Along with “move viewed”, I also slipped in “my favorite” post of the month too…. which sometimes is closer to the least viewed….. haha.

Our “most viewed” of the year was my BRCA Gene post by a lot, with “Why Runners are Really Annoying” in a not so close second.

January:

Most Viewed: Why I’m Staying Home, The Mile Repeat

My Favorite: Running Scared

Race Reports: Rehoboth Beach Marathon

Favorite Life Thing: Being content with my decision to quit my job.

The early days of my starting to be home full time.

February:

Most Viewed: The last 20, Tired & Hungover, When a long run was just a long run

My Favorite: A Frozen Progression Run

Race Report: None

Favorite Life Thing: New Nephew born, Evan Emre Ozbilge 

Glenn’s sister Megan with Niece Sofia & a brand new Evan.

March:

Most Viewed: Shamrock Marathon Recap

My Favorite: Shamrock Marathon Recap, The Big PR from the Coaches Prespective

Race Report: Shamrock Marathon Recap

Favorite Life Thing: No really, I was happy about that race. 

Finished with my fastest 26.2 to date.

April:

Most Viewed: I added miles & I got tough

My Favorite: I added miles & I got tough

Race Report: Rock the Relay, Carmel Half Marathon

Favorite Life Thing: I met a new friend, who is one of my best now- Ashley, My last big event for Back on My Feet & transitioning to being a Stay at Home mom full time (although I quit in late December- I still worked for them through end of April.

Rock the Relay

Back on My Feet Birthday Luncheon- my last big hooray.

This is after the Indy Women’s half- but wanted to share a picture with Ashley. I wasn’t creepy enough to ask her for a pic after Carmel, when we’d just met 30 minutes earlier.

May:

Most Viewed: Triathlon Training- Muncie 70.3

My Favorite: Learning to be a swimmer, or many a runner who can swim

Race Report: 500 Festival Mini Marathon

Most Exciting Life Thing: My sister got married, We launched our Coaching Business, Marshall started walking, Glenn returns to running after two months off, My first Mother’s Day

After the 500 Festival Mini Marathon- used this race as a training run for a race I didn’t end up doing… can’t plan everything!

Ericka & Rick at their destination wedding. Just the two of them, wish we could have been there!

June: 

Most Viewed: Triathlon #1 Recap

My Favorite: My road to the Chicago Marathon

Race Report: Triathlon #1 Recap

Most Exciting Life Thing: Marshall’s first birthday, Glenn’s first Father’s Day, Starting to run with the RUSTED BEARS- new friends!

First open water swim survived!

Marshall turns one

New friends: Rusted Bears! Right before Amy’s Half!

July:

Most Viewed: Ironman Muncie, Do you have a running BFF?

My Favorite: Ironman Muncie

Race Report: Fire Cracker Six, Ironman Muncie

Most Exciting Life Thing: Ironman Muncie, Having the balls to finally get my blood work done for my gene test

Before the swim: Scared, Nervous, Excited, Focused.

Entering the pain train of 13.1 miles after swimming 1.2 & biking 56. Never felt anything like it. Different kind of hurt than end of marathon pain.

My loves who cheered me on!

August: 

Most Viewed: BRCA 2 Gene & my decision

My Favorite: BRCA 2 Gene & my decision

Race Report: Eagle Creek Trail Half Marathon, Glenn CRRG 5K #1, Lindsey’s CRRG 5K, Glenn’s CRRG 5K #2, Indianapolis Women’s Half Marathon

Most Exciting Life Thing: No post really, but we both turned 30 & celebrated 5 years of marriage, joining Oiselle Team!

Glenn’s 30th Birthday

When Glenn took second at the Eagle Creek Trail Half Marathon. The kid that won had never ran a race before & wore big beats by dre head phones. Really.

5th Wedding Anniversary

Running in my Oiselle Gear w/ Cadence and niece Giovanna.

September:

Most Viewed: Not your typical Tuesday

My Favorite: Not your typical Tuesday

Race Report: Ripple Effect, Chicago half marathon

Most Exciting Life Thing: Friends throwing me a “bye bye boobies” part, Vacation to Sonoma, Marshall’s first hair cut- I don’t know if this really makes the list, but the picture is really cute.

Glenn & Marsh after the Ripple Effect.

My amazing friends threw me a going away party right before my mastectomy.

Beautiful little vacation in Sonoma with Glenn’s whole family for a wedding.

Britney making his handsome. That’s right, not shirt at the salon.

October:

Most Viewed: Surgical Bras are sexy right?

My Favorite: My take on Glenn’s Chicago Marathon, And then I cried some more

Race Report: Chicago Marathon- What now?

Most Exciting Life Thing: Getting my surgery OVER with, Going trick or treating with the cutest banana I’ve ever seen.

Mom watching Marshall during my surgery, Sister Visiting me in hospital. The race that WASN’T meant to be.

