weekly wrap up | wild in the wilds

Sunday Funday

Posted on August 21, 2016 by Martha B

‘Cuz I don’t have to run day.

Not that I dislike Sunday runs, but today was dedicated to “make up miles” if needbe – and I hit my 36 goal miles last night with a very ratchet hill workout. But more on that later.

While I do have to go into work for a few hours tonight to play janitor and accountant, I’m catching up on housekeeping and hanging out with my blissed out dogs (one order of housekeeping was brushing them today, easiest way to melt their little hearts) while Aaron churns away on the elliptical (and I point and laugh in my mind.)

Here’s the greatest hits of the week:

Read/Reading:

butterfly

I just finished up The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison this week. It’s a thriller about a man (The Gardner) who captures girls, tattoos them with butterfly wings, and keeps them in a hidden garden until they get too old so he murders them. Definitely good treadmill fodder, and I think Dot is GREAT at character development and strong imagery, but it was a fairly easy to put down book. And the ending was a huge disappointment.

I decided to pick up something a little heavier for this week’s read: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy.

This Week’s Playlist:

I always get a little sentimental for back to school around this time of year, and for some reason Galactic reminds me of the first weeks of college – roof parties, warm nights, a few weeks of total freedom before classes start, and the album Carnivale Electricos tops my happy summer playlist this week

galactic

Workout of the Week:

I mentioned above about my hill workout that ended my running week – and it definitely was the hardest one, but as usual ended up being the highlight as well.

All my goat friends bailed on me, and the weather kept fading in and out of thunderstorms, 90 degree humidity rewarms, and then like this burst of beautiful 72 degrees and breezy. I drug my feet a little, took a nap after work instead of heading straight out, but for whatever reason I got a surge of motivation (probably because I didn’t want to have to think about doing this today) and hit the road for rattlesnake repeats.

This hill is pretty nasty. It’s about 750 feet of elevation gain over .4 miles. I try to go out weekly and do a nice long warm up and then bang out 2 repeats (which starts off as well intended running but turns into questionable power hiking.) It’s loose boulders, scree, gravel, and the recent storms have strewn sticks and branches all around.

rattlesnake

The most redeeming part of this run was the fact that I have been telling myself for months once I get my ascent under 8 minutes, I will add a third repeat.

Yesterday’s best ascent was 8:02. So I got to go home instead. Which was probably perfect timing because it then started raining sideways and in my face for my 2-ish mile cool down and there was just so much salt in my eyes as a result that I basically just put my arms out in front of me and hoped for the best as I hoofed it down the country road and to my truck. This is why I can’t run in public places.

I made a segment out of this hill today on my garmin connect and apparently I’m not the only idiot who does rattlesnake repeats because I am number 2 out of 2. A title I’m not really clamoring for.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine basically starts tomorrow, with a 13 mile run around in the woods with one of my favorite training partners.

Green Monster Training Week 3:

Goal Mileage: 36

Actual Milage: 36

Elevation Gain: 4,213 feet

Week 4 Goals – 36 miles 5,000 feet

Mid Week Weekend Diaries

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Martha B

If there was an Olympic medal for squeezing 10 gallons of you know what into a 5 gallon bucket, I’d probably still be still pacing around like a maniac trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing right this very second.

This past week has been full of chaos and monkey wrenches and putting out fires, but I finally basically had a day off to decompress so I thought I’d stop by and say hi.

Most of last week was spent in preparation for our local 20 mile trail race, Boulder Dash. I volunteered this year (and was ecstatic with that choice due to the glorious 90+ degree, 100% humidity weather forecast. Chilling under a canopy feeding Gatorade and gummy bears to human zombies was pretty much the best place to be that day.)

We hosted packet pick up at the bar in conjunction with Straub, and it was a really fun meet and greet/mixer that ended bright and early.

The next day some of my running girlfriends and I ran a very patriotic and well stocked aid station that runners passed through at mile 6ish and mile 13.

