details of the run in the race report here: Sunrise 8k

Got home in time to do a quick change, shovel some food in my face, then get picked up to head to Bent Creek for some mountain bike fun. It was a fun group, most of whom I didn't know but a couple I'd ridden with before or knew, and the rest were mutual friends. We had a nice, chill ride and climbed up to the top of Green's Lick then made it down the challenging descent. I was pretty happy with how I was climbing and was able to navigate the entire way down. Hooray!

Arriving at the bottom of Green's Lick

Climb of ~1,000'

We took a very leisurely pace but felt good to get out and ride!

Sunday
Planned: 10 mi easy
Did: 11.1 mi @ 9:22/mi 
Had a visit from fellow mother runner A, so we got this run done starting right after 6AM. Thank goodness because it was already sticky and gross at that time! We did most of the Green Valley route, then added a loop through Furman for a quick campus tour. It was great catching up and always wonderful to run together. :)

Yay!

Week-ending thoughts: Pretty happy with how all the workouts went this week, though not happy with whatever sickness this is... thankfully it seems to not be affecting my ability to workout effectively, though it is doing a bit to toy with my motivation. Eh, can't win 'em all. Solid week with close to 30 miles (28.3) - haven't had that high mileage in a while!

Race Report: Sunrise 8k

I did not have high hopes for this race. Well, I take that back... leading up to the race, I thought I could be in a pretty good position for something close to a PR because of recent speedwork focus. However, this week I've come down with some kind of sinusy/congestion funk that peaked in its severity the morning of the race. I did NOT feel like putting forth a race effort. I thought of just making it a slow jog and forgetting "racing" altogether. All of this is compounded by the fact that the early race start (6:16 a.m.) requires a 4:30 a.m. alarm. Oooof.

I got there in plenty of time, picked up my bib and such, and hung around with friends until the start.

Team Milliken!

Of course once the start gun goes off, the race mentality takes over and I just went for it. I actually felt better when I was running (congestion-wise) so I figured I'd see what I could do. I felt very strong for the first few miles. Felt like I was in a good stride and rhythm, fell into a solid pace pretty easily. Somewhere in the middle of mile 4 I started to feel the efforts take their toll and knew I was slowing down a little. I wanted to be able to save enough for a final push once I was in reasonable sight of the finish line. 

Hmm... elevation might have had something to do with it!

Yep, elevation gain in the 4th mile was probably the culprit of feeling more tired. Still, had enough for the final push to make it my fastest mile overall and ended up with a pretty great time.

Result: 36:33 (avg 7:22/mi)

Not a PR (35:18) but my second fastest 8k! Plus it was good enough for a 1st AG finish...

Woohoo!

Did I mention it was humid?

Miler Method (Week 2 of 6)

Week beginning thoughts:
Seriously...AGAIN?? 😭

Monday
Planned: rest
Did: rest
A full weekend and a solo-mom week ahead (well, 2.5 days) and rain rain rain made for a rest day. We did get a brief family walk around the neighborhood and I eeked out my 10k steps for the day. Just a few more days to close out the May steps challenge at work! So far the streak is good!

Tuesday
Planned: hill repeats during 10kTuesday
15-20 min WU
4x 30s + 4x 45s hills (60-90% effort, gradual build on each repeat)
10-15 min CD

Did: as planned
Predicted thunderstorms all day = early morning neighborhood hill repeats for #10kTuesday (67th consecutive week).

Lights on for safety.

Got sprinkled on a bit, but nothing too significant. Really really loved getting this done before sunrise!
I used the "workout" feature of my watch for the first time... I programmed the workout times into my watch, so it could tell me when my warm-up was done, when my 30 and 45-second intervals were up, etc. I wasn't sure how it would go since I'd never used it before (or if it would even work correctly) but it went well! Plus, this was a nice feature when I was done:

My watch is proud of me.

I used one of the steepest hills in the neighborhood for these repeats, but I'll need to find a different one because I ended up running out of hill on some of the harder 45s repeats.

Just look at that progression!

I had the "gradual progression of effort" in the back of my head during the repeats but didn't really focus on it too much... seems like my body took over and knew exactly what to do, though! Felt good to push, though I know I could have gone harder. The hill grade was somewhere around 7-9%, depending on which "elevation gain" measurement I use to calculate. Will be interesting to "test out" different hills in the 'hood and see which ones work well for different workouts!


