#RunLove

After running the RNR USA Half Marathon I lost all motivation to run. Whenever I would try to hit the pavement I felt ridiculously sluggish and just overall miserable. After a few terrible runs I decided to take a running hiatus. I ran only 3-4 times between April to June before I was ready to lace up my Brooks again. Since I started running more regularly I have completely fallen back in love with it. I'm honestly not sure that I really loved running when I first started, I just told myself that I did. I desperately wanted to be a runner, to have an identity and a sense of belonging that I suffered through training. I wouldn't even call it training. I hardly ran before both of my half marathons simply because I dreaded training so much.

So why would someone who doesn't like running sign up to run a marathon? I wanted more of a challenge. The half marathon distance wasn't daunting enough for me to ever really commit to training. I knew I could still finish the distance on minimal training because of my athletic background. Instead of worrying about training for a marathon I focused on triathlon instead. I knew that I could run the 10K portion of an Olympic triathlon pretty easily, but I was pretty worried about how successfully I could do the bike portion. Once I started feeling more comfortable on the bike I slowly started adding in some running. I have still had some less than pleasant runs but in general I'm am so much happier with my running. I did make a lot of changes to the way I run though, which I credit to my new found love of the sport.

Happy face!

Emotional Investment
I didn't know this was a problem until I started triathlon training but I wasn't fully invested in training for my first two half marathons. I never had OMG I'm so excited feeling about those races. When I started training for the General Smallwood Triathlon I started to truly care about my training. I wanted to succeed and that was enough to make me want to run again.

Excitement
This goes along with emotional investment, but I have never been so excited about my training as I am now. I love triathlon training and can't see where that takes me. And on top of that I start training for the greatest race in the world in a few weeks, one that has been a dream of mine for a long time.

Running with music
I'm not exactly sure why I decided to start running with music again but I am so glad I did. Running doesn't seem so serious anymore. Instead it is kind of like a sweaty jam session. I desperately need new music but just putting in my headphones and zoning out during my runs has made the time go by so much faster and has made tough runs seem a little easier. I don't want to get in the habit of doing all my runs with music so that I don't become dependent on it but it if does the trick I'm going to stick with it.


Speed work
I'm pretty sure the first run I did after my hiatus was a 5K time trial. I spent a lot of time worrying about hitting certain paces before that I never really let my body go fast. I was scared by certain paces but now I'm learning to embrace them. I have learned to absolutely love going to the track for a hard workout. I feel so powerful and fast, and it makes the easier runs seem less boring because I'm switching things up.

No pressure
When I was training for my half marathons I felt this constant pressure to run. I felt guilty when I would do anything other than run. When you are training for a triathlon you have to focus on the swim and bike legs additionally. Running was no longer so important. If I didn't want to run it didn't matter because I could bike or swim instead.


Consistency
It is really hard to make any progress when you only run here and there, which is what I was doing. Then I would get frustrated by my lack of progress. Silly, I know. When I started running again in June I made a decision to run 2-3 times a week. This isn't very much but having those runs and being able to build upon them made a huge difference.

A Case of Overconfidence

After yesterday's unexpectedly fast longish run, last week's track party, and an unofficial 5K PR the week before I started to think that I was invincible. I was quickly reminded that I am not some sort of running superstar when I hit the track tonight for my second and last speed workout before next week's triathlon.

My planned workout was:
1 mile warm up
3x 800 fast, 400 recovery
5x 400 sprint, 800 recovery

This would have put me at a total of seven miles. I am really not sure why I thought running seven miles of hard track running would be a good idea when my longest run during this training cycle was not only seven miles but the previous day. The other problem with this workout was that I went during the hottest time of the day so that I wouldn't miss a minute of watching my favorite swimmers battle it out at Olympic Trials.

Before I even started the workout I was sweating buckets and should have taken that as the first sign to back off on the planned mileage. But nope, that did not happen. I started my warm up and was immediately greeted by wind. Luckily the wind was only affecting me on part of the lap, but it still felt pretty miserable.

Besides starting out way too fast on my first 800 the first half of the workout went pretty well. Even on the recovery jogs I was holding a pace much faster than what I am used to. But when the third 800 came I started to really feel the effects of yesterday's run. I tried to push myself but my body fought back.

3:30 (7:07), 3:28 (6:58), 3:33 (7:09), 1:46 (7:03)

I thought I would do better with the shorter distance of the 400 sprints so I moved on. After the first 400 I decided to call it quits though. I felt absolutely terrible and was even starting to get dizzy. I realized that pushing myself even more so close to a race is not worth it. I would rather be able to push myself even harder during my race.

