Maritime Race Weekend Week #10 Training Recap

After I wrote the title to this post, my stomach turned over! I think I’m getting nervous! Only two more weeks and I will be running my first race of the year and 3rd half marathon!!! It’s really odd to be saying this will be my first race of 2015 but after being injured that’s what happens.

I’m nervous, I’m excited, I’m a little weak in the knees, ha ha! I’m kidding….actually, I’m not. I’m really nervous about Maritime Race Weekend. On the Friday night, I’ll run 5k and have fun but Saturday I’ll run the half and be a little more serious about the hilly course and distance. I will write about my goals for the race soon but for now…….

Week #10 Training 

What Was Planned vs. What Really Happened:

Monday August 24th: Rest DayHad a 1 hour massage …felt great to really relax!

Tuesday: 5k6k Treadmill Run. Not sure but for some reason I just kept running past the 5k and had a good treadmill run. Nothing to write home about but got it done.

Wednesday: 8k10k run outside. I totally paid for a babysitter (who’s my awesome neighbour) to stay with the girls while I ran as they went to bed! This was THE BEST RUN I’ve had in a LONG time! After weeks, no at least a month or more of struggling, I finally ran at a solid pace and felt good doing it! {1:00:30}

10k

Thursday: 5k7k of rolling hills! Love the new rolling hills road I found basically in my backyard! Again, I paid for a babysitter….I wanted to avoid my treadmill and get outside.

aug 27 run

I switched the next few days up a bit since Sai wouldn’t be home until late Saturday afternoon. I wanted to do my long run outside early in the morning, not on the treadmill.

Friday: Rest DayRest Day and PT exercises as my leg {hamstring} is a little sore. Hoping it’s nothing. Called my PT and waiting to hear back from him.

Saturday – 18k Long RunRest Day and PT exercises. My leg needed a rest day which was good because Sai wasn’t home and I didn’t want to run 18k on the treadmill. Also, I didn’t want to do any cross training just rest.

Sunday: Cross Train 18k Long Run completed! This was such a great run for so many reason.

1 – I ran with Krystol, my running buddy who’s the most laid back running partner one could as for. She’s great, she’s encouraging and just a great person to spend 2 hours running with (any time of the day) but especially at 6am!

2 – Our pace was comfortable and we talked the whole time. Well…..maybe not up the few challenging hills/inclines for me but we quickly resumed talking once we had recovered.

3 – Up at 5 AM and out the door at 6 AM in the dark, finished just before 8 AM with a cool breeze and my kids/husband JUST getting up!!!!

4 – My leg was good…yes, I’m talking about my hamstring that started to bother me after pushing my pace a little too much earlier in the week. My right glute (with the unhappy hamstring) was a little tender around 15k but was okay.

5 – I ran 18k in 1:55:22 – WOAH!!!! Last year I ran it in 1:49 and 1:51 so I feel I’m right on track. I’m not planning on pushing my pace any more for Maritime Race Weekend Half. I’m completely content with today’s pace and would be happy with that in two weeks time. That would have me finishing around 2:10 – 2:15… IF…if all goes well.

Capture

Overall: This was a GREAT week for me. I loved pushing my mileage, my pace, running rolling hills and running with Krystol for our long run.

Highlights: It’s a tie with my 1:00:21 {10k} on Wednesday and my long run Saturday {18k} – both were great!

Low points: Feeling as if did something to my hamstring 😦 I know, I know. So far, it’s good…not bothering me after my long run which is positive.

Weather: The weather took a turn for the best this week! Much cooler temps allowed for me to run FAST again!

Total week #10 km: 41

Total km during training: 293

Looking forward to this week: My long run on the weekend and focusing on PT exercises.

Week #9 recap……just in case you missed it.

Has the weather been better for you running?

Like or dislike running rolling hills?

Do you talk when you run with others or keep quiet? 

Rolling Hills

I found my new favourite rolling hills route last night. And yes, I paid for a babysitter again so I could run outside! Two days in a row….my goodness, I must loving running outside (and love our babysitter).

