2016 LBLM Training Week 5 - Part 1 (and Mileage Stats)

  I woke up to a sleep deprived hangover this morning, like Mt. Everest had landed on top of me. I am not sure what happened last night around 8-9 PM but Dorian suddenly became this crazed, over-energized monkey, like he had gotten hold of coffee or an energy drink and he was just nuts. He didn't start "powering down" until around 1 AM. Then he had a few restless disturbances around 4:30, 5:20 and 6 AM.... but I felt like crap so I wasn't even considering a run this morning.
  I had a jolt of panic when I got onto www.runningahead.com and checked the dailies thread in our group (Beginners & Beyond), I knew Eric (the site/tech/administrator/creator guy) was doing maintenance on the log part at 9 PM last night but when I saw that people were downloading their logs just in case, I went to check my training log and at first everything looked okay but then I realized the annual and total stats were gone!!! After much freaking out, I was told to just go and modify my last run, then save it and sure even my stats were back. It was an issue with the "ticker". If I had ran this morning, I never would've realized the issue because I would have gotten back, logged my run and saved it and everything would've been back to normal. 
  I am having problems downloading my log to my computer so I am making a note right here, right now on my most important stats.
As of 12/31/2015
2015 mileage: 1,673.5 miles
Total Mileage: 5,405.4 miles

  Monday was a rest day, and Tuesday morning I went for a 8 mile run. It was 43 degrees with a feels like 39, weather forecast said 13 mph winds but my garmin says 7 mph W winds.... honestly I can't remember what it felt like. I ran the 8 miles in 1:16:24 with an average pace of 9:33 min/mile, elevation gain of 154 feet. I think I had to make a couple stops but can't remember.
Laps/splits:
Mile 1 - 10:00
Mile 2 - 9:46
Mile 3 - 9:29
Mile 4 - 9:36
Mile 5 - 9:47
Mile 6 - 9:18
Mile 7 - 9:24
Mile 8 - 9:02
     
    With this run I was at 181.6 miles for December, all I needed was a total of 18.4 miles Wednesday and Thursday to make 200 for December. I decided I was going to aim for 12 miles Wednesday and then 6-7 miles Thursday.

 Tuesday night DH stayed up ALL NIGHT watching youtube videos and then talking with his older boys so he didn't come to bed until 7 AM Wednesday morning. Suffice to say I didn't get my run in that morning, which was frustrating as I really wanted to make sure I got my 12 in and I prefer to get it over with first thing in the morning.
 I managed to get out the door just after 4 PM, as I don't like running the streets in daylight due to the punks out there... especially during Christmas break. 
  It was 39 degrees with a feels like 35, 6 mph WNW winds and 70% humidity... but humidity doesn't really matter when it is below 50 degrees. Around mile 7.6 I had stopped for a moment and then when I started up again I forgot to hit resume on my garmin so that was about .2 miles not timed. I had to add that to my end mileage and the minute that it took to run that. I was going to trace my steps but the house on this road has an invisible fence.... for a German Shepherd, a very BIG German Shepherd, and normally these owners only find out that their fence is weak or dead when a poor passerby finds out the hard way... I hate invisible fences!
  After that scare... I was back to getting it done.
I ended up running 12.3 miles in 1:54:59, or 12.1 in 1:52:59 if you don't count the extra .2  and the extra minute. An average pace of 9:14 min/mile, with an elevation gain of 250 feet and a loss of 257 feet.
Laps/splits:
Mile 1 - 9:33
Mile 2 - 9:26
Mile 3 - 9:09
Mile 4 - 9:15
Mile 5 - 9:17
Mile 6 - 9:10
Mile 7 - 9:16
Mile 8 - 10:18
Mile 9 - 9:10
Mile 10 - 9:11
Mile 11 - 9:18
Mile 12 - 9:11
.3        - 9:02

   That run gave me 193.9 miles, now all I NEED today is 6.1 miles and I'll have my second 200 mile month this year... and ever :)

