Aesthete Runner

Week 10 of 50 mile training continued to build on distance and time on feet. After receiving some helpful feedback from my coach last week, I was able to maintain confidence with where I am at in the training cycle, and thankfully my body continued to respond well to the load.

Welcome to Week 9 of training for the Hennepin Hundred - 50 mile race. This week is just over the half way point of training, and Monday was the exact two month mark until the race. For the second week of the "50 mile specific" phase, I was pretty much thrown into a high mileage week. I haven't run mileage like this since the end of my 50k training, so my previous concerns regarding where I was at in this plan were obliterated.

The most frequent question I receive when talking about my training is running by time vs miles. I thought this topic warranted it's own post since I have a lot to say!

I survived peak week! While there are still many more weeks of hard training, it feels good to put my biggest mileage week behind me and finish my first 20 miler of the training plan. One of the coaches notes this week was  Repeat after me: "I can do it. I will do it. I can do it. I will do it. I can do it. I will do it." Say it rhythmically and often. I sure did say this often and this was definitely a week of doing hard things and succeeding.

9 weeks down, 7 weeks to go! Another difficult, but great week of training in the books. I think this week was more mentally challenging vs physically challenging. The hot, humid temps came back in full force, and I had to complete my very least favorite speed workout - Yasso 800s.

Finally, a great solid week of training! This past Tuesday marked 2 months until marathon day, and I was happy to start this week rested and ready to take on training. I finally recovered from my "fun" food poisoning adventure, and with the extra rest days during my camping trip, I have never felt more physically or mentally ready.

The word that sums up this week is tired. Many long hours at work, combined with balancing marathon training led to major fatigue and additional stress. Ironically, this was the quote sent in our weekly McMillan email: “The demon you can swallow gives you its power. The greater life’s pain the greater life’s reply.” – Joseph Campbell

This past week I finally committed to a training plan. I had a realization during a run where it hit me that no matter what plan I pick, I will run a great marathon. I don't know why I was so indecisive for so long, but I know myself, and know that I once I commit to something, I give it my all. I also know that I am in probably the best shape of my life in terms of running. While I have had some taper and recovery periods after races, I basically haven't stopped running since the last Chicago Marathon. I ran all winter, ran all spring, and thankfully I've stayed injury free and have been able to keep my mileage at just the right spot to avoid burnout, but to sustain my fitness.

And just like that, it's almost time to train for the Chicago Marathon again! One of the perks to doing a spring race is that I already have a great base under my belt so I feel as if this might be the most prepared I have ever been going into marathon training.

The weather has warmed up, it's a holiday weekend, and some people have started marathon training. I love this time of year! I completed my second week of maintenance training last week with the Daniels Blue Plan. It was another tough week of two quality workouts - a speed and tempo workout. My hamstrings are hating this plan, but I can tell I am starting to build back a lot of speed.

One of the best parts of finishing a race is recovering, healing any aches and pains, and then holding on to that fitness base. When I first started running, I would train hard for a race but then ultimately take so much time off afterwards that I would lose most of my fitness. When the next training cycle came along, I would have to start from square one. Over the years I have perfected my art of maintenance between training cycles. I absolutely enjoy taking time off and focusing on other non-running activities, but I also like being able to utilize my fitness base when starting to train for a specific race.

With two weeks down and one week to go, I feel like I am recovering well since the Earth Day 50k. I have been running very little, with a lot of focus on cross training and yoga. And rest. Lots of rest. It really is amazing how much more time I have on the weekend when I don't have to run 20 miles, but there have been days where I'm itching to run.

What a week! I started my new job, became a morning runner, and ran one of my longest training runs in a while. Needless to say, I am exhausted! I am still working on balancing a new job, training for my first ultra, and everything else in life, but I know that each week will get easier.

On Saturday I completed the F^3 Lake Half Marathon and have finally thawed out! In all seriousness, I really enjoyed the race and while cold, the weather was tolerable. For those wanting the quick story, I did not PR but had one of my most consistently paced races to date. Read on for the full details of race day.

The F^3 Lake Half Marathon is just 6 days away. While the weather for Saturday is going to be drastically different from the 58 degrees I enjoyed this past week, I am feeling ready. This taper hasn't "tapered" as much as others right before a race, but I am looking forward to a lighter few days leading up to Saturday.

I am 13 days out from the F^3 Lake Half Marathon and it's taper time! While I still have another week's worth of some challenging strength and tempo runs, I completed my longest run since the marathon in October. It feels good to have that under my belt, especially after the challenging weather this week.

With the conclusion of the Hansons base building plan I have been writing about for 8 weeks, I picked up with the Hansons Beginner Half plan to continue training for the F^3 Lake Half Marathon that I wrote about back in November . While I am no beginner to the half marathon, the Hansons beginner plan is what I previously used to achieve my 6 min half marathon PR last spring, and there is nothing "beginner" about it. I couldn't have picked a better time to pick up the plan as it aligned with the start of Hansons strength workouts. After doing speedwork for the past 8 weeks, it was perfect timing to stop the speed runs and focus more on strength. I discuss the strength workouts in more detail in my Marathon training post here .

Happy 2017! I made it through the final week of the Hansons 8 Week Base Building Maintenance plan and it coincided with the start of a brand new year.

I am a bit late on recapping week 7, but I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday. Between traveling out of state and spending time with family my runs were a bit sporadic, but I still had a successful week.

This was a very cold and snowy week for any sort of outdoor activities, let alone training. Nevertheless, I made a point to find a relatively clear trail to run on and was able to get in the majority of my scheduled runs.