The Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville medals were revealed…
It’s a turntable!
I’m glad it’s not another cowboy boots or guitar shaped medal.
The marathon medal looks exactly the same (except it says marathon) and has a blue ribbon with white writing.
Author Archives: Jessica
Week of 1/11/16 – 1/17/16: Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville training, week 3
Monday: rest day
Tuesday: 3 miles (10:51 average pace)
Wednesday: rest day
Thursday: 3 miles (10:48 average pace)
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 7.2 miles (11:00 average pace)
Sunday: rest day
I didn’t walk at all this week. Not at any point on any run.
My mid-week runs this week were a little speedy, but since I’m only running three times a week right now, I figured that (hopefully) won’t come back to bite me. Tuesday’s was a progressive run on the treadmill, and Thursday I ran with the Flyers.
On Saturday, I dragged Jonathan out to the East Nasty half marathon training group run at Shelby Bottoms. We started out with my friends in the 2:30 half group, but kind of did our own thing after the first mile or so. We ended up doing over seven miles with negative splits! You know I love negative splits.
I thought about doing a short recovery run on Sunday, but this coming week is so hectic that I will need to run on Monday and didn’t want to end up running three days in a row just yet.
So far I’m happy and excited about how this training cycle is going!
Week of 1/4/16 – 1/10/16: Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville training, week 2
Monday: rest day
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: rest day
Thursday: 3 miles (11:05 average pace)
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 6 miles (11:05 average pace)
Sunday: 3 miles (11:07 average pace)
After a lazy first half of the week (my excuses are as follows: Tuesday, there was a Preds game, and Wednesday, I meant to run but I accidentally put two tops in my gym bag instead of my running tights…), I finally got on the treadmill for a 3 miler on Thursday. It went okay and I did some 400m pickups around 10k pace (or at least what used to be my 10k pace but is pretty freaking fast for me at the moment).
On Saturday morning, I met up with the East Nasty half marathon training group (hey, after two years of saying I would join them for a Saturday long run, I finally did!). They were doing an easy run of 55 minutes (normal training) or 70 minutes (advanced training). I did something kind of in the middle since I wanted to do more than 5 miles I did last weekend. This means for the first 2.5 miles or so of my run I had some company, but the last 3.5 I was on my own. And you can tell by my splits, since I was keeping a way more conversational pace when I was running with other people. But I did manage to run 6 miles without walking, so I’m happy with my progress so far.
Sunday was cold. The temperature had dropped 30 degrees overnight and it was flurrying when I went out. But I did have all my new Lululemon stuff on that I hadn’t gotten to wear yet, which was really my only motivation. I did three miles (and Garmin said 3.01 miles so I don’t know why Strava is reporting 2.9!) at a too fast pace for a recovery run, but it was cold!
Five for Friday
- I got a few running related things for Christmas. My parents got me some lights to attach to my shoes for when I run at night, a new fuel belt (specifically with a key attachment because of all the times I lost my keys while running last year…), and several SweatyBands. I also received a Lululemon gift card from Jonathan’s parents, so I bought a new top and winter hat. Yay, new stuff! I haven’t gotten to try any of it out yet though, except for the SweatyBands.
- Other things I got for Christmas include Tales of Zesteria on PS4 (we are about 10 hours in, playing co-op) and a pair of diamond and rose gold earrings from Jonathan, a comfy new Predators sweatshirt from his parents, a cute new blue top from my BFF, and wine from my niece (it makes me feel ancient that my niece is old enough to buy wine).
- Like everyone else in the country, we binge watched “Making a Murderer” over the holidays. Without giving much away if you haven’t seen it, I will just say that I think it’s crazy and the kid got the worst.
- Also like everyone else, we saw “Star Wars”. I liked it and am already planning my Rey cosplay.
- I occasionally stop at McDonald’s in the morning for a chicken biscuit and coffee. The girl who regularly works the drive-through window in the morning has started calling me Anne because for some reason she thinks I look like Anne Hathaway. I don’t see it, but I’ll take it.
My Running Year in Review: 2015
While my goals for 2016 may be more relaxed than previous years, I still wanted to recap 2015 and what I learned about my running.
Things I Learned
- First of all, I met two out of my three goals for the year: I ran a sub-2:15 (and then a sub-2:10!) half. And I coached a Couch to 5k group. I did not get in 1000 miles total this year; in fact, I didn’t even run as many miles as 2014. A lot of this has to do with the burn out I suffered after April.
