Why Breaking2 Broke My Heart (& other weekend updates)...

If you're even remotely familiar with anything distance running you probably already know that Nike was working tirelessly with 3 elite distance runners in an attempt to run a sub-2 hour marathon. I'm not going to go into all the details of that journey because if you do a web search you'll be inundated with a ton of info on it. The attempt was run on Saturday May 6th in Monza, Italy (on the Formula One track). It started around 11:30pm EST and 2 hours and 25 seconds later it was over...

Just 26 seconds short of their goal! 

I was a little heart broken about it because I was really hoping they would all make it. But even though they didn't "break 2" it was an incredibly amazing accomplishment. It's the closest anyone has come to a sub-2 hour marathon. And while it doesn't qualify for a world record (because of the Pacers and other fancy stuff they had) it will go down in the history books of distance running. Congrats to the Nike team, to the athletes (especially Eliud Kipchoge, who crossed the finish first) and everyone who was a part of this endeavor. It was a truly incredible effort.

My truly incredible effort for this weekend will take the form of running in the Wings for Life World Run and swimming in the Swim Miami 1 mile open water swimming event tomorrow. It will be a back-to-back event day, and I will be exhausted after, so today I tried to take it easy with a 1 mile run...

It's A Double Race Week!!!!

It's finally here! My double race weekend is this weekend...

And no... I'm still not 100% ready. BUT I did manage to get some training completed this morning. First I did a 1 mile swim...

And then I did my daily run...

Tomorrow and Wednesday are scheduled to be running days, and for Thursday (and maybe Friday) I plan to swim again and do quick one mile runs.

In addition to this week being busy with training and my back-to-back events on Sunday, it will also be a busy work week. I'll be spending more time out of the office (in class or teaching a course) than I will at the office catching up on work. So eating properly, resting and hydrating will be challenging but essential this week. 

It's probably a good thing the weekend wasn't too hectic. I only did 1 mile runs (on both Saturday and Sunday). I spent most of Saturday at a CPR course and then watching movies and TV shows on Hulu. And Sunday was spent hanging out with Dafney and Kai trying to "escape the room"...

And indulging in dairy-free butter pecan ice-cream...

Happy Monday & Happy 1st of May!!!

How was your weekend?

How was your training to start off the week/month?

Time Will Tell...

Ragnar training is exhausting...

Today I ran a 10K at my goal pace of 11:30 min/mile...

And tomorrow the plan is to run another 10K (at a minimum) with a goal pace of sub-12 min/mile; because the best way to train for Ragnar is to simulate the back-to-back long runs that will take place during the actual race. My legs will be tired but I'm more concerned about the blisters on my feet 😒. Plus, for the last few weekends my "plans" for long runs haven't quite worked out the way I've wanted them to. So I'm being cautiously optimistic about tomorrow.

May is definitely going to be a busy month because I have three events... and two of them are on the same day! Both the Wings for Life World Run and Swim Miami are on May 7th...

Training for Wings for Life and Swim Miami are all a part of my training for Ragnar Niagara (which is a few weeks after) and will hopefully give me a good base for when I start marathon training at the end of May.

I have a tentative Berlin-to-Chicago marathon training plan in mind which will allow me to practice only having a week off in between long runs (which is how far apart the two marathons are this year). The training plan calls for 4 days of running (Tues, Wed, Thurs & Sat). However, because I am doing a running streak this year I'm going to decrease the assigned mileage for the Tuesday-Thursday runs by one mile each day. So since week 1 of the training calls for 19 miles broken up over 4 runs...

I'll change that to 19 miles broken up over 7 runs...

Spreading things out a bit will also ensure that I don't overdo it and help me stick to the plan (at least that's my goal). Sundays will be my swimming days and I will try and do strength training on Tuesday and Thursday. This will allow me to have both Monday and Friday as my "easy" days (which seems like the best approach for the beginning and end of my work week). So ultimately my Week 1 of marathon training will look something like this...

What do you guys think of my proposed training plan?

How was your training this week?

What are your plans for the weekend?

Because... Bees (and let's talk about what's next)

So there are bees in Chicago in September. Not cute "honey nut cheerios" bees, more like "annoying, on the verge of stinging you" bees. They were EVERYWHERE. Well, everywhere outside including all along the 13.1 mile Chicago Half Marathon course. I'm going to post the full race recap in the next few days, but in the meantime I'll fill you in on some upcoming stuff...

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I have one more really long run and one more half marathon before the NY Marathon in November. The 20-23 miler was originally scheduled for next weekend, but it may have to change to this weekend (I'm still trying to figure out the logistics etc). 

If I could afford it, I would travel to a cooler state for this training run because I'm really over humidity right now. It was humid in Chicago for the race on Sunday (which did not help to control the bee situation); it was humid this morning when I ran; and it's been humid for the past four months. I think the last time I had ideal running weather was during the Miami half marathon in January. 

