Training Week in Review – 15 weeks out from Harrisburg (7/21/14 - 7/27/14)

This was a recovery week for me. What does that mean? It means fewer miles and more rest days – two rest days, to be precise! I tried to time this recovery week on my schedule so it corresponded with a trip to Gettysburg to visit with my husband’s family.   I knew I’d be stressed out if I had to find time to fit in 60+ miles with all of the traveling and visiting time.   But thankfully fitting in 40 miles was relatively easy and I took full advantage of the rest days. I was also fortunate that this was a recovery week since my children were sick with a virus and my sleep definitely suffered as they were up multiple times each night.   Whew. While I loved the (slightly) cooler temps and different views on my runs in Gettysburg, I’m happy to be back in RVA and return to my normal running and gym schedule this week!     But before we get to that, here’s how last week went:

Monday: OFF! Tuesday: 10 miles easy + Body Pump Wednesday: 6.6 miles easy Thursday: 7 miles fartleks (best estimate is I kept the 2 min “on” portion in the 6:13-6:30 range) Friday: OFF! Saturday: 12.2 miles battlefield run (7:52 avg pace) Sunday: 5.2 miles recovery

Total miles: 41

The week started off well with a total rest day. I didn’t even go to the gym to do any supplemental stuff! On Tuesday I was able to take advantage of that fact that my husband took a day off from work and wake up super early to head downtown and run with a friend from his new house.  It was great to run a different route and I really enjoyed having company on the run.   Wednesday I got up early and ran some miles before we left to head up the road to Gettysburg. The run was HOT and HUMID and I think I lost two pounds in sweat! My post-run frozen smoothie was extra delicious on this day.   Thursday I was in Gettysburg and decided to just run out and back on the road near my in-laws’ house. Since I’d gotten limited sleep the night before due to the girls being sick, I decided to do some fartleks vs. a tempo. For some reason fartleks are easier for my tired mind (and body) to handle. Even though it’s the same amount of “work” (20 minutes of tempo vs. 10 x 2 min on, 1 min off for fartleks), the fartleks aren’t as mentally daunting for me. I set the workout on my watch and off I went. Unfortunately, my watch is dying and keeps shorting out - once I finished the workout and stopped it, it erased all of my splits. Oh well. I did the workout and it felt sufficiently challenging – and that’s what counts.

I chose Friday as another day off so that my husband could get up early and go play golf with his father. Saturday’s long run got off to a later start (7:45am) due to an extremely rough night with the kiddos. They were 12 times in the middle of the night and I was TIRED on my run on Saturday. But happily it turned out to be a nice scenic run around the battlefields in Gettysburg. I had some cloud cover for most of the run which helped keep me cooler on the hilly course. Sunday’s run was an easy recovery paced jog before the trip back home. I’ve been missing my foam roller this week since we’ve been out of town and I was happy to be reunited with it!

Up Next: Back to Reality with 65 miles

Next week I’m back up in mileage and I’ll be getting back into the gym for some core work and Body Pump (weight training class). I’m hoping to have two weeks of increased mileage (65 and then 70) and then take one more recovery week right before the start of my official training block for Harrisburg.

That was my training week in review – how was your week?

Related: -  Training Week in Review - 16 weeks out -  Training Week in Review - 17 weeks out

How to Improve Your Sleep to Improve Your Running

Today’s workout: 6.6 miles easy (8:00 avg pace)  I try really hard to get to bed early. It’s a must when that alarm goes off at 4-something and I’ve got to get up and go run. Some nights my young kids are more needy than others and my husband and I haul our tired bodies out of bed multiple times to attend to them (like last night). I get increasingly cranky after too many of these nights of broken sleep and I know my training suffers.

You may not have small children.   Instead, you may work nights or stay up late for other reasons. Or perhaps you suffer from insomnia or care for others in your home who are awake at all hours.   Whatever the reason, many of us as runners are not getting the amount of sleep we need.

The Importance of Sleep:

Sleep is a critical component of proper recovery for runners. It’s so important that elite runners such as Ryan Hall regularly schedule naps during the day to ensure they recharge before heading out for an afternoon run. (Ryan refers to them as his “business meetings”)

During sleep, we go through several sleep cycles. In the 3^rd and 4^th cycle the HGH (Human Growth Hormone) is released from the pituitary gland and sends the signal to our body to heal itself.   HGH in its natural form helps to repair muscles and serves as a catalyst to help the body utilize fat for fuel. Without the proper level of HGH in the blood, recovery is impaired and we don’t bounce back from workouts as quickly - so it takes us longer to build our fitness.

Sleep Your Way to a PR?

One of my favorite studies on sleep is the one conducted on the Stanford University basketball team. The study tracked the players from the team for a period of several months where they added an average of two hours of sleep a night. The results were pretty amazing. With no extra training, the players increased their speed by 5% and the accuracy of their free throws by 9%!   I’m sure it’s not exactly the same, but can you imagine being able to improve your marathon time by 5% just by getting extra sleep? For a 3:30 marathoner, that would mean a 10+ minute PR! Sign me up.

How Much Do You Need?

Sleep experts recommend 7-9 hours of sleep for most people, and 8-10 for most athletes. In reality, this number can vary from runner to runner as some folks seem to perform well on less, and others need even more. To discover your own personal sleep needs you’d ideally go to sleep at the same time each night and wake up without an alarm for a week or two and compute the average hours of sleep per night from those results. But since most of us have jobs and/or families and aren’t able to perform this experiment, we can take some cues from our body and try to get as much sleep as we can in order to feel rested.