A Cutback Week and Updates on Planning for Craziness

  2016 is going to be a crazy, tough year.... especially if business doesn't pick up and do much better than 2015... I'm actually stressing over everything and trying to figure up expenses to make sure that LBLM happens, the Mark Twain Endurance 50 happens, AND our wedding.
  I'll explain that last part - when we got married in November 20, 2006 we just went downtown in front of a judge person and married that way, at that time there really wasn't any point to have a big wedding as my family hated the fact that I was marrying a man 20 years older than me. Now things are much smoother and we figured (okay, more like my husband figured... a wedding was never something I cared about... as I am a tomboy) it would be a great idea to have a real wedding on our 10th anniversary. I don't plan on making it big, reserving a place (a lodge or events center at Burdette park) will probably be the 2nd biggest spending part, as I am sure the dress will be the biggest.... I am so new to this that it is going to be stressful but hopefully my sisters can help me as they are already married and went through the whole craziness. I have no plans of hiring a planner, I can do this by myself :) I want a platinum or white gold dress. Since it will be in the Fall I'd like a Autumn color theme for the bridesmaids' dresses while the theme color is going to be silver and a frosted/shimmering orange. I am not going to be a dictator on the bridesmaid's dresses, just the colors but the girls can pick their top types (halter, tube top, sleeves, etc)... anyways....
So the Land Between the Lakes marathon is still a go, although with all this other stuff going on I am really debating on whether I just have someone drive down there with me (a nearly 2.5 hour drive) and then drive me back up as I know I won't be able to drive after this, because the total cost is around $525 for the 3 night stay at a lodging that allows dogs. That isn't so bad except I've also got the cabin in Missouri for September which that will total around $1,300 for 6 night stay (broken up into 3-4 payments). It is a really nice cabin too, worth the money and not too far from the Berryman Campgrounds, it looks about a 10 minute drive but unfortunately I don't have the address to the cabin yet. But finding it on google map, and doing a little messing with directions it is about 24-30 minutes from the campgrounds - win win win.
 With all the holiday chaos, I decided to make last week a cutback week and I only ran 3 days and just took it easy over the weekend. Now it's back to the grindstone, with hopes of making December my 2nd 200 mile month... I've only got 2 more days to so.

2016 LBLM Training Week 3 - The Long Run

I honestly didn't think it was going to happen, lately my phone has been jumping an hour ahead for no reason (it's a Samsung Galaxy Edge S6) and normally does it in the morning...... and likes to really do it around my alarms. So this morning when it was really 3:30, my phone said 4:30 and so my alarm went off. I hadn't planned to get up until 5 anyways but my alarm screwed me up, screwed up my morning. By the time I got up at 5:05, I was tired and again I was making up excuses not to get up and run dang it.
It was 36 degrees, and all was going okay... I used the bathroom before going but then had to stop at the gas station around 2.4 miles. I thought that was it and I was good to go, but nope... it was not.
 This morning was really tough, not easy at all and it had everything to do with my stomach and whatever I ate yesterday. I won't go into details about the ugly parts, but what should have taken me a total of 3 hours from leaving the house to getting back ended up taking me 4 hours (getting far back enough in the woods, untying my pants' string, getting attacked by thorns and then trying to sneak back out onto the road).
 But, in the end I got the 18 miles done even with all the negatives and my wishing I hadn't started this run. I just told myself to make it to mile 6 before thinking about the distance, then to mile 9 and tell myself I am halfway done and then to mile 12 and tell myself only 6 more miles or an hour.
  I ran the 18 miles in 2:45:42 with an average pace of 9:12 min/mile, with an elevation gain of 530 feet and a loss of 526 feet.
Laps/splits
Mile 1 - 10:21
Mile 2 - 9:55
Mile 3 - 9:50
Mile 4 - 9:31
Mile 5 - 9:34
Mile 6 - 8:57
Mile 7 - 9:23
Mile 8 - 9:03
Mile 9 - 8:57
Mile 10 - 9:03
Mile 11 - 9:14
Mile 12 - 8:51
Mile 13 - 8:57
Mile 14 - 9:04
Mile 15 - 8:58
Mile 16 - 8:56
Mile 17 - 8:46
Mile 18: 8:20

Let me just repeat the finish time was 2:45:42, this past summer when I was trying to train for the 2016 Monumental I ran one 18 miler before it went to hell and I had ran it in 2:57:51, and in 2014 I ran a 2:55:17, a 3:03:28 and a 2:56:51 and a 3:01:01 which I think was my first ever 18 miler so I was pretty surprised to see that I've gotten faster... even with the stomach issues I had.
This was a tough week no doubt, and with my Piriformis thingy acting up I didn't think the long run was going to happen. I seriously need to get in to see massage therapist, I figured out that I've been dealing with Piriformis Syndrome all this year which is what caused issues with my Adductors and Hamstrings.
All in all, I got in 51.6 miles for week 3, not much more than last week but what is more important is that I got the 18 miler in Sunday.

