I didn't train Monday or Tuesday due to a combination of needing post-race rest and some mild period-related anemia that mom totally predicted and I totally scoffed at even though she was in fact right. I took a run this morning that was very short and very slow because apparently there's still a ton of residual fatigue in my legs. I figured the best thing was just to be active for about 30 minutes and not push anything too hard and come back tomorrow and see how things go from there.
Today's Workout: Easy recovery run
Summary: 3.18 mi, 33:33, 10:33 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 10:34, 10:39, 10:30, 10:14.
Hit rate: 19/21 (90.5%)
Hopefully I will be able to get some kind of trainer ride in tomorrow or maybe a run or some form of physical activity in and out of the madness that is a travel day, but we'll see.
In other news, I officially registered for both USAT Club Nationals (sprint distance) and the Cyman Triathlon (Olympic distance) yesterday so now I'm really in triathlon prep mode and am excited to getting back to working on my swimming and cycling! (Not to mention starting school!) It'll be an adventure. Stay tuned! (:
Much love,
Jess
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Chasing Consistency
I feel like my big complaint about last year as a training year was lack of consistency. The thing about success at any endurance sport (and I count competitive swimming amongst them, because it's true for that too) is that you need to be consistent with your training in order to make progress. Sure, the stalling that comes with hiccups in training is possible to overcome, but it's difficult and comparably more mentally and physically taxing than it needs to be. Usually being consistent wins out in the long run.
The problem I've started realizing recently though is that as a normal human being trying to balance my normal human being life with trying to progress at my sport is that consistency is oftentimes hard to come by. Looking back on the last year, consistency was hard to find because of travel for medical school interviews, then travel for my long distance relationship, then summer things that included spending time with friends and family and moving out to St. Louis. Looking ahead to the next year, there's my erratic August orientation schedule, travel to Asia over Winter Break, my upcoming wedding next summer and Henry moving out to St. Louis, and probably other things that will pop up whenever they feel like it. Looking even further ahead, there'll be my changing schedule from year to year (and rotation to rotation), Step I, and who knows what else. I won't always be able to settle into that consistent schedule that I want, because like I talked about in an earlier post, the priority in my life is realistically not training. And that's okay.
I guess today's situation is related in some ways and unrelated in others. I was planning on taking a swim in the morning, but my period started today and my mother really doesn't want me swimming through my period. I've had a lot of issues with stomach cramps this year and she knows the cold and the exertion make it a lot worse. If I was still seriously swimming competitively like I did when I was younger, she would have understood the need to be at practice and let me go. But she's a firm believer that my priority should on my health and not on my performance (she thinks I train too much and too hard as is) and I'm willing to oblige her while I'm living in her house. The more the day goes on and the worse my cramps get, the more I am glad I am obliging her.
In any case, what I'm trying to get at is that while I'm here, my priority isn't training, it's family. Part of that means making time for them and making sure I have the energy to spend quality time with them but part of that also means trying to balance their needs with my needs. Living by my mother's rules for a few days is a part of me trying to satisfy her needs. So for the next few days, I won't be swimming like I planned. I don't even know that I'll be running like I planned. I'll just play it by ear day to day and see what happens.
The problem with that plan is that it starts to knock down at the consistency I've been building towards this month though, and that's a disappointment. But I think acknowledging that consistency is difficult to find in a life where training really does take a back seat to a lot of other priorities (and acknowledging that it's okay for training to be taking a back seat, it doesn't mean I'm not a committed, hard-working person) will be important for me moving forwards in terms of getting comfortable with the inevitable hiccups in the schedule that generally seem so frustrating to me. They are all part of the part-time athlete act and that's perfectly okay because it's just that: part-time.
So I'm going to work around it and move forwards and accept that consistency is a great goal to have but you don't always meet every single goal. That's the point of the 80-90% rule; do your best as often as you can and don't worry about the rest. (I'm also not even penalizing my numbers these next few days with that rule, there will be no adding or taking away from the hit rate regardless of what I do since they're planned as flexible days.) I am going to really try to be consistent moving into the fall triathlons seeing as those races are important to me, but if there are any more unexpected hiccups in the road, I will try to face them with the same attitude I'm facing these next few days with. Really working on having the right mentality and keeping training a positive experience. (:
Much love,
Jess
PS - A quick note on the recovery front: Mom has been rubbing out my legs sporadically throughout the day while I'm functionally disabled from stomach cramps and it's been wonderful but they're still sore. The joint pain is mostly gone although my knees have been flaring up occasionally when I'm lying down. Still mostly better than I was expecting though, I've had much worse from hard gym days so this I can live with.
The problem I've started realizing recently though is that as a normal human being trying to balance my normal human being life with trying to progress at my sport is that consistency is oftentimes hard to come by. Looking back on the last year, consistency was hard to find because of travel for medical school interviews, then travel for my long distance relationship, then summer things that included spending time with friends and family and moving out to St. Louis. Looking ahead to the next year, there's my erratic August orientation schedule, travel to Asia over Winter Break, my upcoming wedding next summer and Henry moving out to St. Louis, and probably other things that will pop up whenever they feel like it. Looking even further ahead, there'll be my changing schedule from year to year (and rotation to rotation), Step I, and who knows what else. I won't always be able to settle into that consistent schedule that I want, because like I talked about in an earlier post, the priority in my life is realistically not training. And that's okay.
I guess today's situation is related in some ways and unrelated in others. I was planning on taking a swim in the morning, but my period started today and my mother really doesn't want me swimming through my period. I've had a lot of issues with stomach cramps this year and she knows the cold and the exertion make it a lot worse. If I was still seriously swimming competitively like I did when I was younger, she would have understood the need to be at practice and let me go. But she's a firm believer that my priority should on my health and not on my performance (she thinks I train too much and too hard as is) and I'm willing to oblige her while I'm living in her house. The more the day goes on and the worse my cramps get, the more I am glad I am obliging her.
In any case, what I'm trying to get at is that while I'm here, my priority isn't training, it's family. Part of that means making time for them and making sure I have the energy to spend quality time with them but part of that also means trying to balance their needs with my needs. Living by my mother's rules for a few days is a part of me trying to satisfy her needs. So for the next few days, I won't be swimming like I planned. I don't even know that I'll be running like I planned. I'll just play it by ear day to day and see what happens.
The problem with that plan is that it starts to knock down at the consistency I've been building towards this month though, and that's a disappointment. But I think acknowledging that consistency is difficult to find in a life where training really does take a back seat to a lot of other priorities (and acknowledging that it's okay for training to be taking a back seat, it doesn't mean I'm not a committed, hard-working person) will be important for me moving forwards in terms of getting comfortable with the inevitable hiccups in the schedule that generally seem so frustrating to me. They are all part of the part-time athlete act and that's perfectly okay because it's just that: part-time.
So I'm going to work around it and move forwards and accept that consistency is a great goal to have but you don't always meet every single goal. That's the point of the 80-90% rule; do your best as often as you can and don't worry about the rest. (I'm also not even penalizing my numbers these next few days with that rule, there will be no adding or taking away from the hit rate regardless of what I do since they're planned as flexible days.) I am going to really try to be consistent moving into the fall triathlons seeing as those races are important to me, but if there are any more unexpected hiccups in the road, I will try to face them with the same attitude I'm facing these next few days with. Really working on having the right mentality and keeping training a positive experience. (:
Much love,
Jess
PS - A quick note on the recovery front: Mom has been rubbing out my legs sporadically throughout the day while I'm functionally disabled from stomach cramps and it's been wonderful but they're still sore. The joint pain is mostly gone although my knees have been flaring up occasionally when I'm lying down. Still mostly better than I was expecting though, I've had much worse from hard gym days so this I can live with.
Race Report: Running from Cancer Half Marathon (Tecumseh, ON, Canada)
So my Garmin is telling me that I did not actually run a half marathon, which is sort of sad...But the course is certified so idk, maybe the GPS is just wrong. In any case, I will present my Garmin data as if it were accurate and we can debate whether or not I'm 0.08 miles off some other time.
Yesterday's Race: Running from Cancer Half Marathon
Summary: 13.02 mi, 1:53:19, 8:42 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:02, 8:24, 8:38, 8:48, 8:45, 8:49, 8:42, 8:43, 8:46, 9:07, 9:01, 8:49, 8:37, 8:15.
Let's start by commenting on my finish time. I don't have an official finish time yet, although I will update this post when I do. As of right now, we'll go with my Garmin time, which says 1:53:19. This should be pretty close, I started the watch when the race started, I stopped the watch after I crossed the line. My time from Philly was 1:55:37, which makes this about a solid 2 minutes faster. Most of that I honestly think can be attributable to the fact that this course was as flat as physically possible (there was a total elevation gain of 16 ft, which is nothing) but I'm still generally pretty happy about hitting that time range since my training has felt on the slow side. I want to be under 1:50 by the St. Louis Rock 'n Roll Half though, so there's still work to be done for sure.
The day started with me waking up at 5:38 AM (just before my 5:40 AM alarm) and getting dressed and starting to hydrate with some water. Mom took me to Timmy's where I got two 12 grain bagels toasted with cream cheese. I ate most of one and then couldn't really eat any more. We arrived, I checked in and got my timing chip and sat around while drinking the first half of my Vitamin Water. (Up to this point, I had already drank a little more than half of a bottle of regular water.) I also scoped out the competition, which, because it was a running event, was intimidating seeing as it looked like everyone else was a real runner, and I feel really out of place amongst real runners. Some Ironman finishers were thrown in there as well, including one man who had a cocky attitude about him I really disliked. It was intimidating.
Mom left to go back home to Coen and I hung around while sort of warming up (really just loosening out my legs, doing some mobility movements, I didn't do any jogging like a lot of the other competitors did). At 6:45, I downed a single chocolate Clif Shot and washed it down with the remainder of my Vitamin Water and just chilled until the start.
It was interesting to note that up until this point I was very much so feeling unconfident and sort of freaked out by all the other runners and my comparative lack of running experience, but as soon as they announced "5 minutes to go" (we started at 7:05 instead of 7:00 because they had a bit of set up to do on course still) my brain like flipped a switch into race mode Jess and all of that fell to the wayside. It's funny how that happens, I guess the mental half is something that really does transfer across sports. Before races, I'm all business, and my brain is good at zeroing in on only worrying about making sure I execute the way I want to and I'm glad that instinct kicked in when it did yesterday morning.
I started out too fast, and I knew that as soon as I took off. One lady who passed me just after the one mile mark had commented to a friend/teammate of hers that it was an 8 min flat first mile and I was like, whoops. But the pace settled down pretty well for me over the course of the next few miles so I don't object to it too much, even post-race.
Around the 4-5 mile mark, my right foot started hurting and it was more of a bone ache than anything else and I knew it might develop into a problem further down the line but I didn't give it too much thought at the time. It didn't negatively affect my running yet and I was willing to let it go until it did start to bother me more. It never did, so that was good. (Although it was hurting all of yesterday and still hurts today so I'll probably have to give that some time to heal up.)
