Week 2 - MCM Training...

I've successfully completed week 2 of Marine Corps Marathon training! I talked about week 2 tentative after my week 1 summary, here. Below is my actual week 2 training:

• Day 8 – 6 miles at 11:18 – check (PM – should have gone in AM; it was hot as blazes out and I had a sore left calf)
• Day 9 – Rest/XT – rested my calf
• Day 10 – Speed work, 5 miles with 2x1mile in 9:08 w/.5 mile jogs – check (PM)
• Day 11 – 45 minute spin - check (AM), 5 miles at 11:18 - check (PM), then a massage - check, check (PM)
• Day 12 – Rest/XT – I rested! – check, check
  Day 13 – Biked at Prince William Forest Park with Carol and Jeff, 4 loops; plus 1.04 mile run post-ride
• Day 14 – Long run, 12 miles at 11:18 – did 5.7 miles solo, then 5.46 with group (.84 short for day but did do 1.04 yesterday); outdoor swim practice with JCC Masters – 2250 meters

Run miles for the week = 28.2

This weekend I also packed and moved boxes in the heat. I guess that does not count for anything though…but I’m sure I burned some calories at least!

Also, my shoulder seems to be fairly well back to normal. I completed a swim practice yesterday after my run and had no pain during or after. Well, I had a little bit of pain after, but truly very little. It was nothing like before, and it is still doing OK this morning. My plan is to try a Team Z swim tomorrow/Tuesday morning - a distance/zone 2 day and take Thursday/speed day off. I will not be swimming at all next week, then I'll come back after that probably ready to go back at it full force! (At least I hope!)

Week 3 Preview:

• Day 15 – 5 miles at 11:18
• Day 16 – rest/xt
• Day 17 – Tempo, 5 miles with 3 at 9:41
• Day 18 – 5 miles – Special Screening of Elvis in the evening!! Going with my friends
• Day 19 – rest/xt
• Day 20 – Long Run – 14 miles at 11:18
• Day 21 – rest/xt

Total scheduled miles: 29

Week 4 Preview – recovery week:

• Day 22 – 6 miles at 11:18
• Day 23 – rest/xt
• Day 24 – 6 miles at 11:18
• Day 25 – 6 miles at 11:18
• Day 26 – rest/xt
• Day 27 – 6 miles at 11:18
• Day 28 – rest/xt

Total scheduled miles: 24

Happy and Healthy Training!

The countdown is on...

My cool, new countdown timer came from here!

Happy and Healthy Training!

Week 1 – MCM Training...

Well, week one of Marine Corps Marathon training is in the books! I think it went pretty well, all things considered. That is, my sore shoulder which fortunately is not bothering me too much. I saw my regular doctor on Wednesday and if I'm not doing better in 2 weeks (from the date it happened) I will get an x-ray. Not to jinx myself, but I will say though that it is doing better as it is not waking me up at night. And that is a good thing. Yay! Summary of my workouts:

• Day 1 – 6 miles at 11:18 – check (PM)
• Day 2 – rest/XT – did a 45 minute / 11.4 mile spin at zone 2 – check (PM)
• Day 3 – Tempo, 5 miles with 3 miles at 9:41 – check (AM)
• Day 4 – 5 miles at 11:18 – check (PM)
• Day 5 – REST/XT – I rested – check
• Day 6 – 10.2 miles at 11:18 – check (AM)
• Day 7 – rest/XT – 2 hour / 29.5 mile spin at mostly zone 2 – check (AM)

Total run miles = 26.2 (Oh cool - I ran a marathon in distance this week because my long run was 10.2 miles!)

So, one more week of no swimming and IF my shoulder is feeling better I will try to swim part if not all of the JCC Masters practice on Sunday, July 25. I’m keeping my fingers crossed! And luckily, this week on Thursday, I have a massage scheduled with Robin! It is for 60 minutes but I’m going to see if I can get 90 minutes. I am her last appointment for the day, so maybe it will work out. I will e-mail her today and find out.

