Chicago Marathon Training: Week 15 PEAK WEEK Recap

Peak week has passed and it is officially taper time, you guys!! And what a week it has been!!

Last week kicked off my largest week of training for Chicago Marathon and the last week of building mileage before I taper down for 3 weeks before the race. I've been anticipating this week all of training and can't tell you how many times I've stared at a calendar and mapped out the days of the week, trying to juggle around when I would get in all of my runs.

Some people like to look back and reflect based on where they are a year ago to the day, and with social media making that extra easy nowadays it's not uncommon to see posts all over Facebook reflecting back. And although I readily admit I like looking at my own every day (more on that later), I also have been finding myself reminiscing lately based off of training. A "where was I last time I ran XX distance..." Type of nostalgia if you will. Perhaps because I am using the exact same training plan I used for Paris. And perhaps because I'm just a total sap. Perhaps because I just like to reflect and compare, and this time around there is so much growth I can see. But, I've been definitely been doing a lot of it lately and wow are there differences.

And also some similarities.

In all my marathon trainings, I like to make things just a liiiiittttle more complicated by adding in international travel and completely hectic schedules. I've had some pretty memorable runs around the world the past few years and my runs leading up to the Paris Marathon are definitely highly ranked up there. And because I have this blog, I've been really enjoying going back and putting myself in the mindset I had a year and a half ago when this was a completely new thing to me and I had no idea if I could really run 26.2 and be a marathoner.

My peak week of training in 2014 for the Paris Marathon I spent in Barcelona, Spain, while at a conference for work.

I ran my 14 mile run the day after arriving in Barcelona and literally ran into a parade taking place. My morning runs I did before then spending the day on a trade show floor. My ten mile run I remember left me exhausted and I ended up sitting in the back room of our booth amongst the luggage for a portion of it. I feel like I talked to EVERYONE I encountered about the fact it was peak week and I was so nervous about it. My 20-miler I did again in Barcelona, then lay on the bed for a long time before hobbling around Park Guell.

Over the past week I ran 40 miles.  This was peak week in training for Chicago Marathon.  Yet I feel that barely anyone knows.

On Tuesday of last week I ran five miles with my friend Janet and we finished the run with an awesome photo shoot celebrating the kick off to peak week. I love, love, love my morning runs with friends in Atlanta.  They are such a great way to kick off the day.

On Wednesday, we were back at it and I planned a route for all levels, doing a 6 mile loop and then finishing at the Beltline where one friend dropped off, Janet did 2 more to get 8 miles, and I finished off at 10 miles.  I felt good through it and finished with my last 2 miles at a really great pace under 9 minute miles!  It felt good running, but immediately afterwards I felt stiff and my left knee felt like it was a bit swollen or inflamed.

I started to get really nervousy and panicky and much of Wednesday was filled with a lot of anxiety about what was going on with my knee.  I went home and iced it and foam rolled more, as I have been trying to a lot more for the past week, but my knee was something new.  Every time I take a step, my knee feels like it clicks/pops a bit and I don't know what that means.  I know it can't be good but I also don't know what to do about it because it doesn't hurt. So I don't want to stop running?  I really obsessed over this a lot over the next few days.  What didn't help was that I flew up to Boston on Wednesday evening so didn't even have time to fully just relax.

It was funny to me that I went the whole day on Wednesday having run 10 miles in the morning and not having it be a huge deal.  Yes, my knee bothered me and that was a huge deal, but otherwise, I just went about my day. Nobody in my meetings knew that I did this.  I didn't feel the need to tell everyone about it.  It was just something that I did.

Thursday was a rest day for me, so that was good, and I also went to a running store and grabbed a foam roller, some KT tape, and anything else I thought might help me.

Friday morning I had another 5 mile run, which I did in Boston along the Charles River, with a great pace of about 9:15 minute miles and feeling pretty good.  My knee was definitely inflamed again at the end of the run, but I foam rolled, iced and stretched a lot before going about my day.