I had 5k on the training plan but wanted to run 6k for some reason. I also decided I wanted to run some hills since the Maritime Race Weekend Half Marathon has rolling hills.

MRW Half Marathon Elevation Chart

{Source – http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/523213160 }

Anyway……………

I went up part of English Mountain Road which is basically “going up the mountain” here. We live in the Valley in between the north and south mountain. So I went up a very little piece of it {my goal someday is to run up the whole thing}. I hit the house/farm area that was my end point and turned around and down Spittal Road.

aug 27 run

I knew generally where Spittal road was going to take me and that I’d probably run 6k but I had no idea of how many rolling hills there were until my babysitter told me. FUN!

elevation aug 27

Went from 40 to 73 and down to 23 then back to 40 in elevation.

Some were hard, some were long and easy. I plowed through a few and slowed down on some! I intentionally wore my new Asics thank so I could be seen on the road as it’s getting darker at night. I even wore my shortest short-shorts (woah) and even managed to match my Asics socks with my outfit – not intentionally planned. I honestly didn’t even know until my babysitter pointed it out, ha!

As I got close to my house, I was at 6.4k and decided to keep running to get an even 7k. A tough run but a great run!

Happy Friday!

Do you have a favourite rolling hill route?

Do you check out the elevation of a race ? Does it even matter to you?

Hope you have a great weekend!

I Just Needed THAT Run!

I had a blog post all ready to go about how running is nothing but a struggle these days for a lot of people. Mainly due to the heat and humidity we’ve been having in Nova Scotia (NB, PEI etc.). I’ve seen people posting their struggles: slower paces, running early before the sun rises, changing routes to avoid the sun, wanting to quit, and dealing with heat exhaustion. That last one was all on me and my own mistakes. My goodness it’s been HARD running. That is until last night. Oh, and I deleted that other post 😉

I had 8k on my training schedule. I lined up my babysitter {yes, I paid someone so I could just go run for an hour}. Before I laced up, I couldn’t figure out what to wear….tank top, t-shirt…really, would I need a long-sleeved shirt? Was it “that cold” outside?

I decided on a tank top (racer back) and shorts. No hydration pack, no GU’s. I laced up and just started running. The air was cool, the sun was not shining but the sky was full of grey clouds and there was a little sprinkle in the air.

As I hit my first 1km out of 8, I noticed 6:10 on my watch….a number I’ve not seen in a while! I figured I should slow down a bit as I was really wanting to run 9k for some reason.

I kept running and saw 5:57 for km  #2. Woah bessie, slow down would ya! Then 6:10; 6:07; 6:02 at the 5km mark. Oh yeah, somewhere in there I decided to run 10k. At the turn around point, I just kept running and was feeling really good. I knew I had a long incline ahead of me and would slow down a bit.

6:17; 6:10; 6:05 – where were these numbers coming from? I was just running 6:30-6:45 the other day!I figured I would be close to a sub 60 10k and started pushing it around the 7k mark.

5:54 and then 5:32 – my fastest km this year and it started going up a good hill. I’ll be honest, I broke down in tears at the end of this run. I was a bit of a sobbing mess for a few minutes and was thankful it was getting dark outside, therefore that meant no one was out on my street.

aug 26

As I composed myself, I started to cry again. WTF? Why was I crying? Seriously!!!! I didn’t fall down, I didn’t hurt, I didn’t hurt anyone else, so why was I crying?

Honestly, I think I was crying as I felt relief! Relief that I can run fast again after being injured for so long. Relief that I do still love to run. Relief that I’m not going to do so bad Sept 12th at my half marathon. Relief that I can push myself really hard and see results.

THAT RUN JUST FELT SO GOOD!

I may have not run a race last night. I may have not got my sub 60 10k last night but I felt like that run was SUCH A WIN for me after a hard 6-9 months of painful days with my hamstring and working hard to get stronger.

Thank you running……..this girl needed last night’s run.

Anyone else have a great run last night? 

What’s your most recent “win/success” besides a personal best/record ?

