Category Archives: Weekly Update

05.13.14
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Week of 5/5/14 – 5/11/14

Week two of no training plan! That’s all about to change, but I enjoyed it while it lasted.

week of 5/5/14 to 5/11/14

Tuesday

I went and ran with the Flyers. This week they met at Long Hunter to run the two mile loop around Couchville Lake. Some people ran it once, others twice, and three times for the fasties.

As soon as I arrived, two deer walked by in the parking lot.

deer in the parking lot

I started out thinking I might run it twice, but I’d see how I felt after going around once. My car said it was above 90 again, so it was hot but the path was mostly shaded. I started out running with a small group of people, but soon I found myself mostly alone, as a few of them had surged forward and a few had stopped to walk. I considered walking, as it was so hot, but I didn’t. Close to the end of the loop, I spotted a turkey in the woods. From what I hear, sometimes this turkey attacks runners. I’m glad he didn’t come after me!

After I completed the loop, I decided that was enough. It was just far too hot. I could have done another loop, but I don’t think I could have without walking some of it, and I decided I’d rather have two miles of straight running than four miles with some walking. Average pace was 10:44–a little speedy considering the heat!

Wednesday

Day two of hot runs! I went out to run with East Nasty this week, and the route was a 4.5 mile loop around East Nashville. This route also happened to include a hill in Shelby Park that I happen to despise. (I’ve only attempted that thing once before.) I didn’t walk on the hill, but I did take a break soon thereafter on another slight incline just after the start of the third mile because we were in the direct sunlight. I took one other walk break with about a mile to go. Overall, my average pace was a little over 11 min/mi, so not too bad.

Thursday

I decided I should get my brain prepped for my upcoming training by doing some speed work this week. According to my plan, I’m supposed to do six intervals of 400m at 5k goal pace as my first workout of the training cycle. So I decided to do four and see how they went.

I had programmed my watch with all my upcoming workouts months ago. Probably before I actually finalized my training plan. I selected the workout that said “4x400m strides”, which I assumed was correct because it was the only 4x400m workout I had on my watch.

I did about half a mile warmup at 11:30 min/mi pace then hit the lap button to trigger the first interval. “Speed up!” the watch kept urging me with its beeping. So I did. I soon realized that the watch wasn’t programmed to get me to run goal 5k pace (9:00-9:30 min/mi); it was programmed to get me to run faster than goal pace (8:00-9:00 min/mi). Oh, that’s what it meant by strides.

But I did it. And I did it consistently. My times for each 400m (0.25 mile) fast interval were 2:08.3, 2:08.6, 2:07.9, and 2:07.2, respectively. That all averages out to be an 8:30 min/mi pace on all four intervals.

What makes it even funnier is that I thought I might just do three when I went out, but I still felt like I could do a fourth, so I went ahead. I may keep my interval runs (done every three weeks) at this pace; that is what the training plan originally called for, and I don’t remember why I changed it. We will see when I actually have to do six of them next week.

Sunday

I thought about running Saturday morning before I went off to second shoot another wedding, but I decided to relax instead. So my next run was Sunday evening, when I went out for a three mile jaunt in Clarksville, since I was there for Mother’s Day. I keep forgetting that it is virtually summer now. Spring never happened. I didn’t bring water, so I ended up walking a few times. I also wonder if my IT band was really tight because the outside of my right knee and up my thigh has been hurting ever since. Time to get back to doing my clamshells, I guess.

05.05.14
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Week of 4/28/14 – 5/4/14: I suck at trail running

Ah, the blissful week after completing a half marathon where you don’t have to run unless you want to and don’t have to hit specific paces or mileage!

week of 4/28/14 to 5/4/14

Friday

I didn’t get to my first post-half run until Friday. I was going to run with the East Nasty group on Wednesday, but then we ended up getting concert tickets to see Local Natives at the Ryman, so I did that instead. And then Thursday was Arcade Fire at Bridgestone, so I didn’t make it out to the pavement until after work on Friday.

