Training

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?

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?

Training & Updates 1/21 – 1/27

This week was a really good week for many reasons! I broke my streak since I last posted but started another attempt on the 20th. I’m more hopeful this time since the week went by super smoothly, with none of my runs feeling forced. I feel like running daily might be going back to being more of a habit again!

I also finally got my own treadmill and it is now setup in the basement so I have almost no excuse not to run! I’m pumped to not have to go out to the gym anymore or deal with their schedule!

Here’s what my week looked like:

Monday – 6.83 miles / 8:51 pace

Tuesday – 3.12 miles / 9:20 pace

Wednesday – 4.86 miles / 9:17 pace

Thursday – 2.02 miles / 9:38 pace

Friday – 2.01 miles / 9:59 pace

Saturday – 3.40 miles / 8:02 pace

Sunday – 2.57 miles / 9:12 pace

Total – 25.81 miles

This week also marked the start of a new training plan!! I started marathon training the 26th for the Vermont City Marathon, as well as the Illinois Marathon! How are you training for two, you ask? The plan is actually set for Vermont, but Illinois is happening first, during training, so I plan to take it as an easy practice marathon. I’m hoping that while I won’t be in peak condition, the training beforehand will make it an easy enough time. Also my PR from my first marathon is so slow that I should also get easy PRs both times this way (if I can control myself in IL 😅)! I can’t wait!!

In other news:

My work started a step competition and being the only runner everyone expects me to win. Like to the point where my boss said I was the reason they were giving out a second and third prize. Not going to lie, I originally thought it would be kind of a cake walk as well, until my one co-worker, [the] IT Guy 👨‍💻, was CRUSHING it. I finally caught up to and passed him at the end of this week though! I then made the mistake of adding my mom and old track bud to the app so don’t be surprised when I start doing double sessions to CRUSH THE COMPETITION 👊 I’ll keep you updated so you can watch as a silly work competition slowly takes over and ruins my life 😂🤣😂

Lastly, I got a Koala Clip to try and really like it so far! I think I’ll go more into detail about it in a post about all phone pouches since I think I’ve tried almost all of them at this point!

Anyway, those are my updates for this week! Hope all your weeks are going swell as well!! 🏃‍♀️👋

Training & Updates 12/17 – 12/23

So I may have had a mini crisis over 2018 after thinking the year over the other day (I’ll go into detail in another post once the year actually closes out) and decided to step up my game for the last little bit of the year. I’ve always wanted to do a streak and a few of the reasons for my crisis could have been helped via run streak, so I decided to start a 2019 goal early! I actually started the 16th, but am happy to report I ran 2 miles or more everyday this past week! Since my previous mileage had been super spotty I took it nice and easy on most of the days, which is fine because the goal is just to get out there consistently. My week ended up looking like:

Monday – 4.01 miles / 11:09 pace

Tuesday – 2.70 miles / 9:02 pace

Wednesday – 2.30 miles / 10:58 pace

Thursday – 6.54 miles / 9:51 pace

Friday – 2.04 miles / unknown

Saturday – 3.36 miles / 8:27 pace

Sunday – 2.01 miles / 10:58 pace

Total – 22.96 miles

Weirdly, I ran on a treadmill everyday except one. Normally I avoid treadmills like the plague but I’ve also been too lazy to put in the extra effort it takes to stay super alert while running at night. Tuesday was another Zwift run, which was super fun! But unfortunately the WiFi at my gym won’t let me make every treadmill run a Zwift one. It’s making me thoroughly debate finally getting my own treadmill. I definitely felt a bit of tired and achiness in my legs/feet toward the end of the week when standing at my desk (this was also the first week I had my standing desk ❤️) but doing less Friday and Saturday fixed that by Sunday.

In other news:

I am a Tiux Ambassador again for 2019! Feel free to use the code SAMRTIUX for 20% off purchases from their site.

I am also a Rhode Races Newport Ambassador this year! I’m super excited since I love the Rhode Races series and their Newport race is my absolute favorite half marathon! If you’re a 50 stater I’d definitely recommend this race for Rhode Island and if you have any questions feel free to ask me 🙂 I don’t have a discount code yet, but keep an eye open for that soon!