And from that point on, I didn't really think about the marathon again that weekend.  I was in Boston to celebrate my best friend Meaggie's wedding and the weekend was filled with fun, laughter-filled activities that left me with the marathon as the last thing on my mind.  I will recap the wedding later because it was an amazing event and want to be sure to save all the memories, but first let me take a selfie get through peak week recap.

The marathon came crashing back to my mind on Sunday morning as I packed up and moved on from the wedding weekend bubble and drove out to Albany, New York (my old stomping grounds!!) and prepared to run my 20-miler on Monday morning.  I had worked my schedule to have the morning off and do my run then since the weekend would be busy with the wedding.  On the way out to New York I stopped at the grocery store to buy the food and things I needed to eat in the morning to be prepared and once I got to my friends where I am staying, prepped everything I would need.

The morning started chillier than I initially expected with a temperature of around 45 degrees!  It was frosty out and I could see my breathe so I ran in a long sleeve shirt.  I chose to do my run on the Hudson Mohawk Trail, which is where I have run so many times in the past with my friends on our regular Monday, Wednesday, Friday AM runs.

I went out 5 miles in one direction, returned back to my car to refill water and Gatorade and also go to the bathroom, and then went 5 miles out in the other direction, before returning to my car.  I finished the run at an average about 9:58 minute/miles, which is a bit slower than I have been running lately, but I also finished it with a lot more pain than I have been experiencing lately.

Towards the end of this run, the pain I was experiencing during the last few miles of my 18 mile run returned.  My butt and hip started to hurt a lot around 13 miles.  I knew my pace wasn't as good as other runs because my half marathon time was 2:09:09. I finished those last miles with a lot of hurt.  I got a little nervous when I was at mile 15 knowing I was still so far from my car and wondering if I could make it back with the pain.

I kept trying different ways to land and shift my gait that might try and make it feel better. I tried playing around with difference paces.  I tried ignoring it to see if it would go away. But it hurt a lot through the whole run. It was my mind that carried me those last 5 miles.

I'm not sure what the pain is or how to make it stop.  I could Google everything under the sun but I'm not sure what they'll tell me that I don't probably already know. Water, rest, foam rolling, stretching, Advil, more of all those things.  I don't know. It throbs a bit and is tender and it is not the best feeling.  However, it is an amazing feeling knowing that I got through the biggest week of training.  That I ran my 2nd ever 20-miler during training.  That I managed to make it through all the long runs of this training cycle with better times than I have ever run before, even with today's slightly slower pace.  That I now am TAPERING and have a few weeks to relax, get healthy, and rest up for Chicago Marathon.

I'm scared of the reoccurring pains I've had this training cycle.  My hip pain is also distracting me from the fact that my knee is still bothering me. For a while during the run it felt a bit out of sorts but ended up feeling okay throughout, although it still does click/pop with every step that I take.  I don't know if the pains are a result of oncoming arthritis associated with my psoriasis, or the stress of the run, or just weaknesses in my body as I am recalling pain in both my hip and knee during other training cycles.  And I feel frustrated because beyond this pain I feel SO good. I have no otherwise muscle soreness. No tiredness. No stomach problems. No headaches. No achiness elsewhere. I feel GOOD. Except my knee pops when I walk (with no pain) and now my right butt/hip is throbbing and sore.

I'm finishing the big mileage feeling proud, scared, nervous, excited, and ready for a break.  I am ready for these lingering pains to go away.  And I'm ready to crush Chicago Marathon.

So much more to come, but for now, I am signing off.  I started this post going in one direction and feel like I am finishing it in another but it's been a busy week and a busy day and I ran TWENTY FREAKING MILES TODAY so I am going to go to bed.

Goodnight!

Atlanta Falcons Rise Up and Run 5K Race Recap

This past Saturday morning I got up early to go meet my friends from Movers and Pacers to run the Atlanta Falcons Rise Up and Run 5K.  This was a race that was originally going to be in addition to my current mileage for training and just a fun run.  The race ended within the Georgia Dome, home of where the Atlanta Falcons NFL team plays and infamous (to me) by the Ludacris song where he sings, "I wanna get you in the Georgia Dome, on the 50 yard line, while the dirty birds kick for 3..."