Halloween

November:

Most Viewed: What’s REALLY annoying about Runners

My Favorite: Monumental Marathon Weekend

Race Report: Monumental Marathon, Drumstick Dash

Most Exciting Life Thing: New nephew – Gunner Ceferino Gil, Glenn’s new Marathon PR

Niece Giovanna & new nephew Gunner

Glenn redeeming himself after a bad race at Chicago, just three weeks later.

Pre Drumstick Dash!

Stroller running it at the Drumstick Dash

December:

Most Viewed: Dominating the Stroller Run

My Favorite: Strong

Race Reports: None

Most Exciting Life Thing: New niece- Josephina Lynn Stazonne

All the kids on Glenn’s side of the family. Evan, Josephina, Sofia & Marshall.

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Prior to that, Lindsey always put together her own plans…and she was good at it with multiple BQ’s to show. There is something to be said for having someone else do all the planning, worrying, analyzing, tweaking, prep work, etc. It frees the athlete to just focus on running. SHAMELESS PLUG: Did you know we can coach you to?

Here are my thoughts on Lindsey’s training, race, and the future for her running.

Training:

Entering the Shamrock marathon training cycle, by the time race rolled around, it was going to be over two years since Lindsey had competitively raced a marathon. With some speculation and educated guess work, we jointly decided on a goal: break 3:15 with a stretch goal of 3:10. Based on what I knew of Lindsey and her running both of these were realistic and attainable.

I put together her most aggressive training plan to date, both in terms of total mileage and the quality of runs she was doing. With this training cycle the shift focused from logging miles with one weekly tempo/speed session to doing that plus marathon paced long runs, fast finish long runs, progression paced long runs…you get the idea. I am firm believer that if you want to truly get a break through and make progress in your marathon running…the long run has to be ran at pace more frequently. Those runs train your mind and body to actually become efficient at that speed.

Not all of Lindsey’s long runs were done with marathon pace work…we wanted to be careful to avoid burnout and over training but I would say 12 out of the 16 long runs had at least some component of MPR in them.

Lindsey executed her training plan beautifully. She stayed in the moment focusing on the work that needed to be done on any particular day or during a micro cycle. While at the same time, was aware enough to know that Shamrock was the long term goal so a bad workout here or there was not going to mean much. It is that constant training stress, recovery, and adaption over the life of a training cycle that are going to make the difference…not some mythical workout or a bad run.

From my standpoint, this is where I like to believe that I offered a lot of my benefit: the mind. Without the right mind set and outlook the best training plan and race prep can be wasted on a bad mindset. With proper training and preparation, the body achieves what the mind believes.

The last big change that we made to Lindsey’s training was to develop a race plan. If Lindsey is honest with you and herself, she would admit that in prior races she did not have the best race day planning. A lot of it was run on feel…often accelerating too early in the race only to struggle home. Now there is a lot to be said for knowing your body well enough to feel your way through a race but the marathon is such a long race that if you do not have a proper plan of attack it will chew you up and spit you out the other side. To succeed in the marathon, is to plan how to race it.

When I look back at all of this, Lindsey was ready to race and I could not be more proud of the dedication and spirit she showed in getting herself ready for this marathon. There was no way she could fail.

Race:

I will leave the majority of the race review to the racer, but I will say a couple of things.

All race plans need to be adjusted depending on race circumstances and conditions and be comfortable rolling with the punches.

This was particularly true for Lindsey on race day. Going into the race, we knew most likely that Virginia Beach was going to have some wind: 1) because of how the course is designed and 2) it is on the freaking ocean.

Lindsey did a great job adjusting to the conditions of the day, working with the wind when it was in her favor and trying to conserve energy when it made sense. She executed a great race on a tough day to race in my opinion. That wind was brutal!

She raced to her full potential on race day and I could not be more happy and proud of her first, and foremost, as a husband, but secondly as a coach. We laid out a plan together, developed a strategy, and she executed it like a BOSS!

The stretch goal of 3:10 was missed and given the right conditions, I have no doubt she would have crushed it…but that’s why you race. You never know what you are going to encounter. She raced to her potential and that’s all I can ask for.

Post Race:

With any big moment or goal in life, once you reach it I think there is a tendency to kind of fall into a funk or going striving after your next goal right away. Sometimes I think that is fine but I would like Lindsey to take a step back and enjoy this marathon PR and sit on it for a while. Enjoy it. You earned it!

In the short term, Lindsey and I have been discussing shifting the focus to shorter distances and a triathlon or two. This will provide a nice break from marathon training and something fresh to focus on so that when she returns to the marathon it will be fun and something to look forward to.

In my opinion, to properly train, prepare, and race  a marathon to your full potential you have two…maybe three you in a year. They are hard. They take a lot out of you. Enjoy the break and find something else to focus on.

My next step is to slowly convince Lindsey she can break 3:00…only time will tell. (She’ll do it!)

Have you raced recently? What distance? How did it go? What did you do with your downtime afterward?

