Marathon Mondays – Whatever it takes

Week 11 of Honolulu Marathon training was a bit intense, but luckily I got through it more or less. 🙂

(Planned miles) Actual miles

Monday (4 miles) 6 miles – I had run 14 miles the day before and normally in most training plans, they will tell you to rest the day after your long run. Due to some inflexibility in my schedule in the middle of the week, I couldn’t rest. So I ran 6 miles and it actually wasn’t so bad. I was shocked that my body was adjusting so easily. Probably because my body was thanking me for not putting it through another grueling 14 miler. Anything under 8 miles is easy, right? LOL Yeah, right.

Tuesday (Rest) 4.3 miles – I normally don’t run on Tuesdays, but I couldn’t run on Wednesday so I met up with a run group and did some interval work. As tired as I am, I always finish intervals with a feeling of satisfaction because I give it 100%. I start off slow and progressively get faster. The faster I get, the stronger I feel. That is, until I gas out because I didn’t pace myself well enough. LOL 🙂

Wednesday (8 miles) Rest – After 4 straight days of running, my body was ready for a break.

Thursday (6 miles) 4 miles – My boyfriend joined me on a night run around a bay. 🙂 Trying to get him to enjoy the running process has been a challenge, but I think he’s not hating it so I’ll take that as a win.

Friday (Rest) Rest – My body was trashed by the end of the week so I took another rest day with no active recovery.

Saturday (15 miles) 4 miles – I was missing 4 miles before my long run so I did a 4 miler with a friend who was getting back into running.

Sunday (Rest) 15 miles – When life gives you an official unofficial half marathon and a scheduled 15 mile long run, you combine the two and have yourself a great time. The local running shoe store, Milestone Running, hosted it’s second annual official unofficial half marathon this past weekend. It’s called their official unofficial because roads were not blocked off for this race. This was about a hundred or so people getting together, running a 13.1 mile course, and getting paper crowns as our medals. Haha. People also brought food as there was a potluck at the end. Because I had 15 miles planned, my friend and I parked a bit further away and ran to the start line and after the race, ran back to the car. Nice planning, right? 🙂

The 15 miler was really tough for me, but I think that because I ran with lots of people, I was mentally a lot stronger. It also helped that some of the others were doing ultra long runs like 20+ and that made me push harder because I just needed to get to 15. 🙂

Thoughts of the week: It was really difficult getting those planned miles in, but miraculously I did. I will continue to find a way to get them in, but if I don’t, it’ll still be okay. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself. With 7 or so weeks to go, I suspect that I will miss some miles here and there, but keeping myself injury free is more important. One of my knees is starting to feel like it’s going to buckle so I will have to be very careful the next few weeks. Eek! Wish me luck!

Advertisements

Marathon Mondays – Another 30 mile Training Week and my PBFest 5k Race Report

Disclaimer: I received an entry into the Honolulu Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews! All opinions are my own.

Sooooo turns out, now I’m actually halfway done. LOL. I didn’t realize I was a week off until the end of my long run on Sunday when the audio on my Motigo Training Plan said I was halfway done. Oops. It feels like I took a few steps back, but that’s okay. I’m still pushing forward. There’s still quite a bit of doubt in my mind, but I think I’m resilient enough to get through my fourth round of marathon training. 🙂 This week was kind of all over the place because I had some runs I had planned to go that didn’t really adhere to the schedule. More on that below.

Week 9 Honolulu Marathon Training

(Planned miles) Actual miles

Monday (4 miles) 6 miles – Starting my run with a run group always gives me that extra push that I need to do extra miles. That’s why I rarely adhere to my Monday planned miles. Hah. Those extra miles also give me a buffer in case I slack off later in the week day. 😊

Tuesday (Rest) Rest – I spoke to my trainer and after mentioning that my pecs still hurt from dips last week, he suggested just taking a real rest day where I did nothing. I couldn’t have been more ecstatic. LOL 😊 Hooray!