Anyways, I ended up using this run as part of my actual mileage since I cut back a little bit.  So I did not push my time and decided to run with my friends for this race, which I was excited to do.

We arrived early in the morning, as you must for 5Ks and man, was fall in the air in Atlanta!  It was chilly out!  I arrived a little later than I wanted to and bounced out of my car into and elevator from the parking garage and immediately went and found my friends.  We hung around as the group expanded and it was exciting to see that we had a pretty large group all out to run, with many new runners and of course some of my besties.

Atlanta Track Club races always usually do waved starts, which is nice, and you just sort of self select where you want to go.  We ended up starting in Wave B and it ended up being super crowded.  I tried to stay with my friends, keep my pace at a comfortable level, and also just navigate around all the people.  The Falcons cheerleaders were out cheering for the race and I was looking around to see if there was anyone that I knew or recognized from when they come to my gym to train but I didn't really recognize anyone.

The course was pretty flat but there were a few hills towards the end and a nice downhill right by the finish that I enjoyed.  I was running next to a group of people I knew and it was fun to stick together a bit.  I would generally drop a little behind on the uphill and catch back up on the downhill.  We ran all around where they are building the new stadium for the Falcons so it was sort of neat to see that in progress and then we finished by running into the current Georgia Dome, with our faces on the screen, and tons of people cheering.

I've done a number of these "stadium runs" including one at the Atlanta Braves stadium earlier this summer and ones at the Patriots stadium in New England, Gillette.  They are always fun to be able to see a sports stadium up close and person and being on that turf gives you a crazy perspective of what it must be like to play a sport in a place like that!

When there was about .3 miles left I saw I was right beside my friend's boyfriend, who I had been yo-yo-ing with throughout the race.  We gave each other a look like, "This is it!" and I kicked it into gear for the end of the run.  I sprinted the last .1 mile and had an awesome finish on the turf with my friends cheering for me on the sidelines.

The race was a ton of fun and we spent quite a big of time just hanging around on the turf afterwards enjoying what it was like to be in the stadium and also cheering for the rest of our group.

I also insisted that we take a picture with football poses, because that is something that definitely needed to happen.

We had a great group out at the Falcons 5K representing Movers and Pacers.  It has been fun to see this group show up more and more in the ATL racing scene and we between the stadium and the fact that the 5K gave out a medal, it meant we had a big crowd.  Everyone wanted to get their hands on this bling, including the youngest M+Per runner we had out on Saturday!

I finished the run in 27:17, which is not my fastest time at all, but still a good pace and an average of under 9:00 minute miles, which is something I'm always happy to see!  It was a great race in Atlanta, which was very well supported with water, bagels, and bananas at the end and they let us hang out in the dome as long as possible.  When we did the Braves 5K they ushered us out of the stadium, but this was cool to be able to hang out on the turf!

Unfortunately, since I had jumped out of my car earlier to go to the start of the 5K I paid absolutely zero attention to which floor or section of the parking lot I had parked on.... and I ended up walking around the parking lot for 20 minutes (at least) trying to find my car.  Woops!  It's always something...

Chicago Marathon Training: Week 14 Recap

Hey guys!  So I write to you today after having done my second to last long run before marathon taper starts, and therefore the conclusion to week 14 out of 18 of marathon training!  Can't believe we're heading into the last 4 weeks!

I started this week feeling really down because I was struggling a bit to feel better and recovered after my run on Monday morning of 18 miles.  I just got back from traveling for two weeks and two weeks off of any strength or cross training and I wanted to get back in the pool, lifting weights, maybe doing a bike ride, etc. but I just felt tired and hurt.  I knew that it was my body telling me to take a little break (although my mind was telling me I just had a break with 2 weeks off of additional workouts beyond running) and I was just running myself ragged.  The last thing I wanted was to get injured at this point in training so I was feeling a lot of frustration at myself for not being smarter going into that 18-mile run as well.