Quantity vs. Quality:

For those of that that are unable to get the full 8-10 hours recommended, there is some good news: Research has shown that the quality of sleep can be more important than the quantity of sleep.   If you toss and turn all night you may never get into those 3^rd and 4^th stages of sleep where HGH is released and your body gets what it needs to repair and recharge.

While we may not be able to do anything about the kids waking us up several times a night, let’s look at what we CAN control:

5 Ways To Increase Your Quality of Sleep

• Set a bedtime – Figure out what time you need to get up in the morning for work or your run and then work backwards from there. If I’m getting up at 5am, I need to aim to be in bed at 9pm to get 8 hours of sleep. While this may not always be possible, it gives me a time to shoot for and an extra kick in the pants when it’s 8:30pm and I’m dragging my feet on doing the dishes.
• Darken the room – Close all of your blinds and remove (or cover) all electronic devices.   The tiny light on your alarm clock can even be enough to disrupt your sleep cycle.
• Decrease/eliminate screen time before bed – I struggle with this one.  But studies have shown that the bright light from our tablets, phones and laptops can disrupt the normal nighttime release of melatonin (a key hormone that tells our body it is time for bed) and delay sleep.
• Utilize a “worry” list – If you find it tough to go to sleep with a million thoughts racing through your head, you might benefit from using a “worry” list. Take a few minutes before bed and do a brain dump – record any worries or items “to do” on a pad of paper before you go to sleep. Getting the thoughts out of your head and recorded on paper may help your brain to settle down and let your mind and body rest peacefully through the night.
• Create a calming bedtime routine – Try to perform the same series of steps each night before bed – i.e. my routine is to wash my face, brush and floss, spend 10 minutes foam rolling, then read a chapter from my current book. Creating a routine that you perform each night will help signal to your body that it’s time to sleep – allowing you to fall asleep faster and sleep more soundly.

I know it’s easier said than done, but getting a good night’s sleep goes a long way into helping us consistently train hard and perform at our best. If you can maximize the quantity and quality of sleep you can get, you’ll be giving yourself the best shot at fully absorbing all the benefits of all that hard work.   And those extra zzzzz’s may just be the difference between a good race and a GREAT one.

Training Week in Review – 16 weeks out from Harrisburg (7/14/14 - 7/20/14)

This was a week where real life intervened with my training and insisted that I alter my schedule a bit.   I front-loaded this week with mileage since I knew I had several events going on towards the end (my husband’s birthday, my nephew’s birthday, and cooking dinner for our friends).  When you have events in your life that conflict with your running schedule, don’t be afraid to switch things up if you need to. Just make sure to listen to your body and take proper time between hard efforts. Alright, let’s get to it – here’s how this week went down:  

Monday: 6 miles easy (a.m.) + a cancelled 5K which turned into 5 miles on the YMCA treadmill (p.m.)

Tuesday: 9.25 miles easy + Body Pump

Wednesday: 10.75 miles fartleks + recovery, Core work at the Y

Thursday: 7 miles easy + Body Pump

Friday: 6 miles recovery + Core work at the Y

Saturday: 14 miles with the group

Sunday: 7 miles recovery + Body Pump

Total miles: 65

Monday I was supposed to help pace a friend in a local 5K. I drove the 40 minutes out to the location of the race only to run a mile warm up, then have the race get canceled due to thunderstorms. While better safe than sorry, I was bummed to miss the opportunity to pace my friend and get in a bit of faster running. I made the most of it and headed to the YMCA once the race was cancelled so I could get in a few miles on the treadmill.

Since I didn’t get to run the faster stuff on Monday, I had to throw some speed into a run later in the week. I thought about doing it on Tuesday but at 5am the temps were in the mid-to-upper 70s and my “easy” pace felt hard thanks to crazy humidity. So I changed it up and decided to get it in Wednesday super early before I was scheduled to meet a friend for a 5-mile recovery run.   I ran a mile and half warm up and then did 8x2 minutes on, 1 minute off at 10K/tempo pace (6:35-6:18). My cooldown was 5 recovery paced (9:15 pace) miles with my friend.

I’d front loaded the week so by Thursday my legs were ready for a break. Thankfully the weather supplied one as we had temps in the 60s (woo hoo!) and lower humidity. That definitely helped out the legs on Thursday’s easy run.   Friday was just easy recovery miles, and Saturday I ran with a group around town. They are a faster bunch of folks so every run with them is tough for me. This one was no exception as we tackled some hills and ended up with 14 miles at an average 7:28 pace.  Finally, I ended the week with an early morning recovery run (8:31 avg. pace) today before church.

This was my first week back on the running-every-day schedule. Pfitzinger’s schedule that I’ve done for the past two seasons doesn’t have any scheduled days off from running. That doesn't mean that I don't take a rest day when I need to, it just means that he doesn't have any built into the schedule.  I’ve been working my way back up in mileage and days running and with the exception of next week’s recovery week I’ll now be back to running every day. I’ll talk more about that (running every day) in a future post.

Up Next: RECOVERY WEEK

Next week is a recovery week for me and a chance to rest my legs and absorb the training I’ve been putting in so I’ll be running reduced mileage (40 miles) and taking two rest days.   I have to say - I’m looking forward to it!

That was my training week in review – how was your week?