Tag Archives: training

Pretending to Train for Marathon Week 3

By Posted in NYC training cycle, Running, Training Tagged , , , , , 15 Comments

What to say about this week of training?

Well for starters, I fully admit I haven’t exactly been doing anything well this week in regards to training.  My pace was off (ie: slower).  My speedwork wasn’t the greatest and I thought I was going into cardiac arrest during my runs…as my pace slowed.   Everyday during my run I thought about how I need to stretch and use my foam roller and everyday after my run I got sidetracked and then ended up being at work realizing I didn’t do it.

Awesome.

Most people will read that first paragraph and say, well why the hell did you keep running?  Just take time off…well it really wasn’t that bad…  

Meh, it was just an off week for me.  If I ran perfect runs every day of every week…I’d be the Olympic champion…in every single running related this.   I still got base building injury free miles in. While typing this is the morning and reflecting I also think I got some sort of head cold during the week which probably wasn’t helping.  I know it wouldn’t be helping.

Monday: AM: 11.11 miles progressive run with last mile at 7:41
  PM: Cybex 100i cross training
Tuesday: 11.11 miles untimed
Wednesday: AM: 11.8 miles total 5 warmup and 6.5 miles tempo (averaging 6:58 pace)
PM: 5 miles shakeout
Thursday: Off
Friday: 11.2 miles easy shakeout
Saturday: CHKD 8k Race (31:48) 15 miles total
Sunday: 11 miles shakeout
Total: 76miles

 

Which I’m completely happy with regarding this week of training and everything else I had going on. 

The details of Wednesday’s workout are as followed.

It was supposed to be 90+ degrees and there was no way I was doing a tempo run at high noon in the heat with humidity.  So I decided to switch up my miles and do a 5.3 mile loop on trails around my house.  Then I came back and did 6.5 miles at a harder effort.  I knew while doing this workout I wasn’t feeling that great (I chalked it up to being in the AM) as I’m normally able to hold a much quicker pace (read 10 seconds faster per mile in hotter weather) but I mentally got through it.  Then did the PM miles just as easy, shakeout miles.  (instead of doing 10 easy in the morning when it was cooler and 6 hard in the afternoon when it was harder).

Regardless, this certainly wasn’t a highlightable week of training for me.  I think I’m partially under the weather though.  I got some solid cross training in and I’m hoping to be able to get to the pool this week…because right I have a 1 mile swim next Sunday.  Oh well time to move on…I’m becoming less sick and have no running races on the radar until a July 4th 5k.

Next week I hope to get a long run in and speed workout.  Now that I’m getting over being congested, I can have a quality few weeks before my next race.

Questions for you:

Do you workout when sick?

I normally don’t but I just thought it was my usual change in climate (no humidity and cooler from Upstate…to hot and humid in VA)

Are you close with your father?

I am.  Happy Father’s Day to him!

Mud Monster

By Posted in Running Tagged , , , , , , , , , 15 Comments

You would think with all my socially awkwardness I would have more running humor stories to share with you.  First and foremost, I am the worlds biggest drama queen when I run.  I won’t run in rain, hail, sleet…snow, if I’m chilly.  A bug bite?  Must be a running related injury…so yes I’m a pansy but that is my running style.   I do have lots of real life embarrassing stories though…

Moving on: My most embarrassing running moment comes from my first year of running actually…when I did go for a run in the rain.  It was warmer fall day and the rain and it was sprinkling off and on…nothing too terrible (that year we got snow on Halloween).  I had decided I would rather run in that then the treadmill with creepy meat heads watching me so that is what I did.

I put on my shoes like a normal run and went out running (imagine that?).  I was wearing my first ever pair of Nike spandex (which I still have) and some sort of other white running singlet.  (First, what I was thinking, I don’t know).

How convenient, I actually have a picture of them. Go me for using good blogging technique.

How convenient, I actually have a picture of them. Go me for using good blogging technique.

So with that I headed over to the opposite university about 2 miles away for some trail running…you can probably see where this is going.  It wasn’t particularly raining at the time, just off/on sprinkles.

Mile 1.  Just over to the other college.

Mile 2.  Beefed it on a branch within a second of hitting the trails.  Mud on my face.  Mud on my shirt.  Mud on my butt…cute.  Mud on my shoes (ruined…just kidding). 