Glenn

Today, my scheduled run was 10 miles, 6 at tempo for 7:08 pace. As I have gotten deeper into the training though, I have realized I can run these tempos much quicker and still feel in control.

Most of my tempo runs have turned into tempo/progression runs. I’ve done almost all of these runs on the treadmill and like everyone else, I get bored sometimes and a little bit ansy on the mill. The idea of running 6 tempo miles at the exact same speed just drives me crazy. I understand it’s good training for pacing reasons on race day, but I just hate it.

Last night, I told Glenn my workout and he warned me I shouldn’t do the progression thing like I always do, that I should hold true to the tempo workout. I told him I couldn’t stand the thought of running 6 boring 7:08 miles sandwiched in between 2 boring warm up and 2 boring cool down miles. He told me to do the 6 at 6:50 then, but keep it consistent. I liked the sound of that, I liked the challenge.

Marshall woke me up at 4:30am to eat and my plan was to get to the gym right after. I was wide awake when I got up, but there is something about once I put him down and I walk back into our dark room, fan on with the white noise and it’s just so cozy. I crawled back in and debated for 10 minutes, deciding I’d let the bed win, I wanted more sleep. So, I went with Marshall in tow at 8:00am instead of by myself at 5:00am. The sleep was worth it.

When I warmed up today, I got in my head that I wanted my total 10 to be sub 7, which would mean I needed to warm up at a quicker pace. I don’t usually warm up quicker than 8 minutes for my first mile, but started around 7:40 today. I picked up the second mile to 7:10, about the pace for what the original tempo was.

The one thing that will throw off your tempo run, is going from a very easy pace, full speed to the tempo pace. Easing in to the speed is my key to success. 

I’ve been pretty comfortable running around 6:50 pace recently, so I figured I’d go for holding it for 6 miles. At mile 2, I decided to mentally split the 6 miles up in to two sets of 3. The second set of 3 would be faster. When I started the second set of 3, I decided I’d run the last mile at mile repeat pace and then slowly bring the next mile down to the original tempo pace of 6:49.

I kept a quickish cool down pace, so I’l hit my sub 7 for 10 miles goal.

So, yet again, I broke the rule and didn’t stick to the same pace, but really I didn’t come of it much and I only came off of it running faster, and seeing as how this is my kick my butt as hard as I can week, why not. It feels good to work hard.

Splits:

Mile 1- 7:30 (warm up)
Mile 2- 7:10 (warm up)
Mile 3- 6:49
Mile 4– 6:49
Mile 5– 6:49
Mile 6– 6:44
Mile 7– 6:44
Mile 8– 6:22
Mile 9– 6:49
Mile 10– 7:30 (cool down)

Side note- apparently Marshall had a meltdown in kids club and I was paged four times. I guess my music was too loud. The kids club girl finally hunted me down- I was just getting my stretch on post run at that point. This was all my fault because we were way past nap time number one, I thought he could hang on an extra hour… wrong. It’s true, kids thrive on schedules.

On Friday, I have a really tough 20 miles on the schedule, I’m ready for it, but a little nervous… of course. This will be my last BIG workout closing out the last big week before Shamrock. I’ll officially be 3 weeks out. At this point, I’m more nervous about my mental battles than my physical battles on race day.

Halfway through the week Glenn emailed me with a marathon pace workout for the long run.

It looked like this: 

Joe, Barb, Tom & I before the race.

Joe & I finishing the 5K

•  My legs were fatigued because I ran my tempo on Wednesday way faster than the plan called for
• Was scheduled for 6 at 7:14- but despite a terrible nights sleep I felt good and ended up adding a mile to the tempo and picked up the pace quite a bit after two miles.
  Mile 1- Warm up
  Mile 2- 7:14
  Mile 3- 7:14
  Mile 4- 7:08
  Mile 5- 7:03
  Mile 6- 6:53
  Mile 7-6:40
  Mile 8- 6:53
  Mile 9- Cool Down

  
  

• At the 1.5 MP part of the ladder workout, I thought I’d have some fun and speed up my marathon pace to 7:19 and add some hills in the “break” the run up even more. Based on my early leg fatigue, I probably should have just left the speed and old incline alone…there was still a lot of running to do
• I didn’t eat enough
• I took way too much time in between my BoMF run and my actual training run- a good hour at least. I should have taken off soon after the run… OR gone with the original plan and ran early… OR had a bite to eat and waited to run in the afternoon outside once the sun warmed everything up.

I’ve never recorded my miles so precisely until this training, but I’m almost certain it’s the highest mileage I’ve ever ran in a week. 58 for the week so far- and I think I’ll do 3-4 recovery miles tomorrow, which would put me over 60 for the week.

While I’m not totally discouraged, it did feel like a bit of a workout fail. This week was a lot of miles at decent paces on some days, quite the difference from my oh so cozy rest week last week. Moving on though.