Ramping Up: Wisconsin Marathon Training Week 5

I love my new stripey tights.

Zoom! I passed my first checkpoint over the weekend! I ran a pretty solid 1:44:10 at the Icebreaker Indoor Half Marathon on Saturday and although I would have loved to have been magically a couple minutes faster already, I realize it's early in the process so that fact that I can still eek out a sub-1:45 time means I'm in a pretty good place right now. I really really REALLY hope that in 2 months I can improve on this time and dip below a 1:42. (In my Dream World I would be a 1:3X half marathon runner already but I guess I need to work a little bit harder first.) I'm excited that this is my starting point instead of my peak time this year.

So week 5 begins! I eased up a bit on the mileage ahead of Saturday's race but before that I was starting to rack up some serious (for me) miles: 42, 46 and 49 miles for the 3 prior weeks. (I even managed the 49 during the week I was at Ladies Rock Camp.  I'm super proud of that!) This week I'll top out hopefully at 52 miles and keep climbing from there. Build that aerobic base. I'm hoping to get back to some hill running again this week as well since the frigid temperatures seem to be letting up for now and most of the ice has melted from my neighborhood sidewalks. Too much time on the treadmill and track is making me a bit punchy.

Look! There's Sara behind me!

In other news I've been playing around with logging my workouts on Strava lately. I broke up with Dailymile at the end of the year because I decided I didn't need another social networking site in my life anymore but I obviously still need to keep track of my training. I have my written training journal which I'm enjoying, but I also like being able to see everything on nifty charts and grafts and stuff. (Also, doing math is boring. I want Internet for that.) So far Strava seems to be prettier and more functional than the Garmin Connect site so I'll probably hang around there for a while. I had hoped to keep everything private but some folks have added me on there which I'm cool with for now. (I swear EVERYTHING has to have a social component to it these days.) Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Sometimes I like the idea of keeping my training log just for me. You know, except for when I choose to write goofy, rambling blog posts about it.

Last one. Zooom.

WI Marathon Training Week #3

This kind of stuff if probably only interesting to me but I like to get these thoughts out of my system and I ditched Dailymile this year so this is where the brain dump is going.

Week 3 already! The start of this cycle is decidedly less bumpy than the last time around. (Granted, last summer I was coming off a zero-mileage week during our trip to Barcelona.) This time, my decision to keep relatively high, easy-paced miles throughout December has me starting out with a pretty decent base to build upon. I remember last July those first two weeks of training really kicked my butt- especially the speed workouts- so feeling energized in week three is definitely nice.

Once again, I'm doing with a modified version of one of the training plans from Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning book. (I've constructed something that falls between the 18/55 and the 18/70 plan.) I feel like his training methods definitely made me a faster runner last year. My problem was that I didn't execute my race plan (i.e. going out to fast) or in the case of Lakefront Marathon I don't feel like I tapered enough and wasn't fully recovered on race day.

SO. Here we are again. I've had 2 especially good speed workouts so far and a confidence building marathon pace long run this past weekend. I know it's early in the game but I can't complain. Next weekend is the Icebreaker Half Marathon and while I don't feel ready to go for that sub-1:40 yet, I'm still going to run hard and see what I can do. Then we build from there.

My Dailymile replacement.

Tagged!

Sun from Eat. Host. Run. Style. tagged me last week for this little meme. Here we go!

Four names that people call me:
1. Trace
2. Mom
3. Robot Lady (obviously)
4. @tmgessner

Four jobs I've had:
1. Dairy Queen cashier
2. Gas station attendant
3. Mom
4. Personal Trainer

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. What About Bob?
2. Serenity
3. Mary Poppins
4. Billy Madison



Never gets old. Never never ever.

Four books I'd recommend:
1. The Time Traveler's Wife
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Devil in the White City
4. Unbroken

Four places I've lived:
1. Rockford, IL (1978-1996)
2. Chicago, IL (1996-2001)
3. Bartlett, IL (2001-2005)
4. Milwaukee, WI (2005-present)

Four places I've been:
1. Barcelona, Spain
2. Paris, France
3. London, England
4. Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Traveling is my favorite.

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. Kauai
2. Costa Rica
3. New Zealand
4. Florida Keys

Basically I would like to feel like this.

Four things I don't eat:
1. Sushi
2. Mussels
3. Shrimp
4. Foie Gras

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Chili
3. Grilled Chicken Salad
4. Rissotto

Four tv shows I watch(ed):
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. Game of Thrones
3. Doctor Who
4. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Four things I'm looking forward to this year:
1. Qualifying for Boston (fingers crossed)
2. Trail running (Dances With Dirt, North Face Endurance Challenge)
3. Traveling with my family
4. Remodeling our 110 year old home

Looking forward to this view.

Four things I'm saying right now:
1. It's too $%^&*(# cold to do __________.

(Really that's all I'm saying right now!)


Thanks Sun! I'm going to tag Jen/The Harmonized Run and Amy/running4fromlife!