150 Miles Club

“The Road to Easy Street Goes Through the Sewer.”

~John Madden

Woot! Woot! I made in the #150mileclub It took me a day to digest that I actually ran 150 miles for the month of January. It amazes me that with the right training, right coach and proper recovery, the body can push just a little more each time.

Now I know exactly how my body feels what is like to run 150 miles for the month, and I’d say, it’s pretty exciting and exhausting. However, the runner’s high takes over.

The month of January started out a little rocky. Coming out of the runner’s high from closing the 2017 year with 1,028 miles, took me some time to get adjusted for it all was going to start again. The difference was: it was going to start harder and tougher than ever before. The grind of waking up early for runs, strength training, transcendental meditation, stretching – and all before work, was getting brutal on my body and mind. Trying to find balance was again a challenge.

I usually don’t bother much as to how many miles I can bank in a month. I usually go week by week, day by day. But when the half of the month starts to approach, then I start to take a glimpse of how many miles I’m about to close the month.

Based on January’s training plan, the weeks were leading me up to close the month at 143. I recalculated numerous times and the miles added up to 143. I just could not believe it! So of course that being so close to 150, my highest yet, I could not let this opportunity go by.

I started to add the additional 7 miles sporadically throughout the runs. Two miles were added in a LR with my friend Krista, and additional 1 mile cool down on a LR+tempo run and 4 miles on a family run with my husband and puppy, R2-D2. These 3 were my recovery run and a comeback road run for my husband, which was done on a 3:1 interval. The last mile, I ran at my recovery pace. It was 6 consecutive days of running to actually make to 150 miles for the month. The only extra day added was on a Sunday which was the 3:1 run; everything else was already scheduled on the calendar. I just needed to get it done.

So excited to have mom visiting for a few weeks!

The only drawback of running 150 miles for the month was managing my scheduled to include strength training. It was a lot to manage and I felt failing behind in including strength training and physical therapy workouts. On the plus side, I now have the feel of what will take to adjust to marathon training schedule. It is scary. But it is also exciting.

Cheers to a new month!

“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have”.

~Vince Lombardi 

It Doesn’t Get Easier, but Let’s Go!

“With a strong heart and a good mind, you can do it.”

~Eliud Kipchoge

To say that August was a great month, it’s an understatement! A PR month of 120 miles, 58 of these miles were on treadmill, it’s a moment for jumping sky-high! I am so proud of the hard work and time invested to reach this month’s goal. It was very tough to get these miles in, especially when August has been the most mentally challenging month by far.

Considering that I closed the month of July with 107 miles, I gave myself a challenge to cover 120 miles for the month of August. However, I didn’t anticipate that the tempo runs and speed work would be so mentally draining and challenging. The desire to run was less intense and the anticipation of a tempo or speed workout was daunting. I had to switch mental gear quickly to preclude the negativity and fear from running the show. After all, it is my show and I run this thing!

On another note, August was a busy month with other things not related to running. Right off the bat, we had Tom Brady’s 40th b-day on the 3rd, and of course, a 4-miler was on the menu to celebrate the Greatest of All Times,  aka GOAT. Football was right on the face with the conclusion of training camp and start of preseason games – everything feels so much better when football exists! And, we had a one of a kind eclipse!

The hot and humid days were still intense just like June and July; there was no much of a break. Except for one interesting Saturday morning which I had a 12-miler on the schedule. Krista, my neighbor, and I had one of the most enjoyable LR in a while. The fact that she needed to be done by 7:00 a.m. helped speed up the process a little bit, but none of that would had matter if the weather had not cooperate to the slightest drop in temperature. This run helped me get the positive boost I needed to keep my monthly goal alive.

Splits: 10:35, 10:09, 10:08, 10:05, 10:08, 10:06, 10:08, 10:11, 10:16, 10:08, 9:49 & 9:19

Much of this month’s credit goes to my husband for showing the support and kindness in giving me a treadmill which I’ve named, “Newton”. I can train hard and cover the miles without beating up my body so much in the heat and humidity. Not only it provides me more flexibility in my training, but it allows my body to properly recover, even though, my mileage keeps increasing on a monthly-basis so far.

What’s in for September? Another PR month would be great, but I think that my focus is really on keeping a strong mental strength foundation, staying healthy and decompress from the everyday routine by relaxing by the pool or taking a quick trip to the beach. As of September, I will be only 4 week out until Jacksonville Marine Corps Half marathon and I must do everything possible to stay strong and healthy. I haven’t toe line since March 5 at the SwampHouse 5K event which I PR’d by 20 seconds with 25:40 finish time AND got myself a groin injury as I crossed the finish line. No regrets here because I’ve learned a great deal on how to be a proactive runner and focus on my body’s recovery process.