Wednesday
Planned: strength
Did: strength
I needed a change from my normal routine, so I did a "12 Days of Xmas" workout... starts with 1 rep on Day 1, then 2 reps of Day 2 + 1 rep of Day 1, then 3 reps Day 3 + 2 reps Day 2 + 1 rep Day 1, etc... all the way through Day 12.

Happy Holidays?

This workout is deceivingly tough... you get through the first 5 or 6 days pretty quickly and start thinking, "hmmm, there aren't enough reps for this to be challenging..." and then you get to day 9 or 10 and are begging for MERCY. My form got a little sloppy towards the 11th and 12th Days, especially on the Day 3 (Arnold + overhead press) and Day 5 (25# dumbbell curls). I also couldn't do anymore unweighted pull-ups, so I would start at the top, let myself halfway down and hold, then slowly let myself down the rest of the way.

Thursday
Planned: tempo + intervals
10-20 min WU
10 min tempo / 5 min rest
4x200m / 2 min rest, 4x300m / 2 min rest (goal mile pace)
10-15 min cooldown

Did: as planned
Got this workout done as soon as I arrived at work, and had it all programmed into my Garmin once more. I really like this feature - crazy it took me this long to use it! Though I suppose I haven't done this "structured" of a workout before, either.

Pace vs Heartrate - whee!

I did my easy warm-up and almost forgot that I had to do a tempo because I was so focused on the intervals... so I was on my way out to the flat-ish area on the frontage road when I went "oh wait, I have to do 10-min tempo" so I turned around to allow for more distance. The tempo was tough... I wasn't sure how hard to push, so I felt like I might have been pushing too hard, but couldn't tell if it was just due to my legs being sore from lifting yesterday or maybe not being quite warmed up enough. I didn't feel "ready" to push hard when my watch buzzed to start the tempo, but I felt OK once I got my legs moving.

Niiiiiice.

Amazingly enough, I nailed the almost-5K-PR pace goal for this. YES! No wonder it felt hard.

Next was the 5-minute "rest" i.e. walk as I made my way towards the frontage road for my interval repeats. It felt weird to walk during a workout... I was like "I SHOULD BE WORKING HARDER". But... I've learned to "trust your training" and follow what it says to get the desired results.

Flat-ish.

Thoughts: 200s felt hard but do-able and they were "done" in a reasonable amount of time before I felt too exhausted. I told myself "go 90%" and then went all-out sprint on the last one. The 300s were tough. They felt longer than I thought they should have been, and I felt like my form & quickness / turnover cadence was sluggish on the 3rd and 4th ones.

Well then.

Turns out I just went WAY too fast on everything. Oopsies? I guess I need to get a better "feel" for what a goal mile pace feels like (targeting right around a 6:00, hopefully under for the actual race). I guess that explains why I felt like this at the end.

Schweddy.

Anyway, definitely happy with the results of this run and pretty excited to see how I can improve in the coming weeks! Also, I think I must tense my arms oddly when I sprint because my right elbow always hurts after intervals... weird.

Friday
Planned: yoga
Did: yoga
This was needed. SO sore from Wednesday and probably Thursday.

Saturday
Planned: long run + 15-min tempo
Did: 7.17 mi @ 9:18/mi avg
Didn't do the tempo today, just a steady-state "long" run (7 miles isn't that long, but it's all I had time for). I ran through Green Valley so got some nice hills, and felt nice to get out in the morning on a weekend and just... run.

Sunday
Planned: bike ride
Did: 16.4 mi @ 14.8 mph avg
Thought about getting up to do my tempo before bike ride, but apparently my body decided it needed 9+ hours of sleep, so there's that. Got out on the bike and enjoyed a hilly ride through the country roads. Legs were definitely tired from this week's efforts, so it felt good to spin them out a bit. The hills were challenging, but doable. Met a few dogs who were curious but friendly.

Week-ending thoughts:
Didn't get everything done, but got the most challenging / critical workouts in which is good. I'm excited to see how this mile will go at the end of the training cycle!