Category Archives: Weekly Update

11.12.13
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Week of 11/4/13 – 11/10/13: WDW Half Training, Week 8

week of 11/4/13 to 11/10/13Sigh.

The week started out so well.

On Monday and Wednesday I hit the treadmill for 4 miles each day. The workouts went well, despite the feeling that I’m working harder on the treadmill than I should be at the (slow) speed I’m going.

On Saturday, I went out for what would be my longest run to date: 8 miles. I started out trying intervals of 2 minutes walking after each mile of running, but I think I should have started with every half mile, as I got worn out pretty early on. Still, I managed to keep my average pace under a 13 min/mile, which was the goal. Also, the Nashville Marathon had gone on earlier in the day and apparently I happened upon several miles of its route!

Nashville Marathon Mile 20

This was actually like mile 5 for me.

For my last few runs, I’d been noticing a slight twinge in my ankle. Nothing serious, but the same ankle that hurt back in April (before I started this blog). I started really noticing it during these eight miles, but still it didn’t seem so bad. However, on my last mile, I could really feel it, and it was hard to finish out the mile. When I reached the end of my eight miles, I sat down on a bench to catch my breath for a moment. When I stood up to walk to my car, I nearly fell down. I couldn’t put any weight on my left foot at all. I shuffled to my car and made it home, where I spent the next 36 hours RICE-ing my ankle.

Now it is Tuesday and it is still killing me. I can get around, sort of, but any wrong movement and I’m in searing pain. I’m guessing it’s a sprain, though there’s no swelling or visible bruising. I suppose it could be some sort of overuse injury, since it was just a couple weeks ago I was wondering if I was overtraining. So running is out, probably at least for the remainder of this week. Good thing it is a recovery week.

I definitely need to see a physical therapist to figure out if there’s something in my running form that is causing me to repeatedly get injured. I just hope that I’m able to continue with my training for Disney!

11.05.13
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Week of 10/28/13 – 11/3/13: WDW Half Training, Week 7

week of 10/28/13 to 11/3/13

Another bleh week…

I finally dragged myself to the gym on Tuesday to hit the treadmill. I don’t know what they do to the treadmills at this place, but it almost feels like I’m running harder than I do outside and at slower speeds. They also keep the temperature in the gym up, so I was all kinds of sweaty after 4 miles. Like I haven’t been that sweaty after a run since like July. Anyway, I completed day 3 of week 9 of Couch to 10k.

I had good intentions about returning to the gym, but on Wednesday I had a hair appointment and Thursday was Halloween. I have no real excuse for Friday, but Saturday I shot a wedding. So, Sunday I went out for my long run of seven miles. I knew this would be the longest distance I had ever run at once. The weather was cool, the scenery was pretty. I put on my Nathan hydration pack for the first time and headed out to the greenway.

I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if I went out too fast or if the hydration pack was just a lot of added weight I wasn’t used to. Maybe it was the cooler, drier air. Certainly the fact that I had forgotten to take my Advair that morning played into it. But right around the end of the first mile, my asthma decided to show up.

I haven’t had issues with my asthma in months. Therefore, I had (stupidly) stopped carrying around my inhaler when I ran. But here it was in all its wheezy gloriousness. So I had to slow to a walk. I ran when I could, but those seven miles were very hard earned, with a lot of walking. While I completed the first mile in under 12 minutes, my subsequent splits were all closer to a 14 min/mile pace. By the end, my chest was hurting from trying to breathe. My back was hurting, probably from the same reason, with the added bonus of toting around 2 litres of water (I really didn’t need that much).

I will be prepared for my eight miles this weekend.

10.28.13
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Week of 10/21/13 – 10/27/13: WDW Half Training, Week 6

Only two runs this week, but my busiest month is almost over!

week of 10/21/13 to 10/27/13

I didn’t get to run this week until Wednesday morning. I got up bright and early and headed out at sunrise for 3.5 miles. It was cold, and I felt stiff. I walked mostly on the uphills but pushed through to finish the mileage.

However, then I headed out to go to North Carolina for the weekend. I did manage to get in my six mile long run while I was in the mountains, but I was in the mountains. So I walked all the uphills because, let’s face it, running up some 15% grade half mile long hills would have destroyed the chance of actually finishing six miles. I actually ran about 6.5 miles, since I did about 0.35 before I decided it was too warm for long sleeves and went to change before doing another 6.15 miles.

In other news, it looks like I have one final 5k this year on the horizon. My company has decided to race the Mo Run on my birthday, so I’m going to push my recovery week to that week and do the 8 mile long run the week before, so I don’t have to worry about a race and a long run and a party all on the same weekend.

10.21.13
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Week of 10/14/13 – 10/20/13: WDW Half Training, Week 5

I am grateful for my recovery week last week because this week felt much better than the runs I had been doing previously!

week of 10/14/13 to 10/20/13

On Tuesday, I headed out to the downtown greenway for my 3.5 mile easy run. I did intervals of three quarters of a mile at a tempo pace and then a quarter of a mile walking recovery.

I waited till Thursday for my two mile speed workout. I created an interval workout of one minute fast, one minute slow, thirty seconds fast, thirty seconds slow. It went pretty well. My fastest one minute interval was at an 8:25 min/mile pace, and my fastest thirty second interval was a 7:53 min/mile pace.

Saturday was the Go Commando 5k in Clarksville. It was cold and rainy, but I completed my main goal: run the 5k without walking! Not even at the water stops. Yay! The full race report will be coming up soon; just waiting on official photos.

I headed out the next day for my five mile long run. I decided to continue where I left off on Couch to 10k training before I got injured and did 10 min running, 1 min walking intervals. It was awesome and felt great! I had to do one and a half more intervals than Couch to 10k called for, but I finished with no issues and without having to trick myself into running by doing counting meditations! I saw a deer on the path at one point, but I didn’t have my phone on me to take a photo. Boo.

10.14.13
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Week of 10/7/13 – 10/13/13: WDW Half Training, Week 4

The first recovery week of training, which means no long run this week!

Week to 10/7/13 to 10/13/13

I started out on Tuesday still pretty stiff from the week before. After standing at a concert on Thursday night, another on Friday night, shooting a wedding on Saturday, a long run on Sunday, and another concert on Monday night, my legs were dead. It was slow, but I made it through the 3.5 miles with several walk breaks. Then I went to another concert.

The next day I was scheduled for two miles. They were so rough. I was so achy to start with and when I got done, I collapsed on my couch, thinking I would never move again because it was hurting to even lie still. I made myself stretch and foam roll, which helped a bit, but resolved to stay true to recovery week and actually take some time to recover instead of torturing myself with another run on Friday.

Thus, I didn’t run again till The Color Run on Sunday morning. The day before I had shot another wedding, so my right leg in particular was still rather achy. But I knew The Color Run wouldn’t pose a problem, as it’s virtually impossible to run the thing anyway. We had a blast, and I’m happy to report that it seemed to have shaken some of the tiredness out of my legs, so that I may be able to actually start up week five relatively well.

The plan for the coming week is to do 3.5 miles on Tuesday (and then go to another freaking concert), 2 miles of speed work on Thursday, race the Go Commando 5k on Saturday, and then do my long run (going very easy!) on Sunday. This is my last race until the half, which I’m excited about, since I won’t have to worry about those times and how to squeeze them into my training plan anymore (it’s really not ideal to do a race and a long run back to back, but I’ll just take an extra day of recovery next week if I need to).