Anna

Maritime Race Weekend Week #9 Half Marathon Training

This was a rough week! It started off really good and then went downhill fast. Basically, we think I had heat exhaustion from my Wednesday night run and Thursday’s runch in the heat. Though I thought I had been hydrating and eating well, something did not agree with my life at the time and decided to act out.

Week #9

What was Planned vs What Really Happened:

Monday August 17th: Rest DayRest DayGosh, I’m good at this!

Tuesday: 5k5k morning run before 7am. Had a nice run outside before work as my parents were visiting. One must take advantage of being able to run outside even in this heat. 

Wednesday: 8k8k treadmill runAfter working all day, getting the girls/dinner/play/bed time, I laced up and had a great but HOT run on the treadmill. I had the door open/window open and the fan on while I ran. I was very warm after this run but didn’t think anything of it since I usually feel that way after a treadmill run in the summer.

Thursday: 5k5k runch.  I ran outside on the trail at lunch time *hottest part of the day*. This is where things REALLY went south for me 😦 About 20 minutes after my run I started to not feel good and ended up not being able to keep any food in me. {sorry, TMI}. I left my air conditioning office into the sweltering heat, picked up the girls and went home. At his point I was in survival mode until bed time…which happened at 6:40 pm. I got the girls to bed and I fell asleep on my bed instantly! I slept for over an hour and still felt terrible. I got up, had a cold shower and drank some Vega hydrator, then went to be around 10ish.

Friday: Rest DayREST DAY in bed. I took Friday off work and slept for 3.5 hours in the morning!!!!!! I felt terrible all day and figured I had “heat exhaustion”. I took it easy and was happy to see Sai when he came home. I couldn’t eat too much but was able to drink lots of fluids. Felt pretty crappy {bad word to use} that night.

Saturday: 10k RaceUnplanned rest day. Still wasn’t feeling 100% but was able to start eating normal food and do normal things with the girls and Sai. Took it easy energy-wise and had a really good night’s sleep.

Sunday: Cross Training12k. I had the best run! I woke up at 6 am to run 10k. I was going to run with two others but one family had the flu and one family slept in….when you have little kids and you ALL sleep…you don’t wake up early to “go for a run”…you sleep. So, I ran on my own after waking up slightly pissed off at myself for wanting to run so early. What’s up with that! Maybe, my bed was just to cozy 😉

Anyway….at 6:36 am I started running and ran out 5k from my house on the main road. It was a slow pace for me 6:30-6:45 for a while with a little 6:18 thrown in there. Around the 5k mark, I decided to run 11-12k and see how it goes.

I managed 10k in 1:06 {which will come in handy later in this post} and then kilometre 11 was 6:27 up a good hill and kilometre 12 was 5:35!!!! WOAH…….I pushed that last kilometre so much it was awesome! I was breathing hard and I’m pretty sure the look on my face was nothing but ugly but I ran 5:35 after running 11k!!!!!

aug 23

That felt SO good!

Overall: I felt great running Tues-Wed-Thurs. Other then the heat and humidity, they were really great runs. Even Sunday’s run was great. It was the in-between that was a little challenging for me.

Highlights: “Long run” after three days of feeling terrible.

Low Points: Hanging out in the bathroom getting sick.

Weather: THE PITS! Super humid and HOT, HOT, HOT.

Total week 9 km: 30

Total km during training: 252   {102 km for August already}

Looking forward to this week: Hopefully feeling 100% in-between runs and my long run (18k).

Big News: The other day I was getting ready to sign up for the 10k Valley Harvest Marathon that is in October (11th) but before I did, I saw a post on Facebook from White Rabbit Pacing. They were still looking for a few pace bunnies. You can see where this is going.

So…….you are look at the {10k} 1:10 pace bunny at the Valley Harvest Marathon!!! This will  be my first time pacing other runners, so I’m really excited and hope I do a good job of it!

Week #8 here…just in case you missed it.

How was your weekend?

Have you ever had heat exhaustion, heat stroke etc. ?

Have you ever paced a run or been paced by a bunny?