After I left the track I came home to watch the Olympic Trials. While I watched I soaked my feet in a big bucket filled with ice water. This was my first time doing an ice soak and boy was it an experience! Within seconds of putting my legs in the bucket my feet started to hurt really badly. I wasn't sure if this was normal but I decided to keep my legs submerged for at least five minutes. After I was done my legs felt a million times better and I could really notice how much swelling went down. Ice baths may not be fun but they are definitely effective.

My First Track Party

After a pretty bad run on Tuesday I wanted redemption. I decided to head to the track on Wednesday evening for my very first track party. I have honestly never had any desire to run at the track but after reading about how much fun Sarah was having during her track parties I wanted to have one myself. I didn't want to do a long workout or anything that would leave me too sore but I still wanted a challenge. I settled on doing a mile warm up, followed by four rounds of a 400 sprint and an 800 recovery.

The warm up mile was slow and terribly boring, leaving me questioning why I was even at the track. But after my first 400 sprint I remembered why I was there. I had no time goals for this run, only to sprint my heart out and see what I was capable of. I am not used to doing short fast sprints so it took my body a little bit to really get going.

4 x 400 sprint
1:52 (7:09), ? (I forgot to hit lap), 1:44 (6:59), 1:40 (6:40)


I had my garmin set up so it only showed me time, not pace. I was able to somewhat figure out my pace with a little math but I was still shocked to see how fast I was going once I got home. Anything sub 8 min/mile is normally pretty darn fast for me so I was in no way expecting to see a number starting with a 6 pop up.

This run may not be very impressive to those of you who frequent the track and do longer and harder runs but for me this was a pretty big deal. I still have a little over two weeks until my first triathlon but this run left me excited to start marathon training. I had a blast running instead of forcing myself to keep going. I actually considered doing more repeats but it was already dark out and I had a lot of homework to finish.

Putting Together a Triathlon Training Plan

Even though I have not officially decided on which Olympic distance triathlon I will be doing this year, I am almost certain about the Terrapin Sprint Triathlon on May 6. Assuming I do the General Smallwood International Triathlon on July 8, I have 15 weeks to train. I am jumping right into triathlon training on Monday, though, since I only have 6 weeks to train to the Terrapin Triathlon.

Luckily I have a somewhat solid base in running and have a rock solid base in swimming. The problem for me is the bike. Last year I bought a nice hybrid bike which I will use since I can't justify paying $1,000-2,000 for a road or tri bike when I have never done a triathlon before. I know how to ride a bike fine and I actually really enjoy riding, the problem for me though is climbing.

Even though I have never done a triathlon before, I decided to create my own training plan. I have a lot of circumstances that do not fit into the majority of the training plans I found online and I don't want to pay for custom training. I know my strengths and weaknesses and I don't necessarily care about how speedy I am.

I have put together a plan of sorts but I decided to only lay out which workouts I want to do each week. My schedule changes from week to week and I have found that I get stressed out when I can't do the workout that is written for a particular day. I am also going to be revising and editing the plan based on what is and isn't working, and if I fall behind at all.

Swim
I am a very strong swimmer and even though I haven't been to the pool since December I know that this is by far my strongest leg and that I don't need to put much time into training for this leg. Since I was a swimmer for such a long time I really don't have to worry about much. I love doing freestyle but I also like backstroke and butterfly and like doing kicking and pulling drills. Just because triathlon has long open water swims I am not going to limit myself in the pool. I am planning on swimming twice a week for 30-45 minutes and focusing on enjoying something that I have spent my entire life doing.

Bike
This is the tricky part for me. I know the bike is my weakest leg so I want to really spend a lot of time getting myself comfortable in the saddle. The big dilemma that I have is that I don't live in a very safe area so riding outside is not really an option until classes end and I come home to Pennsylvania for the summer. I have a bike trainer and I strangely really enjoy riding on the trainer, but I know that getting outside is crucial. Luckily I should have enough time after school ends before the General Smallwood International Triathlon to get in the proper time on the roads. I also need to get comfortable using my clipless pedals. I can use them fine on the trainer because I can't fall over, but going out on the road with them terrifies me.

If only this was me..

Run
The run in a sprint triathlon is 3.1 miles and the run in an Olympic distance triathlon is 6.2 miles, both of which I know I can successfully complete. Because I am running the Rock N' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon in September I don't want to lose a lot of my running fitness while triathlon training. I really struggled to do the long runs while training at school though so I am excited to be able to focus on shorter distances. With that being said, though, I want to establish a nice base for when I transition back to half marathon training.