The schedule for this week said that my three midweek runs should be 5-9-5 and then a weekend long run stepping back of 14 miles.  I originally intended to run 5 miles on Tuesday morning, which I know sounds crazy after saying how much discomfort I felt, but I thought it might help.  I know a ton of people who do "recovery runs" and have done short runs the days after long runs in the past.  However, I was advised to really, really just take it easy and take the whole day off, which was advice I ended up taking.  I still got up early on Tuesday morning though and went into the gym and just stretched and used the foam roller for a while to hopefully loosen up the tightness in my legs.  My groin, hips, butt have been really tight lately and I've lost a bit of flexibility it seems so I am trying my hardest to stretch them out these next few weeks.  I told you guys this already though.

Wednesday morning I got up and ran again!  I went to the beltline and had a solo run there where I just let myself take my time and I actually felt really good on this run.  I averaged a 9:41 pace, which actually felt good since I was telling myself to take it easy.

The notable part about the run was that it was through the rain.  It was raining when I started and raining when I finished.  I saw that it was when I got up in the morning and literally asked myself "What would Coach Jess do?" and reflected back on the rainy runs I have had in the past.  Whether they have been during actual races, during training runs, or during freezing cold slush and craziness.  My friends in Atlanta thought I was nuts for running in the rain solo, but I sent them this old blog entry and thought about what a ridiculous and silly morning this was and my run in the rain felt blissful after that.

Not wanting to feel cocky again after the run, I spent some time at the gym abusing myself in a good way by foam rolling.  I've now spent a lot of time on this thing this week and it never gets any less painful!

I actually went back to the gym on Wednesday evening to do a light upper body workout, just to get back in the swing of things.  I am definitely feeling the extra pounds that I put on from the travel and am anxious to shed them, but also have been having a hard time to get back on track after being away.  You saw those tacos that I ate, right!?

It's funny because I did this exact thing when I trained for Paris too.  I managed my eating and weight so well leading up to the Paris Marathon, dropping pounds all throughout training and then putting on 5 or so right in the weeks leading up to the race.  It's not an excuse for me to do it again.  I really would like to go into the marathon in my best shape ever, but I'm not sure how I am going to manage it the next few weeks.

Thursday wasn't really any better on the food front.  But I did start the morning with a great 5-mile run with my friend Janet who has been running with me regular in the AMs for weeks now.  We had a great conversation and I took it easy again and ran at pace with her which was about 10:30 minute miles.  I am going to try and take my pace BACK a bit on these next few weeks which might sound counter intuitive, but I think it will help to have me go into the race feeling really good.  Plus, a lot of plans recommend running at slower than you want pace.  I don't fully understand it, but I am giving myself permission to ease back because that 18 miler scared me!

I  decided to split up my miles that day to help take it easy and also because I had tried to coordinate a group run thing in the evening.  It didn't end up working exactly as planned and I hit some traffic and was late getting where I needed to be and there was a complete utter torrential downpour that made the whole night just a mess.  I had planned to do 4 miles but ended up getting out of my car to run with 45 minutes before I needed to be at Meet Up that I had coordinated.  I told myself to run 2 miles and see how I felt.  My legs also just still felt SO tired for some reason and I did not want to be running these miles.  I felt like shit.  It was downpouring rain.  A car drove by me on the side of the road and drove through a massive puddle that splashed up and COMPLETELY soaked me.  All in my face and everything.  It was disgusting.  I felt awful and after 2.5 miles I just stopped.  I ran 7.5 of the 9 miles and called it a night.  I was just so done with running for the day.

It gave me a few minutes to clean myself up before meeting up with some other fellow Atlantians who are running Chicago Marathon!  We met for a drink and I ate a dinner of french fries and pita bread and hummus and talked about training, nutrition, what our travel plans were, and how excited we were.  It ended up being a really nice night that started out pretty crappy!

