Tag Archives: marathon training

Week 5 – More Orange, Less Running

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I feel last week was a successful week despite again only managing 2 of my 3 training runs–but i did get my long run and tempo runs in, which were the most important.   i went to Orange Theory 4 days this week so that was probably plenty of treadmill sprints and probably also overdoing it on the cross-training.

Planned/ Actual:  27 / 26 miles

Monday.  OTF with coach Nate.  Good kickoff to the week.  Surprisingly the class was not full and only a “2 group” (24 or less people) rather than 3 group (25-36 people).

Tuesday. OTF.

Wednesday. Nothing / rest

Thursday.  Orange Theory Tornado Thursday!  This was a tough workout.  The ‘template’ for the class changes everyday but this one was a real sweat fest.   It’s hard for me to go over 400 calories in the 55 minute class but today I really pushed it to 450 calories and 10 ‘splat’ points (minutes in the orange zone = 84% max heart rate).

 

AND then I ran the Cigna corporate 5K in downtown Manchester, NH.  The race kicks off at 6:20pm which is better than 5pm but still hot and humid as hell.   The course is actually 3 miles of down hill (literally) and then 0.1 of directly uphill to the finish line.  I wish i was joking.  I had hoped to finish under 27 minutes but really felt the heat after mile 2.   My official time was 27:36.   I also probably didn’t need to work out at OTF in the morning and do a 1 mile warm up.  They opened up the fire hydrant at the finish line and that was refreshing! Happy that  I averaged just under 9 minute miles.

Aspirational goal:  I’d love to get a race photo where my feet are not BOTH touching the ground—where i actually look like i’m running.   This one was the best one and my fire hydrant selfie.

cigna5K-2018

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Friday.  OTF session #4 this week.   Had a chance to do the 8am class with my workout buddy John.  We don’t get to work out as much anymore since i am always in the 0530 class and John does not do 0530.

Saturday.   Several things tried to derail my long run.  Rain, overall feeling of malaise, I overslept and my iPad was not working (I was going to run on the treadmill to get over the rain problem). I borrowed my husband’s iPad and ran 13 miles. I started a new series, Sharp Objects on HBO. I’ve read the book, but I’m finding the series incredibly slow. Perhaps because I know the story.  Funny story, my iPad was not working at all, would not connect to the internet to stream anything, get email, check the weather, nothing.  I was super annoyed.  Fast forward to Tuesday and I was looking at my xFi app (xfinity wifi app) and saw that i had ‘paused’ my iPad to test out the feature.  Pausing any device blocks it from using the web.  So yeah, I blocked my iPad, forgot about it, then got completely annoyed the thing wasn’t working.  classic.

Sunday. Rest. And we made and ate a peach cafloutis! It’s a thing and pretty delicious! See you out there, – Jenn

Week 3: 700 miles and the devil’s alarm clock

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Hey there, another week down for marathon training and another blog entry, i’m on a roll! And I signed up for some more races. For August, I’m running the Cigna corporate 5K on August 9th and joined part of my company’s corporate team.   And then I decided to run the Saunders 10K on the 16th. They changed the course to start and end from Odiorne’s Point state park–much better location and course than the original course that starts down by the former Saunders restaurant at Rye Harbor.  They razed the restaurant several years ago for condos so the race used to start on the side of the road (literally) with no real parking.

This week I realized that I shouldn’t plan each day in detail because I change the plan every day. I also didn’t do my track workout again this week but on the positive side, I hit 700 miles for the year to date!

Monday. OTF workout.

Tuesday. Rest day

Wednesday. Killer OTF workout. I got over 450 calories which anything over 400 is high for me. There were some visitors from other studios and they didn’t know what hit them.

