Week Eleven: Is It October Yet?

{Sunday cherries // Monday clouds}

Week of August 19, 2013:

Monday: Evening bike ride for 30 minutes

Tuesday: Evening run…OUTSIDE!  Oh, joy!  32 minutes total.  Running portion: {5 min. run, 1 min. walk} x 4 for 20 min. running total

Wednesday: Off (off making delicious tofu tacos with Paul!)

Thursday: Off (off eating migas with Courtney!  Migas are the best.)

Friday: Treadmill work-out.  34 minutes total.  Running portion: 22 minutes continuous.

Saturday: Outside walk to the hippie grocery store, about half of it powerwalking.  41 minutes total.

Sunday: LONG WALK!  104 minutes total, power-walking about half of it. 

Total minutes walked/ran this week: 247.  Estimated miles: 17.9.  (Excel spreadsheet calculation!)

We’ve reached the halfway point (more or less) for this marathon training cycle.  I admit to a yo-yo attitude toward the marathon: sometimes I am grateful for the structure it has imposed on me this summer; other times I cannot WAIT for this race to be done so I can have my Sundays back.  I’ve still got four very long work-outs ahead of me, so “halfway point” feels like a relative term.  Up next: two hours and forty-five minutes on my feet, after a weekend of helping a friend move.  Yay?

Last Sunday’s long walk was a mixed bag.  I felt pretty good for the first two-thirds of it, then I developed a raging thirst and wanted nothing more than to be DONE NOW.  Predictably, I’m ready to be done with August, but then, just like that, the weather cooled off a bit!  After all these hours working out in 90+ degree heat, any day that’s below 90 degrees is a day for running outside.  If I’m lucky, I’ll get one of those outdoor runs today!  Nope.  It’s 93 degrees out now, so to the treadmill I go.

Happy running to you!

Week Ten: Passport to Run

Marathon Training Week Ten (Week of August 12, 2013):

Monday: Off

Tuesday: Treadmill work-out.  55 minutes total.  The hard part: 10 min. run, 1 min. walk, 10 min. run, 10 min. walk, 11 min. run.  All the walking was done at under 14:00/mile, so it was POWERWALKING! 

Wednesday: Off. 

Thursday: Treadmill work-out.  ~34 minutes total.  The hard part: 10 min. run, 1 min. walk, 10 min. run. 

Friday: Powerwalk outside, ~32 minutes total.

Saturday: Does ping-pong count as a work-out?  Either way, it was a lot of fun!

Sunday: LONG WALK!  2 hours.

Total minutes walked/ran this week: 241.  Estimated miles: 17.

You know you’re training in Texas when a few days of 90-ish degree weather feels like a relief.  It’s been a little less sweaty around here and a whole lot nicer to be outside, hence the powerwalk on Friday night.  The idea of escaping the treadmill was too much—I had to do it.  But Sunday I was supposed to be on my feet for 2.5 hours, and I only finished 2.  Boo.  I know.  I wasn’t feeling so great at the 80-minute mark, and I managed to get another 40 minutes under my feet, so I consider that a success.

In other news, my passport arrived!  The second-to-last piece of this marathon puzzle is in place.  (The final is my plane ticket for October.)  Diligent readers or other Detroit Marathoners might recall that the race goes into Canada, so you must have a passport to pick up your race packet.  My application was approved, so I’m good to go.  My only regret is that I look like a damn serial killer on it—it is truly one of the worst photos of me that I have ever seen.

(No, I’m not going to show you.  There is no way I am immortalizing that image by sharing it with the internet.  But suffice to say that I am not smiling, I am staring blankly, and my hair looks terrible.  But it’s a real passport, and it’s mine, so that will have to be good enough.)

Happy school-starting days to all my friends in academic spaces!  I am getting excited for the students to come back for the fall semester at A & M.

To Share: More Running Inspiration

My friend Raquelita shared this on Facebook, and I thought it was too good not to pass along.

The 26 Stages of Taking Up Running

(Numbers 8 and 17 are my favorite.  I’m pretty sure I had my #8 moment this summer inside a bank…and wound up looking like this for a few days.  Oh, running, the things you do to me.)

Happy running, friends!

2013 Detroit Marathon: Training Archives

I’m currently training for the Detroit Marathon, so this archive is not yet complete.  But for some reason, I am completely on top of this organizational task, so I’m going to publish it now and update it in the weeks to come.

* Weeks 1 and 2: Weeks 1 and 2 are on the books!

* Week 3: Week Three: (Un?)lucky Duck

* Weeks 4 and 5: Feels Like Flying in New Mexico and Colorado

* Week 6: Week Six = Done.

* Week 7: Week Seven Confusion 

* Week 8: Week Eight: Heat and Pain

* Week 9: Week Nine: Workin’ Hard 

* Week 10: Week Ten: Passport to Run

* Week 11: Week Eleven: Is It October Yet?

