Recently I began training for the Marine Corps Marathon. The race is on October 26, and training will be 18 weeks long. After much deliberation I decided to give the Hansons Marathon Method a try. Specifically, I’m following the beginner training plan.

The point of the first five weeks of the Hansons Beginner plan is to “base build.” The concept of base building is pretty basic, and not specific to the Hansons. It means starting from a base of lower mileage and building to increased mileage and more frequent running.

The first five weeks of the Hansons beginner plan is made up of all easy running, gradually building from 15 miles per week to 24 miles. Every type of run in the Hansons program has a specified pace, based on your current abilities and your marathon goal. Easy runs are meant to be 1-2 minutes per mile slower than your marathon goal pace. For me, easy runs should be between 11:28 – 12:16/mile pace. That’s slower than I typically do my “easy” runs, so it’s been an adjustment to learn to run at a slower pace. It’s not absolutely necessary that I stick to those paces at this point in training, but it’s good to start practicing now. Correct pacing becomes very important later on.

After the first five weeks, speed work, tempo runs, and long runs will be introduced into training. In order to prevent injury and to meet the prescribed paces for these workouts, it’s very important to run easy days at the slower pace. Otherwise each run ends up being close in pace, and you won’t reap the intended benefits from each type of run.

But for now, I’m halfway through week 3 of training, which gives me some leeway. The main purpose of the first five weeks is to give me some time on my feet, increase the number of days per week that I run, and create a foundation to build on during the rest of training. If your weekly mileage is currently higher than what’s scheduled, the Hansons recommend you just keep doing what you’re doing and let the training catch up with you. That’s what I’ve been doing so far. By week 5 everything will match up, and I’ll be following the training plan as prescribed from there on.

Do you follow a training plan when preparing for a big race?

Another week in the books and another week of loosely following the training plan. I actually followed it a bit closer than I did last week, but I still added miles on here and there (and ran a 5K in place of a scheduled easy 3 miler).

Monday- Rest day (it was on the schedule and my legs were still kind of sore from the trail run)

Tuesday- 2 mile run on the treadmill, as scheduled. I was either fighting a cold or some allergies, so I stuck to the short run on my schedule and stayed inside. It’s no fun to run outside when it’s 90 degrees, but especially so when you have a pounding headache.

Wednesday- Rest day.

Thursday- 3 mile run on the roads around our house in the evening. I had to stop halfway through the run to stretch my Achilles and calves, because they were so tight. Friday- In God We Trust 5K race. Went out way too fast and proceeded to fall apart the last two miles. Here are a couple of photos courtesy of Glenda Scott, which were taken by her husband.

Saturday- 6 mile run on the Dora and New River Trails. I waited until late morning to run, and it had warmed up quite a bit outside. My legs were also feeling pretty tired, which made for a tough run. Towards the end of my run I saw a doe, and then another doe that had a fawn with her. The first doe is about to jump the fence and run across the trail in front of me, and you can see the other doe with her fawn about to run away in the background.

I was able to quickly snap a second picture as the doe and her fawn ran off into the woods in the other direction:

Sunday- 4 mile run in the evening with Barry on the roads around our house. It was pretty hot outside (that cold front from Friday was long gone) and my legs were feeling tired again. We did an out and back, which included black hollow hill. Unfortunately, the hill beat me again!

We did get to see two friendly dogs, who greet us almost every time we run by! That makes going down black hollow hill, and back up it, worth it.

Total Miles: 18 miles

Happy Fourth of July!!

This morning I kicked off my holiday weekend with the In God We Trust 5K in Bastian, VA.

The race started at 9, and I arrived around 8:30 to pickup my packet and get ready to go. You gotta love how easy the logistics are for small races. 🙂 The Sole Sisters had a great turnout this year, with 15 or so runners! They’re a running group in Wytheville that I first met last April that has since made me an honorary member. We see each other at a lot of races in the area! *edited to add below picture, courtesy of Suzy with Sole Sisters

So I hung out with them prior to the race and tried to stay warm. Yep, you read that right. I was shivering at a race in July! It was in the mid-60’s and breezy this morning. That’s what happens when there’s a hurricane going up the coast (which typically means just a slightly windy day for us) and a cold front comes in from the west. Can’t complain about that type of weather in early July, though! Just after 9:00 AM we were off! The race was significantly larger this year (I think it’s in its 4th or 5th year).

I got caught up with a group during the first mile and went out entirely too fast for me. My first mile clocked in at 8:29. Uh oh. I spent the final two miles absolutely falling apart. I was even very, very close to walking but I never gave in. Mile two clocked in at 9:51 (oy) and mile three was 10:07 (yikes). So the lesson here is not to go out so fast.

My final time was 29:22, about 1:40 slower than my last 5K. I probably would have done a bit better, or at least run a more even race, if I hadn’t gone out so fast. But c’est la vie I suppose. After finishing I grabbed a mini-Gatorade and half a banana and hung out for a bit. This cute and very friendly puppy showed up after running with various runners out on the course and hung out with everyone as well.

Despite not running to the best of my ability, I did manage to squeak out a third place in my age group. The age groups were a bit more competitive this year, since they did them in ten year increments instead of five. Also, the two girls who placed ahead of me in the 20-30 year group also placed 2nd and 3rd overall for women. I kind of like when race directors pull the overall winners out of the age groups, instead of “double dinging” them, but I’ve seen it done both ways. After the awards ceremony I hit the road for home.

Now there is BBQ chicken cooking in the crock pot and I’m watching France take on Germany in the World Cup!

Later this evening it’ll be time for Brazil and Colombia to take the field.