Also around this time, there was a man who had come up on me, pulled up beside me briefly, and then fell back and ran on my shoulder for most of the remainder of the race. On one hand, he was probably drafting off of me which was mildly annoying, but on the other hand having someone behind me pressuring me is exactly the kind of thing I need to keep me going. Usually people in front of me are less motivating because trying to catch up to someone is always a struggle, but trying to stay in front of someone or trying to drop someone are much easier for me to motivate myself to do. So it was sort of nice to have that kind of pressure on my back for most of the race.
The plan was to try and make sure that I only got passed in the first half of the race and only passed people in the second half. With the exception of the guy who sat on my shoulder most of the race and passed me in the last mile, no one else passed me and I passed a few people (including a girl who had passed me at the beginning of the race and pulled way ahead, I was very glad to have been able to real her in in the final parts of the race).
Overall, I was very very happy with that race. I had mentally given myself permission to look at my watch for splits starting with my mile 10 split, but I found myself not even wanting to know because I was running a well executed an well paced race (or at least that's what it felt like) and I was really enjoying my race experience and I didn't want to ruin it with pressures about pace or PBs. So I was happy to run in and determine my end pacing on feel alone and that worked pretty well for me. Also as the man behind me passed me, he ran side by side with me for a bit and encouraged me to get after trying to get in front of that girl who had been ahead of me the entire race and it was nice to have that encouragement near the end. The last time I raced this distance, the last 4-5 miles were just torture and I was mentally pushing myself really really hard just to try and hold onto the pace that I was going. This time, I felt like I moderated the effort much better throughout and it was just a very comfortable and enjoyable run. At no point did I feel like the distance was too much, it doesn't intimidate me anymore, and that's also really really nice. On top of that, I felt absolutely destroyed physically after my last half, but I felt much better after finishing this one. I mean my legs were super tight and I had to spend a lot of time walking it off and my ankles and hamstrings especially hurt a lot throughout the rest of the day, but I was able to stand and sit without feeling like my joints were going to explode open and was mostly in control of my ability to walk throughout the day, so it definitely took less of a physical toll on me than my first race had. Progress!
The only big things I want to be able to improve on are taking things out a little slower and trying to hold onto the pace without big external motivators. I had actually dropped guy on my shoulder briefly whilst passing someone else in front of me, but at that point I was mostly alone because the next person in front of my was quite far in front and I had no real motivation to keep pushing the pace. That was where the 9 minute mile drops came from I think so trying to hold onto that pace in the absence of pressure from competitors is something I have to work on. Also, as much as I am mostly very happy with how consistent the run was in terms of pacing, I would still like to be faster on the back end compared to the front end (and I would like to be able to do that by making the back half faster, not by making the front end slower), so that's something I will continue to work on.
Other things worth noting: The race, despite it being very small, was very well organized. Props to the organizers for hosting a great event! And there was plenty of water on the course, which I tried to get a little bit of at every station, and drinking while running is something I'm slowly improving at. Well organized small races are very impressive to me though, so I'm really glad I had a chance to be a part of that.
As far as recovery goes, it's been a day now, and I'm definitely more sore today than I was yesterday, especially in the quads (which I wasn't feeling at all yesterday), but I have less structural pain in my ankles and other joints, which is nice. I wanted to take a short recovery run this morning, but a few minutes out I knew that it wasn't going to happen because I just couldn't hold decent form on my tired limbs, so I turned around and came home. I will try to be active about walking and stretching today and we'll maybe give it another go tomorrow.
All in all, the race was a really great experience and I'm really glad that 13 days ago I randomly signed up! I'm excited for the rest of the adventures this season of racing will bring. (:
Much love,
Jess
Yesterday's Race: Running from Cancer Half Marathon
Summary: 13.02 mi, 1:53:19, 8:42 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:02, 8:24, 8:38, 8:48, 8:45, 8:49, 8:42, 8:43, 8:46, 9:07, 9:01, 8:49, 8:37, 8:15.
Let's start by commenting on my finish time. I don't have an official finish time yet, although I will update this post when I do. As of right now, we'll go with my Garmin time, which says 1:53:19. This should be pretty close, I started the watch when the race started, I stopped the watch after I crossed the line. My time from Philly was 1:55:37, which makes this about a solid 2 minutes faster. Most of that I honestly think can be attributable to the fact that this course was as flat as physically possible (there was a total elevation gain of 16 ft, which is nothing) but I'm still generally pretty happy about hitting that time range since my training has felt on the slow side. I want to be under 1:50 by the St. Louis Rock 'n Roll Half though, so there's still work to be done for sure.
The day started with me waking up at 5:38 AM (just before my 5:40 AM alarm) and getting dressed and starting to hydrate with some water. Mom took me to Timmy's where I got two 12 grain bagels toasted with cream cheese. I ate most of one and then couldn't really eat any more. We arrived, I checked in and got my timing chip and sat around while drinking the first half of my Vitamin Water. (Up to this point, I had already drank a little more than half of a bottle of regular water.) I also scoped out the competition, which, because it was a running event, was intimidating seeing as it looked like everyone else was a real runner, and I feel really out of place amongst real runners. Some Ironman finishers were thrown in there as well, including one man who had a cocky attitude about him I really disliked. It was intimidating.
Mom left to go back home to Coen and I hung around while sort of warming up (really just loosening out my legs, doing some mobility movements, I didn't do any jogging like a lot of the other competitors did). At 6:45, I downed a single chocolate Clif Shot and washed it down with the remainder of my Vitamin Water and just chilled until the start.
It was interesting to note that up until this point I was very much so feeling unconfident and sort of freaked out by all the other runners and my comparative lack of running experience, but as soon as they announced "5 minutes to go" (we started at 7:05 instead of 7:00 because they had a bit of set up to do on course still) my brain like flipped a switch into race mode Jess and all of that fell to the wayside. It's funny how that happens, I guess the mental half is something that really does transfer across sports. Before races, I'm all business, and my brain is good at zeroing in on only worrying about making sure I execute the way I want to and I'm glad that instinct kicked in when it did yesterday morning.
I started out too fast, and I knew that as soon as I took off. One lady who passed me just after the one mile mark had commented to a friend/teammate of hers that it was an 8 min flat first mile and I was like, whoops. But the pace settled down pretty well for me over the course of the next few miles so I don't object to it too much, even post-race.
Around the 4-5 mile mark, my right foot started hurting and it was more of a bone ache than anything else and I knew it might develop into a problem further down the line but I didn't give it too much thought at the time. It didn't negatively affect my running yet and I was willing to let it go until it did start to bother me more. It never did, so that was good. (Although it was hurting all of yesterday and still hurts today so I'll probably have to give that some time to heal up.)
Also around this time, there was a man who had come up on me, pulled up beside me briefly, and then fell back and ran on my shoulder for most of the remainder of the race. On one hand, he was probably drafting off of me which was mildly annoying, but on the other hand having someone behind me pressuring me is exactly the kind of thing I need to keep me going. Usually people in front of me are less motivating because trying to catch up to someone is always a struggle, but trying to stay in front of someone or trying to drop someone are much easier for me to motivate myself to do. So it was sort of nice to have that kind of pressure on my back for most of the race.
The plan was to try and make sure that I only got passed in the first half of the race and only passed people in the second half. With the exception of the guy who sat on my shoulder most of the race and passed me in the last mile, no one else passed me and I passed a few people (including a girl who had passed me at the beginning of the race and pulled way ahead, I was very glad to have been able to real her in in the final parts of the race).
Overall, I was very very happy with that race. I had mentally given myself permission to look at my watch for splits starting with my mile 10 split, but I found myself not even wanting to know because I was running a well executed an well paced race (or at least that's what it felt like) and I was really enjoying my race experience and I didn't want to ruin it with pressures about pace or PBs. So I was happy to run in and determine my end pacing on feel alone and that worked pretty well for me. Also as the man behind me passed me, he ran side by side with me for a bit and encouraged me to get after trying to get in front of that girl who had been ahead of me the entire race and it was nice to have that encouragement near the end. The last time I raced this distance, the last 4-5 miles were just torture and I was mentally pushing myself really really hard just to try and hold onto the pace that I was going. This time, I felt like I moderated the effort much better throughout and it was just a very comfortable and enjoyable run. At no point did I feel like the distance was too much, it doesn't intimidate me anymore, and that's also really really nice. On top of that, I felt absolutely destroyed physically after my last half, but I felt much better after finishing this one. I mean my legs were super tight and I had to spend a lot of time walking it off and my ankles and hamstrings especially hurt a lot throughout the rest of the day, but I was able to stand and sit without feeling like my joints were going to explode open and was mostly in control of my ability to walk throughout the day, so it definitely took less of a physical toll on me than my first race had. Progress!
The only big things I want to be able to improve on are taking things out a little slower and trying to hold onto the pace without big external motivators. I had actually dropped guy on my shoulder briefly whilst passing someone else in front of me, but at that point I was mostly alone because the next person in front of my was quite far in front and I had no real motivation to keep pushing the pace. That was where the 9 minute mile drops came from I think so trying to hold onto that pace in the absence of pressure from competitors is something I have to work on. Also, as much as I am mostly very happy with how consistent the run was in terms of pacing, I would still like to be faster on the back end compared to the front end (and I would like to be able to do that by making the back half faster, not by making the front end slower), so that's something I will continue to work on.
Other things worth noting: The race, despite it being very small, was very well organized. Props to the organizers for hosting a great event! And there was plenty of water on the course, which I tried to get a little bit of at every station, and drinking while running is something I'm slowly improving at. Well organized small races are very impressive to me though, so I'm really glad I had a chance to be a part of that.
As far as recovery goes, it's been a day now, and I'm definitely more sore today than I was yesterday, especially in the quads (which I wasn't feeling at all yesterday), but I have less structural pain in my ankles and other joints, which is nice. I wanted to take a short recovery run this morning, but a few minutes out I knew that it wasn't going to happen because I just couldn't hold decent form on my tired limbs, so I turned around and came home. I will try to be active about walking and stretching today and we'll maybe give it another go tomorrow.
All in all, the race was a really great experience and I'm really glad that 13 days ago I randomly signed up! I'm excited for the rest of the adventures this season of racing will bring. (:
Much love,
Jess
Saturday, July 25, 2015
THE. LAST. DAY.
This was a note I wrote from me to Henry (nominally, seeing as I didn't actually show him this note) whilst eating lunch at Adventure Bay with Coen today.
I think I really have to keep this here as a reminder to myself of the fact that I love going out and pushing myself and doing my best and sometimes exhaustion and stress and pressure get in the way of that and makes me lose sight of this. I need to try to hold onto this mentality when I'm in the midst of working hard because at the end of the day, it's important that these pursuits add to my life instead of take away from it.