My upcoming half marathon (ZOOMA 1/2) scheduled for October will be run as a virtual race. I have a major work conflict that is going to prevent me from traveling but I'm being allowed to run it virtually (thankfully!) so I'm looking forward to that. 

Apart from those two major runs, the rest of my NY training (over the next 39 days) will consist of 10 mile long runs, 3-5 mile midweek runs, strength training, swimming, and waiting patiently to find out if I got into the 2017 London Marathon (I should know by October 18th!)

Once I know what the status is for the London Marathon I can start continue planning for next year. There are a couple of swimming events already scheduled (January & April), the Miami Marathon (January), and a Ragnar Relay (temporarily scheduled for May). 

2017 already looks like it's going to be a pretty busy year (I can't wait!)

How far ahead do you plan for races/events?

What does your 2017 running schedule look like?

Is anyone planning to run in the London Marathon next year?

Competing Priorities

My training has been resuscitated! It was touch and go for a while. Things weren't looking good at all. Let's face it, I haven't done much anything since the Coral Springs Half Marathon. The truth is life has been...challenging, with lots of competing priorities, and I had no choice but to focus on something everything else except training...

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One of the competing priorities happened to be my national certification as a trauma nurse (Yay!). But I've also had a few unwelcome distractions (I'm still dealing with those actually)...

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Weekend Recap...(oh and Happy Monday!!!)

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I'm feeling very accomplished (as I type this at 5am) because I already finished my swimming workout for today...

12 Minutes Faster...

I was able to complete another two mile swim this morning! I'm excited because: #1 I went to bed late so I woke up feeling exhausted; #2 I wasn't sure if I would be able to get the 2 miles done; #3 My Garmin was acting crazy and didn't pick up all of my laps (so frustrating!). Anyway I decided to swim until the Garmin registered my goal distance...

My pace started off slow but after the first mile I picked it up a bit...

Overall I was 12 minutes faster than my last 2 mile swim!!!

Highlights from the past five days...

Today started with a quick session at the gym...

I'm going to aim for more cardio before and after strength training; and longer reps or increased sets for the weights (I only do light weights so increasing the reps and sets will be ok).

In addition to doing more cardio and weights in the gym, I'm trying to improve my swimming endurance in preparation for the April Swim Miami event. I went into the open water swim less than 100% prepared last year, and I want to avoid making some of the same mistakes this year. So I've been doing research to help me perfect my freestyle stroke...

and to learn more about the open water swimming process...

The Week So Far...

This week has gotten off to a pretty good start training-wise. I've been able to do something every day so far... it's been a while since I've pulled that off ;)

Today was an evening run for me...

I'm still not a fan of running in the evening but it's becoming somewhat of a regular thing, especially if I get overzealous with the snooze button on my alarm in the morning (like I did this morning). It was a solo run so I went out with full "in the event of an emergency" preparation...

(I had a light and an alarm... just in case)

Lessons from the Open Water...

I'm just as much of an early bird for swimming events as I am for running events because, as it turns out, I get just as nervous for them. So even though the event check-in for Swim Miami wasn't until 7am this morning, I still got there at 5 am... and sat alone in my car in a VERY empty parking garage convincing myself that this was not the beginning of a low budget horror film.

Once I practically scared the parking garage attendant to death got the attention of the parking garage attendant and confirmed that I was parked in the correct location I felt a little better. About an hour later people started driving in and heading to the Miami Yacht Club where the event was taking place.

I went to check-in at 6am (since I saw other people doing so) and got my Swim Miami shirt...

OK, so this might be a little harder than I thought...

Whoever said swimming laps in the pool would prepare me for open water swimming lied. Oh wait... I said that :(  Well, I'm a big girl. I can admit when I'm wrong (on those rare occasions that I am wrong). Swimming in the pool does not truly prepare you for open water swimming. The only thing that prepares you for open water swimming is to SWIM IN THE OPEN WATER! Which is what I did today. And after doing it I realize that there is a really good chance Swim Miami might eat me alive next week. It's possible highly probable that I don't have an "open water personality" (I really wish I had seen this before I registered for the event)...

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This Isn't A Sprint...

To be honest nothing in my life qualifies as a "sprint". Not any of the running I've done so far, and certainly not my swimming. Swimming for me is less about speed and more about relaxation and endurance. The only way I look "fast" in the pool is in a time-lapse video...

This morning I did 48 lengths of the 25m pool (3/4 mile) at a relatively even (albeit slow) methodical pace. It felt good to be back in the pool. I always feel like that when I swim. Even though it's the hardest thing to get out of bed at 3am to go swimming, once I'm in the water, and my body is acclimated to the temperature, I tune out the world and just relax.

I was alone in the pool for the first half of my workout (just the way I like it) and then someone started a solo Aqua Aerobics session in the lane beside me. And right as I was wrapping up my laps another swimmer came in. I only had 2 more lengths to go so I finished them quickly and let him have the lane. It wasn't crowded but it's so much nicer when you have the lane to yourself...