Month: February 2019

Training & Updates 2/11 – 2/17

Happy Friday Guys! Seems I’m really good at waiting almost a whole week late to put out an update.. oops!

This past week was a weird one. Work was busy yet again, but then I took Thursday and Friday off to go crazy for a video game expansion release. Other than Tuesday (IT SNOWED and I got out early so of course I ran in it!) I ended up running insanely late on the treadmill every night, which wasn’t terrible mostly. I even felt good running 5 on the treadmill both Saturday and Sunday!

Monday––2.00 miles / 9:41 pace
TuesdayEasy 5 (9:02-9:41)4.78 miles / 9:59 pace (trail)
Wednesday––2.00 miles / 9:32 pace
ThursdayEasy 33.10 miles / 9:34 pace
FridayEasy 33.00 miles / 9:40 pace
SaturdayEasy 55.00 miles / 9:26 pace
SundayEasy 55 miles / 9:20 pace
Total21 miles24.88 miles

I’ve still been rolling like mad to make sure the treadmill doesn’t get me. I got my Addaday roller in and just like I thought it is just what I needed! Its ball rollers get MUCH deeper than my old grooved stick roller. I’m definitely a fan!

Speaking of recovery, I ordered a pair of slide Oofos because I LOVE my flip flops, but I am a socks-at-all-times kind of person so I needed ones I could wear socks with for maximum coolness. I’m hoping they come in before the Hyannis Half the 24th!

My last bit of running news is just a reminder that I have all my product and race discounts listed on my discount page! I personally love getting little discounts on products/races I’ve been meaning to try so I just wanted to be sure you guys knew!

In Other News

My boyfriend and I finished up our first week of Hello Fresh and seriously love everything about it so far! I will DEFINITELY be doing a write up on it!

One last new thing I did this past week was to finally purchase a sunlight lamp. I’ve been debating it for awhile since my house and office both have sub-optimal window placement so I definitely get less light than in the past and I feel like it’s affecting me mentally. I went over a friends and she had one and was telling me how it actually helps her so I decided to give it a shot!

Run Streak Day: 29

What are your favorite recovery tools?

Have you ever tried a sunlight lamp? Did you like it?

2019 Race Schedule

Since I think I have most of my races selected for most of the year at this point, I figured I should go over my master racing plan!

Hyannis HalfFebruary 24
Antelope Canyon Ultras Trail HalfMarch 9
New Bedford HalfMarch 7
Rugged Maniac PhoenixApril 6
Rhode Races Newport HalfApril 13
Illinois MarathonApril 27
Spartan Sprint BostonMay 11
Horseneck HalfMay 19
Vermont City MarathonMay 26
North Face MA 50kJune 8
Bubble RunJune 15
Tough MudderJune 29
Blue Hills 12kJuly 7
Savage RaceJuly 13
Anchor Down UltraAugust 16 & 17
Rhode Races Jamestown HalfSeptember 21
Rhode Races Narragansett MarathonOctober 27

That may seem like a lot of races, but that’s how I like my schedule. Plus most of them are just going to be for fun anyway. One of my 2019 goals I forgot to mention on my goals post was to run a race every month, so some are also to help accomplish that as well as be fun!

Most of the Vacation Races series is on my bucketlist so when the Rhode Runners crew said they were doing Antelope Canyon this year I wasn’t going to pass that up! I also have two other racecations, Rugged Maniac Phoenix and the Illinois Marathon this year!

The New Bedford Half, Horseneck Half, and Blue Hills are all local races I’ve been meaning to do for awhile now and decided to finally get around to running! As of right now the plan is to run them for fun. The Rhode Races Newport Half is also local, but I have run that one multiple times before and just can’t get enough.

Next up are my marathons: Illinois, Vermont City, and Narragansett!! I am EXTREMELY excited for them! I have now tried to run a few marathons while being completely under prepared and hadn’t had them turn out well. I’m partially SUPER nervous (what if the marathon distance is my kryptonite?!) but also realistically know I can totally do this! I’m really happy having two planned earlier and then a third way later in the year. Right now I plan to run Illinois really conservatively, just to boost my confidence and prove to myself I can do it. Also my current PR is “dying in the desert” slow so even a very conservative marathon should give me a nice PR! With the newfound confidence I will hopefully have gained, I would then like to see how I am feeling for Vermont City. My current training plan is set for Vermont, but I would like to PR (again a slow PR that shouldn’t be hard to beat) and hopefully slightly crush (that’s the hard part) the North Face 50k, which isn’t all that long after Vermont. I’m good with going by feel as the races get closer and I have Narragansett (a nice familiar course for at least the first half) as a backup if I feel like I could have given more in Vermont.

I REALLY liked having some fitness other than just running ability last year so I signed up for three ORC races this year: the Spartan Sprint Boston, the Tough Mudder, and the Savage Race. I LOVED the Sprint course last year so I definitely wanted to run that one again! Also last year when I did the Tough Mudder with my college roomies we only did the half (5 mile) and we wanted to/are going to do the full (10 mile) this year so that’s cool! For the Savage Race my friend and I are actually signed up for a competitive wave so I’m pumped to hopefully be able to run the runnable sections!

Now for the REALLY juicy stuff! I signed up for the 24 hour section of the Anchor Down Ultra. Yes, I have only run one ultra so far (Silver Falls 50k) and yes it didn’t go so well.. BUT I don’t care! Not to make excuses, but my knee was bad at the time and I had barely any training and I KNOW that with some solid training I can at least push myself to accomplish something! Will I make it 24 whole hours? Not sure. Will I make it 100 miles in that time and get a SWEET ass belt buckle? Who knows! BUT I’m sure as hell not going to sign up for a lesser section (12 or 6 hr) that would limit what might be possible! It is a nice flat, easy, million loop course though a local park so it’s also not like failure leaves me dying out in the desert somewhere (yea I learned my lesson about desert running!) either. So the current plan is to dream big and train like it’s going to happen!