Today was an easy easy warm up before the main event tomorrow:
Today's Workout: Easy 3-5 mi. run.
Summary: 3.17 mi, 29:27, 9:17 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:25, 9:18, 9:13, 8:55.
Hit rate: 18/20 (90%)
I was happy with the pace even though it felt a little more strenuous than I think it realistically should have. I'm fairly happy with what food intake looked like today given that I had to eat out for a lot of the day just because of the way timing/life worked out (noodles for dinner = big plus) and I've been loading up on potassium Vitamin Water (fruit punch) the past few days and am having a Nuun right now. Tomorrow morning I'll have another Vitamin Water and pocket some Nuun in case I decide I want it. The plan will be an early breakfast at Timmy's (bagel carbs!) and either one or two gels in the lead up to the run (TBD depending on what my fluid intake looks like and how I feel). I'm really pumped!
In other news, it's been really interesting to think about how I've been feeling about racing in the lead up to this race. Here are the three big things:
(1) I'm really inexperienced at running races still. With swimming, I know my pre-race routine down to the dot in terms of how early I like to wake up, what I like to eat, what I do for general warm up and pre-race warm down and cool down, how to rest between events, and exactly how my events should feel as I'm swimming them. I have so much experience that I can turn my brain off the entire day basically and autopilot will take care of it. I don't have that with running yet, so I'm still learning and it feels like there's a lot of uncertainty and nerves. That'll get worked out with experience though, so I just have to keep racing until the routines become familiar.
(2) Related to me being inexperienced is that I somehow have this sense that I need to rely on things like diligently watching my pace in order to run the best possible race. But in swimming I've never really thought about my splits while racing. The focus is always on just racing my best possible race. Because unless I execute close to perfectly, I don't have a chance at PBs. I think I need to develop this mentality with running and triathlon races as well. It's not about splits or whatever, it's about executing on controllables like technique and moderating effort and rest/preparation, etc. If a PB falls out of that, great. If it doesn't, then it wasn't going to just because I was looking at my watch the entire time. PB races depend on the best possible execution, and there is much more to that than what my splits are going to look like tomorrow. I'm going to try my best to just focus on executing and not worry too much about what time drops out of that execution.
(3) It's nice to know that this race is just a stepping stone in the grand scheme of my training. I guess everything that I do between now and what will hopefully be USAT Collegiate Club Nationals in the spring is really just a stepping stone. The races in September will carry some real weight though, whereas this one really is almost just a hard tune-up training session. The September races are the first real tests of how well I can handle the Olympic distance. This race is almost like just a high intensity long run that's meant to help me develop my running in the lead up to the later triathlons. The result in and of itself doesn't matter to me as much as it usually would because either I will PB and be ecstatic or I won't and it will still have been a really meaningful part of my training and building up towards being able to run the best 10k I can at the end of what I know will be a tough event for me distance-wise. It's exciting to run a race with a more casual mentality.
Another quick note: I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked last night, but I did take a nap in the middle of the day today and plan on going to bed in about 15 minutes so I should have lots of ZZZs in the bag for tomorrow. Going to go lay everything out and stretch briefly and brush my teeth and get all set up and ready to go. Wish me luck! (Also: YAY 90% HIT RATE!)
Much love,
Jess
I think I really have to keep this here as a reminder to myself of the fact that I love going out and pushing myself and doing my best and sometimes exhaustion and stress and pressure get in the way of that and makes me lose sight of this. I need to try to hold onto this mentality when I'm in the midst of working hard because at the end of the day, it's important that these pursuits add to my life instead of take away from it.
Today was an easy easy warm up before the main event tomorrow:
Today's Workout: Easy 3-5 mi. run.
Summary: 3.17 mi, 29:27, 9:17 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:25, 9:18, 9:13, 8:55.
Hit rate: 18/20 (90%)
I was happy with the pace even though it felt a little more strenuous than I think it realistically should have. I'm fairly happy with what food intake looked like today given that I had to eat out for a lot of the day just because of the way timing/life worked out (noodles for dinner = big plus) and I've been loading up on potassium Vitamin Water (fruit punch) the past few days and am having a Nuun right now. Tomorrow morning I'll have another Vitamin Water and pocket some Nuun in case I decide I want it. The plan will be an early breakfast at Timmy's (bagel carbs!) and either one or two gels in the lead up to the run (TBD depending on what my fluid intake looks like and how I feel). I'm really pumped!
In other news, it's been really interesting to think about how I've been feeling about racing in the lead up to this race. Here are the three big things:
(1) I'm really inexperienced at running races still. With swimming, I know my pre-race routine down to the dot in terms of how early I like to wake up, what I like to eat, what I do for general warm up and pre-race warm down and cool down, how to rest between events, and exactly how my events should feel as I'm swimming them. I have so much experience that I can turn my brain off the entire day basically and autopilot will take care of it. I don't have that with running yet, so I'm still learning and it feels like there's a lot of uncertainty and nerves. That'll get worked out with experience though, so I just have to keep racing until the routines become familiar.
(2) Related to me being inexperienced is that I somehow have this sense that I need to rely on things like diligently watching my pace in order to run the best possible race. But in swimming I've never really thought about my splits while racing. The focus is always on just racing my best possible race. Because unless I execute close to perfectly, I don't have a chance at PBs. I think I need to develop this mentality with running and triathlon races as well. It's not about splits or whatever, it's about executing on controllables like technique and moderating effort and rest/preparation, etc. If a PB falls out of that, great. If it doesn't, then it wasn't going to just because I was looking at my watch the entire time. PB races depend on the best possible execution, and there is much more to that than what my splits are going to look like tomorrow. I'm going to try my best to just focus on executing and not worry too much about what time drops out of that execution.
(3) It's nice to know that this race is just a stepping stone in the grand scheme of my training. I guess everything that I do between now and what will hopefully be USAT Collegiate Club Nationals in the spring is really just a stepping stone. The races in September will carry some real weight though, whereas this one really is almost just a hard tune-up training session. The September races are the first real tests of how well I can handle the Olympic distance. This race is almost like just a high intensity long run that's meant to help me develop my running in the lead up to the later triathlons. The result in and of itself doesn't matter to me as much as it usually would because either I will PB and be ecstatic or I won't and it will still have been a really meaningful part of my training and building up towards being able to run the best 10k I can at the end of what I know will be a tough event for me distance-wise. It's exciting to run a race with a more casual mentality.
Another quick note: I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked last night, but I did take a nap in the middle of the day today and plan on going to bed in about 15 minutes so I should have lots of ZZZs in the bag for tomorrow. Going to go lay everything out and stretch briefly and brush my teeth and get all set up and ready to go. Wish me luck! (Also: YAY 90% HIT RATE!)
Much love,
Jess
Friday, July 24, 2015
Taper rest days
I love rest days. I was actually feeling really restless and energetic yesterday but I'm a little more mellowed out today than I was expecting to be. I'll do some stretching later tonight and take my short run tomorrow and get READY TO RACE on Sunday! :D
I've been drinking Vitamin Water (fruit punch loaded w/ potassium) religiously and looking ahead to starting med school (aka planning out every second of my life) and that's about all that's going on. Going to try and get back on that HIPAA training for school so I don't have to stress about it next week. Yay!
Much love,
Jess
(Yes, I know, rest day reports are boring. I apologize.)
I've been drinking Vitamin Water (fruit punch loaded w/ potassium) religiously and looking ahead to starting med school (aka planning out every second of my life) and that's about all that's going on. Going to try and get back on that HIPAA training for school so I don't have to stress about it next week. Yay!
Much love,
Jess
(Yes, I know, rest day reports are boring. I apologize.)
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Building, building...
Building is really not the word you think of in terms of your training a few days out from a race but somehow that's what today's run was. It felt like a continuation of yesterday's run, I started out already feeling warmed up and just sort of built from there. It was a solid, consistent, and easy-moderate effort and I was very very satisfied with it.
Today's Workout: Base 6 mi. run.
Summary: 6.58 mi, 1:02:03, 9:25 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:42, 9:23, 9:39, 9:14, 9:25, 9:24, 9:02.
Hit rate: 17/19 (89.4%)
Also it's around 6 PM now as I'm writing this and the taper is really kicking in. I feel super super good (especially in contrast to how blown out I felt last week) and I have so much excess energy I just feel like I have to actually work out. Like do something to destroy myself physically. But I can't because I'm resting. It's so strange. And to think there's another two days of this. Not really sure how that's going to go. Must stretch tonight!
Much love,
Jess
Today's Workout: Base 6 mi. run.
Summary: 6.58 mi, 1:02:03, 9:25 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:42, 9:23, 9:39, 9:14, 9:25, 9:24, 9:02.
Hit rate: 17/19 (89.4%)
Also it's around 6 PM now as I'm writing this and the taper is really kicking in. I feel super super good (especially in contrast to how blown out I felt last week) and I have so much excess energy I just feel like I have to actually work out. Like do something to destroy myself physically. But I can't because I'm resting. It's so strange. And to think there's another two days of this. Not really sure how that's going to go. Must stretch tonight!
Much love,
Jess
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
What is pacing?
I don't know what pacing is. But I averaged the same pace today as I did on my long run on Monday so I guess my body is pretty consistent all in all? I think I always want to be faster, but today I was a little scatter-brained and I think a little underfueled (it was a completely fasted run right after I woke up and I didn't sleep the best last night) so the pace was slower than I was expecting for a 6 miler. I felt like I still had some kick in me at the end though so I'll live with how I did. Here's the summary:
Today's Workout: Planned negative split base run 6-8 mi, really just turned into a casual base run, didn't think too much about pace. (Watch was set to only give me cadence info and split warnings at each mile.)
Summary: 6.57 mi., 1:04:28, 9:48 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:38, 9:47, 10:03, 10:08, 9:46, 9:48, 9:15.
Hit rate: 16/18 (88.9%)
Slowly inching my way up to that 90% hit rate.
Random nutrition note: I'd been doing well about eating well and snacking healthily and whatever but Coen was starving after hockey camp today and we took him to McDonalds and I ate McDonalds and feel mildly horrible about it now. But oh well, what's done has been done. Gonna try not to do that again for a while...
Much love,
Jess
Today's Workout: Planned negative split base run 6-8 mi, really just turned into a casual base run, didn't think too much about pace. (Watch was set to only give me cadence info and split warnings at each mile.)
Summary: 6.57 mi., 1:04:28, 9:48 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:38, 9:47, 10:03, 10:08, 9:46, 9:48, 9:15.
Hit rate: 16/18 (88.9%)
Slowly inching my way up to that 90% hit rate.
Random nutrition note: I'd been doing well about eating well and snacking healthily and whatever but Coen was starving after hockey camp today and we took him to McDonalds and I ate McDonalds and feel mildly horrible about it now. But oh well, what's done has been done. Gonna try not to do that again for a while...