Week 2’s training is below:

• Monday – 6 miles at 11:18
• Tuesday – Rest/XT – 45-60 minute spin
• Wednesday – Speedwork, 5 miles with 2x1600 in 9:08 w/800 jogs (If I do this at home on the treadmill I may swap bike zone 4 spins in place of the 800 jogs, which will be good practice for my upcoming races in September...)
• Thursday – 5 miles at 11:18
• Friday – Rest /XT – I will REST!
• Saturday – 12 miles at 11:18 – May do a ride at Prince William Forest Park if Carol and Pam are going there
• Sunday – Rest /XT – May switch run to this day and start at 5:45 AM and do 6.5 miles then meet up with Master swimmers that run at 7:00 for the remaining 5.5; then I hope to swim.

Total scheduled run miles: 28

Happy and Healthy Training!

And I almost forgot...

Yesterday/last night was the first day of MCM training. I had an easy 6 mile run at 11:18 pace scheduled. I programmed the workout (thanks Carol) into my Garmin and took some plain water and one Gu (Lemon Sublime flavor) from my cool sample pack out with me. It was the first item I tried from it, too! Then I headed out for my run. A night of firsts!

I decided I'd run the same lollipop loop of 5.25 from Sunday's run but add three laps around the track, which I pass on the stick part on my way out and back - to make 6 miles. I had a hard time going slow enough to maintain 11:18, actually. Based on my success with my half marathon at Shamrock this past March, to prepare for the marathon I am following a plan from RunnersWorld.com based on my 5K time from the Independence 5000. It 'says' if I follow the plan my time goal is 4:20. However, my actual goal is 4:40, which happens to my goal from my first two marathons. That I am still striving for. Anyway...I guess the watch got tired of beeping at my and my average pace for the run ended up being 10:40. I ate the Gu at mile 4 as I'm practicing for race day with any run that lasts an hour or more. The verdict on Lemon Sublime Gu - very good and I will likely buy this flavor! So, an interim goal is to try harder to go slower on my next easy run which is on Thursday. Tomorrow is a 5 mile tempo run with three miles at 9:41. I will not run the hilly course, but more of a flat-ish one so I can hopefully hold the 9:41 pace. I'll see how many times Garmin beeps at me for going too slow.

The shoulder is still sore and burning (as is the arm {burning} and hand {tingling}) but I took 4 Advil and I'm hoping that takes the edge off for now. Tomorrow when I see the doctor I do not want to take anything so I can be in pain when he evaluates me.

Happy and Healthy Training!

It's time to run...

Last weekend had more fun training involved! It started on Friday morning actually when I went for a nice run…again I’ll say it, in the morning! I miss running early and may have to figure a way to do it at least once a week. However, my training for the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) officially began yesterday! Looking at my schedule it looks like the only day I can fit a morning run in would maybe be the Monday easy runs.

We had a bike ride planned for Saturday…however it was raining. So on the trainer my bike went and I put in a movie and set up a zone 2 workout for 1 hour and 39 minutes – the length of the movie. I should have added a 5 minute warm-up because it took me at least that long to get into zone. And of course I still need to work on staying in zone. I took two stretching breaks but all in all the ride went fairly well. The movie was one I’d seen before so it did not matter if I was not ‘watching’ the whole time. It had great music in it, too, which was nice.

Saturday afternoon I headed to ‘my’ house to do some more unpacking and such. I have had stuff packed from a year plus (between my mom’s apartment and junk of my dad’s and mine) that I never had any idea what I’d be looking at when I unwrapped things. It was fun to see some of the things and I still have more boxes to go. Then I can determine what if anything I am ready to get rid of – either via charity or the trash. Oh! I also headed to =PR= to get some new running shoes and a new Fuel Belt! This one fits so much better and has a couple of nicer features than my old one. And I got an extra pouch for it. NOW I’m ready for MCM training!

Sunday was a day of double, actually triple, fun. Shortly before 7AM I headed out for a 5.25 mile run. I went on a hilly-ish route that was pretty much a lollipop loop – 1-ish mile out, start the loop, 1-ish mile back. Until I move to ‘my’ house I will be doing this run at least once a week when the minimum distance is 5 miles. The hills will be good for building strong legs!

