Running Goal & Half Training Update

• 0 • My Running

It’s over halfway through 2018!

(Past) time to check in on your running goals for the year if you have them.

My goal this year is to run 500 miles this year, which is an average of about 10 miles per week.

Garmin makes it easy to track – I created a running goal through my Garmin Connect login and it updates daily with my current progress. To make sure my treadmill miles count, I do a manual entry each time I do a treadmill workout (including Precision Running) with the total mileage.

I’m actually right on target to reach my goal! I expected to ramp up slowly in Winter and Spring, and then to have Summer and Fall be heavier mileage weeks as I train for the Maine Half Marathon and then keep running into the Fall season.

My past two weeks have both been 17 mile weeks, and as I get into August and September I’ll be running even more.

Every 15 mile week makes up for half a week off some other month, and every 20 mile week earns me a week of vacation.

So to be at 40% in July feels about what I expected and hoped for at this time in the year.

Half Marathon Training

I’ve done 4 workouts that Greg uploaded for me so far, and it’s been great. They’ve been spot on in that “challenging, but doable” range where I feel ready to complete the next workout, but never like things are incredibly easy.

It’s been really nice letting go of the planning and second-guessing myself, and to have another opinion and try some new things.

My biggest change so far has been switching my workouts around so that my long run is now on Monday and my intervals are on Fridays. I always used to end the week with a long run, assuming that it was better to have two days of recovery after the long run since it’d be a high mileage day.

Greg suggested taking two days after intervals, instead, because the speed workouts may actually benefit more from two days off afterward than the endurance runs. More tearing requires more repairing.

I’m enjoying the switch because intervals are my favorite, and it feels fun to build up to them and have them on Friday. I feel more ready for a long run (mentally and physically) after two days off, and am less likely to feel bored when I start rather than end my week with it.

Audiobook Rec – Little Fires Everywhere

I’ve been listening to an audiobook I borrowed from the library called Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and I love listening to it on my run. No more trying to line up podcasts or waiting for new episodes of Reply All. One thing I love about the library is that their audiobooks are a curated list. The digital media age has made choosing something to read an overwhelming task, but when I go to my library’s website, I can sort by audiobooks that are available now and then sort again by most popular titles. Reading through the descriptions of the top five or so usually finds me one I’m interested in, and it prevents the type of decision fatigue that can set in when I actually purchase books and have the entire universe available to choose from.

Hope you’re having a great summer and getting outside!

I have a new running coach!

• 1 • My Running

It’s Greg.

I’m training for the Maine Half Marathon in September, so I pulled out my copy of Run Less, Run Faster to enter in my most recent 10k time and get pace values to plug into the half marathon training plan and go.

I do love Run Less, Run Faster, but Greg suggested I at least take a look at Jack Daniels. I’d always shied away from Daniels because he’s geared towards (in my opinion) more serious runners, expects people to run higher mileage weeks, and suggests 5-6 days of running a week.

But I didn’t realize how adaptable Daniels’ plans might be to my running, because they are based on a few quality workouts a week, and then the other days are just labeled “E” for easy runs. So I can practice the philosophy of Run Less, Run Faster and do 3 running workouts a week and just swap the E on the Daniels’ plan for cross-training.

The benefit is that I get to try different workouts from Run Less, Run Faster, and different is fun. Another benefit is that Daniels is freaking amazing in terms of improving runners.

It’s the running book that Greg has used so frequently his copy is falling apart at the spine. And that’s his second copy because he bought the new version when it came out.

Anyway – back to me having a new coach.

I have a new coach.

It’s Greg.

He saw my hesitation about Daniels and correctly interpreted it as unease about having to learn a new training plan with new math and new pace values and new notations…. and he offered to do it for me. He listened to all my fears about Daniels (number of miles, number of workouts) and looked at the plan I would have done in Run Less, Run Faster, and said he’d come up with a comparable plan for me that was based on Daniels but had 3 workouts a week and took my 10k time into account.

He even plugged the workouts into Garmin Connect for me and sent them to my watch.

Now all I have to do is throw my watch on, select the workout for the day, and it’ll guide me each step of the way including target pace.