Much love,
Jess
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Teammates: When excellence becomes an imperative
I realized something today on my walk home from my morning swim: It's hard to be dedicated to working hard day in and day out when it seems like the exception instead of the norm. Part of what makes having a team so valuable is that you see a group of other people who work hard day in and day out just like you do, and it makes the effort and commitment and dedication the norm. It means that if you want to be better than any of the others, you have to not only show up at every single practice but also be focused and hard-working and driven constantly. The situation forces consistency and it forces you to push yourself because you constantly see everyone around you doing the same. It makes excellence an imperative in that showing up every day and giving it your all every workout is simply the expected minimum within the circle that you run in.
The real world is hard in a way because to the average on-looker, I train a lot. In my mind I feel like I'm hitting bare minimums for what I want to do, I'm not even approaching the average of what I should be doing, but to everyone else, that level of effort is commendable. And over time, I really want to buy into that. I really want to pat myself on the back for a short mediocre workout because hey, at least I wasn't just sitting on the couch. There are a lot of ways in which high expectations are extremely exhausting and difficult but at least they keep you accountable and force you to push yourself. The low expectations are hard in their own way because they sap motivation from me and allow me to accept less than my best, which really isn't something I want to get in the habit of doing.
It's a fine line to toe I guess, the balance between the expectations I had for myself in my former life as a competitive swimmer and my current life as an adult who enjoys racing and training but knows that it's always going to be just a hobby. I wish I could push myself back into that mindset where the hours and the struggle and having my body hurt all the time was just normal so I can stop throwing myself pity parties because my legs ache and burn and I just don't want to push hard during my workout today. Still trying to figure out how to go about making that happen, beyond just yelling at myself internally to be mentally tougher.
In any case, I took a swim today, cut it way short because I really wasn't feeling it. In some ways I'm impressed I made it as far as I did, because I didn't want to go, and I wanted to leave after warm up, but at least I got through half of what I had planned before I threw in the towel. On the other hand, I knew that if I had a team or a coach I wouldn't have been allowed to just quit. I would've finished it out and been better for it. So on one hand I'm accepting of what happened today, on the other hand, I'm disappointed. I've sort of lowered my standards for myself a bit this week because I want to be calm and rested and in a good place mentally going into racing on the weekend, but I really want to get back in the habit of expecting great things from myself at all times once I'm in St. Louis and settled down into my new med student life. Here's the set:
Today's Workout: AM recovery swim
That's all for now. Will take runs tomorrow and Thursday, Friday off, short run on Saturday, and race on Sunday! Then we'll talk a brief recovery break and some serious triathlon training.
Much love,
Jess
The real world is hard in a way because to the average on-looker, I train a lot. In my mind I feel like I'm hitting bare minimums for what I want to do, I'm not even approaching the average of what I should be doing, but to everyone else, that level of effort is commendable. And over time, I really want to buy into that. I really want to pat myself on the back for a short mediocre workout because hey, at least I wasn't just sitting on the couch. There are a lot of ways in which high expectations are extremely exhausting and difficult but at least they keep you accountable and force you to push yourself. The low expectations are hard in their own way because they sap motivation from me and allow me to accept less than my best, which really isn't something I want to get in the habit of doing.
It's a fine line to toe I guess, the balance between the expectations I had for myself in my former life as a competitive swimmer and my current life as an adult who enjoys racing and training but knows that it's always going to be just a hobby. I wish I could push myself back into that mindset where the hours and the struggle and having my body hurt all the time was just normal so I can stop throwing myself pity parties because my legs ache and burn and I just don't want to push hard during my workout today. Still trying to figure out how to go about making that happen, beyond just yelling at myself internally to be mentally tougher.
In any case, I took a swim today, cut it way short because I really wasn't feeling it. In some ways I'm impressed I made it as far as I did, because I didn't want to go, and I wanted to leave after warm up, but at least I got through half of what I had planned before I threw in the towel. On the other hand, I knew that if I had a team or a coach I wouldn't have been allowed to just quit. I would've finished it out and been better for it. So on one hand I'm accepting of what happened today, on the other hand, I'm disappointed. I've sort of lowered my standards for myself a bit this week because I want to be calm and rested and in a good place mentally going into racing on the weekend, but I really want to get back in the habit of expecting great things from myself at all times once I'm in St. Louis and settled down into my new med student life. Here's the set:
Today's Workout: AM recovery swim
- WU: 1000 SKIPS
- Main Set:
- 5 x 100 free @ 1:45
- 5 x 100 IM @ 2:00
- WD: 200 pull, 200 kick, 200 swim
- Total Distance: 2500 SCM
That's all for now. Will take runs tomorrow and Thursday, Friday off, short run on Saturday, and race on Sunday! Then we'll talk a brief recovery break and some serious triathlon training.
Much love,
Jess
Monday, July 20, 2015
Rest day and long run
I totally started to write a blog post yesterday and failed to complete it...So let's try this again. Sunday (yesterday) was a rest day, which was fairly uneventful and actually quite restful and nice. I spent a lot of last night freaking out on Skype to Henry just with pre-race jitters and he did a great job of calming me down about everything. I'm not building anymore fitness this last week, it's just a recovery/maintenance week and my focus should be on my sanity more than anything else. Everything sort of goes out the window on race day: I'll be in a completely different place in terms of mindset and there's no way for me to be prepared for racing other than by racing frequently. We decided that it would be best if I took my eyes off of goal times and paces during the race and focused instead on just running the best race I can by feel. So I'll wear my watch in order to get data for later on, but I'm going to tape a piece of paper over top of it or something so I'm not tempted to look for splits. It will take a bit of pressure of in terms of hitting certain paces and it'll prevent me from psyching myself out in case I think I'm going too fast or too slow or whatever. I have a pretty good understanding of my body, this distance, and my pacing, so I really need to trust that come race day.
This morning I took a long run, basically fasted. I woke up, drank a bottle of water and downed a Clif Shot, then headed out for my run. Details below:
Today's Workout: Long run (10-12 mi)
Summary: 11.27 mi, 1:50:29, 9:48 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:43, 9:58, 9:51, 9:54, 9:55, 9:55, 9:49, 9:50, 9:40, 9:43, 9:38, 9:27.
Hit rate: 14/16 (87.5%)
Thoughts about today: The back end (3-4 miles) were much rougher than I was expecting, and I had taken the initial 6 miles at a very relaxed effort, so it's all just a great reminder to stay in control on the way out during the race and err on the side of too easy rather than too hard. That having been said, the last couple of miles were still quick without me maxing out on the effort, which makes me confident that I'll be able to push harder than that and pull out a bigger sized negative split during the race so long as I stay relaxed during the first half.
The cadence today was fantastic. I was up above 170 consistently the first 4-5 miles and never dropped below 165 even in the later parts of the run, which is exactly what I want. I focused a lot on turnover today every time I felt myself slowing down and I think it was really important. Ideally, this is how I want to run my race on Sunday, but with a bit more edge in all my efforts. At the very least, I now know that I will be able to finish under 2:10 even when running not so seriously, so that's comforting.
I also tried not to look at my watch today, and checked only at 3 miles, 6 miles, 8 miles, and 10 miles onwards, and I still managed to hold a nice steady consistent pace, which I'm really happy with. It gives me a little bit more confidence about this whole running by feel business.
Tomorrow will be a swim only day in order to give my legs some time to recovery. Only 3 more runs left on the schedule between now and race day!
Much love,
Jess
This morning I took a long run, basically fasted. I woke up, drank a bottle of water and downed a Clif Shot, then headed out for my run. Details below:
Today's Workout: Long run (10-12 mi)
Summary: 11.27 mi, 1:50:29, 9:48 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:43, 9:58, 9:51, 9:54, 9:55, 9:55, 9:49, 9:50, 9:40, 9:43, 9:38, 9:27.
Hit rate: 14/16 (87.5%)
Thoughts about today: The back end (3-4 miles) were much rougher than I was expecting, and I had taken the initial 6 miles at a very relaxed effort, so it's all just a great reminder to stay in control on the way out during the race and err on the side of too easy rather than too hard. That having been said, the last couple of miles were still quick without me maxing out on the effort, which makes me confident that I'll be able to push harder than that and pull out a bigger sized negative split during the race so long as I stay relaxed during the first half.
The cadence today was fantastic. I was up above 170 consistently the first 4-5 miles and never dropped below 165 even in the later parts of the run, which is exactly what I want. I focused a lot on turnover today every time I felt myself slowing down and I think it was really important. Ideally, this is how I want to run my race on Sunday, but with a bit more edge in all my efforts. At the very least, I now know that I will be able to finish under 2:10 even when running not so seriously, so that's comforting.
I also tried not to look at my watch today, and checked only at 3 miles, 6 miles, 8 miles, and 10 miles onwards, and I still managed to hold a nice steady consistent pace, which I'm really happy with. It gives me a little bit more confidence about this whole running by feel business.
Tomorrow will be a swim only day in order to give my legs some time to recovery. Only 3 more runs left on the schedule between now and race day!
Much love,
Jess
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Priorities
Last night and today were much needed reminders that as much as I love racing and training and I try to hold myself to high standards when it comes to these things (and by high standards I mean standards in terms of commitment and effort, not so much performance), the real priorities in my life are not racing and training. It's the summer so I don't have school commitments, but I do have a family and a lover and these people in my life are my priority. And when school starts, school will be another priority. Henry and I had a rough night in a lot of ways last night. I sort of picked a fight with him and he's been going through a rough patch and in the end I think we both needed to just spend some time together, even if it was over the internet, being there to support the other. It meant I didn't get to bed until close to 2 AM. And I had promised Coen a trip to Adventure Bay today, so I had to be mentally present for him. Henry said something that was really important to me last night about this: Being there for my family right now is worth losing 5 or 10 minutes on my race finish time. And he's right. Competing and training is a really selfish thing in a lot of ways because it is such an egocentric activity and takes a lot away from what I can do with my time/energy outside of that. It's important to remember that this isn't the most important part of my life: I've got a lot of other things to prioritize above my training and performance.
So I had actually consented myself to the fact that today was probably going to be a missed workout day, but found some time in the morning to squeeze in a very short easy run. I had a base 4-6 miler planned, but seeing as I was slightly sleep deprived and somewhat stressed and exhausted, I decided to cut myself some slack and just run an easy recovery 5k. It was a nice relaxed way to decompress in the morning before my day got started and I feel very lucky to have been able to get a run in today, however short and slow.
Today's Workout: Easy recovery 5 km.
Summary: 3.15 mi, 34:56, 11:05 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 10:55, 11:03, 11:16, 11:09.
Hit rate: 13/15 (86.7%)
On top of that, today was a fairly active day. Coen and I spent 10 AM to 1:30ish PM at Adventure Bay (climbing stairs for the water slides was pretty rough on my evidently still exhausted legs - may have to adjust training load next week to make sure I'm properly rested before the race). I came home and took a short nap in the afternoon and then spent some time playing one-on-one basketball with Coen in the evening. (He's always beating me at basketball. The scores are close, but it's sort of embarrassing seeing as I'm way taller and way older than him.) It was the right call to keep things short and easy today, glad I made the adjustments as necessary.