2016 LBLM Week 3 - Part 1

This has been a rough week, not sure where to start but I think the only day that went the way I planned was Wednesday - my mid-week long run. But first lets start at the beginning. Monday was a rest day and Tuesday.... I can't remember what or why but I ended up having to run 4.1 miles in the afternoon with Dorian and another 4.2 that evening with the dogs on the trails. Somehow miraculously I was able to get up Wednesday morning and go run 10 miles on the roads by myself. I ran 10 miles in 1:34:47 with an average pace of 9:28 min/mile and an elevation gain of 205 feet. It was 41 degrees, no wind and no kids.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 10:24
Mile 2 - 9:56
Mile 3 - 9:33
Mile 4 - 9:29
Mile 5 - 9:39
Mile 6 - 9:21
Mile 7 - 9:29
Mile 8 - 9:09
Mile 9 - 8:58
Mile 10 - 8:47

   Wednesday afternoon is when things went crazy, thanks to DH keeping me at work late, Dorian got a good 4 hour nap from 1 to 5 PM so even though we ended up going to bed at 10:30 PM he woke up at 3 AM and happily stayed awake until we headed to work Thursday morning - 9:30 AM. So yeah, I was able to take the dogs out on the trails that evening. We ran 6.3 miles in 1:05:37 with an average pace of 10:25 min/mile.
  I didn't get home until 9:50 PM and probably didn't get to bed until 10:45 PM so I felt like dog $h*t Friday morning when I woke up. I chose not to get up run, I was freaking tired and justified it by saying 2 days of rest out of a 7 day period isn't going to kill me as long as I get my long run in Sunday.
  Saturday went a little more smoothly, I woke up at 5 AM and get dressed - probably underdressed a little up top but I am sure I learned my lesson. The dogs and I headed to the trails, my Tahoe's thermostat said 27 when we got there but my garmin said 32.... it was freaking cold.
  The original plan was 7 miles Friday and 5 Saturday but for some reason I thought Saturday was 8 miles so we ended up running 9 miles instead. I was happy to realize that I ran an extra 4 miles this morning.
  We ran 9 miles in 1:30:26 and average pace of 10:03 min/mile. It was cold, and the dogs were cold but Jetta loved it.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 10:35
Mile 2 - 10:32
Mile 3 - 10:33
Mile 4 - 10:09
Mile 5 - 9:43
Mile 6 - 9:40
Mile 7 - 9:43
Mile 8 - 10:04
Mile 9 - 9:25

   Now lets just hope and pray that I can pull 18 miles out of nowhere tomorrow morning.

2016 LBLM Week 2 - Part II

I think I stopped at Thursday for part one of LBLM Week 2, so I will start with Friday. I decided not to add any extra runs this week, mainly because I figured jumping from 46 miles last week to 51 miles this week was sufficient enough and anything more might be stupid.

So on to Friday – I took the dogs to the trails and we ran 6.3 miles in 1:06:08 with an average pace of 10:30 min/mile, I was feeling relatively slow after Thursday’s 10.1 miles on the roads. It was also 54 degrees and 94% humid, not awful for me but Rocky was definitely suffering.

Saturday morning the K9’s and I hit the trails for 7 miles, I wanted 8 but didn’t get much sleep and it was 64 degrees and 88% humidity, yeah it sucked. Going from 30 something degrees to 60 something degrees in the same week can throw you off. The dogs also hated it, so I was not alone with this thought, we ran the 7 miles in 1:09:45 with an average pace 9:58 min/mile. I wanted to take Dorian for a little run later that day, but it was really windy so I chose not to.

Sunday – the 16 miler.

     I think I debated on getting up that morning, trying to excuse myself and say I could run it that evening but as I looked at the forecast it was going to be windy as hell and warmer so when my alarm went off at 5:30 I forced myself out of bed. Saturday night I had decided that I would run the roads, leaving the dogs at home as I just knew Rocky would suffer tremendously if I took him out to run 16 miles in this surprise weather. Hell, I didn’t even want to go out but I told myself I have ran in much worse conditions.

It was 63 degrees, 72% humidity, unbelievably windy… and my Piriformis on my left side was acting up again, this was going to be a long morning.

     I took an old route that I had used for my 2014 training when I needed to run 16 miles and I had never realized until that morning just how hilly this damn route was. My Piriformis was hating me, but strangely the miles just kept clicking by. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I reached 13 miles, because I knew then that I only had 3 miles to go and anybody can do 3 freaking miles.

  I’ll admit, I stopped many times – to try and stretch, to debate on roads as I hadn’t looked at my route before going out so I didn’t quite remember from mile 11 and on. But I managed to overlap a few spots to make up for it (I hate overlapping by the way)

  I ended up running 16.1 miles in 2:25:24 with an average pace of 9:02 min/mile, elevation gain of 453 feet and a loss of 459 feet.

Laps/splits were:

Mile 1 – 10:09

Mile 2 – 9:30

Mile 3 – 9:15

Mile 4 – 9:11

Mile 5 – 9:10

Mile 6 – 8:56

Mile 7 – 9:08

Mile 8 – 8:54

Mile 9 – 8:44

Mile 10 – 8:56

Mile 11 – 8:57

Mile 12 – 8:38

Mile 13 – 8:45

Mile 14 – 8:59

Mile 15 – 8:39

Mile 16 – 8:38

Mile 16.1 – 8:44

     And then later that morning my son put my mp3 player in the dogs’ water bowl……… destroying it and the ear buds with it so I had to go on amazon and buy me another, hoping they get here before next Sunday as I do not want to run 18 miles by myself with nothing but the voices in my head.