The plan:

• 2 30-45 minute swims a week 
• 4 bike rides a week, including a brick, a long ride, a recovery ride, and a hard ride
• 5 runs a week, including a brick, a longer run, a recovery run, an interval run, and a whatever run

I know there is more running than what most people incorporate into triathlon training, but I am setting some big goals for myself for running this fall and I want to go into training as prepared as possible. I am also planning on adding open water swims when possible and doing two bricks a week in the summer.

The part of my training that I need to work on the most is my nutrition but that will be a whole other post so stay tuned! 

There Is Always A Silver Lining

The last few posts I have written have primarily been about how I have been having some pretty crappy runs lately. We all have bad runs and they make us stronger in the long run (pun intended) but boy do they suck. I wanted to do a long run over the weekend but that didn't happen at all.

Saturday I was planning on running ten miles, and then running 4-5 miles on Sunday. I woke up on Saturday really tired from the week. I waited a little for the rain to stop so the trail wouldn't be a sloshy mess. Once I got to the trail I discovered just how windy it really was outside. I started running and felt like I was going backwards. I wasn't into this run mentally and with the combination of that and the wind I decided to bag the run altogether after only one mile. I came home and vowed I was never running again. (I think I am learning how to be dramatic from Ali.)

My dad convinced me to try to go for another run on Sunday at a really slow pace. I love running with my dad because he always keeps my mind off of running but doesn't mind if I don't want to talk. We did four miles really easy and I felt better than most of my other runs have been feeling. I was still pretty bummed about how slow we were going though.

I decided to take Monday off so I could knock out some schoolwork. I had a very productive day and woke up this morning excited to run. I debated what kind of run to do today but ultimately decided on some speedwork since the majority of my runs lately have been done at an easy pace. The plan was to start the run off with an easy mile, followed by 2 x 1 mile hard, and then a cool down mile.

I wanted to base this run off of perceived effort rather than what my Garmin was telling me so I kept it covered for the majority of the run. I started off feeling pretty good, but the first mile almost always feels pretty good. The second and third miles were going to be the real question marks in this run.

I started the second mile off with a small climb that I pushed too hard on. I felt good going up but the rest of the mile I could feel myself slowly dying. I just kept hoping that this did not mean that the rest of the run would follow similar fate. I pushed on during the second mile and was so glad to be done.

The third mile is always my favorite on this particular course because it has a slight gradual downhill. I decided to take the third mile out at a more comfortable pace and then pick it up during the last half mile. I felt great during the whole mile and was absolutely shocked to see that I ran the mile in 7:59. I have never run anything under 8:04 for a whole mile so this was huge for me.

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	35:59.6	4.00	8:59
1	9:07.2	1.00	9:08
2	8:19.2	1.00	8:19
3	7:59.2	1.00	7:58
4	10:32.5	1.00	10:31
5	:01.4	0.00	9:41

This run was a reminder for me that things will always get better no matter what, just stick with it. I endured all of those bad runs and something amazing happened as a result. I love speed work and I wish I had incorporated it more into my half marathon training. There's always next time, right?

About My RR USA Half Training Plan

Even though training for the Rock N' Roll USA Half Marathon officially started a few weeks ago, I still wanted to do a post about my training. I didn't stick to a training plan while training for Baltimore and it showed. When I was training for Baltimore I was only concerned with finishing. I didn't really care about what my time would be or what paces I should be training at. While I don't want to put a lot of pressure on myself for this race, I still want to PR in a big way. I really truly believe that I can crush my current PR with some actual training.

I really enjoyed having the ability to look back on the things I did, and didn't do, while training for Baltimore. When I was writing my training plan for this race I wanted to incorporate a lot of cross training. First, I get injured very easily and I really don't want to get injured. Second, I want to also use this time to build a solid base for triathlon training. I also had to really take my class schedule into account. Some days I have class earlier than others and I can only get to the pool on certain days.

So here it is:

• Monday: speed run AM/ long bike PM
• Tuesday: swim & strength AM/ medium bike PM
• Wednesday: tempo run & short bike PM
• Thursday: swim & strength AM/ long run PM
• Friday: rest
• Saturday: rest
• Sunday: easy run & short bike

I decided to stick to four runs a week because any more and my IT band becomes very angry. As for what types of runs, I chose to do a long run, an easy run, a tempo run and a speed run. Originally I wanted to do two easy runs but I opted for only one easy run since four runs a week isn't really that many. I thought doing two hard runs a week would help build strength and increase speed. My main goal for my runs during this training cycle is to hit all of my long runs. I am aiming for between 8-12 miles. I didn't do runs that long last time it really hurt me in the end.