I had a long run (10-12 miles) planned for tomorrow, but Coen and I are being taken to a classic car show in the county during the day so I don't know if I'll have the time or energy for it. I might take the day off instead and re-adjust my training plan so I take the long run on Monday and possibly an extra rest day sometime during the week. We'll see how my body is feeling. I think being fresh for the Sunday race is the priority, so I'll do what I have to do to get there.
In other news, I've been taking a look at what I would like to go and the paces are really aggressive and intimidating. I have no baseline to compare this experience to because I wasn't tracking my training very accurately in the lead up to my first and only half marathon (the Philly Half Marathon from the Philly Marathon Weekend; 1:55:37 finish time on a fairly flat course) and I know I took the race out too fast but I also have no sense for how much faster than my usual training pace it was. My goal (ideally) is to go faster than I did in Philly, especially since the Windsor course is way flatter, but I very rarely am able to hit that kind of pace in training. Ideally, I'd like to be under 1:50, but an 8:22-8:23 average pace sounds ridiculous to me. I will stick with the plan of starting out at 9:00 pace and hopefully dropping that down as time goes on, which should at least get me to my old finish time, but we'll see how I'm feeling when I'm (hopefully) rested on race day. I also hope that the smaller scale of the event doesn't cut back too much on the intensity that I'm able to summon up. I know that the size of the crowd and the event was a huge motivator for me throughout the Philly Half, and I don't know that I'll be able to repeat that kind of performance without the energy of that kind of crowd. A lot of factors go into race results, I know that already, so I just have to be prepared to face the music when it happens I guess.
Much love,
Jess
So I had actually consented myself to the fact that today was probably going to be a missed workout day, but found some time in the morning to squeeze in a very short easy run. I had a base 4-6 miler planned, but seeing as I was slightly sleep deprived and somewhat stressed and exhausted, I decided to cut myself some slack and just run an easy recovery 5k. It was a nice relaxed way to decompress in the morning before my day got started and I feel very lucky to have been able to get a run in today, however short and slow.
Today's Workout: Easy recovery 5 km.
Summary: 3.15 mi, 34:56, 11:05 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 10:55, 11:03, 11:16, 11:09.
Hit rate: 13/15 (86.7%)
On top of that, today was a fairly active day. Coen and I spent 10 AM to 1:30ish PM at Adventure Bay (climbing stairs for the water slides was pretty rough on my evidently still exhausted legs - may have to adjust training load next week to make sure I'm properly rested before the race). I came home and took a short nap in the afternoon and then spent some time playing one-on-one basketball with Coen in the evening. (He's always beating me at basketball. The scores are close, but it's sort of embarrassing seeing as I'm way taller and way older than him.) It was the right call to keep things short and easy today, glad I made the adjustments as necessary.
I had a long run (10-12 miles) planned for tomorrow, but Coen and I are being taken to a classic car show in the county during the day so I don't know if I'll have the time or energy for it. I might take the day off instead and re-adjust my training plan so I take the long run on Monday and possibly an extra rest day sometime during the week. We'll see how my body is feeling. I think being fresh for the Sunday race is the priority, so I'll do what I have to do to get there.
In other news, I've been taking a look at what I would like to go and the paces are really aggressive and intimidating. I have no baseline to compare this experience to because I wasn't tracking my training very accurately in the lead up to my first and only half marathon (the Philly Half Marathon from the Philly Marathon Weekend; 1:55:37 finish time on a fairly flat course) and I know I took the race out too fast but I also have no sense for how much faster than my usual training pace it was. My goal (ideally) is to go faster than I did in Philly, especially since the Windsor course is way flatter, but I very rarely am able to hit that kind of pace in training. Ideally, I'd like to be under 1:50, but an 8:22-8:23 average pace sounds ridiculous to me. I will stick with the plan of starting out at 9:00 pace and hopefully dropping that down as time goes on, which should at least get me to my old finish time, but we'll see how I'm feeling when I'm (hopefully) rested on race day. I also hope that the smaller scale of the event doesn't cut back too much on the intensity that I'm able to summon up. I know that the size of the crowd and the event was a huge motivator for me throughout the Philly Half, and I don't know that I'll be able to repeat that kind of performance without the energy of that kind of crowd. A lot of factors go into race results, I know that already, so I just have to be prepared to face the music when it happens I guess.
Much love,
Jess
Friday, July 17, 2015
Some extra sleep, best I could've done
I am simultaneously disappointed with today's run and not. I ended up having a bit of a late night yesterday, wanted to Skype Henry once he back to Boston with Florida and he wasn't home til around 10:30 or 11 PM so I wasn't in bed until 11:30. Decided that I would sleep in but actually ended up waking up around 6:45 AM and deciding it might be worth it to take the run early anyways. But it was raining. So I went back to sleep. Ended up taking my run mid-morning after my doctor's appointment (immunization booster). The weather was nice, cool and overcast. I didn't quite get through the workout the way I wanted to, but I am fairly satisfied with the effort. Will give you the summary then explain.
Today's Workout: As planned was a 10 miler split as 3 miles easy (9:30-9:45 pace), 3 miles moderate (9:00-9:15 pace), 3 miles fast (sub-9:00 pace, goal = 8:45 pace), 1 mile easy cool down. In actuality, the 3 miles fast became 2 miles fast because I died once I hit 8 miles and decided to just take the cool down and a shorter route back home.
Summary: 9.02 mi, 1:24:52, 9:25 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:42, 9:31, 9:39, 9:13, 9:10, 9:13, 8:53, 8:59, 10:23, 9:05 (0.02 miles, doesn't really count).
Hit rate: 12/14 (85.7%)
So even though I dropped a mile of the fast bit, I am pretty happy with the pace progression overall. Exactly a week ago I ran a slightly shorter version of the same course on a day without any wind (the wind was a little rough going south towards Roselawn) and the splits today were consistently a tad faster than last week and I would definitely say I'm in more of an accumulated fatigue situation, so I'm happy with it. It was a tough effort overall and during the moderate miles I was really concerned about having nothing left to give in the faster miles, but the two miles following that were pretty solid. Of course I want more, seeing as ideally I'll be under 9 min mile pace the entirety of the race next week, but I don't think I could've asked more of myself than what I was able to give today. Not hitting the fast mile goals and not getting that third mile in are a disappointment, but it doesn't lessen the quality of the remainder of the run. I'll mark it off as a success and move on.
Much love,
Jess
Today's Workout: As planned was a 10 miler split as 3 miles easy (9:30-9:45 pace), 3 miles moderate (9:00-9:15 pace), 3 miles fast (sub-9:00 pace, goal = 8:45 pace), 1 mile easy cool down. In actuality, the 3 miles fast became 2 miles fast because I died once I hit 8 miles and decided to just take the cool down and a shorter route back home.
Summary: 9.02 mi, 1:24:52, 9:25 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:42, 9:31, 9:39, 9:13, 9:10, 9:13, 8:53, 8:59, 10:23, 9:05 (0.02 miles, doesn't really count).
Hit rate: 12/14 (85.7%)
So even though I dropped a mile of the fast bit, I am pretty happy with the pace progression overall. Exactly a week ago I ran a slightly shorter version of the same course on a day without any wind (the wind was a little rough going south towards Roselawn) and the splits today were consistently a tad faster than last week and I would definitely say I'm in more of an accumulated fatigue situation, so I'm happy with it. It was a tough effort overall and during the moderate miles I was really concerned about having nothing left to give in the faster miles, but the two miles following that were pretty solid. Of course I want more, seeing as ideally I'll be under 9 min mile pace the entirety of the race next week, but I don't think I could've asked more of myself than what I was able to give today. Not hitting the fast mile goals and not getting that third mile in are a disappointment, but it doesn't lessen the quality of the remainder of the run. I'll mark it off as a success and move on.
Much love,
Jess
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Recovery run/day!
Today's Workout: Easy recovery run, 3-5 mi.
Summary: 4.30 mi, 41:01, 9:33 pace.
Split paces by mile: 9:25, 9:35, 9:38, 9:37, 9:11.
Hit rate: 11/13 (84.6%)
I did the thing! I stayed in the right pace range, I stayed in the right distance range, I took some time to stretch at the rink after my run, I am feeling good and awesome and on track to hopefully rip out a very high quality run tomorrow morning. The only thing that might possibly be getting in the way of that is the fact that I have to stay up tonight in order to speak to Henry briefly when he gets home, so I might be slightly sleep deprived on my run tomorrow morning...We'll see how that goes. I'll also be fasted. Which could either be a plus or be terrible. I will probably take a few Shot Bloks before I head out, and hopefully that will keep me well loaded. Wish me luck!
Much love,
Jess
Summary: 4.30 mi, 41:01, 9:33 pace.
Split paces by mile: 9:25, 9:35, 9:38, 9:37, 9:11.
Hit rate: 11/13 (84.6%)
I did the thing! I stayed in the right pace range, I stayed in the right distance range, I took some time to stretch at the rink after my run, I am feeling good and awesome and on track to hopefully rip out a very high quality run tomorrow morning. The only thing that might possibly be getting in the way of that is the fact that I have to stay up tonight in order to speak to Henry briefly when he gets home, so I might be slightly sleep deprived on my run tomorrow morning...We'll see how that goes. I'll also be fasted. Which could either be a plus or be terrible. I will probably take a few Shot Bloks before I head out, and hopefully that will keep me well loaded. Wish me luck!
Much love,
Jess
Long run and short swim
Yesterday afternoon/evening was an interesting adventure in varying states of exhaustion. I went for a long run during Coen's hockey practice. I was aiming for closer to 12 miles, but there came a point on Old Tecumseh when I would have had to cross the road, which was sort of busy, and then run a bit and come back and cross the road again, and I was at mile 5 and tired and just turned around. So I only got 10 miles. In the evening, when I was talking to Henry about it and voicing my concerns that I hadn't run far enough, he just sort of laughed like literally nobody thinks, "Man I ran 10 miles today I don't think it was far enough". And I guess he has a point. I finished fairly strong (my last mile split was much quicker than the rest, which was fairly smooth paced throughout) and I didn't feel like I was going to collapse or die at the end, so I think I have the extra distance in me if I go for it. It was a sort of slow run though which worries me a little bit because I am definitely going to try to take it out around 9:00 pace during the race and for some reason I have no confidence in whether or not I'll have the ability to hold that. We shall see...
Yesterday's Afternoon Run Workout: Long run, 10-12 miles.
Summary: 10.09 mi, 1:38:39, 9:47 pace.
Pace splits by mile: I didn't turn my auto lap timer on until about 2 miles in, so the first two mile splits are the same pace value. 9:37, 9:37, 9:57, 9:58, 9:52, 9:47, 9:56, 9:57, 9:52, 9:18, 8:54.