I Just Registered.... For the Mark Twain Endurance 50

  Sometimes I honestly don't know if have multiple personalities is a good thing or a bad thing, I can seriously say there are times when I can't even get a word in or have a say in any decision making....
  I didn't think registration opened until sometime next year, but when I went to their facebook page and saw that they had a $10 off going on and registration was in fact open... I didn't even hesitate.... yep I am that freaking crazy, or stupid... or both. Here is proof.

There it is, the confirmation that I paid and signed up for the 2016 Mark Twain Endurance 50. 

Now that I've got the registration done and over with, I need to just focus on the present - either keeping building a great base while casually training for the 2016 LBLM, while not being obsessed about it.

I am not going to try and think too much about it, as right now nothing is certain and things can turn bad real quick but I've at least signed up and have saved my place if all goes well. 

If I am about to toe that start line, this will truly, inevitably be an adventure like no other (yet).

Week Two - LBLM Training - the Last 3 Days

  I've got to think of a better title for this training cycle, something short and punchy lol.
  Anyways, so at the moment the plan is to have Monday as a rest day even if I really want to run out of fear I might miss another day. That might not be an issue this week or next week as we're going to be having really nice weather, so even if I miss a morning's run I can still make some of it up in the afternoon pushing Dorian in the stroller. Maybe, just maybe they'll be right about the not so bad/cold weather this winter and I can get all the running that I need in.
Anyways, to the last 3-4 days.
Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - I took the dogs out on the trails that morning and we ran 7.4 miles in 1:12:19 with an average pace. 
I also did some glute/butt exercises - 3 sets of 12 of something where you lay on your side, one leg on top of the other and lift the top leg. I did 3 sets for each leg.Then a few butt lift/bridge things for about 30 seconds each and 3 sets of 12 donkey kicks.
Wednesday - Not able to get up that morning, but I did manage to take Dorian out for a 4.3 mile run that afternoon so I moved my 10 miler to Thursday morning.
Thursday - I didn't get to sleep until midnight, so I was pretty tired and was starting to make excuses but I got up at 5 AM. I didn't know if I would have enough time to run 10 so I aimed for 8.
Around mile 6 I got a tag along that came out of her backyard. A young Golden Retriever, I even knocked on the door but nobody answered so she followed me for 2 miles before I stuck her in another yard - I've seen the older couple that live here and they have a small dog so I hoped that either they would let her out and she'd go home or they would take her. She had a collar on with address, but I didn't want to risk her crossing the busy road with me and getting hit.
I did manage to get in 10.1 miles, even with some stupid kid between mile 8 and 9 yelling "Run Forest, Run!"..... I hate middle school aged kids, and I would've yelled childishly "Run, Fatass, Run!!!" but my mouth was numb. And there were a few close calls with cars... as usual.
10.1 miles in 1:34:11 with an average pace of 9:20 min/mile, with 229 feet of elevation gain.
Laps/splits were:
Mile 1 - 10:01
Mile 2 - 9:44
Mile 3 - 9:28
Mile 4 - 9:26
Mile 5 - 9:20
Mile 6 - 9:25
Mile 7 - 9:13
Mile 8 - 9:01
Mile 9 - 8:55
Mile 10 - 8:46
.1        - 8:45

  We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

2016 LBLM - and So it Begins.... Began

  So as of December 1, my training cycle for the Land Between the Lakes Marathon has begun. This isn't going to be an obsessive training cycle, I am not going to get my hopes up and get all excited but I will plan for it to some degree and train nonetheless. Right now nothing in the future is certain and so as much as my OCD hates it, I can't really plan too far ahead. 
  To kick off the first training week - I ran a total of 46.6 miles with a 15 mile long run on the trails last night with the doggies. It wasn't bad, though 54 degrees and a bit humid - tough on the dogs toward the end but they handled it very well. I used a 18 oz bottle with some perpetuem in it, testing how I would handle it for much longer runs - other than still working on the amount for 18 oz it wasn't bad.... I could've used 3-4 more scoops of it. I have the Dream Cicle flavor.
  I have a training plan on RA but I am not going to stress over it, I am going to do my best to get the mileage in and get my long runs in while trying to stay flexible... even if that means doing a lot of runs at night if I have to - even my long runs.
I hope to get at least three 20 mile long runs in, and four or five 18 milers in, but we will see. I am also going to try and focus on making my Saturday run just before the long run half the distance of the long run, building the endurance and stamina by wearing my legs out.
We will see how things go :)