Hansons Marathon Method- Week 14 Rundown

Less than 30 DAYS until the Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Marathon! Eeeek! I cannot believe time has gone by so quickly! This week is my LAST 60+ mileage week and then I begin to taper. This training cycle has gone SO well and I'm just focused on finishing it out strong and remaining positive. Also I'm really trying to work on my mental game as well, since this was my weak part of my Revel Rockies Marathon. I want to stay in the moment and fight through the tough parts (NOT give up on myself). 

This week I hit both of my SOS (something-of-substance) workout paces and kept my easy runs at a conservative pace. I did half outside and half of my runs on the treadmill (it snowed on Monday and the temperatures were SO chilly during the mornings). 

Monday: 11 miles total; 1.5 warm-up; 2 x 3 mile repeats @ 8:36 (actual: 8:34) w/ 1 mile recovery between sets; 1.5 cool-down; 20 minutes of strength training. This training run was pretty difficult, but it always feels harder on the treadmill rather than outside ???

Tuesday: 6 miles easy @ 10:06 pace

Wednesday: 12 miles; 1.5 warm-up ; 9 miles @ GMP 8:46 (actual: 8:43); 1.5 cool-down ; 60 minute Barre class at lunch. I felt SO strong during this run and really needed it as a confidence booster. 

Thursday: 10 miles easy @ 10:10 pace on the treadmill (6.5 on the treadmill in AM; 3.5 outside after work)

Friday: 10 miles easy @ 10:20 pace on the treadmill; 60 minute Barre class after work

Saturday: 7 miles easy on the trails around the lake @ 9:36 pace (a little too fast, but I'm SO ready to crush my last long run pace!!!)

Sunday: Rest Day

Sunshine Goods:

• hitting my SOS paces & feeling strong in them
• fit in 3 workouts of strength training
• 55 mileage weeks feels really do-able and EASY!
• 2 epsom salt baths this week

Gloomy Goods:

• 3 Treadmill runs this week = ugh so much harder than running outside

Hanson's Marathon Method- Week 13 Rundown

32 DAYS UNTIL VEGAS!! ONE MONTH! This is seriously SO crazy to me. I cannot believe how fast time has gone and now I only have one more peak mileage week left (above 60 miles) and have run 620.05 miles during this training cycle. I'm still feeling really strong and not burned out/ injured, which is amazing! I'm still really loving this training plan and definitely think I will try it out again for my next race (regardless of how this one goes). It's getting harder to fit in these longer runs in the mornings before work, but I knew that October would be rough to fit in the mileage so I'm just taking it one day at a time and know that after-work runs is always another option. I'm thinking I may try my tempo run after work this week since the cooler weather really seems to be putting a damper on my paces (my legs just cannot seem to warm up for some reason even with lined tights)- unless it is expected to be warmer, then I'll re-assess. But I think it's always good to switch-up whenyou run (especially since the race starts at 4:30pm anyways! 62 miles for the week and 620.05 miles in the bank for marathon training!

Monday: 10 miles total with 1.5 warm-up, 3 x 2 mile repeats @ 8:26-8:36 (800 R), 1.5 cool-down. I did this run back in Maine and the weather was PERFECT for it. I felt amazing. Splits were: 17:06 ; 16:49; 16:47 . Negative split them and hit my paces. I had to cut my cool-down 1 mile short (due to time constraints), but that was fine because I wanted my long run to be a mile longer anyways.

Tuesday: 8 miles easy on the treadmill after work since I got in at 11pm the night before. Pace @ 10:01. 

Wednesday: 1.5 warm-up; 9 miles @ GMP (8:45-8:55) actual: 8:54; 1.5 cool-down. This run felt better than the week before, but my legs still felt frozen and just not able to ever warm-up fully. Did a 60 minute Barre class at lunch

Thursday: 8 miles easy on the treadmill Pace @ 10:20

Friday: 17 miles (planned was 16 miles @ 9:27-9:35) @ 9:33 with a few hills to concur. This run was AWESOME and I definitely could've kept going for the remaining 9 miles. I really wasn't too sore afterwards, which was also a huge bonus

Saturday: 7 miles easy on the trails by the lake @ 10:08. I was really realllly tired on this run and could feel it. It was warmer out than I expected and my legs felt like lead.

Sunday: REST DAY! This was my first complete rest day in 13 days and was SO needed. I tried to limit my activities (we stacked wood and went kayaking), but I iced twice and took an epsom salt bath. 

Sunshine Goods:

• Strength work-out went really well
• Long run felt awesome
• Kept my easy runs at a slow recovery pace
• Nutrition was strong this week
• Sleep was a priority
• Did a 60 minute Barre Class

Gloomy Goods:

• Tempo run didn't go so well (but is improving...)
• Only fit in one strength session this week
• Foam rolling was limited

Hanson's Marathon Method- Week 12 Rundown

We are officially less than 6 weeks out from Race day! I cannot believe how time flies. I always feel like training weeks go by really slow in the beginning and then it somehow goes from 70 days left to 30 something days left! We are 39 days out and I am starting to cut out sugar from my diet until after the race. Overall, training this week went really well (it felt so nice to have a cut-back week too) and I was able to fit it all in despite all the traveling I did. I ran a total of 55 miles and ended up not taking a day off from running (since my plane was delayed 3.5 hours, no running was done when I finally arrived at 9pm that night)!

Monday: 11 miles total; 1.5 warm-up; 4 x 1.5 mile repeats @ 8:29 (800 R); 1.5 cool-down

Tuesday: 10 miles easy @ 10:00 pace

Wednesday: 12 miles total; 1.5 warm-up; 9 miles @ GMP 8:46 (actual: 8:53); 1.5 cool-down. I really think the cooler weather has been putting a damper on my slower goal race paces! Hoping it warms up soon or I may need to try this later in the day instead!

