PUMP up the JAMmie – Week 1/16

OMG you guys. Tomorrow is the 122nd running of the Boston fkn Marathon!!!! I get goosebumps following along with all the action. And yesterday I almost cried (okay I cried a little ahahah) because my special friend Karmen, who is running Boston tomorrow, got me a SIGNED WATER BOTTLE from my ultimate favourite pro runner, Jordan Hasay!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Karmen and her husband, Adam, both BQ’d for 2018 at the Eugene Marathon last year, on their first wedding anniversary. Isn’t that the best thing you’ve ever heard? I know. I am so excited for them!

I am pumped writing this, but I was not stoked during the first few days of the week. After that GI-related-near-death experience last Sunday, I was tired, bummed and still feeling less than 100% well into Wednesday. Add on the Garmin death, job-hatred, a bird flying into my grill on the highway 😥 and a windstorm blowing part of our deck off, and I was not in the best place mentally. But that’s the thing with both training and LIFE. It’s up and down. Am I going to let my fitness, drive and excitement slip away because a few days were kind of lame? F no. Looking ahead on Training Peaks at some of the workouts coming up from Lifelong Endurance was one of the things that helped me get my head back in the game. We are doing this. This was week one!

Monday, April 9th – easy day

8k easy + drills

I’ve committed to doing drills three times per week during this BQ operation. A-skip, B-skip, high-knees, two variations of butt kicks, carioca and high-knee carioca. Standing and seated arm-swings I will do at work where I need less room and am getting paid.

In the afternoon I squeezed in a round of Dirty Dozen.

Tuesday, April 10th – easy day?

This was the morning of the Garmin death. I was so pissed off I can’t even explain. But, still went for 11 of the 12k scheduled fartlek. I cut it short because I headed out much later than planned after dicking around with the watch for so long, unsuccessfully.

That was it for today. Extremely tired, cranky and mopey. (Sorry, husband). It was the best decision to just go to bed.

Wednesday, April 11th – recovery day

Non-running day. Still felt mopey and unmotivated when I got up today, but I decided that enough is enough! Started at the pool, and since I don’t have a watch I decided to keep it simple:

• warm up
• 2 x 750m
• cool down

I didn’t want to just swim aimlessly, but I also didn’t want a whole bunch of clock-checking and math-doing. Two longer sets was perfect, and it felt good knowing I swam the triathlon distance in just two pieces. Feeling like myself again! 1750m total.

Next I headed upstairs to meet Kristen. She gym’d me so hard today. After some glider layouts to compare progress from two weeks ago, she put me through a full-body sequence. Biceps, pecs, triceps, squats, an awesome split-squat/deadlift combo, pull-ups (I can’t even do ONE yet without assistance…) and core. I officially like going to the gym.

Later, I was itching to go for a run but convinced myself not to. Instead I settled for 45 minutes of yoga at home. I will run tomorrow! Sticking to Coach Andrews plans like a good athlete 😉

Thursday, April 12th – easy day

Started with swimming again. I wanted to be able to say that, at this point, I can swim a whole kilometer without stopping, so after a warm-up I got to it. One thousand meters in exactly 24 minutes. Woooo! Then I did a 500m set and called it a day. 1700m total.

Next was 10k easy + drills

No watch to check on, so I monitored my form to the best of my ability with all the research and YouTube’ing I’ve been doing on that. Such a great run.

Friday, April 13th – hard day

Have I told you how much I fking love intervals? Well I do. When I see workouts like this on the plan, I get really excited and intimidated at the same time.

• 3k warm-up
• 6 x 1k with 2:00 jog recoveries (4:35-4:15/km range)
• 3k cool-down

You guys. I nailed this workout. It felt so good that I messaged Coach Andrew to humble brag. Cranked out those reps at 4:33, 4:31, 4:27, 4:25, 4:21 and 4:15. And covered my basement in sweat.

After work: 5k easy for 19k daily total

Saturday, April 14th – recovery day

50:00 on the recumbent bike at home with my black coffee and Meb for Mortals (review coming)

Next, one round of Dirty Dozen plus all the stuff from the Strengthen Like Meb chapter, excluding the swiss ball stuff, since I don’t have one. A solid forty minutes of functional strength at work.

After work I went to the pool. Earlier, I had a random urge to swim the full triathlon distance, 1500m, and see where I’m at. I warmed up for 200m (this is NOT a long enough warm up! Why would I think 5 or 6 minutes was long enough?) and then got started. It was tiring, but I did it! 36:44. Considering last summer it took me 19:15 to swim half that distance in the sprint tri, I am very happy about this! Still three months to get stronger!

Sunday, April 15th – easy day

13k easy + 7x100m strides + drills

Gorgeous but foggy morning. Run felt good and I admit it was refreshing again to not have a watch on. The strides felt really great today and I got in my third of three drill sessions for the week. Winning!

SUMMARY

WEEKLY MILEAGE:  62km

INJURIES/PRE-HAB? 

nothing specific besides religious rolling of the gargantuan calves

SLEEP? good, but more naps are always good.

NUTRITION BRAGS?

went for sushi on Wednesday, got BROWN half-rice on my rolls and didn’t get any of the usual deep fried or tempura flakey choices.

CURRENTLY READING: Meb for Mortals

CONFIDENCE BOOSTER(S) OF THE WEEK:

• I can swim a kilometer in 24 minutes.
• shit kicked my km reps & ran them progressively, down to the last one at 4:15/km
• I can swim 1500m and will surive the triathlon!

NEXT RACE?

Tenacious Ten presented by Oiselle! 10 miler (16.1 km) – next Saturday in Seattle!

And that’s it, week one is already done! Next week, a sick lady crew takes on Seattle. Tourist Olympics coming at you.