I also decided on biking four days a week. I am not an experienced cyclist and need to work on this leg the most. I don't have many guidelines for my rides, it is all about spending time in the saddle and getting used to being back on the bike. I have a longish ride planned for Monday nights and I want to do some interval work since I am such a slow cyclist but other than that my rides will probably be at a pretty easy pace and used for recovery.

I knew I wanted to do a few days of swimming a week so that I would be able to take advantage of my experience in the pool come tri season. Since I have two scheduled swims a week I want to do one as a recovery and technique swim and the other as a speed workout. Swimming will be the least important part of my training though. Swimming is what I am best at and I know that I can still do well in a tri with minimal time in the pool. 

The part I am most excited about is actually strength training. I only lifted weight while swimming during my last year but I saw an insane amount of improvement. Not to mention how much strength training helps prevent injuries. I will focus on upper body one day and lower body on the other day. And I won't be able to start strength training until I go back to school at the end of January.

Not written into my schedule is yoga and Insanity. I want to try to go to yoga once a week but I don't know what the spring schedule is yet. I wanted to be able to do Insanity regularly but I just don't have enough time. In the end I decided on using Insanity as cross training if I miss a run. For example, if I am unable to do my tempo run for some reason I will do an Insanity workout instead.

The Epic Workout That Wasn't

Last night I had an epic workout planned for while I watched Biggest Loser. I was so psyched for this workout because I really wanted to push myself and see what I could do. But my epic workout turned out to be not so epic.

Because it was so cold outside yesterday I decided to try my speed work run on the treadmill. I thought it would be great. Let me tell you, it wasn't. I don't mind running at a comfortable pace on the treadmill but running almost as fast as my body will let me just sucks. And not in the hurts so good kind of way.

After deciding I would do my run inside, I thought it would be a good idea to bike afterwards. I planned on biking for 45 minutes at a pretty easy clip. I thought it would be good to spend more time on the bike since biking is not my strong point.

Then, I planned on getting back on the treadmill to finish my workout with an easy 2.5 mile recovery run. I loved the idea of doing a speed run, biking, and doing a brick all in one workout. All afternoon I was so excited for my epic workout.

Right at 8 I hopped on the treadmill and did a half mile warm up. After, I was ready to run fast. Or so I thought. I did my first half mile repeat in 3:39 for a 7:19 pace. For the first part of the repeat I felt good, strong. But then I started to die. I forced myself not to change the pace. I was so happy to be done but wondered how I would be able to do three more repeats all at increasingly faster paces.

I decided to do my half mile recovery run and then decide whether I would increase the speed or not. I felt great during the recovery run so in the end I did decide to up the speed. Big mistake.

Again I started the repeat feeling strong but about half way through I really felt like I couldn't run anymore. I wanted to throw up and was becoming increasingly dizzy. I, somehow, finished the repeat and did my recovery run but then decided I was done for the day.

I was so upset about quitting only half way through my first of three workouts, but my body was just not up for the challenge. I have been struggling with finding the best ways to fuel my body and I think I ate too soon before my workout yesterday.

I am taking this as a learning experience to be more careful about what I eat and when I eat it before running. Here's hoping next weeks speed work goes better. I will also probably never attempt fast running like that on a treadmill.

My First Shot at Some Speed Work

This morning I woke up early before class to get in my first speed work run. I have never done speed work before so I was pretty nervous. I was very excited though. I like being challenged so I was excited to see what I could bust out.

I have heard about Yasso 800's from Emily and Christine, and because of my lack of knowledge of speed work I decided to give them a try. I only wanted to do two repeats this week, and then maybe bump up to three repeats next week.

Unfortunately, I do not have access to a track so I decided to just find my own course. The road near my apartment is exactly a half mile so I figured I could do my repeats there. The downfall is that it is not flat.

I did a half mile warm up at 10:56 pace and then the real workout started. I initially was planning on doing the repeats downhill but changed my mind last minute to do them uphill. It was a good thing I switched to uphill because my knee was really hurting on the downhills.

I did my first repeat in 3:58 for a 7:55 pace. I have never run under an 8:00 min/mile pace so I was pretty excited to see a number sub 8. My knee was really achy when running downhill so I ended up walking a little on the recovery jogs. I figured walking is better than pain, right?

I wanted to really push the second repeat but my time wasn't much faster than the first. I ran it in 3:55 for a 7:51 pace. Ultimately I was happy with these times but I definitely look forward to pushing myself more next time and seeing what kind of times I can produce.

Overall I ended up running 2.5 miles at a 10:04 pace. Even though this was a hard workout I really enjoyed it. I can't wait for next week and to see how my speed progresses over the next few months.

Do you do speed work? Do you love it or hate it?