Thursday: 1.25 miles @ 3 am before my flight; was expecting to do the rest of my mileage after I landed @ 4pm, but ended up not getting in until 9pm and decided to do the rest of the mileage later in the week (needed 6 miles total)

Friday: 6 miles easy @ 9:41; whoops! was a little too fast on this one, but the air felt so great and I got to run at 8AM!! Dream come true

Saturday: 10 miles easy @ 10:10. I kept slowing myself down on this one, but felt strong and it was nice and cloudy/rainy out. Also got to do this one on the Rail Trail in Fryeburg, ME with my MOM!! She did 6 miles and is a rockstar. 

Sunday: needed 4.75 miles more to get to 6 miles. Ended up splitting it up to do 3.25 in the morning and 1.5 in the afternoon for a total of 4.75 (not sure on the paces- too fast I do know that!!)

Sunshine Goods:

• Hit my paces on my strength work-out and easy runs
• Fit in all my runs even when traveling like crazy
• Focused on drinking more water than normal
• Less chafing this week!
• Fit in one barre class
• Fit in one Hot Yoga class
• Took 2 Epsom Salt Baths!

Gloomy Goods:

• Didn't get a rest day
• Foam rolling was not a priority (bummer)
• Strength training sessions were little to non
• Ankle was feeling pretty stiff on Sunday, but it got better after icing/legs up the wall

Hanson's Marathon Method- Week 11 Rundown

61 miles this past week! Weeee! I felt amazing this week and didn't have the best Tempo Run, but nailed every other run, so I was pretty excited. My long run felt amazing (I finished and honestly felt like another 10 miles would have been easy) and my strength work-out was hard, but I powered through it. My nutrition was really great this week and I took recovery as a priority. I can't believe that we are less than 50 days out from the Rock 'n Roll LV Strip at Night! I'm super excited to be running back in Vegas at night and can't wait to see all those lights. I'm going to be traveling back to Maine for a few days this coming weekend, so it will be another week of mixing up when my runs will be, but no "long" runs are on the docket (strength & tempo runs will be the longest at 11 & 12 miles). I switched up when I did my strength & tempo runs this past week, since I wanted a weekend off (we were planning to go backpacking, but the weather looked rainy all weekend so I just ended up doing a 7 mile run on Saturday & my long run on Friday which worked out for the best).

Monday: Strength Session. 6 x 1 mile repeats at 10 seconds faster than Marathon pace with 400m recovery and 2 mile warm-up and 1.5 mile cool-down (actual: pace was: 8:34 for each split)

Tuesday: 8 mile recovery @ 10:16

Wednesday: 1.5 mile warm-up; 8 tempo miles @ GMP 8:46 (actual: 8:56); 1.5 mile cool-down. It was SO cold outside this morning (real feel in the 20's), so I think this and not extra fuel the day before really took a toll on my paces. I was a bit bummed that I couldn't get my legs to turnover like they did the week before, but that propelled me to be faster on my long run! Also did a 60 minute barre class at lunch; epsom salt bath to recover at night

Thursday: 8 miles recovery @ 10:20

Friday: 16 miles long-run @ 9:29 (actual: 9:25 min/mi). This run felt amazing & I wasn't as sore as I expected.

Saturday: 7 miles recovery @ 9:48. This was on the trails and I was a bit too fast! The weather was cooler and rainy, perfect running temps! 20 minutes of strength followed by 20 minutes of recovery yoga & epsom salt bath

Sunday: Rest Day

Hanson's Marathon Method Week 10 Rundown

This week went 10 x better than previous weeks and I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere with this training plan! I finally didn't feel defeated after any run this week and I crushed both of my SOS (something of substance) workouts. If nothing else comes out of this training plan, I'm happy to embrace the almost-euphoric runners high that I got from each training run this week. Hoping this feeling continues. I did also start to feel a bit of tightness in my left foot (thinking it's a touch of plantar faciitis- I get a few days of pain then I focus on a lot of stretching/ rolling my foot out/ epsom salt baths and it improves), but it went away after a few days of extra TLC. Otherwise, I'm feeling strong and ready to head into my one of three high mileage weeks (over 60 miles!) before the taper/ race-day (which is only 54 days away now!). 

Monday: 6 miles easy on the treadmill @ 10:20 & 20 minutes of strength

Tuesday: 7 miles. 1.5 warm-up; 3 x 1 mile @ 7:20 (actual: 7:19, 7:19, 7:23) w/ 400R; 1.5 cool-down. This run also includes two of my FASTEST MILES EVER RUN! I ran a 7:19 in my first split, then beat that with an even faster 7:19! 

Wednesday: 6 miles easy @ 10:09 & 20 minutes of strength

Thursday: 11 miles- 1.5 warm-up; 8 miles @ MGP 8:46 (actual: 8:35); 1.5 cool-down. This run felt amazing!

Friday: 10 miles easy on the treadmill @ 10:01

Saturday: 10 miles easy on the trails around the lake @ 10:30. I was super happy with my pace since this was a total trail run and on some pretty tough hilly terrain. It was perfect weather out!

Sunday: Rest day. 6 mile hike with Stella

Sunshine Goods:

• Hit my Tempo Run with pace 11 seconds faster than expected
• Hit my mile repeats on the track (with no cheer squad)
• Fit in 2 strength training sessions
• Foam rolled the majority of days
• Took 3 epsom salt baths
• Diet was on-point & super hungry all the time!!
• Running schedule is finally starting to feel easier and less overwhelmingly hard/difficult/impossible to fit it all in
• Sleep was priority

Gloomy Goods:

• Foot started to hurt a bit after my amazing tempo run
• Always hungry!! 
• Chafing. Ugh. This should just always be a negative to any training