Because I felt so awful still on Thursdays evening run and wanted to be sure to get a lot of sleep, I skipped out on running 5 miles on Friday morning too.  I knew that I was doing a 5K on Saturday morning, which originally was supposed to be extra miles, but I decided to just swap that for my second 5-mile run of the week and take Friday as another rest day.  I didn't do anything in the morning and then in the evening went to the gym and did a light 35 minute swim allowing myself to think about other things for a bit.

I will write more about the 5K in another post, but that 5-mile run from the week morphed into a weekend run.  My days of running are all totally off track because of the shift while I was in Asia (losing days of the week due to time zones and long plane rides throws you off!) and having done my long run on a Monday.  So I finished my weekly miles on a Saturday, making the week a 5-7.5-3 week instead of a 5-9-5 week.  Losing those 4 miles and replacing them with lots of foam rolling, I am sure will be better in the long run but it is seriously a mental challenge for me to let go of them.  I struggled all week with the adjustments to my schedule and I have been trying my best to just feel good with where I am.  The 5K was a lot of fun and I had a great rest of the day on Saturday doing some relaxing and then joining friends for Atlanta's Lantern Festival that went along the beltline where I usually run in the mornings.  It was an awesome night and made me feel happy to be living in Atlanta!  It ended up being a later night than I thought, but still a responsible one because I had a 14-mile run in the morning that I was pretty nervous for.

This morning I was super nervous about my 14 mile run.  Since I was out late I decided to just sleep in and then go run whenever I woke up.  The weather has been a bit cooler in the mornings here lately and the temperature was supposed to be under 70 or around 70 until late morning so I felt good that the temperature wouldn't be a problem, which is one of the reasons that I usually run early.  It ended up being an amazing 65 degrees for my whole run and I chose to run a flat route at the Silver Comet Trail.  I recognized that I was probably a bit more dehydrated than I usually am for runs and wanted to give myself the ability to get lots of water.

I parked at the trail and broke the run into two 7-mile out and backs so that I could refill my water and Gatorade halfway through.  I was a little nervous to stop after 7 miles because I didn't want to get stiff but I stopped refilled water bottles and got right back into pace.  A number of times on the run I told myself to pull back on the pace and not push too hard.  I felt strong when I finished and like I could keep going.  My half marathon split was 2:04:45 and I finished the 14-mile run in a 9:30 average pace, which I felt very happy with.

Nutrition worked well for the race as I've been playing with salt tabs and Gu Chews, and my stomach held up well.  Throughout all my long runs I have been having the same breakfast in the morning of cereal with berries and almond milk.  It seems to sit really nicely with me but I imagine it might be weird for others.  And I finished this run with an iced coffee, even though we're getting into hot coffee season because I still have been craving them post run.

The week started at a really low point and I feel better about where I am now.  I still stretched and foam rolled today a bit and still hate ever moment of being on that foam roller.  I am hoping to do some swimming tomorrow morning and then go into my biggest week of training!!!  I am shifting around my runs to accommodate my schedule this week, but this week IS IT.  The biggest week of training with 40-miles doing a 5-10-5 for midweek runs and then a 20-miler as my weekend run.  After that, it is taper time!  I am nervous and excited and feeling confident going into this week and also a heavy dose of nerves.  I can't believe we're finally at this point in training!!  Week 15, here I come!

Bachelorette Beach Weekend in Newport

As I mentioned, two weekends ago I was in Boston/Newport for one of my best friend's bachelorette parties!  I have written about these girls many times before, but in case you forgot, I have four amazing best friends who have been by my side since around kindergarten.  They are the most beautiful, ambitious, amazing group of girls I know and I love them to pieces.  We've lived across the country for years now, except for the past two years when three of the five were in Boston and now we're back to being in all different cities throughout the U.S.  Last year, the first of our group, E, got married to her husband James, whom I love, and they had the 4 of us at her sides as bridesmaids.  The shower, bachelorette, and wedding were all wonderful days in my memory.