Hit rate: 9/11 (81.8%)
So in hindsight I realized that I took a slightly different route than what the race course will be, but it's close enough to be a good preview of what race day will be like. The nicest thing about Windsor running is that it's super super flat here, which makes holding a pace much easier. The course interestingly felt very long on the way out and significantly shorter on the way in. When I'm racing I'll have to remind myself not to get intimidated by how long things feel on the way out, since everything seems to move quicker on the way back in. Otherwise, it was a solid run. My legs were hurting from the very beginning, but settled into a rhythm and even though it was a slow one, it was one I was happy with given that I had a hard track workout the night before. Fingers crossed that things continue to feel good going into next week. And maybe the back half of my long runs might even get a bit quicker? We'll see.
I felt okay immediately after my run but honestly the more time went on the more exhausted I got. I even fell asleep for a bit while Skyping Henry. So I figured if I continued to be this exhausted I would just skip the pool this morning and take my easy recovery run in the afternoon. But I woke up with enough time to go to the pool, so I did. My left shoulder is really aching, I think it's because of how Coen slept on my arm last night, which sucks. It was giving me a lot of problems during backstroke and kick and so I didn't push it too hard. I was also feeling generically lazy so I kept the set short and easy. It was sort of a cop out swim to be honest, but I'm happy enough about having just showed up when I really didn't want to that I'm willing to accept it.
Today's Morning Swim Workout:
Yesterday's Afternoon Run Workout: Long run, 10-12 miles.
Summary: 10.09 mi, 1:38:39, 9:47 pace.
Pace splits by mile: I didn't turn my auto lap timer on until about 2 miles in, so the first two mile splits are the same pace value. 9:37, 9:37, 9:57, 9:58, 9:52, 9:47, 9:56, 9:57, 9:52, 9:18, 8:54.
Hit rate: 9/11 (81.8%)
So in hindsight I realized that I took a slightly different route than what the race course will be, but it's close enough to be a good preview of what race day will be like. The nicest thing about Windsor running is that it's super super flat here, which makes holding a pace much easier. The course interestingly felt very long on the way out and significantly shorter on the way in. When I'm racing I'll have to remind myself not to get intimidated by how long things feel on the way out, since everything seems to move quicker on the way back in. Otherwise, it was a solid run. My legs were hurting from the very beginning, but settled into a rhythm and even though it was a slow one, it was one I was happy with given that I had a hard track workout the night before. Fingers crossed that things continue to feel good going into next week. And maybe the back half of my long runs might even get a bit quicker? We'll see.
I felt okay immediately after my run but honestly the more time went on the more exhausted I got. I even fell asleep for a bit while Skyping Henry. So I figured if I continued to be this exhausted I would just skip the pool this morning and take my easy recovery run in the afternoon. But I woke up with enough time to go to the pool, so I did. My left shoulder is really aching, I think it's because of how Coen slept on my arm last night, which sucks. It was giving me a lot of problems during backstroke and kick and so I didn't push it too hard. I was also feeling generically lazy so I kept the set short and easy. It was sort of a cop out swim to be honest, but I'm happy enough about having just showed up when I really didn't want to that I'm willing to accept it.
Today's Morning Swim Workout:
- WU: 1000 SKIPS
- Main Set:
- 10 x 75 free pull @ 1:30
- 6 x 75 free swim breathe 3/5/7 by 25 @ 10SR
- WD: 100 swim, 200 kick
- Total Distance: 2500 SCM (55 min)
Hit rate: 10/12 (83.3%)
I'm slowly crawling my way back up to 90% in terms of hit rate. Above 80% though which is nice. I'm altering my schedule to cross out tomorrow's morning swim. It's a function of two things, I want to give my shoulder time to get better and I also want tomorrow's run to be high quality and focused. I have to sacrifice the extra training volume for the quality because Coen doesn't have hockey on Friday so I don't have a solid period of alone time where I can take my run unless I do it after dinner (which generally sucks because I don't usually have enough time to put enough time between dinner and my run) or in the morning before everyone is awake. And I generally swim in the morning. So the swim is probably going to be sacrificed in the interest of making sure my run workout remains high quality. And the priority right now is the running, so I don't feel too bad making that call. I'll try to get a few swims in next week as well. As of right now, the swimming is just some base work before I try to commit to very early morning masters practice once I'm back in STL anyways so I'm not going to stress too much about missing a single swim.
On the calendar for this afternoon is an easy recovery run. I'll aim for somewhere in the 3-5 mile range, nice and slow and even 9:30-10:00 pace (or slower). (I'm setting these standards now to make sure that I don't end up running a negative split 6 miler that finishes with sub-9:00 paced miles because I feel like working harder. Today is an easy day, it has to stay easy so that I have fresher legs in the tank for tomorrow's workout. It's important that I get tomorrow's run right, which means I have to commit to doing less today in order to recovery properly.) Yay! (:
Much love,
Jess
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Late runs and early swims
So...I spur of the moment signed up for a half marathon yesterday! Mom pointed out a flyer she had noticed previously at the rink where my little brother has hockey camp and thought it'd be a good idea for me to go run the race. So I decided to do it! It's in 11 days. I am (perhaps falsely) confident in my ability to cover the distance, but super unconfident in my ability to run it at anything mildly resembling a reasonable speed. It's an out and back course though, so I figure I'll go out easy (the goal is averaging ~9:00 min miles, but I'd be okay with anything in the 9:00-9:30 range) and try to build and negative split it on the back end on the way in. That's the game plan, we'll see if it plays out that way.
Because of this upcoming race though, I've had to make some changes to my training plans for the next two weeks to make sure my run game is up to par for the race. It's also forcing me to really take training seriously (including swimming, since that's a cardiovascular endurance thing) which is a nice change of pace. I need that race pressure kick in the butt, we've talked about this already, so it's a good place to be I think.
That having been said, I took last night's run pretty late and sort of close to dinner (about an hour afterwards) and it was rainy which was simultaneously nice because it was cool and simultaneously not because wind/wet. But whatever. I had a negative split 6ish miler planned but ended up doing a track workout because Coen wanted to go play basketball and I can supervise his ballin' while running on the track. He was a trooper, he played a lot of ball, because my run was pretty long. I had been hoping to do a pyramid set (400 through 1600) with 1/2 distance active recoveries, but it became very clear early on that I wasn't going to survive that at current fitness slash closeness to dinner so I reshaped the workout. Here it is!
Yesterday's Workout:
Hit rate: 7/9 (77.7%)
I was really aiming to be closer to the 7:45-8:00 pace range (also I realize that the pace numbers are sort of out of whack, I don't really know why which is why I included the overall time estimates, although those aren't perfect either since I was hand clicking the lap buttons rather than using a more accurate measure) so I was disappointed with the pace overall, but honestly it was a tough workout and I put in an effort I was more than happy with. All this tells me is that I have to put a lot more work into speed in the future (August?) but I'll take what I've got for now.
This morning I took an easy swim, just trying to get back into it after having been pretty inconsistent with pool time since ECCs. My arms are weak, I felt very slow/sluggish, but I'm glad I went. St. Clair is nice because the pool feels fast since it's shallow and the ceiling is low, but it's also really hot which is annoying. I need to do more core work, I can really tell that my core is weak and my body position isn't great. I also need more discipline when it comes to breath control (breathing pattern consistency, not breathing in/out of walls, etc.). Will probably get back in and try to do a lot of pull work tomorrow to slowly bring that upper body strength back. But in any case, here was today's set:
Today's Morning Swim Workout:
At the end of the day, the goal of these swims is just to maintain some semblance of swim fitness while I try to train more of the running (and cycling in August). This afternoon I'll take a long run (haven't quite decided time/distance yet, will see how I'm feeling) while Coen is at hockey camp and that'll be that for today! I'll be back later in the day with another update hopefully. (:
Much love,
Jess
Because of this upcoming race though, I've had to make some changes to my training plans for the next two weeks to make sure my run game is up to par for the race. It's also forcing me to really take training seriously (including swimming, since that's a cardiovascular endurance thing) which is a nice change of pace. I need that race pressure kick in the butt, we've talked about this already, so it's a good place to be I think.
That having been said, I took last night's run pretty late and sort of close to dinner (about an hour afterwards) and it was rainy which was simultaneously nice because it was cool and simultaneously not because wind/wet. But whatever. I had a negative split 6ish miler planned but ended up doing a track workout because Coen wanted to go play basketball and I can supervise his ballin' while running on the track. He was a trooper, he played a lot of ball, because my run was pretty long. I had been hoping to do a pyramid set (400 through 1600) with 1/2 distance active recoveries, but it became very clear early on that I wasn't going to survive that at current fitness slash closeness to dinner so I reshaped the workout. Here it is!
Yesterday's Workout:
- WU: 1 mile easy (9:47.7/9:50)
- Set: 5 x
- 400 fast (1:56.3/7:40, 2:00.5/7:51, 2:07.7/8:28, 1:59.9/8:04, 2:03.3/8:16)
- 200 easy
- 800 fast (4:04.2/7:57, 4:04.1/7:58, 4:24.8/8:50, 4:13.0/8:22, 4:07.7/8:14)
- 400 easy
- WD: 1 mile easy
Hit rate: 7/9 (77.7%)
I was really aiming to be closer to the 7:45-8:00 pace range (also I realize that the pace numbers are sort of out of whack, I don't really know why which is why I included the overall time estimates, although those aren't perfect either since I was hand clicking the lap buttons rather than using a more accurate measure) so I was disappointed with the pace overall, but honestly it was a tough workout and I put in an effort I was more than happy with. All this tells me is that I have to put a lot more work into speed in the future (August?) but I'll take what I've got for now.
This morning I took an easy swim, just trying to get back into it after having been pretty inconsistent with pool time since ECCs. My arms are weak, I felt very slow/sluggish, but I'm glad I went. St. Clair is nice because the pool feels fast since it's shallow and the ceiling is low, but it's also really hot which is annoying. I need to do more core work, I can really tell that my core is weak and my body position isn't great. I also need more discipline when it comes to breath control (breathing pattern consistency, not breathing in/out of walls, etc.). Will probably get back in and try to do a lot of pull work tomorrow to slowly bring that upper body strength back. But in any case, here was today's set:
Today's Morning Swim Workout:
- WU: 1000 SKIPS
- Main Set:
- 4 x 200 free @ 3:45 (wow so slow, lots of rest)
- 8 x 50 IMO @ 1:00
- 4 x 100 kick @ 2:00
- 4 x 100 free pull @ 1:55 (really slow compared to the kick)
- WD: 200 easy
- Total Distance: 3200 SCM (70 mins)
At the end of the day, the goal of these swims is just to maintain some semblance of swim fitness while I try to train more of the running (and cycling in August). This afternoon I'll take a long run (haven't quite decided time/distance yet, will see how I'm feeling) while Coen is at hockey camp and that'll be that for today! I'll be back later in the day with another update hopefully. (:
Much love,
Jess
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Playing catch up!