Wednesday (7 miles) 5.5 miles – The miles were slow, but the run was much more enjoyable, which is a bonus in my book.

Thursday (6 miles) 3.2 miles – On Thursdays, I usually run on the treadmill, but there was 5k social run for the Craft Classic San Diego half so I jumped at the opportunity to run outside. There was a pretty steep hill, but I thought it was a better alternative to running in one place.

Friday (Rest) Banded dead lifts – Why on earth do people do dead lifts? LOL. I tried these banded dead lifts with just an empty bar bell and it was a bit difficult. (I’m so weak😂) I also looked super awkward doing them so maybe that’s why I don’t like them. I even tried recording myself doing them so I could see my form and it was just so horrendous that I deleted it. LOL. I guess this will just be something that I have to work on.

Saturday (13 miles) 3.1 miles – So I had a 5k race scheduled on Saturday that messed up my running schedule a bit. I didn’t run as long earlier in the week because I knew I had to run twice during the weekend. My friend really wanted me to do the Pacific Beach Fest 5k with him and when I got a free race entry to do it, I figured why not?

The course starts out on the beach and for a mile and a half, you’re running on the beach and trying to avoid the tide. I probably should have looked into beach running a bit more before attempting this because I think I did it wrong. I didn’t want to get my shoes wet so I ran more along the looser part of the sand, which also happened to be the least stable of the sand. With each step that I took, it felt like I was using a lot more of my calf muscles to propel forward. I did end up getting closer to the tide, but whenever the tide came in, I had to make sure to move in as to not get wet. After the mile and a half of beach, you get to turn around and run on pavement. This was a godsend. I had never been so relieved to be running on pavement. LOL. Too bad pavement running didn’t last long. About a mile on pavement, they directed us back into the sand for the last half mile. I was devastated. LOL. My legs were really burnt out and after that, I vowed to not do another beach run ever again. Of course, this could change after time has passed and I forget how painful it was. LOL 😊

Sunday (Rest) 13 miles – I woke up on Sunday with dread as I didn’t have my usual run group to go with. The first three miles were really tough. My legs still felt heavy from the beach run and I wasn’t sure if I could make it to 13 miles. Then miraculously, they loosened up and I started planning my route. I found that one of the perks of running solo is that I was in charge of the route. If I wanted to go right, I’d go right. I may have been too in charge of my route as I got lost a few times, but hey, that’s part of the fun.

Total Mileage (30 miles) 30.9 miles

Training has been tough, but I don’t think I’ve ever had an easy training cycle. I think it’s just part of the process and as everyone says, I’m trying to enjoy the process. But seriously, dead lifts and beach running sucks. 😊

Question for you: Do you like beach running? Or what is your favorite type of running? Beach? Trail? Road? Not running at all? LOL

After “Nuun” Delight – Nuun Immunity Review

Disclaimer: I received a two tubes of Nuun Immunity to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews! All opinions are my own. 

Training for a marathon is hard. Putting in the miles. Eating right. (LOL. I really don’t.) And most importantly, drinking right. Every day, when I get a break at work, I force myself to get up and go get a cup of water. If I don’t, I know I’ll regret it on my run in the evening. Hydration is important pre-run and most definitely post-run.

I was introduced to Nuun a few years ago at a Health and Fitness Expo. I tried their electrolyte line, more specifically the Lemon-Lime and fell in love with it. Seriously, I requested the Lemon-Lime tubes from my Secret Santa last year and got 5 tubes of them. LOL. Since then, I’ve also bought their watermelon flavor and strawberry lemonade. 🙂

Nuun is different from other sports drinks in that it comes in the form of a tablet. Think Alka Seltzer tablets. You can drop one of the tablets into 16 oz water and in a few minutes, you’ll have a sports drink. There’s no shaking to get the tablet to dissolve (which is great after a hard workout because who has the energy to dissolve a drink). 