It was a bit of a stiff run, since it had been almost a week, but I just did whatever I wanted and it felt glorious. Sometimes I sprinted. Sometimes I walked. Once I decided to do impromptu hill repeats (who does that?), but after I ran up once, I decided nah and kept going down the street.

Saturday

I was second shooting a wedding Saturday afternoon, so I went out for three miles beforehand (because I hate my legs and wanted them to be as sore as possible by the end of the night). Just down the main road and back, although my turn around point was right around Sonic, and I wished I had brought some money for a slush or a shake because it was really hot outside and I hadn’t brought water. Because of this, I ended up walking a couple times on my third mile to cool down, even though I hadn’t initially planned to. (Thanks for telling me it was cloudy and in the 60s, weather.com.)

Sunday

I had an itch to go running on Sunday, as well, but by the time I had gotten out of bed, it was nearing 90 degrees. So I decided this meant I needed to go somewhere shady and that meant trail running!

You’ll remember the last time I tried this, it did not go so well, but I chose a different trail in the same park. This trail was much easier to actually run on and wasn’t covered in leaves so I could actually tell where the trail went. I did the first mile in 11:30, my normal running pace. I decided I should probably slow down, since I had limited water with me and parts of the trail were out in open sun, so I was getting hot fast. So my next mile was done in 12:54, which is still okay with me on the trails, since I was occasionally having to climb over trees and do some fancy footwork around tree roots and rocks.

percy priest lake at long hunter state park

The first mile is right by the lake. It was taking everything I had towards the end not to jump in.

I turned around after half an hour (about 2.4 miles in). Soon after I turned around, I came upon a small incline with some tree roots, and thought to myself, “This looks tricky. Be careful.” And then I freaking fell! It was one of those slow motion things where I could feel myself trip and then helplessly feel myself falling without being able to do anything. I skinned up my right knee, which seemed to take the brunt of the fall, and got a couple tiny cuts on my left hand.

Needless to say, I was much slower after that. My right leg felt pretty bruised and just generally sore from the jolt of the fall. My final 2.8 miles were done around a 13:20 average. Still better than my last trail run!

I do enjoy trail running (I saw a deer at one point!), I just don’t know if my klutzy self and it can get along. At least I did not get lost this time and end up in the woods after dark.

04.28.14
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Week of 4/21/14 – 4/27/14: Country Music Half Training, Final Week

The week started out with some not-so-awesome taper-induced soreness. Seriously, my legs felt like lead. Google tells me this is normal and just due to my muscles healing themselves so they will be fresh on race day, but it still worried me.

week of 4/21/14 to 4/27/14

Tuesday

I went out with the Mt. Juliet Flyers Club for an easy three miles. What’s funny to me is that whenever I go for an “easy” run now, I automatically get into half marathon pace and find it nearly impossible to run slower than that anymore. I guess that’s good? So really this was a three mile goal half marathon pace run, since I averaged 11:15 min/mi for the three miles. No walk breaks, but I felt good and the pace felt easy.

I used this run to test out my gear carrying technique for race day. I figured I would want to carry two gels, my car key, and my phone. I went back and forth on the phone and considered checking it in my gear bag, but then I thought that I was going to be stuck in that corral for up to an hour and I might want to take pictures or text people (or play Candy Crush). So I stuck it in my back pocket.

I will be running in a pair of Oiselle shorts (shocker, I know) that have three pockets. I was honestly quite unaware of one of these pockets until I went to load up everything. I had put my phone in my zipped back pocket and my gels and key in the inside pocket, when I came upon a zipped side pocket as well. Even better! I moved the gels to that pocket, where they will be much easier to get to. I had no issues with the placement of any of the items or any issues with the shorts doing weird things due to extra weight. I do worry about sweat getting to my phone after 13 miles, though, so I may stick it in a baggie before putting it in my pocket (it was dry after three, but I’d rather be safe).

