In 11 sleeps I will be gearing up to run marathon #2. For any new-ish readers I ran my first marathon in October 2010 in Portland, Oregon. It didn’t go so well.

I didn’t think I would run another marathon again so soon but after spending 2011 trail running, triathlon training and doing a hot yoga challenge I felt the “itch” and so I signed up for Vancouver the same day they announced the brand new course.

This training cycle has been amazing for me. I decided to train with the local Running Room and it’s the best decision I could have made. Even though I haven’t done every run with my group it’s been great knowing that I had people to meet three days of the week and the hill training and speed training we’ve done has been invaluable. I’ve truly enjoyed training and running the high mileage and have no doubt in my mind that I will do more marathons – something I wasn’t so sure about after my last training experience.

Even when I wasn’t running with my Running Room friends I was making plans to do runs, or parts of long runs, with other running friends. After doing all my long runs alone my last training cycle this made a huge difference and the long runs felt much more doable this cycle.

And, probably the most important thing of all, I’ve been completely injury-free this training cycle. No tweaks, aches or pains, which I dealt with constantly last time. Running injury free is the best thing ever and makes training so much more enjoyable!

So with 11 sleeps to go I’ve got the typical “taper crazies” happening. I’m exhausted and then full of energy and then exhausted again throughout the day. I can’t help but feel guilty for resting even though I know it’s the best thing I can do for my body right now.

Last night I skipped my run after a long and busy work day and opted to chill at home, eat homemade pizza, watch TV and read.

I know I haven’t been blogging a whole lot lately, life has just been so busy I haven’t made the time to sit down and write “real” posts but there are a few posts I’m planning on writing in the next 1-2 weeks: how I stayed injury free this training cycle (in my opinion), a review of the Running Room marathon clinic, my musings on running long vs. running fast and my plans for training this summer/fall (they include trying crossfit, training for another triathlon and lots more trail running!)

I know I have quite a few readers who are “running Van” with me in 11 sleeps – how are you feeling? Any one else dealing with the taper crazies? 

What are everyone else’s summer training plans? 

Last night my friend Jamie came to stay with us because we had plans to get in a triple-brick workout today and essentially replicate our upcoming triathlon (we are both doing our first sprint triathlon in Kelowna on August 21!)

This morning we got up, went to the Farmers Market, and around 11:00 AM we drove out to the lake (which was about 25 minutes out of town.)

It looked cold! Jamie had a wetsuit, I unfortunately, did not! Side note: I know my swimsuit is ridiculous. I got it really cheap (for a nice speedo endurance one) when I used to lifeguard. It’s lasted 4+ years already!

Once we got into the water and started swimming it really wasn’t too cold at all! But because this lake had SO MUCh seaweed in it we chose to just swim back and forth along the shore to avoid the icky seaweed. We swam for 30 minutes. No idea how far we went but I’m estimating approx. 750 metres. I’m feeling confident about the open water swimming thing after today!

Next up, biking. I know most people who do triathlons find swimming to be the hardest sport but I definitely find biking to be. I am just not a fan of biking!

Oh, and with getting the bikes out of the truck, changing etc. our transitions were each about 20-30 minutes today. Heh! We figured there was no point in rushing when it wasn’t the actual race day.

Doing three sports requires a lot of gear!

The original plan was to swim for 30 minutes, bike for 60 minutes and then run for 30 minutes but we underestimated how hilly the road we were on would be. It was a brutal bike ride and I felt so tired after my swim.

We ended up doing only about 45 minutes of biking and covering 8 miles (13ish km). I’ll take it considering the intense hills we conquered.

Biking done! Next up, running.

I have to say, I was tired at this point and did not want to run. If Jamie hadn’t been there with me I bet I would have backed out and been satisfied with the swim + bike ride. Once we got started running I felt a little better but my legs were SO HEAVY. I have done a lot of distance races where my legs tighten up but I’ve never had such heavy legs before. It was crazy!

Our run ended up being pretty hilly as well as we veered off onto a trail for 2 miles.

Finally a full three hours after we’d drove up there we were done – and super sweaty!

I can’t believe how much this workout wiped me out you guys. It was insane. I was so, so tired at the end. I blame this partially on not taking enough fuel (only two little gummy chomps the WHOLE workout + water) and also just not being trained yet. This has only been my first week of triathlon training.

I sure hope I feel better when I do the real thing in six weeks! After we got home, inhaled food and showered Jamie helped me prep a quinoa-veggie salad for a BBQ we’re going to tonight and then she headed home. I went to get a pedicure that I’d booked weeks ago and thought was “such a good deal” but it turns out it was such a good deal because ALL they did was clip your nails and paint your toes. What a waste of $30 on something I could have done myself.

Oh well, at least I have pretty toes now! Live and learn.

Off to that BBQ – back tomorrow with a weekly recap of training. Toodles!

***

Question of the day: for all the triathletes out there, any advice on transitions? Jamie and I were talking about it today and we felt so slow-moving and tired after each sport was done. We can’t even imagine racing through those transitions on race day!

Yesterday morning I got back to the track for my first speed-interval workout in months. One of our local running stores offers a track workout every Wednesday morning at 6:00 AM – FREE! It’s great!

I built it into my summer training plan so I would have no excuses over the next couple months. Track workouts have helped me achieve some of my best times ever.

In 2009 I went to track workouts once a week religiously for about 8-10 weeks. Result? I ran a 2:01:40 half-marathon – 10 minutes faster than my previous half-marathon PR three months prior.

From January – March this year I also attended track/speed/hill workouts weekly for 9 weeks. Result? I ran a 54:40 10K – 3 minutes faster than my previous 10K PR – and I did it after spending the week moving and painting.

Clearly speed training works. So I need to stick with it!

Yesterday morning only two of us showed up for the workout so I got some great one-on-one feedback from the coach. I was told I need to lean into it more when I’m running intervals and stay on my toes. I could definitely feel a difference in my stride when I followed his instructions and leaned into the run slightly.

He gave me an easier workout than the other girl since I’d been gone for so long:

• 1.25 miles warmup
• 4 x 25 metre strides
• 5 x 400 m <—hard!!
• 0.5 miles cooldown
• drills (butt kicks, crossovers, lunges etc)

I don’t have my exact 400 splits but they were approximately 1:45 – 1:43 – 1:50 – 1:45 – 1:40. I pushed HARD on the last one. I need to get my Garmin set up on intervals so I’ll have exact splits next time.

Total was 3 miles in about 27 minutes. The 400 m intervals were challenging. When he first said it five didn’t seem like a lot, but after not being at the track for so long it was really hard! I was definitely breathing hard.

And boy was I ever a sweaty mess after. Check out my sopping wet teeny tiny ponytail

It felt good to be back out there though and I will definitely be going again next Wednesday and the one after that!

***

If you’re a runner do you do track workouts regularly? Have you found they improved your running?