A month and a half ago, I was able to try out their new Immunity product line. It differs from their electrolyte line in that it focuses more on keeping your immune system in tip top shape. When you’re in a high stress environment (working out, traveling, working on a tight deadline), you’re more likely to come down with something. (I always came down with something after taking finals). These tablets are supposed to help you with that.

The Nuun Immunity line contains a mix of electrolytes and botanicals like tumeric, ginger, elderberry, and echinacea that help protect you against the common cold or even the flu. Currently, they have two flavors: Blueberry Tangerine and Orange Citrus. I was able to try both and my favorite of the two has got to be Orange Citrus. It is very similar to Lemon-Lime has a nice moderate flavor. In my honest opinion, I wasn’t a huge fan of the BlueBerry Tangerine, but many other BibRave Pros preferred it over the Orange Citrus. It’s just a matter of preference.

With my marathon training ramping up, I’m not taking any chances and have included taking Nuun Immunity every few days. And *fingers crossed*, I haven’t come down with anything yet. The true test will definitely be trying these when it starts to get colder. Brrrr.

If you’ve never tried these tablets, I’d definitely recommend. They’re typically $7 a tube and each tube contains 10 tablets. I really like trying out their new flavors and not everything is a hit, but I have found flavors that I will always return to. They also have vitamins and performance lines too, which I haven’t actually tried, but will try within the next few months. I am not a fruit fanatic so getting in those vitamins should probably be a goal for me. LOL.

Nuun tablets are available at most local running shoe stores and at some grocery stores. If you can’t get your hands on any locally, you can order them online. If you’re in the U.S., you can also use the code “HYDRATEBIBPRO” for 20% off your entire online Nuun order. This offer lasts until the end of October 2018. 🙂

See below for my fellow BibRave Pros’ reviews of the Nuun Immunity line. I will update with more of their reviews as they post them. 🙂

Jenn – Lindsay – Ryan – Amanda – Randy

Question for you: What are your go to sports drinks? Do you also drink Nuun or something else? What are you favorite flavors? 

Travel Tuesdays – Busan, Korea

Ack, I am just the worst at posting these Travel Tuesdays. It’s been 2 months and I’ve only written one post on my 10 day trip to Korea and Japan. Sigh. Sorry! Hopefully, my memories of these experiences are still fresh in my mind. 🙂

So this time, I’ll be describing my time in Busan! Woohoo! I was only there for two full days so apologies if it’s not terribly exciting. Disclaimer: It is very food oriented. LOL

After my one night stay in Seoul (I blame not having enough PTO days), I made our way to Busan from Seoul via the KTX bullet train. Fortunately, the AirBnB I stayed at was situated very closely to Seoul Station, where the bullet train was. Unfortunately for us, it was pouring that morning and we spent a lot of time hiding in restaurants and cafes.

Seoul to Busan is about 202 miles and with the KTX bullet train, I was able to get there in less than 3 hours! THREE HOURS! Isn’t that insane? I can’t even get to LA from San Diego in less than 2.5 hours and that’s only a 100 miles away. The United States needs a bullet train ASAP.

The bullet train tickets were very simple to book. There are a lot of trains that head out from Seoul and you can book it online with no issues. You will have to pick up the physical tickets at Seoul Station though, but the booth is super easy to find.

Once we got to Busan, we made our way to our AirBnb near Seomyeon Station. After setting our stuff down and cooling down a bit, we decided to explore a bit and I’m super glad we did. Here are the things I learned about this area:

The area is busy, but not overwhelming – I was able to navigate fairly easily with google maps. There is a bit of dodging here and there, but nothing too bad (unlike Japan).

There are underground shopping centers – Something I didn’t realize about Korea and Japan is that there are underground shopping centers. When it gets too hot and humid, people go under and cool off. 🙂

Mul Naengmyun is BOMB – I didn’t have any high expectations of the food coming in, but after eating in 3 days, I found myself extremely impressed. After a few days of being back in the states, I was craving Korean food. LOL.