My final current race plan for 2019 is the Rhode Races Jamestown Half. I ran this race originally as part of the Rhode Master’s Series. It is a pretty small race on what I felt was a really fast course to me. I think as long as I have all my planned miles logged from all my earlier races (and add in some speed work) I will have a really good base to possibly run a PR here. Also with a small field it would be really cool to place well! (For reference, I placed 14th overall that year without a great time or really training much for it.)

How many races do you plan a year?
What are your big race goals this year?
Have you ever just gone for it? How’d it turn out?!

Training & Updates 2/4 – 2/10

Happy Wednesday Guys!

My third week of marathon training didn’t go nearly as well as the first two. Work was extra busy and stressful so by the time I got home each night I was pretty mentally and physically exhausted. In the end it resulted in me cutting it short a few nights later in the week. But since I continued my streak I ended up with about the correct amount of overall mileage 🤷‍♀️

Monday––2.20 miles / 9:42 pace
TuesdayEasy 4 (9:02-9:41)4.16 miles / 9:14 pace
Wednesday––2.00 miles / 9:40 pace
ThursdayEasy 44.08 miles / 9:15 pace
FridayEasy 42.00 miles / 9:40 pace
SaturdayEasy 42.00 miles / 9:37 pace
SundayEasy 53.50 miles / 9:48 pace
Total21 miles19.94 miles

I also need to get better at Instagram. Lately I’ve been super forgetful about pictures and I’d like to be posting daily to go along with my streak. Goals for next week!

Like I said last week, I’ve been stretching and rolling TONS to make sure the treadmill doesn’t kill my legs. My stick roller used to feel insanely bumpy and harsh when I first started using it, but it doesn’t seem to be enough anymore so I’m excited to announce soon I’ll be testing the Addaday Pro Roller with BibRave!

In Other News

I had a relatively exciting week outside the world of running! My boyfriend and I decided to finally give Hello Fresh a go. The first two meals were REALLY good and I have a feeling I might end up writing a stand alone post about the service.

We also went snowshoeing for the first time at Loon Mountain! It was really fun, but the snow was super hard and icy so I’m not sure how much of a real snowshoeing experience we got.

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After snowshoeing we were STARVING and our guide recommended a place like 5 minutes down the road so we decided to give it a shot. It ended up being AMAZING!! They had a HUGE gluten “friendly” menu (but knew all about Celiac and cross contamination so it wasn’t the new “gluten free, but not for Celiacs” deal) and everything was SO GOOD!! When we left around dinner rush (we got there at a weird in between meal time) there had to be over 40 groups of people waiting to put their name in and I honestly can’t blame them! If you ever have the chance, definitely give The Common Man a visit!

My Post

I may not have gotten pictures of the actual food because I ate it too fast 😅

After that we went to the Ice Castles (the main event)! I had never been before, but have wanted to go for years. It was very cool (figuratively AND literally 😂)! Now I totally want to go to an ice hotel next!

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Run Streak Day: 22

Have you ever been snowshoeing? Did you enjoy it?

Have you ever been to the Ice Castles?

Would you ever go to an ice hotel?

Training & Updates 1/28 – 2/3

Happy Friday Guys!

My second week of marathon training (first full week) was another good one! I was able to stick with my streak, again without it feeling like a lot of effort 🙌 I also was able to steal my boyfriend’s tablet to finally run my first Zwift run(s) on my treadmill! I didn’t realize how much visuals help make a run less boring until I started running facing my basement wall lol It felt SUPER weird and off to just have sound to distract me. Having Zwift’s visuals so I can look around the environment as well as seeing/competing against other runners, bikers, and AI walkers is SO MUCH better! There’s how my week went compared to my training plan:

Monday––3.20 miles / 9:33 pace
TuesdayEasy 2 (9:02-9:41)2.04 miles / 9:50 pace
Wednesday––2.00 miles / 9:37 pace
ThursdayEasy 32.00 miles / 10:59 pace
FridayEasy 33.00 miles / 10:00 pace
SaturdayEasy 33.03 miles / 9:22 pace
SundayEasy 44.07 miles / 9:20 pace
Total15 miles19.24 miles

So I didn’t realize I was actually going slower than planned until now. Somehow I got 10:02 in my head as the slowest pace 🤷‍♀️ (No idea what was up Thursday.. I want to say I logged the time wrong without realizing, but can’t seem to find any of my data from that run to fix it. Oh well!) Either way I’ll just have to pick up the pace from now on, but I am still happy I’ve been taking it easy as I get into running daily. I’ve never had much luck with treadmill running so the fact that my legs still feel good is a good indicator I’m doing something right! I’ve also been making sure to stretch and roll TONS as well. No matter how much I dislike stretching and rolling, I have to say at this point I would recommend suffering through it to anyone with any sort of leg issues. It’s insane how much of a difference it can make.

In other news, I’ve been crushing the step competition! Oh I also found the Adventure feature in the Challenge section of Fitbit and I LOVE it! If you don’t know about it/haven’t tried it out I’d definitely recommend! You choose a path to virtually walk through cool places (right now Yosemite seems to be the only one, but I’d assume they have more at different times) and when you hit certain points you get fun facts and BEAUTIFUL panoramas of the area! You can also do it in Race mode and race friends. Anyway, that was my week! Hope all your’s were good ones too!

Run Streak Day: 14

How do you survive treadmill running mentally and physically?

How’s your training plan going?