Do I continue running through the trails or go back home and shower before class?  (Which I notoriously always was the last person to walk into class).   Yeah I kept running…

Mile 3-5 were just in the trails still being muddy but there was no one back there thank goodness.

Mile 6.  Honk honk honk.  Hey mud monster go back to the cove!

In my mind: Gee thanks..it’s 11am are you drunk…mud monster…really?

Mile 7: Honk honk honk.  Dammm girl, I like a girl that can get muddy.

Me hollering back: And I like men that get arrested for sharing those thoughts with minors (no I was 20 at the time but can still pass for 17…it’s great).

After a quick shower (pretty sure I still smelled) I went to class.  It wouldn’t be an upper level math course filled with more socially awkward people without someone saying, Hollie was that you covered in mud 15 minutes ago…

Questions for you: Most embarrassing workout story?

Training Talk

By Posted in Uncategorized Tagged , , 25 Comments

A question I often get…

Hollie, how do you run so much without being injured?

Well if you follow my blog regularly…you know I do get injured.   I have had one stress fracture, a ripped knee tendon, a cyst (not relating to running though).  The fact of the matter is, I am not always healthy as no runner is and I don’t recommend taking my advice solely.  Really I hate when people ask me for advice because I can’t tell you what has worked for me will work for you…

Here is my (very strict) training plan to run fast:

I really just enjoy this photo and it has absolutely no relevance...minus it's a cat..running..

I really just enjoy this photo and it has absolutely no relevance…minus it’s a cat..running..

 

First post cyst injury, I haven’t really done any speed workouts that don’t consist of racing.  My speed workouts are racing.  I don’t go to the track.  I’ll do tempo runs at 7-7:20 pace and call that my speed…even though I race at below a 7 minute pace most of the time.  Heck, I haven’t even worn my racing flats during said tempo runs.  So yeah…speed workouts haven’t happened and I don’t really mind that.

Stretching…doesn’t happen a lot…though I wish I could tell you I was more consistent.

Being a member of planet fitness, I do use their hydrotherapy massage normally after I run on the treadmill.  Oh yeah, I don’t really mind the treadmill.  I don’t push the pace on the treadmill at all…It obviously isn’t hard to make yourself run faster on the treadmill.  You press a button.  When you feel like crap running outside, do you press a button to make yourself run faster than you should be?  Well maybe you do…but I don’t.

So with that I normally don’t really push the pace on the treadmill.  I’d rather be injury free than run 10 seconds per mile faster…who cares.

I also eat a lot.  I’m not going to really go into a big discussion about this…but if you don’t eat enough you will get injured.    You cannot be good at running and worry about how look in the mirror and if your thighs touch.  When you train high mileage…you must eat and yeah I just went there.

I also don’t really know how far or pace that I’ll run until I actually start running.  I don’t follow a plan and I don’t write exactly what I’ll do until it happens.  Every week I say, eh hopefully the week will be similar to last week.  That would be good and that’s that.  Do I schedule 10 miles run daily…no…they just generally happen.

So in short.

I don’t stretch.   I don’t do speed workouts (right now…I plan to when I start training for 5ks…maybe…)

I get hydrotherapy massages a lot from the gym.  (read: I run on the treadmill a couple of times weekly)

I follow a no plan stan.  Scheduling an exact: I will run 10.34859590 mile run on Tuesday and 11.23445 mile run Wednesday…well that isn’t my thing.

I like to eat.  I eat pretty healthy but I eat a lot.

Questions for you: What is your workout plan like?

WTF Wednesday: Dude Running

By Posted in Running Tagged , , , , , , , 47 Comments

Tim and I don’t get into fights…really ever.  As you can probably guess I mostly laugh at drama…so that’s that.  Except for one time when we were running together in Texas.  It was a long run that we had not planned…I had asked for ten and it ended up being fifteen, it was hot, it was on trails (which I hate) and it was miserable because we weren’t talking.  Not because we were in a fight (that comes later) but because we were running and sometimes when running we go for miles without talking…but we aren’t angry, it just happens.  Not only were we running, the trail was somewhat narrow so we were running single file.  So here I am already miserable, running on a single wide trail, not talking.

Tensions were rising (at least in my head).

I literally stopped nearly in tears and said:  I hate dude running.  Take me to the car and I’m getting my ipod or I’m done with the run.  You can decide.