To a strong September and a October PR! Let’s Go!!

“Run Epically
~unknown

July Miles: Hot Humid and Sweaty

“Every Mile Earned, Never Given.”

~ unknown

Yes to July!!! Independence Day and my birthday month!! As matter of fact, America and I share fireworks. How fun is that!!

If anyone thought that June was hot and humid, one haven’t experienced July in Florida! At one point I simply stopped looking at the weather app to check on how hot and humid the day was predicted to be. What’s the point? If one is to adventure in the outdoor sauna, one better be ready for it.

• Hydrate every single day
• Never run without a bottle of water
• Start your run early and dark
• If anything longer than 5 miles, consider taking an electrolyte/salt pill
• Go for shaded areas
• Sunglasses (and a hand-towel in my case)
• Lace up and go

 

Going into the second week of July, my body started to feel the impact of the heat, humidity and intensity of the workouts. It was telling me that I needed to rest, amplify my vitamins, minerals and supplements intake; go to my doctor and order a blood test. And while at the doctor’s office, go ahead and take a shot of B12.

Blood work day, yipe!

It took weeks for my body to start to normalize into a more steady routine. The lack of energy, especially in the morning as I do suffer from the occasional adrenal fatigue attack was at its full force this time. Three unplanned rest days (a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) were needed until I started to feel somewhat better to do some of the workouts. I listened to my body 100% and I did everything I could to make sure my immune system remained strong and focused on processing my energy level back up instead of fighting some other weakness such as a flu symptom.

To give myself a break from this crazy-hot weather, I started doing a lot of my runs on the treadmill. Outdoor runs were becoming harder and harder on my body and very difficult to maintain the duration of a run. Running a faster pace or some speed work outdoor was getting impossible to hit the suggested paces. Although a treadmill run offers a controlled environment (AC on and turbo fan blowing at me), it still gets freaking hot. It is not easy either, but it is more doable. Going into my longest treadmill run of 12 miles; there were times I wished I had just taken it outside. It was one of the hardest treadmill run to date. The mental and physical drain was nothing I had experienced before, and I believe this was the turning-point of my energy level and adrenal fatigue kick off.

By mid-third week of July, I started to feel and sleep better. I can’t focus enough on how important rest it is for me. In one of the days that my energy was extremely low, I went to bed at 7:30 p.m. On the next day, my body was ready to wake up and get up at 5:00 a.m. and I had one of the best steady run.

I also decided to schedule a second cryotherapy session before the end of the month. Usually a once a month session is enough, but this time I saw no harm in doing it a second time. To my “luck” at the time of cryo sesh, the nitrogen tank was about to get empty, but Dr. Sabrina Atkins estimated that it would be enough for my 3-minute top sesh. I entered at -111F and I held on for the entire 3-minute; however, the temps only reached to -211F.

Hold on for the entire 3-minute max down to -245F first sesh of July

This cryotherapy session was a great energy boost to kick off the last week of July with the start of the Jacksonville Marine Corps half marathon training. As a bonus, football training camp was also on tap, which motivates me a great deal, even if the workout calls for a fartlek = 2 mi warm up / 10 min @ 9:10 pace / 4x2min @ 8:45-8:30 w/ 2min recovery in between / easy cool down to 7!

2 mi up 10:42 / 10 min @ 9:07 / 4×2 min @ 8:37, 8:43, 8:39, 8:38 & extra 8:36 / 2.28 mi cool down  @ 10:01

After all the ups-and-downs, I am learning to manage mental and physical breakdown a lot better. I try to stay calm and let it run its course while not giving it too much power. Negative thoughts will creep in every now and then, but it is so important to not to give them power or they will eat you alive. Simply acknowledge it and put a positive thought and action to nullify them. Also, beating myself up for being on the funk wave is pointless. Do not beat yourself up! It is part of the process of training hard and we are only humans.

I’m also constantly working on mental training just as I work on my physical training everyday. I read motivational/sports quotes, I read books, listen to audiobooks (my favorite so far is The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think , Train, and Thrive by Jim Afremow), I watch word majors marathons while running on the treadmill, and of course, watching Breaking 2 the Nike Project never gets old! All of this positive intakes adds up. I have noticed that when a mental breakdown happens, its intensity is usually less or tends to linger less time. This time for me, I think it was more of a physical breakdown. Whatever it is, I’m sure it will change as training becomes harder and harder, but I know that I’m more mentally tough that I was yesterday.

So, thank you my dear legs, body and mind for taking me a little further this month for a month PR of 107.39 miles! I love you dearly.

Cheers to you and Happy August!!

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.”

~Alan Cohen