- I ran my highest mileage month ever in January 2015, coming in at 123 miles. This was pretty amazing and set me up for some good races in the next few months. I was doing speed work and tempo runs pretty much every week. Not only was January my most mileage, it was my fastest month of the year. Let that sink in. I somehow managed not to get injured doing this. I do wonder if the run streak I did towards the end of 2014 somehow helped with the no injury thing.
- Soon after that month, a bunch of stuff came along that derailed my training: an ice storm, a stomach bug, my wisdom teeth, more snow. Yet, even though my mileage was pretty average for the next few months (58 miles in February, 65 miles in March, and 71 miles in April), I still managed to pull out an awesome PR at my half at the end of April. I attribute this to the great base I built in January because I don’t know how else to explain it. I wasn’t really following a plan or doing speed work or tempo runs anymore. I only did one long run in those three months that wasn’t a race! Maybe racing is the key to unlocking my speed potential…
- However, racing is also partly what burnt me out. I love racing; it’s my favorite part of running. But having to revolve my schedule around races practically every week was a little exhausting. Normally with long runs, if you want to sleep in, no problem, just go later in the day. Not so when your race starts at 7am. It doesn’t matter what you want to do that day or the night before. I need to learn a better balance.
- I liked coaching during the summer. But it was very hard to keep up my fitness level while doing it. After running with the group, I pretty much forced myself to go run on my own afterwards. This did not help with the burn out feeling. I lost a lot of fitness and speed during this time. Would I coach again? Sure! But I would like it to be closer to my home and maybe at a pace closer to my own.
- I hardly cross-trained or strength trained at all this year. I really need to get back into that.
- My biggest takeaway from 2015? Don’t sign up for a ton of races months in advance. I don’t care how much money I want to save. I just don’t know what my circumstances will be then and it’s really hard for me to admit when I don’t need to be doing a race. Most of my races this year are going to be spur of the moment decisions, I think.
Random Thoughts from my Notes
I keep notes for every run, so I can go back and review what I did or how I felt. I ran 163 runs last year. Out of those, I mentioned the word “rough” 20 times and “tough” 8 times. On the other hand, I mentioned the word “good” 29 times and “decent” 7 times. Three runs were “terrible” but twelve runs were “great”. So for all my complaining, I did tend to talk about my runs more positively to myself!
Favorite Runs of the Year
- By far the best was the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon! It exceeded all of my expectations! I really didn’t think I could run a sub-2:10 half after my lackluster training in February, March, and April, but everything aligned and I DID IT! It was a fantastic race as well! I would love to run this one again.
- Scenery-wise, my favorite was my seven miler around Cologne. I was feeling good about training for an October half at this point and managed a decent pace as I went up and down and across the bridges over the Rhine River.
- I had one really good run with East Nasty in November. I had set my watch up to do intervals but felt so good that I ended up doing one minute fast pick-ups instead of walking! Wish every run could be like that!
PRs I set
5k – Tom King Classic 5k – 28:43
15k – Hot Chocolate 15k – 1:31:16
Half – Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon – 2:09:47
Totals and Averages
January: 22 runs, 123.2 miles (5.6 mile average), 21:22:52 (10:24 average pace)
February: 9 runs, 58.3 miles (6.6 mile average), 10:22:02 (10:40 average pace)
March: 16 runs, 65.7 miles (4.1 mile average), 12:03:16 (11:01 average pace)
April: 13 runs, 71.3 miles (5.5 mile average), 12:44:19 (10:43 average pace)
May: 15 runs, 51.3 miles (3.4 mile average), 9:20:55 (10:56 average pace)
June: 17 runs, 34.4 miles (2.0 mile average), 7:06:14 (12:23 average pace)
July: 21 runs, 42.5 miles (2.0 mile average), 8:52:25 (12:32 average pace)
August: 11 runs, 36.3 miles (3.3 mile average), 7:09:54 (11:50 average pace)
September: 10 runs, 32.7 miles (3.3 mile average), 6:10:21 (11:20 average pace)
October: 10 runs, 42.9 miles (4.3 mile average), 8:30:27 (11:53 average pace)
November: 12 runs, 55.4 miles (4.6 mile average), 10:55:39 (11:51 average pace)
December: 7 runs, 18.3 miles (2.6 mile average), 3:22:33 (11:04 average pace)
Overall: 163 runs, 632.2 miles (3.9 mile average), 118:59:56 (11:18 average pace)
Progressive Runner 