And the best part is that I don’t want to let him down, so when the babysitter shows up, I’m going to hit the road and do my best.

It’s great accountability.

I did ask if Greg had any coaching experience before I agreed to this, by the way. (As if that really matters given that the alternative was me plugging numbers into another book’s training plan.)

He in fact does. He coached himself from a 4-hour marathon down to a 3:08. I guess he’s qualified.

As long as he doesn’t expect me to run the miles and intensity he ran to get there.

Luckily… he doesn’t. He’s been watching me run since I began running. He’s been my biggest supporter, the person most interested and thrilled by my improvements, and he has had a front row seat to every training plan I’ve ever attempted and how they’ve gone. Add that he’s an experienced runner himself who has an enthusiasm for training plans, and I think I’ve really lucked out here.

I love that he’s willing to put in the time and effort to come up with a training plan for me, painstakingly put it all into Garmin Connect so it’s so easy, and that I know he’s rooting for me each run and will switch things up as I progress or if I’m having trouble.

I could see being coached by your spouse backfiring. And I think in my earliest phases of running it would have been hard to trust him before I even trusted myself. In those early days, I would have perceived advice as pressure rather than guidance, encouragement and belief in my abilities. So if you’re reading this and shaking your head, I get it. It’s about timing. Greg would have been as perfect then as he is now, but I didn’t have the confidence and resilience and faith in my running and in my ability to communicate about my running.

But now? I think it’s amazing. I think I’m so lucky. I wish I’d done it sooner. I can’t wait to run tomorrow, because I know he’ll be excited to see how I did, not that he isn’t always, but now he’s really part of it.

 

Happy Belated Global Running Day!

• 0 • My Running

I recently joined a hilarious and supportive triathlon group on Facebook (Pathetic Triathletes Group) which is built on humor, support, and repetitive meme posting followed by suggestions that people solve unrelated triathlon problems by buying a new bike.

It’s also peppered with incredible advice for every problem imaginable (and some I wish I had not read about and imagined, such as dealing with jellyfish during open water swims in warmer places).

Anyway, someone recently posted an epically wonderful tribute to global running day, and I’m going to copy her. (Thanks Jeanine.)

So…

Happy (Belated) Global Running Day!

I love running because it makes me look and feel great.  🤪👍

Round-Up: Contradictory Articles on When to Foam Roll

• 0 • My Running

Because… Monday.

Wait, it’s Tuesday.

Out of curiosity, I decided to research when I should be foam rolling. Before? After? Directly after? Hours later? There’s plenty of contradicting advice out there, and not many articles cite their sources. Where’s the data? Who took a group of runners and had them foam roll before or after or several hours after and then followed their rates of injury, recovery time, and performance? The expert being quoted, what studies have they read, or does their expertise consist of anecdotal evidence from clients enjoying a placebo effect because they want it to be working?

Time magazine did the best job of citing research studies in its article about foam rolling. If you have time for one article, it was the most informative and interesting.

But while reading a lot of articles that say slightly different things might seem like an exercise in frustration, it’s helpful to look for common themes. All these articles agreed that foam rolling can be beneficial, that good posture using the foam roller is important to prevent injury, that rolling too hard (think pain instead of discomfort) is not helpful, and that you shouldn’t roll out your lower back because you can cause injury.

And most articles admitted that there might be different benefits to rolling before or after your workout.

When you read just one article on a topic there’s a chance you’re reading an outlier and if you read five more articles the information in the first would contradict the general consensus. That’s fine if it’s a ground-breaking article that adds important new research to the body of information and is going to actually shift the consensus… it’s not so good if the article is written by an “expert” somewhere with a controversial opinion that isn’t based on a wealth of evidence.

I found the same thing when reading parenting books. Rather than feeling frustrated by the contradictions, I felt empowered by the amount of consensus I found.  The contradictions offered me flexibility in areas where positive outcomes had been demonstrated from a variety of different parenting techniques.

So when you have a question, like “when should I foam roll” maybe it’s not such a bad thing to read a variety of articles to get a feel for where there’s agreement vs. where people just aren’t sure and perhaps you should see what works best for you. (And what the definite NOs are so you can avoid injury.)

