Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Training: Am I doing it and what for?

It's been a while since I posted anything about training for a race and if I had anything on the horizon. Between dealing with my back issue and not being able to run for over a month, my focus had turned to getting better rather than concentrating on my races coming up. So to answer the statement above, yes and yes. I am training and I have several things on the horizon.

Right now I am training for two half marathons with several smaller races mixed inbetween. Lets take a look at what I'm working towards.

My next race happens to be a 10K on June 15th. It's the Fall City Days Run, I will be running the 10K to try and get a new (and fast!) time for submittal to my half marathons for good corral placement. I have never run in Fall City before, however the website touts a flat and fast course, so hopefully that will be to my advantage! It will actually be my taper run before my next BIG race!

On June 22nd I will be running the Rock n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon.


I'm nervous, excited, anticipatory, worried. I signed up for this race a year ago after I had experienced it as a volunteer, see my post about volunteering at races. A friend of mine had trained for months to run this race and I was there to support her and other racers while I was waiting for her to finish. Since the day I signed up for this race, I signed up and ran my first half marathon at WDW in February.

So now I sit here and wonder, am I prepared for this race? Probably not as prepared as I would like to be. Taking a hiatus from running for over a month definitely effected my ability to train properly. So now I'm on a trunkated training plan that has me ramping up my mileage quite quickly, just so that I can complete the race upright, not for time. This isn't how I was wanting to run this race, feeling anxious and not prepared to run this race as efficiently as I had hoped.

My next race after RnR is the See Jane Run Seattle 5K on July 14th. I got this on a LivingSocial deal months ago and a friend of mine and I decided to run the 5K together. It should be fun. It's an easy course with lots of women and girls running together for a good cause. Then upon completing the race you get a little party with chocolate and champagne. YUM!

My next race isn't until August 24th, the Seattle Marathon 10K race. This race was on a coupon site for way cheap and with all the good reviews I'd heard about this race, I decided to do it. The location is different this year with the race route circling Lake Union. It will be a nice route as I have run this one several times before. Ironically though, this race and distance is a taper run the weekend before my BIG race weekend. (What is with me and having a race as a taper run before a big race?)

August 31st and September 1st will be my first ever back-to-back race. I am participating in the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend and running the Dumbo Double Dare. The DDD is when you run the 10K on Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday. You get the medals for those two races and an additional medal for completing both the races. Well I also decided to be a big shot and run the 5K as well. So in essence, I will be running the 5K, 10K and half marathon over the course of two days, that's 22.4 miles for all of you following along at home. Sheesh! I do know how to stack the deck against myself, huh?

So with all these races, I must be training, right?  Well I am using the Run Disney Training Guide that is 19 weeks long and encorporates back-to-back running days. I used the training schedule for my Princess Half Marathon and I did a pretty good job (not that my time was good, what can I say, I wanted pictures!). So I will be using this schedule during the few months until the race and adjusting it of course to coincide with training for my half in three weeks.

So that being said, you will be seeing lots of training updates and race recaps in the next few months. I'm really excited to be getting back into the swing of things and have goals to be training towards. I know that much about me, if I don't have a goal I get lazy. So I have everything in sight and my plan going already. I may not be at the peak of training that I wanted to be, but at least I'm out there making it happen.

Now it's your turn: Are you training for any big races? What training schedule do you use?

14 comments:

  1. I am doing 13 Halfs in 2013, 7 are done already, and I am registered for Dopey :)

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    1. That is AMAZING! Awesome job! I hope to be able to do that at some time in my life!

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  2. Yeah!! Sounds like you have a full summer schedule! What time are you hoping for on your 10k? I wasn't able to run my 10k on Monday due to back spasms, but am feeling much better and getting back at it this week! I am training for just a few 5 and 10ks this summer, a 10 miler and a 1/2 this fall and then Tinkerbell and The Glass Slipper challenge!! Yikes! I better get running!! Are you thinking Tinkerbell or PHM?? Would love to meet up!

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    1. I'm hoping to get around 1:10 on my 10K, but we shall see! Bummer about your back! Hope all is getting better and you run pain free soon! You still have a pretty full schedule too! And the Tink and PHM on top of that, you go girl!
      Not sure if I'll be at PHM this year, things are changing at my work, so I may not be able to get time off that month. :( Bummer, would love to meet up!!

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    2. Someday!! :) Wishing you the best of luck!!

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  3. Love to hear about your upcoming training and races!!! I'm excited to hear about DDD! I'm training for The Princess, but you knew that already. ;) Oh and my 10K is in a little over a week! EEEEK!!!!

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    1. Yeah for 10K!!! You'll kill that course! I love hearing about your training runs, you're going to own the Princess half, lady!

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  4. YAY! I am glad that you are back to training. I wish I could do the Dopey challenge this year but unfortunately cannot so GOOD LUCK :) I'm currently needing to start training for Disney Princess Coast to Coast with Tinkerbell. My first half was the Disney Princess this year and my friend and I decided to do it again with coast to coast next year. I've been off the wagon for a couple weeks because work has been crazy but hopefully getting back to it tomorrow. I need to find a couple races here and there to do before that to keep me motivated. Can't wait to see more posts :)

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    1. Thank you for the encouragement, Heather! I had such a blast at PHM this year that I wish I could do the new C2C with Tink and the Glass Slipper Challenge. I want that glass slipper medal!!
      You'll get back on the wagon and having races between now and then is a good idea! Always a motivator for me, that's for sure!

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  5. I'm volunteering at the RnR Seattle, running See Jane Run Half and the 10K August 24th. Hopefully we will run into each other. Good Luck with your training!

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    1. That would be awesome if we "ran into" each other! If you are ever looking for someone to run with, I might be a bit slower than you, but I'm always up for running! Let me know!

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  6. Just training for Dumbo at the moment and using my own schedule that I came up with. I'm hoping to keep up my mileage to bridge the gap until Tinker Bell next year. I'm also hoping to run my first full marathon at WDW in 2015. :)

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    1. Keeping up the gap is definitely tough, especially during the Fall and Winter months! So you're going to do WDW race weekend in 2015? Me too!!! I want to do the Goofy Challenge in 2015! Would be great to race together!

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