Mul Naengmyun is a cold noodle dish packed with flavor. The noodles are placed in a chilled icy broth made from beef and/or radish kimchi water. It is often served with an egg.

Gachapon shops are a thing – Remember when you were younger and at the supermarket, there would be these vending machines that dispensed random toys in capsules after you put in a quarter or two? Do you remember? Okay, now imagine a room filled with these vending machines. That’s what a Gachapon shop is. My boyfriend and I found this place accidentally and spent a good 20 minutes debating how to spend all of our money on little toys. LOL.

Korean Night life – It could have been just the area I was in, but Busan knows how to have fun. We were walking around at 11 pm and stores were still open and it was a Sunday night.

Dwaeji Gukbap (Pork Soup) – If you’ve ever seen my IG stories, you’ll know that I live for food. It’s a huge part of why I run so much. So I can eat all of the things. 🙂 So it shouldn’t be a surprise that a lot of my travels revolve around food. Sorry not sorry. 🙂 Dwaeji Gukbap is a specialty in Busan. It’s pork soup that is really rich in flavor. The soup itself is fairly bland, but you can taste the fattiness of it and you can season it with salt. I swear I’m doing it justice by describing it. If you’re ever in Busan, please go try this dish. Especially if you have a hangover. I heard it’s really good hangover food.

The second day, we moved to another AirBnB near Haeundae Beach. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do too much exploring because a storm was coming in. I did get to try one memorable thing and of course, it’s another food item.

BBQ – I figured it’d be fun to try Korean BBQ or as they’d call it in Korea, BBQ. My boyfriend and I stayed near Haeundae Beach our second night and was able to find a famous BBQ place called Haeundae Somunnan Amso Galbijip. The place was set up like a traditional Korean house and you get to sit on the ground and grill your own meat. 🙂 This was a bit pricier than the other meals I had in Korea, but I really love Korean BBQ and this was worth the experience.

I had a really fun time exploring Busan and I’d probably come back to visit the other neighborhoods. Just have to get more PTO days. 🙂 In the mean time, I’ll write about my travels to Japan soon.

Question for you: Have you been had Korean BBQ? What’s your favorite dish? I love brisket and beef tongue. Yummmmm.

Marathon Mondays – It’s Getting Real

Disclaimer: I received an entry into the Honolulu Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews! All opinions are my own.

If you’re interested in signing up for the Honolulu Marathon, use code “HNLBR2018” for 10% off the registration.

You know the marathon training is getting real (and terrifying) when you have your first 13+ mile long run. This week, it got real. Here is that recap of the week’s training.

Week 7 Honolulu Marathon Training

(Planned miles) Actual miles

Monday (4 miles) 6.2 miles – Having not slept enough the night before, I was debating between running 5 or 6 flat miles. Little did I know that Milestone Running had something else in mind. The 3rd Monday of every month, this store does a 10k challenge up and down Mt. Soledad. Over the course of a 5k, you gain 600+ feet and it is not fun. LOL. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that my calves are a major pain point for me and you’ll also know that running uphill sets them off. 😦 I was pretty slow up the mountain, but I made up for it on the way down. 🙂 See my splits below. LOL. Uneven much?

Tuesday (Rest) 5 sets of 30 sec handstands with stair running and 10 v sit ups – Everything about this workout was challenging. Holding a handstand at first felt fine, but after the 3rd round, my arms were shaking and I thought I’d fall flat on my face.

Wednesday (7 miles) 5.3 miles – The nice thing about having a group to hold you accountable is that they also become an awesome group to hang out with. I had a really bad work day and one of the staff members at Fleet Feet San Diego stuck this duct taped note onto a Capri Sun. (If you’ve been to my IG lately, you’ll know that I’m obsessed with Capri Suns. LOL). It just made my day.