* Week 12: Week Twelve: MIA?

* Week 13: Week Thirteen: The Sweetest Taste 

* Week 14: Week Fourteen: The Heat Rolls On

* Week 15: Week Fifteen: Marathon?  What Marathon?

* Week 16: Week Sixteen: 3:32!

* Week 17: Week Seventeen: Camping and Cooler Weather

* Week 18: Week Eighteen: Almost There…

* Week 19: Week Nineteen: The Home Stretch

The Big Race and Beyond:

* After the Marathon: We Gave It Our All

* Race Report: 2013 Detroit Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon

* Recovery and Ruminations on Failure

* Coming Soon…What’s Next?

Week Nine: Workin’ Hard

About a year ago…

…and now!

Marathon Training Week Nine (Week of August 5, 2013):

Monday: Treadmill work-out.  34 minutes total, 5 min. walking warm-up, {5 min. run + 2 min. walk} x 3, 6 min. power-walking, 2 min. slow cool-down.

Tuesday: Off, I think

Wednesday: Treadmill work-out.  ~28 minutes total.  Running portion: {5 min. faster pace + 1 min. slower easy pace} x 3.

Thursday: Off

Friday: Off (TO DALLAS!)

Saturday: Off having fun in Dallas

Sunday: LONG WALK!  2 hours 15 minutes of power-walking with a few short running bursts.

Total minutes walked/ran this week: 197.  Estimated miles: 15-16.

I can’t believe that I’ve been to Dallas four times in the past four months, and I have yet to take any photos of its outdoor spaces.  I have taken NO PHOTOS AT ALL, which is sad, because Dallas has some really charming views, both of natural spaces and its urban scenes.  So today, I dug into my photo archives to find a few photos from around this time last year, which I figure is better than nothing.  Right?

On Sunday, I did my long walk in my friends’ neighborhood, and despite the scorching heat, it was pretty nice!  There were lots of trees and shade along my path, and I even broke up my walk with lunch and a coffee in the middle.  I walked for about an hour and a half before popping into Subway for a sandwich and water (oh, sweet delicious cold water!), then I went to Starbucks for an iced coffee.  I power-walked my way back with the iced coffee in my hand, which probably sounds silly, but it worked out well.

In lieu of doing long RUNS outside because of the searing heat, I am really hoping that the effort I am putting forth on the walking front will translate to strong legs when I walk/run the marathon under much cooler and more comfortable conditions.  I know I have opted for an unconventional approach to marathon training, but still, it’s hard not to worry.  The good news is that as far as “on the feet” time goes, I am on track with my long walks.  I’m also feeling like a stronger power-walker, able to keep up a good pace for longer stretches of time.  I remind myself frequently that if I’m not running, I should still be moving at a good clip to keep that pace under 15:00/mile. (That’s my “working goal” for my outdoor training.)  I think I did pretty well on Sunday, based on perceived effort/speed and in comparison to the paces I’ve experienced on the treadmill.

How are things with you?  For those of you with fall races coming up, how is your training going?

Week Eight: Heat and Pain

Inside…

and outside! 

Marathon Training Week Eight (Week of July 29, 2013):

Monday: Long walk/run: 73 minutes total.  Walked 51 minutes, {run 1 minute:walk 1 minute} x 10, plus ran 2 minutes just for fun at the end of the running segment. 

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: Morning work-outs!  Bike ride to HEB + 20-min. power walk around my neighborhood

Thursday: Treadmill work-out.  35 minutes total, running portion was {5 min. run, 2 min. walk} x 4

Friday: Off, with push-ups + crunches before bed

Saturday: Bike ride to Target and HEB

Sunday: Long walk/run.  88 minutes total, running portion included {1 min. run, 1 min. walk} x 10 + {2 min. run, 1 min. walk} x 7.

Total minutes walked/ran this week: 216 (estimated miles: 13-14?)

I just woke up from the best/worst nap.  The best: it was spontaneous and felt awesome.  The worst: I am groggy now, and I might not be able to sleep tonight.  Hurray for naps!

Today I had one of my hardest work-outs ever.  My initial plan was 2 hours total of walking/running, with 32 minutes of running in the mix.  I ended up getting 88 minutes done, with 24 minutes of running.  I just hit the heat wall out there and felt it best to not push harder—I was about as hot as I’ve ever been during a work-out, plus my left foot is still bothering me.  My suspicion is that my old pink sneakers are the problem, so I’m going to trash them and stick to using my newer purple sneakers.

My plan is to “finish” today’s work-out tomorrow on the treadmill.  That way, I’ll also be able to add more running into the mix, thanks to a well-cooled gym.  Honestly, training for a marathon in summertime Texas is going about as well as I expected, which is to say: it’s really hard, and I am making adjustments based on how I feel.  Let’s hope that all this hot work now will pay off big-time when it comes to running an October marathon in Michigan.

Stay cool out there, friends!