We had a blast, especially because we’ve all “been there done that”, and although my training partner Jen and I both had twinges of regret not running this year, it was such a positive overall experience getting to know these people and encouraging them (or laughing at them when they said BUT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!! trust, we do). It was really cool taking the focus off me me me for a second and appreciating the sport itself, and I ended the day feeling reinvigorated and inspired to train hard.

All that running around fostering other human beings running definitely cut into my forest time (plus, I worked normal hours in the mix of all that), so while I would do it again tomorrow in a heartbeat, it was nice to be back to normal starting Monday. (I needed Sunday to recoup. I think I was more exhausted after this than I was last year when I actually ran this race!)

Fortunately the weather broke, too, and 78 and humid felt about delightful when Jen and I banged out 7 miles of redemption on Island Run Monday morning.

Purely accidental.

We also decided to dress alike because free clothes.

My goal this week is to hit 36 miles. I know that was my goal last week, too, but I fell about 5 miles short due to misappropriation of my weekend. It’s looking good so far, although I did get a little overenthusiastic on our 12 mile rampage of appreciation on the Elk Trail today and left with a gnarly knee.

Did you really think I could go a whole post without a picture of one of my body parts in some state of gross disarray?

Hence the blog post today, as I have been couch surfing, eating leftover aid station snacks, and babying my boo-boo. I guess if it takes injury for me to sit down and bang out a 500 word post, so be it.

I’m hoping with a little ice I’ll be good to go because since I’ve been back to regular again, there is nothing in me that wants to stop. For now, though, I suppose I should scrounge up some dinner as a woman can’t live on Swedish Fish and peanut M&Ms, or at least not publicly confess to it.

Warrior Week

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Martha B

Also known as week one of Green Monster Training.

In the depths of my 8 months of basically squeaking by on the bare minimum I decided a goal race was probably the best way to break out of my funk. While I’ve raced a lot (too much) this past year, and am pretty enthused about my performance on low casual mileage, I’m hungry for a fall race challenge. I want to show up with the notion that I want to finish in X amount of time — not just that I want to “finish” (which I’m not knocking that mantra in any way as it’s a pretty fun way to participate in the sport, and there is definitely a lot of great circumstances in which that attitude is appropriate.)

Homegirl is thirsty. For a sparkle shiny PR and a mind and body that matches. I figure YEAR 4 at the Green Monster 25k trail challenge in beautiful Wellsboro PA is a great place to do it. This race was my first “big” trail challenge when I started dabbling. Year two busted me out of a stress reaction summer of rage and pointed me back in the right direction. Last year, I got a huge PR (and a 3rd place in my AG) that went unappreciated in the wake of my DNF at Sinnamahone the following week. This year, this is all the marbles. I’m looking to take my time from 3:34 to 3:20 or below. Armed with the plan, motivation through the roof, and a serious case of the hives… I’m ready to roll.

Obviously this is a place we can all gather and overshare.

Ok, ok, the hives were not how I wanted to start off this adventure. But this has been the summer of me getting stung by wasps, bees, bit by spiders, and filling my socks up with nettles, so why not throw in a delayed onset allergic reaction to antibiotics on top of it all. By Monday, or my designated “DAY ONE” – it had all worked its way into my hands and my feet, and while I couldn’t hold a pencil or put on shoes, who does that kind of stuff anyway? We were off. (side note – I don’t advocate working out when you are ill, I’m not a #nodaysoff bonehead – I had rested 3 days prior and was at a point where I just wanted to sweat this crap out of me.)

My plan is fairly simple – building my mileage from 30 a week to a few weeks in the 50 mile range. Once weekly quality workouts – sprints, hills, etc with a progressive overloading nature. Once weekly long runs all the way up to an 18 miler as GM runs a little long. Starting off with THIS strength training program for at least the first 30 days and taking it from there. Solid 8 day taper. Cutting back on the T&T (tater tots and tacos) a little and in exchange for some some more V&P (veggies and protein).

Week 1 Recap – total miles ~33

Monday: 10 minute easy treadmill warm up + strength workout which consisted of a ton of pushups and prisoner squats. I was going to hop back on the mill for a couple miles after, but as my first day back, I figured easy does her.