Thursday

Packet pickup and expo day! I met Amanda downtown to pick up all our goodies and to browse around the expo for awhile. I knew Skechers was going to be there, and I wanted to try on some GoRun 3s before ordering them. I ended up buying them because they were $10 off at the expo. I also tried some Nuun (a sugar-free caffeinated Gatorade-type drink) while I was there, but I wasn’t blown away like I expected to be after reading a ton of good things about it. I’ll just stick to water for now.

Later I went out for a final two mile easy run.

Saturday

Race day! Stay tuned for my race report, but it went well. Goals were achieved!

04.22.14
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Week of 4/14/14 – 4/20/14: Country Music Half Training, Week 14

The race is Saturday! The race is Saturday. I’m freaking out a little.

week of 4/14/14 to 4/20/14

Tuesday

Huge motivation issues. I finally forced myself to just go do three miles by promising an entire frozen pizza upon my return. I actually promised myself Little Caesars, but did a bait and switch at the end to save money.

Since I didn’t want to run, I wanted it to be over as soon as I started. This means I ran faster than I should have. During the first mile, I estimated that I was probably running close to a 10 min/mi. When my watch beeped to let me know I had gone a mile, it said my average pace was over an 11 min/mi. I about cried. I was only going half marathon pace? How was I ever going to maintain that pace for 13 miles when it felt so fast after a mile? It made me feel a little better when I got home and saw that my GPS data was messed up for the first part of the mile, so I actually WAS going a little faster than that (although probably still not as fast as I thought I was going, but I was running into the wind). I ended up doing a little over 3 miles in 33 minutes (with 3 walk breaks), or just slightly lower than an 11 min/mi average. Yes, a little fast.

Wednesday

Since I needed to go buy gels for the half, I decided to go out to run with the East Nasty group. They meet up fairly close to Nashville Running Company, so I could stop by there, pick up gels, and then walk over to meet the group.

This was the first time I’ve ever really run with the Wednesday group (minus that time last year when I attempted the Tomato 5k route with the potato to tomato group…that didn’t go so well). I lined up towards the back of the group and soon struck up a conversation with a couple other ladies. We all were running with the 10+ min/mi group.

The run went pretty well. The route was an out and back from East Nashville, through downtown, and up to the Musica statue (yes, I had to run that hill from the Fangtastic 5k…I get to run it again in the half marathon), for a total of around 10km.

I will definitely say being in a group helped for this run. If I hadn’t been running with other people, I probably would have been slower or walked some (the only stopping I did was at stop lights). Instead, I completed what would have been my fastest 10k ever if I had run 0.02 more miles. 6.18 miles in 1:05, or about a 10:30 min/mi average! And on a route with some serious hills (the Music Row hill, the pedestrian bridge, and that half mile long hill up Boscobel in East Nashville). Confidence raised for the half marathon!

Thursday

I met up with one of the girls I had met the night before for a run on the greenway. She’s a little speedier than me, so we ended up doing five miles at an average of 10:40 min/mi despite my legs being slightly heavy from the two speedy runs on the days before. We took a few walk breaks, mostly up hills, and still managed that average, if that gives you an idea of how speedy we were being. I was very thankful for my rest day on Friday and resolved to keep the rest of my runs easy until the half.

Sunday

After all my fast running during the week, I ended up taking two rest days and then went out for six miles on Sunday. It went well. I was at Moss Wright Park, which has a two mile loop around the park. I did 3:1 intervals on the first loop, ran nonstop at (or below) goal pace for the next loop, and then did 3:1 intervals again for the last loop. It was hot, so it was a little tiring, but felt good! I ended up averaging 11:36 min/mi for the six miles, or right at goal pace.

Also, congrats to Meb for being the first American to win Boston since the ’80s! And wearing Skechers. (I think I’m about to buy my second pair.) 😀

04.14.14
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Week of 4/7/14 – 4/13/14: Country Music Half Training, Week 13

Only two weeks to go! I’m officially in TAPER! YAYAYAYAY!