This year, Meaggie is the next to tie the knot to her wonderful fiance Jon.  We celebrated with her shower earlier this spring and her bachelorette party at the end of August.  As her four bridesmaids, we planned the weekend and it was a little more challenging to throw all living remotely, but it worked out wonderfully and was a ton of fun.

The weekend started in Boston where we met up at Meaggie's place and then drove out to Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, for Countryfest.  It was my first country concert ever and featured Jason Aldean and Kenny Chesney and I had no idea what I was in store for.

We had a really good time and I was thoroughly amused by all the really drunk people, cowboy hats, and crazy antics that I saw!  And there were SO MANY people there!! I had no idea that there were this many country music fans in New England.  The more you learn, I guess!  

The concert only actually had 4 of us there (including the bride to be) but afterwards we went and picked up little miss KO, who came in from NYC.

The five of us had a low key night, catching up, and actually getting some exciting news that we were going to be doing the bridesmaid thing again next summer when Teenie marries her fiance Ryan!  It was a great night and by the time I fell asleep on the couch, I was totally wiped and passed right out.  I had come right from Orlando and gone back to back to back with things going on and I was ready for sleep.  Especially since I had to get up in the morning to get a run in.

Saturday morning I head out from Meaggie's place to get in 12-miles along the Charles River in Boston.  It is a route I have run a number of times while visiting my friends in Boston and it is gorgeous.  I've actually done it in the dead of winter while training for Paris Marathon as well as in the summer while training for other races.  It was memorable to think back to running the same route in various phases of my training.  The route goes along the river on the Boston side, crosses over to Cambridge, and all the way back over various bridges.  I had a great pace and felt like I could have kept going.  It was a wonderful way to start the morning!  I rarely do this, but I stopped midrun for a selfie with the scenery (do it for the 'gram!)

Following the run we met up with the rest of the bachelorette party crew and all caravanned off to Newport, Rhode Island to spend the day at the beach!  Newport is a really special place for us as it is where we used to go often with Girl Scouts.  When we were younger we used to go to a summer camp where we would bike all around the island throughout the week and go to various destinations.  It was home to our favorite camp to visit as a troop and we know parts of that island like the back of our hands.  As we got older it continued to be a place we would go together.  A favorite photo of the five of us is from a trip to the beach and a phrase we often use together that means something special to just us is "the beach will always be there."  Newport memories...

Additionally, I actually remember one of the most painful days of my life the summer between high school and college and a trip to Newport with these friends where we sat on a lifeguard chair at the beach and they comforted me while I cried.  BUT ANYWAYS, I digress... moral of the story... I always think of this group of friends when I think of Newport.

Trying to recreate that one picture up above...

The whole group was also there, it wasn't just the five of us!  And it was so awesome to get to know some of Meaggie's other friends better and spend the day with this group.

Anybody who knows me knows that I am not a person who is very good at sitting still.  You may have picked up on that as well from just reading this blog and hearing about my schedule most of the time.  So, I'm a beachgoer who does not do a whole lot of just laying in the sand.  We went for a walk, spent time swimming, diving into the waves, and getting sand completely and utterly everywhere.

The day at the beach was so amazing as I haven't been to the Rhode Island beaches in quite a while and as I mentioned, I have a lot of memories there!

The rest of the night turned out to be such a great time.  I loved that the bachelorette party was so very different from E's bachelorette the year before, but also equally wonderful and meaningful.  We laughed, danced, learned more about each other, got to know her friends better, and celebrated all the wonderful things about the bride-to-be.  The night included lots of games, a delicious dinner with a few extra guests, a comedy show that actually brought Meaggie on to the stage and worked her into some of the skits, and a dance party with lots of complete strangers.

It was a wonderful weekend with some of my best friends in the world and I cannot wait to celebrate again with all these amazing people in just ONE WEEK!!  Let the countdown begin :)