Somehow I thought that during going home, packing, driving back out to STL, and unpacking, I would have time to journal/blog. Um yeah no. So now we gotta get caught up. The past four days haven't exactly gone according to plan. But I don't find myself extremely dissatisfied with that which is nice. Here are the workouts by day:
7/9 Thursday:
7/10 Friday:
7/11 Saturday: Took the day off, as planned, to drive back to STL.
7/12 Sunday:
7/9 Thursday:
- Had a run planned, but ended up not taking it because I was busy all day with packing and family. I did spend some time playing basketball with Coen though and hanging out on the playground and chasing people slash getting chased at the riverfront in the evening, so it wasn't necessarily an inactive day, which was nice.
- Decided that the flexibility was good to have. We got home late in the evening, so I axed the morning swim because I was feeling honestly pretty beat up and the reality is that my overall health trumps my fitness pursuits any day.
- I also decided that I should quantify the entire "I'm doing what I should be doing X% of the time" thing. I think if you're doing what you should be doing 80% of the time, you're in an okay place. I would rather be up around a 90% hit rate than an 80% hit rate, but I won't beat myself up over 80%. Lower than that and I think it'll be an indicator to me that I need to kick myself in the butt a bit to get moving. So I thought I would start recording these numbers both by month and overall.
- Hit rate: 3/4 (75%)
7/10 Friday:
- Today's Workout:
- AM Swim - base work
- PM Run - 10-15k, build by halves/thirds, pace doesn't have to be aggressive but does have to be controlled.
- Summary: Skipped the AM swim, replaced with a run. 8.42 mi, 1:18:34, 9:20 pace.
- Pace splits by mile: 9:49, 9:31, 9:36, 9:16, 9:16, 9:13, 9:06, 9:06, 8:42.
- Hit rate: 4/6 (66.7%)
- The pacing was bang on, I was really happy with the quality of this effort. I was pretty tired towards the end but not completely destroyed, which was also good. One of the longer run efforts I've had recently, without it edging into pure long run (slowly slowly) territory. Good job Jess!
7/11 Saturday: Took the day off, as planned, to drive back to STL.
7/12 Sunday:
- Today's Workout: 6+ mi base run
- Summary: 3.55 mi, 35:16, 9:56 pace. Ran w/ Henry, so distance/pace brought down. Treated it as more of a recovery run than a base run.
- Pace splits by mile: 9:47, 9:39, 10:15, 10:10.
- Hit rate: 5/7 (71.4%)
- Henry hasn't gone running in a while, it was hot, I don't blame him for this. Less of a real workout for me, but at least I got out and sweat. I thought about including a quality measure for hit rate, but decided against it because if I wanted to discredit weaker workouts (where I miss the target distance or pace or whatever), I would also have to give extra credit to stronger workouts (where I do better than the target distance/pace/etc.), and I really don't want to encourage deviation from the goals of my scheduled workouts that way. Some days are going to be unintentionally lighter (as we'll see for the Monday log) but I want to be satisfied with the effort so long as I'm out there and "showing up".
7/13 Monday:
- Today's Workout: Long run, 8-10+ mi, easy pace (key session).
- Summary: 6.95 mi, 1:11:20, 10:16 pace.
- Pace splits by mile: 10:10, 10:14, 10:16, 10:14, 10:03, 10:16, 10:39.
- Hit rate: 6/8 (75%)
- It was 84 degrees and sunny, the heat was really rough. I was happy with how steady the pace was though, until the last little bit, when it feels like my body gave out completely. I was suffering way harder than I was expecting to and turned in for home early, didn't hit the target distance which was disappointing. I think a lot of it is just my brain holding things back in the heat, because the recovery was quick enough that I don't think the limiting factor was fitness today. Really just need to build up more heat tolerance and more mental composure and ability to endure.
- Also it's worth noting that I went to bed late on Sunday (had some wine and heart to heart time w/ Henry) and woke up early to return the Uhaul. I took a three hour nap in the afternoon because I felt pretty blown out. Probably a combination of already being tired and workout exertion.
So now it's Tuesday! I have to bring that hit rate up so I need to make sure I get a run in this evening. The plan is a negative split 10k effort, I will probably actually split this up by thirds (easy workouts 9:30-10:00, building 9:00-9:30, threshold < 9:00). Really hoping there's time to get it done and still get in a solid night's sleep. AM swim planned for tomorrow, so the ZZZ's will be needed. That's all for the catch up post!
Much love,
Jess
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Race pressure
So today was one of those days where I had totally committed to being useless when I woke up. It was gloomy and the weather said it was about to rain and I just sat in bed (not even dressed) and derped on my computer for hours. I got an email yesterday from the collegiate tri team here about an NCAA Nationals qualifying race that USAT wants Wash U to send athletes to and I was interested so I spent some time looking up more information about the whole status of women's triathlon as an emerging NCAA sport. The ultimate result of my wandering through the depths of the internet and past race results was me determining that I really need to step up my running. So when things cleared up a bit in the middle of the day, I went out and took the run I had been planning on doing before I mentally bailed on it (while blaming the weather). I don't know what I would do if it weren't for race pressure getting me off my butt to train. I need that kind of motivation and I'm really glad I found it today and did the work I had to do. Here it is!
Today's Workout: 5+ mi base run, similar to the past two days, negative split RPE was the goal (evidently did not happen - I would say it was because I got lost, but I think mostly it was because I got too excited and went out real fast).
Summary: 6.42 mi, 59:29 total time, 9:16 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:50, 9:05, 9:02, 9:46, 9:21, 9:25, 9:38.
Some interesting things happened today. The weather was MUCH cooler (64 F, slight breeze, overcast, not too humid) which meant I felt great starting out (and for most of the run actually) and decided that I would take it out fast because I was feeling inspired to be great and why not right? You can see where that went during mile 4, when I encountered a road that was (a) longer than I thought it was (took a new route today) and (b) on a slight uphill. The redemption in that though was that I ran at a pace that felt comfortable effort wise and tried to keep my heart rate down and recovered quite well and got back into the groove. I think my body really dislikes any deviation from my forever pace effort/heart rate so learning to cope with the inevitable ups and downs of terrain and race conditions is an important skill for me to practice.
I did get very lost shortly after that though. Part of my run involved going down the stairs at the World's Fair Pavillion because I had no idea where else I could go. I did make it back in one piece though! And the total uncertainty about what the final length of the run would be (it was about 0.5-1 mile longer than I was planning) kept my pace/effort in check. I tried to stay as quick as I could while still being comfortable and not risking dying before getting to where I needed to go. I've also realized that it is worthwhile to run in the middle paths through Forest Park. There are some nice wooded (but paved) trails which are shady and very pleasant and there's more terrain within the park itself (I need practice with terrain). I will have to explore more on future runs.
I think this run was reassuring because it was a reminder that when the weather cooperates with me, I am quite a faster runner than I am when the weather is hot. Which means I only need to build up adaptations to the heat, not necessarily to raw running fitness (however you want to define that). That'll take time and practice and a lot of patience (and I'm a very impatient person), but knowing that it really is the heat that's my issue is comforting and will help me work through what I'm sure will be some pretty rough and miserable training ahead.
I head back to Canada tomorrow briefly to pack and pick up furniture from my old house. I will try to get a run in on Thursday and a swim and a run in on Friday before taking Saturday off to make the drive back, but we'll see how it all fits in. There's some more rain expected in Windsor (although that's what I said earlier this week and I've gotten all my three runs in so far) and my mother may have plans that keep me busy, but I'll do my best. Then back to STL briefly before heading back for about two weeks just to spend some time at home. Okay gotta finish cleaning up the house and packing for tomorrow now. Good talk. (:
Much love,
Jess
Today's Workout: 5+ mi base run, similar to the past two days, negative split RPE was the goal (evidently did not happen - I would say it was because I got lost, but I think mostly it was because I got too excited and went out real fast).
Summary: 6.42 mi, 59:29 total time, 9:16 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 8:50, 9:05, 9:02, 9:46, 9:21, 9:25, 9:38.
Some interesting things happened today. The weather was MUCH cooler (64 F, slight breeze, overcast, not too humid) which meant I felt great starting out (and for most of the run actually) and decided that I would take it out fast because I was feeling inspired to be great and why not right? You can see where that went during mile 4, when I encountered a road that was (a) longer than I thought it was (took a new route today) and (b) on a slight uphill. The redemption in that though was that I ran at a pace that felt comfortable effort wise and tried to keep my heart rate down and recovered quite well and got back into the groove. I think my body really dislikes any deviation from my forever pace effort/heart rate so learning to cope with the inevitable ups and downs of terrain and race conditions is an important skill for me to practice.
I did get very lost shortly after that though. Part of my run involved going down the stairs at the World's Fair Pavillion because I had no idea where else I could go. I did make it back in one piece though! And the total uncertainty about what the final length of the run would be (it was about 0.5-1 mile longer than I was planning) kept my pace/effort in check. I tried to stay as quick as I could while still being comfortable and not risking dying before getting to where I needed to go. I've also realized that it is worthwhile to run in the middle paths through Forest Park. There are some nice wooded (but paved) trails which are shady and very pleasant and there's more terrain within the park itself (I need practice with terrain). I will have to explore more on future runs.
I think this run was reassuring because it was a reminder that when the weather cooperates with me, I am quite a faster runner than I am when the weather is hot. Which means I only need to build up adaptations to the heat, not necessarily to raw running fitness (however you want to define that). That'll take time and practice and a lot of patience (and I'm a very impatient person), but knowing that it really is the heat that's my issue is comforting and will help me work through what I'm sure will be some pretty rough and miserable training ahead.
I head back to Canada tomorrow briefly to pack and pick up furniture from my old house. I will try to get a run in on Thursday and a swim and a run in on Friday before taking Saturday off to make the drive back, but we'll see how it all fits in. There's some more rain expected in Windsor (although that's what I said earlier this week and I've gotten all my three runs in so far) and my mother may have plans that keep me busy, but I'll do my best. Then back to STL briefly before heading back for about two weeks just to spend some time at home. Okay gotta finish cleaning up the house and packing for tomorrow now. Good talk. (:
Much love,
Jess
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Easy does it
Today's Workout: 4.5 mile base run, easy-moderate RPE (fasted)
Summary: 4.92 mi, 47:40 total time, 9:41 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:26, 9:50, 9:45, 9:48, 9:35.
I was honestly feeling real tired last night and was really planning on not running today. Even when I woke up in the morning, I figured I would probably spend my time doing yoga/stretching/bodyweight/core work instead today as a sort of cop-out make-up, but when I saw that it was overcast and cooler today than it was yesterday and it wasn't raining, I decided to just suck it up and take my run. I'm proud of that.