Once I returned from the run it was time to suit up! In my Splish! swim suit that is! The JCC Masters was holding an open water swim at Lake Barcroft. A teammate’s father lives on the lake and he had a pontoon boat that we went out a very short distance on when we jumped in the water and took off to one of the (I think they said there were five) beaches. There we regrouped and headed to another of the beaches. We regrouped again and went back to the first beach, then back to the second beach, then back to where we started when we jumped off the boat. We had the pontoon boat leading the way for the first swimmer and a canoe trailing the last swimmer. It was FUN! The only little problem…when I jumped off the boat I put my arms out. Well, I don’t think my left shoulder like that too much. I felt a tiny pull at that moment but my swim went just fine. Monday morning was another matter…more on that later.

After returning from the swim I uploaded my run then tracked my swim using MapMyRun. It did not seem to mind that I plotted the points in water on the map. It turned out I swim about 1.36 miles, though I’m not sure exactly how accurate that is. On the second leg of the swim I was wishing I’d put my Garmin in my cap like this guy does! Next time… So after a snack I changed for a visit to the pool. I am reading a new book and wanted to get a little color on my stomach. Through the SPF30 that is. I brought my fins, a cap, and goggles with me and after I got too warm did 500 meters swimming including some catch-up drills with the fins. My shoulder felt fine. Hmm…

I was only going to stay at the pool for an hour but between my book and my swim time passed quite quickly and I was there nearly two hours! I headed home to clean up and head out to the grocery store. We were going to ‘my’ house to cook and eat dinner that night. I had hoped to unpack some more boxes but kind of ran out of time. I will head over there later this week and spend more time there this weekend.

Now, back to my shoulder. Monday morning (yesterday) I woke up in pain. Ouch. My left shoulder was on fire – more my shoulder blade area. This was reminiscent of about early-April 2002. This is when it turns out (after a month or so of looking at different things) I had a herniated disk in my neck – C5, 6, or 7 – I can’t remember which. In April of 2003 I had cervical spinal fusion and all was well. However, the pain that I had in April and May of 2002 was very much like what I am going though right now. It woke me up twice last night. And it is burning. All down my left arm. And my left hand is tingling. And my shoulder is burning. Wait - I already said that. Now, it could just be I just irritated things in my shoulder area when I jumped out of the boat (I mentioned feeling ‘it’ when I jumped in) and I could have some swelling in there somewhere, which could be pinching a nerve. Or…by some fluke…I could have another herniated disk! Yikes!! So I am going to take a break from swimming today, even though I was up way early enough to get ready for it. I even packed my bag for it last night! I will reevaluate on Wednesday night for Thursday's practice. Luckily, I conveniently have a doctor's appointment tomorrow for a routine follow-up for my asthma and will discuss with him – especially if the pain is no better tomorrow, or (gulp) worse. I may beg for a referral to the doctor that did my neck surgery in 2003, just in case.

So, on a positive note, while I do have two triathlons left this season (a Sprint on 9/5 and an Oly on 9/12 – the Sprint on 10/3 is to be determined now…but I had not signed up yet anyway) my focus yesterday switched to the run as I prepare for the 35th MCM, which happens to be on Halloween this year! I ran it last time on Halloween, too, but did not do any kind of costume as many other runners did. This time I may do cat ears on my hat and put whiskers on my face. I think that would be all I could handle. We’ll see!

Happy and Healthy Training!!

kickASTtri...

Here is a photo of me and Marlene before we got started! It was a fun day...

Double trouble...

My weekend training called for 6 miles running and 40 miles biking. Swimming was as always, optional. And there was no trouble, really…

Friday night, July 2 at 7:30 PM Pacer’s hosted the Independence 5000! It was an inaugural event – my second inaugural event in less than two weeks! This twilight race was at George Mason University. I learned of the event from Holly, fellow Team Z’er and knew that Z’er Priscilla would be attending, too. I headed over around 6:00 PM for packet pick-up the looked around for my teammates. Based on the total finishers (654), I think that close to 700 entries for a Friday night inaugural event sounded like a pretty decent number of registered runners! Priscilla found me in the ladies room line – actually real restrooms indoors! She had on *the* coolest holiday themed head boppers! (She had really fun ones for the Shamrock Half, too!) I can’t wait to see what she does next. We found Holly shortly after then took a few per-race photos before we headed to the start with another friend of Holly’s from Cancer to 5K, Amy and her husband Ben. At the start Keri showed up to cheer and handed out cute American flag rings! Right before the start we met a new Team Z-West person, John.