Thursday (5 miles) 2.4 miles and 5 sets of jump roping singles and 15 lb weighted lunges across the room – Running on the treadmill isn’t very fun and during a very busy work day, I was only able to get in a few miles. I then spent after work doing some light weight work.

Friday (Rest) Rest

Saturday (14 miles) 14 miles – This was the longest run yet for this training season and boy oh boy, it sucked. I was fairly strong for 6 miles, but then it got warm and the clouds disappeared. I ran with a friend who kept my spirits up and we got to 9 miles together. Unfortunately, that’s when things got a lot harder. I was on the struggle bus the last 5 miles. I was able to jog 2 miles more before starting to take more walk breaks. Luckily, another friend found me and jogged/walked with me the final 1.5 miles. Doubt was on my mind the last 5 miles. This run made me wonder if I could ever do an ultra. 😦

Sunday (Rest) Yoga, 1600 meter swim, 1 mile run – After my long run on Saturday, I was basically bed ridden for the rest of the day. LOL. So Sunday, I decided that I should probably stretch and do a bit of active recovery. By Sunday, I was short 2 miles and attempted to run the two, but my legs were so sore that I only managed 1.

Total mileage: 29/30 miles

This week wasn’t a great week in terms of running, but I think it’ll be okay. That 14 miler was HARD, but we all have those days…I think.

How do you deal with doubt on your runs? Or in general? Do you just brush it off? Please share. 🙂

Marathon Mondays – Fatigue Setting In

Okay, so this post isn’t technically on a Monday, but you’ll have to forgive me. Life happened and I just kind of forgot to write.

Week 6 Honolulu Marathon Training

(Planned miles) Actual miles

Monday (4 miles) 6 miles – A sort of strong 6 miles run with Milestone Running. I ran 4 miles strong, stopped to sit down and take a photo, and pulled a hamstring. -_- Sigh. Some cursing ensued and then I hobbled/ran the last two miles back.

Tuesday (Rest) 6 sets of 10 kettle bell swings, 10 kettle bell levers, 10 inverted rows, and 10 incline push ups – Hello full body workout! This was a “as many reps as you can in 18 minutes.” Turns out, I can do 6 reps. It’s not very fast, but I was also trying to not kill my back with the kettle bells.

Wednesday (7 miles) 8 miles – Achieved the mileage in 2 runs. I ran 3 miles on my lunch break and an additional 5 miles with Fleet Feet San Diego. The latter run unfortunately wasn’t very good. I started out strong, but it was too fast. By the time I hit 4 miles, I was burning out and praying that I’d have a reason to stop and rest for a bit before running again. LOL. Luckily, I did run into someone so I got a breathing break.

By this day, I could feel that my body wasn’t dealing with the running very well. I was trying to go too fast and too hard. Then, that night, I experienced a really bad Charlie horse, one where I was sore for 24 hours even after thorough stretching and foam rolling.

Thursday (5 miles) 5 miles – Without a run group to meet up with and the fact that my calves were still really sore, I just dragged myself to the gym and ran an easy 5 miles on the treadmill.

Friday (Rest) 5 burpees followed by 5 back squats every minute on the minute – When my trainer put the schedule on the board, I thought, “Oh awesome. I’ll have a lot of rest time in between each set. I can knock out the burpees and squats in a few seconds. No problem.” Oh how naive I was. I maybe had 10 – 15 seconds to catch my breath and after the workout, I could barely feel my arms. I hate burpees. LOL.

Saturday (12 miles) 9 miles – Lululemon was celebrating 20 years of being open and in honor of their 10th year in San Diego, they hosted a little fun run relay. A team of 4 would cover about 20ish miles from Carlsbad to San Diego. 🙂 Registration included a Lululemon racer tank and a post finish brunch with mimosas. 🙂 I love their gear and at $45 a person, I figured why not. I was the last leg, which was about 4.5 miles. Since I needed a longer run, I decided to park at the finish and run to the start and then run back to the finish giving me 9 miles. What I didn’t anticipate though was the elevation going up to the start. LOL. 