This week required some juggling around. I had tickets to the Preds game on Thursday night, so I knew I needed to move my longer goal pace interval run, therefore I ended up doing it Wednesday. Then I had to bump Wednesday’s easy run to either Tuesday or Friday. My legs were so sore from the weekend still, I decided to do it Tuesday. Thus I bumped my goal pace run to Friday. Confused, yet?

week of 4/7/14 to 4/13/14

Tuesday

Three miles easy. I had errands to run after work (the cats need to eat!) and it was supposed to storm, so I didn’t make it out to the group run. I did manage to finish my three miles right as it was starting to sprinkle. I did 5:2 intervals and had no problems.

Wednesday

The speed workout this week wasn’t really working on speed, per se. Just goal pace intervals. So nothing much faster than goal pace this week! (Well, except for when I accidentally go faster.) The plan said to do 3 sets of 2 miles at goal pace, so not too bad, just a longer than normal middle-of-the-week run.

When I started out, I kind of hated life. The first two miles seemed to drag on forever. I remember glancing down at my watch to check my pace at one point and being in complete shock that it hadn’t even been a mile. I averaged 11:36 min/mi for those two miles.

After my (short) two minute walking break, I started on the next two miles. Although this was the hilliest section of my route, I managed to do them a little faster, averaging 11:04 min/mi, which is actually slightly faster than goal pace.

I was feeling pretty good by the start of my third set and bounded off under an 11 min/mi. At one point, I passed a couple ladies walking and apparently scared them because one of them screamed. I apologized and yelled out, “I must be lighter on my feet than I thought!” I forget how quiet my Skechers are sometimes. I averaged 10:56 min/mi for those two miles.

It basically ended up being about half the distance of the half (6.6 miles total, including my warmup). Water stations are about every 1.5 miles on the course, so in some ways it simulated running goal pace and then breaking for water. Overall, it gave me a confidence boost for the half since I felt so good during it!

I did have quite a bit of knee pain starting around 4 miles in, which is weird because I haven’t been experiencing any on my long runs lately. I don’t know if it’s due to the shoes I was wearing or the fact that I was taking less walk breaks.

Thursday

Woohoo, go, Preds! Finally got to see a shut out this season. 🙂

Friday

I went out right after work to do four miles at goal pace. But it started off rough when I got to the trailhead of the greenway to find the water fountain was gone. I hope they plan on putting another one in its place, because that was literally the only water fountain on the entire greenway. So I started out low on water.

In addition, I had been experiencing terrible allergies all day so I was doped up on allergy medicine. My head was not into running at all. I’d say this was one of the mentally toughest runs I’ve done all cycle. I made it through the four miles. And I did it at an average of goal pace, but I walked about three times.

Saturday

I started out Saturday early by volunteering at the Moosic City Purity Dairy Dash. I was set up at the 10k pre-registration table, handing out bibs. I saw several people I knew, which was nice. I look forward to volunteering at more races in the future!

Afterwards, I went on a five mile run. Since I was already in town, I went over to Centennial Park. There was apparently some sort of walk going on, so I would run until I came upon the massive group of walkers taking up the whole path, then turn around until I ran into them in the other direction. This was supposed to be an easy run, but I started out too fast and it was hot, so I got worn out. I ended up doing fartleks for about a mile through miles 3 and 4 before finishing it out with an easy last mile.

Sunday

This week I was supposed to do a progressive 15k for my long run. This means each 5k was supposed to be faster than the one before. I had decided to do the first 5k easy (12-12:30 min/mi), the second 5k at the slower end of my goal range (11:30-12 min/mi), and the final 5k at the faster end of my goal range (11-11:30 min/mi). (Goal pace is 11:30 min/mi.)

Except I didn’t make it out until after 11am and it was very HOT. I did two miles and called it quits. I then drove to the gym to finish it out, but they weren’t open. Oh well. I tried. I would have gone out later when it cooled off a bit and the sun wasn’t so high in the sky as to not provide shade anywhere, but I had tickets to see “Wicked” with Amanda. So I guess my taper started a little earlier than planned. Oops.

(Please don’t let it be 80 degrees for the half. Please.)