My training this May was all over the place. I characterize it into two periods. The first was finishing my month of rest from the Atlantic City half marathon. After the Broad Street 10 miler, I took a few days to recover and began marathon training (phase 2). My marathon training for the next month isn’t really all that different. I’ve added an additional day of running weekly which has bumped my mileage back into the 70s. I’ve been trying to get comfortable with running 16 mile long runs in hopes to eventually bump that up to 17, 18, 19 and 20.
Total miles: 297 (no I didn’t feel like running 3 extra miles the night before my half…not worth it)
Total rest days: 7
Total races: 4
Broad Street 10 miler (1:05.20)
St. Pauls 5k (19:52)
Medford Lakes 5k (19:24)
Run for the Dream half (1:27.53) recap tomorrow possibly (spoiler: the last 400 is on the track)
Shortest run: 1.7 mile cooldown from Medford Lakes
Longest run: 16.25 mile long run
Range of paces: 6:02-9:58
Most proud run: In training my most proud run goes to my 16.25 long run I did last week. I’m not in a point in my training that any long run feels great and I really pushed hard (mentally and physically) to finish.
Thoughts:
This month went well. I don’t have any complaints. My body is responding how it should with bumping up my mileage. I’m tired. My pace has slowed on runs due to heat, humidity and adding extra mileage. It doesn’t frustrate me because honestly that’s what happens. While I did take more rest days then I would have liked the last week, my body needed it. My legs were breaking down and needed a lot more recovery. It’s a good wake up call for me that your body is not invincible and you cannot get better without proper rest and recovery.
June goals:
I would really like to make that bump and leep of faith over 300 miles again. I have a couple more races planned this month:
June 7th Scott Coffee Rotary 8k (Moorestown, NJ)
June 14th: CHKD 8k (Norfolk, VA)
Questions for you:
How was May for training?
What is on your schedule in June?
I have 2 races that I’m signed up for, and I hope I can run them, but I won’t know until after my doctor’s appointment today. Either way, I will be at one since Clay is running it, so I told the organizer I could volunteer. Aside from that, I’ve planned to volunteer at another one. Aside from that… just doing whatever I can and still working out even if I can’t run.
I love that you didn’t run an extra 3 miles to make it an even number for the month! Definitely not worth it before a half just to have an impressive looking training log, ya know? I’m sure you’ll hit it next month since a great deal of this month was recovering anyway. You had some great races in there!
Good luck today at your appointment Amy! You’ve done an awesome job cross training!
As far as adding three extra miles, it honestly seemed trivial to me…so I can brag I hit 300 LOL…I will long forget that next month.
This was my first month back to running. I took the winter besides the occasional run and I have to say I was loving it! I didn’t keep to much track as I know I would not be happy with my times but mileage wise I was so impressed with myself!
A race with coffee in the title?! That’s meant to be.
May was all about recovery for me, just having run Boston and getting myself ready for hard training for the same little fall marathon you have circled on your calendar. 🙂 My summer training session starts on June 15. The main goal for this summer is “train slow to race fast.” That motto pertains to the long runs and means to run them a full minute (at least) slower than marathon pace. More on the philosophy in an upcoming blog. 😉
That makes complete sense and I can’t wait to read that post Kevin (or any of your posts really). I have a similar philosophy of training slow and racing fast.
Aw, shucks! As soon as I get back home from vacation (Disney World!), I’ll write something. I’ve had a few thoughts bobbing around in my head that might turn into something….personal fitness/recovery fails, vacation fun (Mickey!), the loss of a running friend to cancer a couple days ago, nutrition and training goals, and mental prep for summer training to name a few… 🙂
May was a pretty good month of training.. I ran two halves and a full and PR’d every time…. You can’t be mad at that … though I would love to break 1:30!!!!
I’m debating on doing a local low key 5k this weekend, 5 miler next wknd and then a 10 miler the following weekend…. I just want to have fun this month and start building mileage and get ready to rock it in the fall!
You are a racing machine lately Hollie! Setting yourself up for a great endurance base for the Wineglass marathon. Can’t wait to see you at CHKD 🙂
I’m just so excited to see you. I can’t wait.
June is all about training for running in the heat and hills. I have a half marathon at the beginning of July that is going to test both of these things.
good for you for not pushing yourself to do 3 more miles to reach 300 (the OCD person in me would have probably have been tempted…) – listen to your body, be smart and good luck with your marathon training!!
Which half is at the beginning of July? When are you coming back to the East Coast to race ;)?
Sand Creek half marathon here in Denver. I have no idea when I’ll be back on the East Coast honestly…the whole quitting my job thing kinda threw a monkey wrench in the travel budget ha!
6:02 – that is mind blowing to me 🙂
I always love reading your training recaps, especially when it is about a marathon!!
You commenting today made my day. 🙂
I’m glad, though I wish we were racing the same marathon. I wish you stopped in NJ when I’m here too LOL.
That’s some solid mileage, Hollie! Excited to see what all the training will lead you to for Wineglass.
June involves a move and a visit to Ft Riley, Kansas to see my friends stationed down there 🙂
I love seeing that your pace can get as slow as 9:58/mile, even if that is just a cool-down. It helps me realize that running slow sometimes doesn’t mean anything. 🙂
Thanks Rachel! Honestly my day to day runs are almost always between 8:15-8:45 pace. If I’m going faster then that I feel like I’m going into cardiac arrest.
Nice! There are girls in my former running club who run similar times to yours but insist on banging out 7:30s for every regular run and then wonder why they get injured every time they go over 40 miles in a week…
Great month! That’s some good mileage! I’m not currently training for anything specific, but I did run an even 100 miles in May. I also PR’d a 10k, which was nice. Congrats on it everything!
lol we were at the same race…you were ahead though!!!! I am Beth!!!! I was at Run for the Dream too!!! It was hot but I am told it wasnt as bad as before…congrats on third place. I drove nine hours before running and it did me in!!!!!
Oh my gosh, how crazy is that? I do come to Syracuse quite a bit. What is next on your racing schedule?
I am doing the 1/2 sauer 1/2 kraut in philly on the 14th and the New Paltz Challenge on the 15th in New York…Then the Ironman half marathon the 22 in Syracuse…I love the lake effect half too
Lol and I live in Syracuse, but I love going down to Virginia….I think we end up in a lot of the same races…just do not realize it…hope you are having a great monday
We keep saying this to each other, but your training blows me away. ALL THE MILES!
All that running. Crazy!
Nice month of mileage, LOLZ! 🙂
You had a solid month of training and racing. you never cease to amaze me! My first 200+ mile month happened in May. Not quite lolz mileage but I’m proud!
ps after looking at your training I think that is about what I used to do last year so maybe I need to simmer down on the races and up the mileage and sometimes it feels good to just relax on a nice run…if you have any pointers I would love to know them…also it is really bizarre but I am trying to become an Oiselle…not under the Olympic standards!!!!