The goal was a 4.5 mile base run, just trying to get back into the swing of things and do better when it comes to the heat/humidity. It was cooler today, 75 F, but humid and slightly drizzly. The humidity is hard, but I guess it's preferable to the heat. One of the things I realized today was that I really need to set clearly defined goals before my workouts and focus only on those things. The goal of today's workout was just to build back into running since I was out of it for almost an entire week and I'm not used to the climate, so I really just wanted to take it easy on the way out, moderate on the way back, and hit at least 4.5 miles of distance. While I was running though, I got a little bit caught up in pacing and wanting to go faster, but that really wasn't the point. Today's run was not an achievement run, it was a run intended to prepare my body for more meaningful workouts down the line. I think I really have to set out these clear goals to focus on before I start my workouts and stick to them so I'm not tempted to go harder than I intend to and wreck the purpose of the run. Sure, some runs are going to be go out hard and try like heck to hang on workouts, but today was about just covering the distance and trying to get that RPE negative split.
Overall I'm happy with today. It was a tad on the slow side but honestly I'm okay with this pace for easing back into things and adapting to the heat/humidity. It was nice that I felt stronger coming back on the hill than I did yesterday because I saved enough in the tank. I went a little further than I planned, but that was mostly because the lights were all in my favour on the way in, so I ran a little bit closer to home before I stopped to walk/cool down. Actually, I just looked at the map and it turns out I had made it almost to the other side of the park, which was about twice as far as what I had thought I was doing, so the thought of circumnavigating the park is much less intimidating now. Also that stretch of road is much nicer and actually contained within the park than I thought it was going to be.
Runs do make me tired though. I'm going to caffeinate up a little bit with some tea before I get on with the rest of my day. As for tomorrow, I will either run a similar distance or maybe take the turn around the corner of the park and try to hit 5-5.5 miles. We'll see how I'm feeling and how much time I have. It'll be an easy-moderate base run regardless though. Glad the weather held up for the run today.
Much love,
Jess
Summary: 4.92 mi, 47:40 total time, 9:41 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:26, 9:50, 9:45, 9:48, 9:35.
I was honestly feeling real tired last night and was really planning on not running today. Even when I woke up in the morning, I figured I would probably spend my time doing yoga/stretching/bodyweight/core work instead today as a sort of cop-out make-up, but when I saw that it was overcast and cooler today than it was yesterday and it wasn't raining, I decided to just suck it up and take my run. I'm proud of that.
The goal was a 4.5 mile base run, just trying to get back into the swing of things and do better when it comes to the heat/humidity. It was cooler today, 75 F, but humid and slightly drizzly. The humidity is hard, but I guess it's preferable to the heat. One of the things I realized today was that I really need to set clearly defined goals before my workouts and focus only on those things. The goal of today's workout was just to build back into running since I was out of it for almost an entire week and I'm not used to the climate, so I really just wanted to take it easy on the way out, moderate on the way back, and hit at least 4.5 miles of distance. While I was running though, I got a little bit caught up in pacing and wanting to go faster, but that really wasn't the point. Today's run was not an achievement run, it was a run intended to prepare my body for more meaningful workouts down the line. I think I really have to set out these clear goals to focus on before I start my workouts and stick to them so I'm not tempted to go harder than I intend to and wreck the purpose of the run. Sure, some runs are going to be go out hard and try like heck to hang on workouts, but today was about just covering the distance and trying to get that RPE negative split.
Overall I'm happy with today. It was a tad on the slow side but honestly I'm okay with this pace for easing back into things and adapting to the heat/humidity. It was nice that I felt stronger coming back on the hill than I did yesterday because I saved enough in the tank. I went a little further than I planned, but that was mostly because the lights were all in my favour on the way in, so I ran a little bit closer to home before I stopped to walk/cool down. Actually, I just looked at the map and it turns out I had made it almost to the other side of the park, which was about twice as far as what I had thought I was doing, so the thought of circumnavigating the park is much less intimidating now. Also that stretch of road is much nicer and actually contained within the park than I thought it was going to be.
Runs do make me tired though. I'm going to caffeinate up a little bit with some tea before I get on with the rest of my day. As for tomorrow, I will either run a similar distance or maybe take the turn around the corner of the park and try to hit 5-5.5 miles. We'll see how I'm feeling and how much time I have. It'll be an easy-moderate base run regardless though. Glad the weather held up for the run today.
Much love,
Jess
Monday, July 6, 2015
Back in the saddle
Sort of. First run in St. Louis! Although I would like it to be noted that yesterday should count as a physically active day. Henry and I went to visit the Arch (okay not so active) and then spent about 1.5-2 hours climbing around the City Museum (which was very active). 'Twas fun (for me at least, Henry seemed to enjoy trying to fit in too small spaces a lot less than I did...).
Today's workout: Short base run.
Summary: 3.86 mi, 36:50/36:56 total time, 9:33/9:34 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:01, 9:45, 9:40, 9:50.
The goal was actually to hit 4 miles, but I stopped at the light on Kingshighway and just couldn't get going again. According to Garmin, the temp was 84 F, which doesn't sound outrageous to some people but is absolutely insane for me. And I know it gets way hotter here during the summer. So I'm doing my best to adjust. Will probably be taking my runs short and slow for the time being to give my body a chance to get used to the heat.
I think the shift in climate/conditions is important for me though. I always say that there's no room for ego in training. You have to work at a level that your body is actually capable of in order to maximize your returns on training hours. It's a mentality that I first learned from coaches in the gym, but in reality extends to any kind of training that you do. The heat is the sort of challenge that really forces me to address this issue of ego. Usually, if you go too hard during a run and die towards the end, the only consequence is that you finish the run slower than you want to. As much as that sucks (and really compromises the gains you make during those workouts), it's not a "real" consequence in a lot of ways. If you don't balance your effort and goal-setting properly on a run in the heat though, there's a very real chance that dehydration will get you. The little extra bit of risk in the equation means that I have to be more aware and cognizant of where my body is at and be patient and reasonable when I'm planning and executing my runs. Sometimes that makes me feel like I'm holding back or not working hard enough, but days like today are good reminders that control and awareness are skills that I need to learn and manage in order to be successful both in training and racing.
Speaking of which, I read an interesting article on Triathlete.com today about negative splitting the bike leg, and the author made a point of saying that if you don't feel like you went hard enough on the first half of the bike leg, you have the entire run leg to fix that, but if you go out too hard, you'll spend the entire run leg paying the price. I think I have to learn a bit of this mentality. I have a lot of fear and lack of confidence in my ability to bring races back strong so I err towards going too hard in the opening miles, but time and time again I've shown that I do my best training and racing when I ease into the harder efforts and build over the course of the first half before really firing up all the cylinders. Today was not a good day on that front: I took it out way too aggressively and paid for it trying to get back up the hills towards home.
All in all, there's a lot to be learned from this heat. I'm only really going to get the chance to run tomorrow and Wednesday and then it's back to Canada and a hectic/erratic schedule, so I'm going to try to take advantage. The goal will be 4.5 controlled and slow miles tomorrow. Hopefully building up to 5 miles by Wednesday. But we'll see how everything plays out. There's supposed to be quite a bit of rain coming our way, so the plans may not hold out the way I want them. Fingers crossed!
Much love,
Jess
Today's workout: Short base run.
Summary: 3.86 mi, 36:50/36:56 total time, 9:33/9:34 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:01, 9:45, 9:40, 9:50.
The goal was actually to hit 4 miles, but I stopped at the light on Kingshighway and just couldn't get going again. According to Garmin, the temp was 84 F, which doesn't sound outrageous to some people but is absolutely insane for me. And I know it gets way hotter here during the summer. So I'm doing my best to adjust. Will probably be taking my runs short and slow for the time being to give my body a chance to get used to the heat.
I think the shift in climate/conditions is important for me though. I always say that there's no room for ego in training. You have to work at a level that your body is actually capable of in order to maximize your returns on training hours. It's a mentality that I first learned from coaches in the gym, but in reality extends to any kind of training that you do. The heat is the sort of challenge that really forces me to address this issue of ego. Usually, if you go too hard during a run and die towards the end, the only consequence is that you finish the run slower than you want to. As much as that sucks (and really compromises the gains you make during those workouts), it's not a "real" consequence in a lot of ways. If you don't balance your effort and goal-setting properly on a run in the heat though, there's a very real chance that dehydration will get you. The little extra bit of risk in the equation means that I have to be more aware and cognizant of where my body is at and be patient and reasonable when I'm planning and executing my runs. Sometimes that makes me feel like I'm holding back or not working hard enough, but days like today are good reminders that control and awareness are skills that I need to learn and manage in order to be successful both in training and racing.
Speaking of which, I read an interesting article on Triathlete.com today about negative splitting the bike leg, and the author made a point of saying that if you don't feel like you went hard enough on the first half of the bike leg, you have the entire run leg to fix that, but if you go out too hard, you'll spend the entire run leg paying the price. I think I have to learn a bit of this mentality. I have a lot of fear and lack of confidence in my ability to bring races back strong so I err towards going too hard in the opening miles, but time and time again I've shown that I do my best training and racing when I ease into the harder efforts and build over the course of the first half before really firing up all the cylinders. Today was not a good day on that front: I took it out way too aggressively and paid for it trying to get back up the hills towards home.
All in all, there's a lot to be learned from this heat. I'm only really going to get the chance to run tomorrow and Wednesday and then it's back to Canada and a hectic/erratic schedule, so I'm going to try to take advantage. The goal will be 4.5 controlled and slow miles tomorrow. Hopefully building up to 5 miles by Wednesday. But we'll see how everything plays out. There's supposed to be quite a bit of rain coming our way, so the plans may not hold out the way I want them. Fingers crossed!
Much love,
Jess
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Some updates
This was written on Friday (7/3) and I was going to post it while accessing internet at Panera, but got busy doing real things and totally forgot. It is now Sunday (7/5) and I have internet installed in my home so I'm posting it now. Probably will not come back with another post until tomorrow. Enjoy!
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I got to St. Louis yesterday and am currently sitting on the floor of my new apartment. It is yet unfurnished (I’ll be getting furniture from home next weekend) and does not have internet so I’m typing this as a local note on my computer and will upload it to the interwebs later at Bread Co. (Panera in the rest of the country). I’m getting internet installed in my apartment tomorrow morning, so things will be easier after that.
As far as the training related updates go, the only exercise I’ve really gotten these past two days is loading and unloading the car. Was much more strenuous during the loading than the unloading, I let Henry do a lot of the unloading work. Otherwise I’ve just been sitting in the car for extended periods of time. Honestly moving is exhausting, and I really want to enjoy the next couple of days that I have to share St. Louis with Henry, since he won’t be here long, so I’m probably not going to take workout goals very seriously over this weekend. I’ll try and get on it from Monday to Wednesday while he’s gone and maybe even Thursday and Friday in Canada. As for the rest, I’ll make plans depending on whether or not I decide to go back to Canada afterwards.
Just checking in because I’m trying to stay on top of these new goals that I have. (:
Much love,
Jess
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