My relay team did end up getting first place so I guess I didn’t slow my team down too much. 🙂

Sunday (Rest) Yoga – Every Sunday at Balboa park, there is a yoga meet up group. Everyone brings their own yoga mat and does yoga on the lawn. This was my first meet up and it was much harder doing yoga on an uneven surface. I think I’ll keep it in rotation for my workouts to mix things up a bit. 🙂

Total mileage: 28 miles/28 miles

So I hit my weekly mileage, but at the cost of some aches and pains. I also didn’t really have a real rest day, which I think my body really needed. This week, I will be focusing more on listening to my body and do easier runs. Wish me luck!

Question for you: Do you get Charlie horses? How do you get them to go away quickly? I tried holding onto the muscle that was spasming, but it didn’t help and it was extremely painful. 😦 

Marathon Mondays – A Balancing Act

Disclaimer: I received an entry into the Honolulu Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews! All opinions are my own.

Boom. I’ve just finished week 5 of Honolulu marathon training and I’m uhh kind of hitting a bump in the road. Since I started cross training, I haven’t really been able to do any runs 3+ miles without having to take a walk break. I’m not sure if it’s in my head, but I think I might be putting too much stress on my body or I’m not sleeping enough. Sigh.

Week 5 Honolulu Marathon Training

(Planned miles) Actual miles

Monday (4 miles) 4 miles – Happy Labor Day! Started the day with a gnarly hill run. The elevation increase was kind of quick from the start, which was probably not the smartest choice and my calves were just not dealing with them well. I had to walk quite a bit to stretch them out.

Tuesday (Rest) 4 rounds of 1 min burpees/box jumps, 1 min ball slams, 1 min V sit ups, 1 min rest – Burpees just kill me every time. Every single time. The day after this work out, my entire body was sore. LOL

Wednesday (6 miles) 6.5 miles – Broke this run into 2. Ran 2 on the treadmill and 4.5 outside. 🙂

Thursday (5 miles) 3.2 miles – The Craft Classic San Diego race has been having social runs at a brewery once a month to promote their race on October 21st. A friend was organizing the event and I couldn’t pass up a raffle that they were having with the run so I went. I ended up winning a gift card so it was a good day. 🙂 Heh.

Friday (Rest) Very quick stretching – I had recently bought a yoga mat and spent about 10 minutes trying to stretch before my long run on Saturday.

Saturday (10 miles) 11 mile long run with 1650 meter swim – Oh god. I went insane on Saturday. I had logged 14 miles over the week and was a mile short going into the weekend so I tacked on the extra mile in this run. Apparently, the stretching the night before did very little to help my running because for the first 4 miles, my legs were very tight and only 5 miles in did I finally hit my stride. 😦 I did feel very strong the rest of the way though. And of course, since I’m a glutton for punishment, I decided that running 11 miles wasn’t enough and added on about a 1 mile of swimming just for kicks. LOL.

Sunday (Rest) Yoga – After having so much tightness in my calves, I decided to attend another yoga class. Even though I knew it was good for me, I still dreaded doing it. Even 30 minutes into class, I kept looking at my watch hoping the time would pass by faster. LOL. But the funny thing is that 55 minutes into yoga when the instructor told everyone to sit and touch their toes, I still couldn’t, but I could tell that I was making progress. The stretch in my hamstrings felt really soothing and for that brief 2 minutes, I felt happy at yoga. LOL.

Thoughts of the week: This week wasn’t super great for running, but I did hit the mileage. 25/25 miles! Weight lifting was tough, but swimming and yoga felt easier, which is a relief.

Oh and I’m a bit worried that weight training is hurting my running. Does anyone have experience with weight training and running? What should I do? Any suggestions?