I heard Brazil has not lost a competitive game on home turf in 39 years. Things are going to get crazy! I can’t get enough. I’m also already getting sad because the World cup is almost over. It goes by so fast!

What are you doing to celebrate the 4th of July? Watching the World Cup and then watching fireworks
Anyone else racing this weekend?
When was the last time you went out too fast in a race and then paid for it?

 

 

This past Saturday I got to meet up with Debbie for a trail run at Hungry Mother State Park! A few weeks ago she told me she was going to be down in my neck of the woods for the weekend. I was excited we were able to meet up for a run! Hungry Mother State Park is such a gorgeous place to run, and all of the trails are so well-maintained and well-marked.

This was my second time running at Hungry Mother. It was actually cooler this time than the last time I ran there, but this time it was pretty muggy. We started out on the Lake Loop Trail, which is the trail I ran last time. It follows the perimeter of the 108-acre lake, as the name implies.

Debbie wanted to go up to Molly’s Knob, and I had never been up there before, so I was looking forward to the view from the top. But I knew it was going to be a tough climb. We had consulted the trail map at the beginning of our run and decided we could run the Lake Loop Trail to where it connects to the Molly’s Knob Trail, about 4 miles in. We would do an out and back up to Molly’s Knob, and then continue on the rest of the loop around the lake.

Shortly after turning onto Molly’s Knob Trail, and after doing a bit of climbing, we came to a platform. Debbie pointed up to the top of a peak in the distance and said “that’s where we’re headed!” Oh boy! It looked very far away and very high up.

We forged on for about another mile, doing more hiking than running because it was so steep. I snapped a picture on the steep part of the trail, but of course it never captures.

When we got close, Debbie convinced me to run the last little bit to the top. And then we were at the summit, 1,000 feet closer to the sky!

Not a bad view, huh? I struggled to get a panoramic picture of the view with my camera, but was finally able to get one.

It’s much more breathtaking in person, and totally worth the climb of course. Debbie was nice enough to snap this picture of me on top of Molly’s Knob. We also got one together, using the self timer on her camera.

Oh yea, funny story. Debbie and I showed up both wearing black shorts and the same exact purple tank top! So we were matchy, matchy for the day. I wonder if people who saw us together on the trail thought we planned it?

Once we were done taking all the pictures, we made the descent back down Molly’s Knob and back onto the Lake Loop Trail. We had a nice overlook view of the lake and beach area on the way down.

Before I knew it, we were back on the Lake Loop Trail with about 2 miles to go. The last part of our run was significantly flatter, but even little hills felt like mountains at that point. 🙂

As we made our way around the lake we found a good “photo op” spot at a bridge. Debbie and I took turns running across the bridge while the other acted as photographer. Some bikers riding by on the trail thought that was pretty funny.

Shortly after our bridge photo op, we passed the beach area that we had seen from way up high not too long ago. I was so tempted to take my shoes and socks off and soak my feet in the water. That would have felt good!

This part of the trail is flatter, and more accessible from the surrounding parking areas and campground, so we saw more people out and about.

We also had a nice view of the mountain we had just climbed! It’s a neat feeling to look up at the peak and know you just climbed it.

There were some other nice views of the surrounding mountains as we ran along this part of the Lake Loop Trail. Although it was getting hard to enjoy the views because I was ready to be done. My legs were very tired!

Finally, we found ourselves back at the spillway where we had started from. There were some pretty wildflowers lining this part of the trail.

We ended with just over 9 miles for the day. This was the third time I’ve gotten to run with Debbie (previously we have run together at the Hokie Half and for a long run) and it was so much fun to get to run and talk and get to know each other better. Thanks for making plans with me, Deb!

Do you prefer to workout alone or with friends?
Does the area you live in have scenic overlooks? We have a lot of them!

This week was the first official week of Marine Corps Marathon training! I guess I should start titling these weekly workout roundups “Marine Corps Marathon Training – Week 1,” so on and so forth. I’ll start doing that next week. I didn’t exactly follow the training plan to a ‘T’ but that’s okay. Sometime in the near future I’ll address that in more detail.

Monday- Cross training. Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, level 1 workout.

Tuesday- Rest. I had a 14 hour workday, including 8 hours of driving, and a workout just wasn’t going to happen.

Wednesday- Rest day. This was an unplanned rest day, because I was worn out from my long day on Tuesday.

Thursday- 3 mile run with Sven (the treadmill) in the morning while watching recorded episodes of Jeopardy. This was officially my first day of Marine Corps Marathon training, and also my fourth wedding anniversary!

Friday- My friend Jackie was in town and wanted to meet up in the morning for a run. We ran 5 miles on the Huckleberry Trail. It was fun, because it was her first time running on that trail and we had never run together before.

Saturday- 9 mile trail run at Hungry Mother State Park with Deb! We met up for a run together since she was down in my neck of the woods (and her old stomping grounds) for the weekend. We had great weather, although it was a bit muggy. Full recap later this week!

Sunday- 4 mile run with Kim in the morning. It was a rainy day in the low-60’s and I actually ran in a long sleeve shirt. Due to the chilly, rainy day it was pretty deserted in town. I snapped this picture as I drove to meet Kim (and inevitably got stopped at one of three traffic lights downtown….)

It was kind of refreshing to run in the rain, compared to the heat and humidity. Our 4 mile run felt like a long 4 miles, though, because my legs were pretty tired from the day before.

Total Miles: 21 miles
June Total: 81 miles (Today is a rest day, so I went on and totaled my June mileage. Lower mileage month, but it’ll only be going up from here)