And if you read something “groundbreaking” make sure you check out the research behind it so you’re confident there’s ample evidence of the benefits and low risk of injury before you go out and ice your calves to the point of frost-bite or overhydrate on a run.

Happy truth-seeking!

Will with my orange foam roller in the background.

Foam Roll Before:

Foam Rolling? Do It Right By Avoiding These 10 Mistakes from Runner’s World

Should I Foam Roll Before or After a Workout? from Outside Online

Foam Roll At Bedtime:

The Right Time to Foam Roll from Men’s Health

Both or Either:

Should I Be Foam Rolling Before My Workout Instead of After? from Women’s Health

You Asked: Should I Use a Foam Roller? from Time Magazine

Articles About Foam Rolling That Tell You Everything Else You’re Doing Wrong But Not When to Do It:

5 Foam Rolling Mistakes to Avoid from Huffington Post

The 4 Mistakes You’re Making When Foam Rolling from Runners Connect

Long Run Drama

• 1 • My Running

I stood in the kitchen decked out in my running gear wiping away tears and trying to explain why I was crying.

I was about to head outside for a long run, my longest run outdoors since 2016.

It needed to go well.

I’ve been bored on the treadmill. Inconsistent. Frustrated with the competition between my memory of me as a runner with the reality of me as a returning runner.

The only way I could get myself to put in three miles on the treadmill the other day was by playing games with myself to see how high I could get the built-in heart rate monitor. 198 BPM. Running at 8.1 mph on the treadmill for 55 seconds at 2% incline did the trick. I drowned out the voice reminding me that this was slower than Greg’s marathon pace. (Just kidding, I didn’t drown it out, I saved it for my next blog post.)

If you’re a cardiologist or other heart or fitness expert I’m curious to know whether this game is even a good idea.

So there I was, in the kitchen, feeling like this was a critical run because I needed outside to be the magical cure for my running rut. Greg, ever fantastic, carefully herded me out the door with the right combination of reassurance, empathy, and podcast recommendations. A tricky exercise, getting a nervous runner who is crying in your kitchen to leave for their run. I’ve never had to do it. He even mapped out two routes for me and talked pros and cons while carefully pretending he wasn’t aware that this was yet another procrastination tactic.

I chose the second route. (More scenic.)

I ended up listening to The Gun Show, a fascinating history of the NRA and how it essentially got taken over in a coup in the seventies to become the political monster it is today. It was fascinating. I already said that. I think anyone who lives in the United States should give it a listen. (And it’s not a hard political sell on anything, it’s just what it says, a history.) https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/gun-show/

There were moments when I wondered if I should be listening to the calm, dulcet tones of Rich Roll (a long run podcast staple of past years) but some of his episodes are more intriguing than others, and with a long-form style you need to surf for the ones that are most interesting to you. So Sean Rameswaram it was.

You’re wondering how the run went. (I hope.)

It was great.

It was slow, but it was STEADY. No long agonizing walking breaks of defeat. No cramping. No wardrobe failures.

By mile 6 my legs felt that overall fatigue I remember from so many long runs in the past, which made me feel like I was really doing it – I was getting back into half marathon training. This is what I remembered.

I ran 8 miles, putting me back on track to hit 6 or so 10+ mile runs to prepare for the Maine Coast Half Marathon in May. The last time I ran the Maine Coast Half it was an utter disaster because I’d been triathlon training and I thought I could wing it. One does not “wing” a half marathon. (Or at least I certainly don’t.)

So.

Here I am. I got back outside, and I ran for 8 miles, and it was beautiful and not boring and then I came home and Greg had taken the kids grocery shopping, poured me a beer, and made lunch.

Nothing to cry about.

The struggle is real. That run doesn’t look like much on paper, especially compared to past years. But it broke through an emotional barrier I hadn’t realized existed until I stood in the kitchen surprised at myself for tearing up over an upcoming run.

If 8 twelve minute miles in a row are what it takes to get my confidence back, so be it.

Because with confidence, I can move forward.

After I have this beer.