Thursday.  Hey, I got up and ran!  So i continue to struggle with the snooze button and getting up to run.  I downloaded this app called Alarmy and it’s pretty hardcore.  In order to dismiss the ringing you have to either solve math or memory problems, shake the phone hard 30+ times or take a picture of some location that you pre-set.  For example, if you set up the alarm to be a picture of your coffee pot in the kitchen, you cannot turn off the alarm until you take a picture that matches the one you set (of the coffee pot). I have not tried this option but I will try it next because the math problems are hard!   I had to set the math on ‘very easy’ just to get something i can solve quickly when i’m awake let alone just waking up!   You have to solve 3 problems to kill the alarm, here is a very easy problem, a “normal” level math problem and a ‘very hard’ math problem. Who can do this?

So i got up an ran my 6 mile tempo run on the treadmill. I tried the alarm on Wednesday but after solving the math i decided to go back to bed and set my iPhone alarm to something more sane and I went to the gym later in the day.

Thursday work out #2.  I headed to Orange Theory after work for only to get another bingo square.  I’ve been chasing the ‘run/row’ workout square and heard it was happening today.  I took the 5:45pm class and it was a lot of weights and inclines on the treadmill.  Every ‘run/row’ we did was 0.15 miles run at increasing inclines and a ‘push pace’ (8mph for me) and then row 200 meters then repeat at + 2% incline.  I ran the inclines but most days i feign an ‘orthapedic injury’ as my friends keep telling me hills on a treadmill are dangerous.  I don’t usually do the jump squats either, I just figure that would be asking for trouble.  Bingo is over on the 31st and every row of bingo gets a raffle entry for cash and prizes, so they’ve got me hooked.

Friday.  Racked in for the morning after a double workout yesterday.

Saturday I hit OTF and got 3000 km of rowing so I didn’t feel too bad when later we hit Dairy Queen. My kids are so weird. We gave the these options: get DQ on the way home from dinner out or just go home and have ice cream there. They choose going home. Kids, have I taught you nothing? DQ today and the ice cream at home will be in the freezer again tomorrow.

Sunday. Ran 12 miles down by the beach. All in pretty good training week. Planned 27 miles, ran 26.2. Took 2 rest days and no track workout, but also got up and ran before work.

See you out there ,

– Jenn

Marine Corp Marathon Training kickoff: Week 1

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Hey, it’s been awhile. I’ve thrown myself headlong back into running this year and committed to running 1000 miles in 2018. More on that in a next post. I’m more than half way to 1K so far and hope to finish by November.

So after my 2 week vacation in June, I kicked off Marine Corps Marathon training last week.  We are 16 weeks out from the race on 10/28 and I feel that I have a good base to start from having finished a 2 spring halfs and a 10K.   Here’s my plan with adjustments for week 1, July 9-15th.

I’m following my own hybrid training plan that is based on the Run Farther Run Less methodology merged with an old Team in Training training plan plus adjustments for various life events or other races.   I generally try to get in two or three 20-miler runs in the the plan leading up to the marathon.  For now the plan is on a piece of paper but soon to be updated on google sheets. Here’s how the week went.

Monday: Went to Orange Theory Fitness (OTF)  subject for a later post but I am really into this gym/class.  It’s HIIT and I can say that it has helped me improve my overall fitness.  In the past i never cross-trained, but OTF I will do and it’s a great addition to just running.  I usually get between 1.5 and 3 miles total each OTF workout on the treadmill plus rowing and weights.

Tuesday:  Nope.  took a rest day, already couldn’t face the training plan. Had planned to get up at 6 and run before work but that didn’t happen.

Wednesday: Yay, treadmill track workout to beat the heat. I’m pretty happy that I did get up before work and run my track workout on the treadmill.  I am not a morning person so this was the big accomplishment.

Thursday: My usual 0530 OTF Class.  I’ll get out of bed for this especially because there is a fee for no-shows.

Friday:  Found time to run on the treadmill while working from home. Then went to OTF at 5:30 for a crazy hard class.

Sunday: wow, so hot and humid.  Was planning to run 10 miles but my stomach was feeling iffy at mile 8 so i ended up with 9.2 miles.

Follow me on Strava if you like.  I am tracking all my workouts and miles there for the year so I can keep track of my progress toward the 1000 miles in 2018!

See you out there,
– Jenn