That is me in my drama queen moment at it’s finest.  No, he didn’t take me to the car.  No I didn’t get my ipod…I sucked it up buttercup and we finished 15 miles.  We chatted a bit more but only because the trail widened and we could.

And that was the end of the one fight we ever got into…all about dude running because I wanted to chat.

Come to think of it, that is literally the only serious argument that I can think of Tim and I have gotten into…

mmm...trails in Texas...

mmm…trails in Texas…

So with that introduction, I thought about the differences between male and females running together.  I really like to run with females a lot.  (Girl power!) I can talk about boy drama, girl drama, gossip…everything and generally other females are the same way (it obviously always depends on personality type too) but by in large the females I have run with will chat the entire run.  It’s fabulous and makes the miles go by so quickly.

I don’t have a lot of experience running with males.  I do know watching the dymanics a lot from cross country running or just watching men run together because I’m creepy…they less tend to chat.  Why run single file?  It’s like some sort of male code that we are all running a race and cannot chat (which chatting during races is “frowned” upon anyways…I would erm know…not).  But in my own personal observations of watching other men run together, they are not nearly as chatty or they might even run single file when completely unnecessary.

Not me.  I’ll run with females gossiping over drama over that any day.  

(Considering I’ve just told you I am more dramatic than a middle school female during runs, I know it makes you want to run with me)

Question for you:

Do you notice a difference in males working out together versus females?

Do you prefer working out solo, with others (male or female), or with large groups? 

Pretending to Train for a Marathon Week 2

By Posted in NYC training cycle, Running, Swimming Tagged , , , , , , , 31 Comments

Look I can change the title of my blog training every week and still be training for a marathon…or at least pretending too. Right then. It should be Week two: Still not injured (knock on wood). I added some pictures from last race so you can not be bored if you don’t care about actual training…

I will look serious so I have one good race photo...

I will look serious so I have one good race photo…

Monday: Full body Strength class 55 minutes
Tuesday: 11 mile run untimed
Wednesday: 12 mile run untimed
Thursday: 10.65 mile run untimed
3000 meter swim (yes that is real life)
Friday: 10.65 miles in the pouring rain
Saturday: OK Cross Country 5k 19:27 and (13.1 miles overall)
Sunday: 15 easy and untimed
Total: 73

What are my thoughts?

Well let’s see here.  My legs have been on the sore train all week.  I’m not sure if it was the heat or the hills from the half marathon last weekend that knocked them cold.  Either way they have felt like crap the entire week.   Untimed/approximating runs were all I really needed this week and so that was that.  I nixed my normal tempo run this week because quite honestly my body wasn’t fully recovered from the race by Wednesday.  I was “listening to my body” which really means listening to my brain saying Hollie don’t be an idiot and injure yourself.  So really listening to your body is listening to your brain and using common sense…moving on.

We had the tropical storm hit on Friday so it rained off and on all day.  I actually ran in the complete downpour, only to have beautiful weather the hour after…followed by complete downpour.   All the rain though made the cross country 5k I did a complete muddy mess (which was fine for me…it’s cross country…it isn’t the pavement).  I do, however, wish I had worn my spikes.   I’ll recap soon, but it was a good race and certainly made for a hard course in hot/humid conditions.

I will now break this tape.

I will now break this tape.

Those other workouts:

I did one full body strength class at my gym.  It felt good to actually lift some weights…well no I felt awful for neglecting it but it did feel good to actually pretend to start that again.

And swimming:

I swam 1000 freestyle-400 im twice through then did 200 butterfly kick on my back.  I am signed up for a bunch of open water swims this summer so I should probably get my butt back into the pool.  I do enjoy swimming once I physically get into the pool, it’s just getting there is the challenge for me.  I don’t hate swimming, I hate the showering, getting to the pool and all the rest of the time it takes that comes with swimming.  Swimming the mile and loving it has never felt more in a past life.

And next weeks training:

I hope to do more injury free miles.  I’m running an 8k on Saturday (lots of fast ladies going to be there!) and hope to get a tempo run somewhere in there as well.  Oh I’d also like to get a swim or two in and get some weights in.  (my am I greedy?)  We will see where time takes me though.

I will now cluelessly fumble around with this tape and not know what to do because I'm awkward.

I will now cluelessly fumble around with this tape and not know what to do because I’m awkward.

Questions for you:

What is the hardest workout for you to get motivated for?

Did the tropical storm affect you at all?

We got some flooding.