The start was very low key – I almost did not realize we had started! The course took a little lap around the parking lot then pretty much went in a big loop around the campus. There were some rolling hills and flats and all in all a pretty nice course! I had no time goal, other than ‘beat my last 5K time’ from May – 29:43 – at the ASFS 5K, but I tried not to look at my watch too much. I have been doing speed work and just kept telling myself ‘it’s only a 5K’ so I would not let up. There was one water stop on the course, so I did slow down enough for that! Shortly after the water stop I did look at the watch and saw about 15 minutes and was not sure I’d get to where I wanted to! Anyway, that was the last time I looked at it. Anyway, I kept pushing and soon it was the last rush to the finish. Which of course had a downhill. But that was followed by an uphill! I saw Keri and Ben at the finish – thanks guys – and hit the line then my watch. It said 27:36!! I knew I had started the watch a teeny bit late so I figured it was not too much off that time. Yay! I had done it! They also POPSICLES at the finish line. I had orange – my favorite. Awesome! We took a couple of post-race pictures and headed out. My official time was 27:38.17! They did not split out the age groups but overall I was 298 out of 654 finishers.

Saturday was just a bike ride – I rode about 15.5 miles through Annandale, North Springfield, and Ravensworth. At the end of the ride I wanted to do my double-hills, Killebrew and Regina. Ha! That was hard! In fact, my legs were feeling the 5K when the ride started. I rode with Jeff, who is just getting back into the exercise thing. He seemed to fly right up the hill. Brat!! All in all it was a nice ride. Later in the afternoon we went to see Eclipse! I really enjoyed it and thought it better than New Moon, too. I’m looking forward to the final of the series…and Harry Potter, which I saw the trailer for that yesterday!

Anyway, Sunday, July 4th I met up with my old Masters friends for the annual kickASTtri – a Sprint distance-ish event: 800 meter pool swim, 12.4 mile bike ride, 2.71 mile run (according to my Garmin on the bike and run). Mike opened the pool (Annandale Swim & Tennis) at 7:00 and we started showing up then and prepping our ‘transition’ areas up under the party tent. My friend Marlene from Team Z met me and it was nice to see her before she starts her next chapter. The water in the pool was 84 degrees, but as it was outdoors it was quite nice! After the swim we all prepped for the bike ride and left together. The ride deviated slightly from past years as there was construction going on along one of the roads. I barely made it through the last light to get back to the pool. All in all we got 12.4 miles in. The run had three options, basically, a nearly 3 mile loop with or without a hill at the end, or a shorter about 2 mile loop. I took the 3 mile hill option! After we all finished back at the pool the Masters swimmers were done with their workout and we all enjoyed a post workout breakfast of bagels, fruit, pastries, and orange juice. It was a great start to the Independence Day holiday! Oh, and as in past years, there were no entry fees, no registrations, no tee shirts, no times, and no places. But we did have race numbers! And for the first time I forgot my camera so have no pictures! But Tammi brought her camera, so there are going to be pictures. Later…

Later on in the day we had a nice quiet cookout with the boys and Jeff’s parents and sister.

Happy Independence Day and Happy Training!!

Cool giveaway...

DC Rainmaker has a cool contest going! Get in on it quick!! The contest closes Wednesday July 7th, 2010 at 11:59PM Eastern Time!

Last minute entry...

Well, not quite last minute. That would have been if I walked up to packet pick-up tomorrow night at say 6:45PM and signed up... I just registered online though for the Independence 5000, a twilight run tomorrow night at 7:30PM. I've never done a 'night race' before, so this will be fun! A few Z peeps are doing, which is how I learned of it - thanks, Holly! So that will make it even more fun.

There is another twilight run later in July that I'm already thinking of doing, in Crystal City. I also heard of this one through Holly. If I'm in town that weekend I will likely sign up. Both of these races are put on by Pacers...and if I go to packet pick-up tomorrow at lunch time I could maybe buy my new running shoes...just in time for MCM training, which starts on July 12! But I might not have time for that. Oh well, we'll see

Bike ride tonight - what great weather we are getting in the second half of this week!

Happy Training!