Tuesday: AM: Muscle and strength workout – leg lifts and 20 minutes on the treadmill. PM: Met up with my trail twin (so nerdy) for 5.5 miles of fun in the forest.

Purely accidental.

Wednesday: Strength training + 20 minute cool down on the treadmill

Thursday: muscle & strength workout – leg raises and 20 minutes steady state on the treadmill.

Friday: am: 45 minute strength training – I did this workout in the basement at work (such is my life right now).

pm: 10 miles on the cross country ski trails with my Friday night crew. It was so humid and miserable and definitely one of those runs I’d totally bail on if I didn’t have some moral support. Afterwards I went fetal in the shower for a solid hour.

Saturday: easy two mile shakeout + stretching and stuff

Sunday: ~8 miles of trails with my cousin Angela. We did the “Island Run loop” which is arguably one of my least favorite runs because it’s just kind of demoralizing. 3 miles up a fire road then weeds and sticks and rocks and grass to your ass and more up. And lest we not forget the mile or so that I got us lost. The only real redeeming thing about this loop is a huge steep downhill bomb at the end. It’s such a good training run, though, and I am actively trying to integrate more of these suck bucket trails into my repertoire.

Before this turns into the post that never ends, here’s the quick and dirty for my upcoming week.

Goal: 35 miles

Long Run: 12 miles

Quality Workout: 3 Rattlesnake hill repeats

I am volunteering at Boulder Dash this weekend so I’m definitely trying to front load my week so I can focus on facilitating a fun race instead of worrying about getting my miles in.

Hope your weeks are off to a rousing start. My weekend started about 10 minutes ago, so I’m looking forward to curling up with my dogs for a little Olympics binge watching.

And then there’s THAT week.

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Martha B

You know that one. When you’ve been cruising along swimmingly for a solid 12ish weeks on a training plan for a big race and you wake up on a Monday and know in your heart this week is going to be full of lots of this:

Why Bob, why?

My weekly wrap up is going to be pretty lame. This week was the first time since June that for whatever reason I felt like I needed a mental from running. (My body was hurting pretty badly too from Gap Trestles and the hill punishment on the Quehanna last Sunday, but just in an achy exhausted way, and not an achy breaky way). Between picking up a couple extra shifts at the bar because one of my employees was on vacation, to the giant cold snap/torrential down pouring that occurred Monday-Saturday, this week was nothing but feeling constantly strapped for time. More often than anything, when I’d finally sit down for the day, I was so exhausted that I basically just went into a coma.

Am I mad at myself?

Not even kind of.

Even with a poop week, looking back on my training for Sinnemahone 50k as a whole, I’ve adhered to about 90% of the workouts I had to do. Not only that, I nailed my long slow runs every week except this one, which I definitely felt were the most important piece of this puzzle. Coupled with admittedly racing WAY too much, it was bound to happen eventually. With less than two weeks until the big day, I know at this point in my cycle I need to be in damage control mode. I’m not going to magically improve my fitness in the upcoming days, but there’s tons of room to hurt myself, especially if I’m feeling tired and not paying attention.

The good news is, I have a normal work schedule coming up, and my energy levels are getting back to normal. While my mileage will be curtailed because it’s taper time, I feel like I’m ready to get some quality runs in.

Here’s what last week looked like, for future reference of what a crappy week of ultra training means.

Monday 9/28: Rest. Stupid long work day.

Tuesday 9/29: Oops, I did it again. Another stupid long work day, and my lack of preparation (and sleep) lead me to skip my run.

Wednesday 9/30: Finally got on the treadmill for 4 miles. Followed it up with a Clutch Life Strength training workout.

Thursday 10/1: I graduated from being a 30 year old today, and now I’m 31. Celebrated with sunrise over Devil’s Den (a 5 mile super hilly climb) with Jen, followed by Bloody Marys because that’s how we birthday.

Probably the most perfect food in the world.

Friday 9/2: Rest. Apparently this was the theme this week.

Saturday 9/3: 5 uneventful treadmill miles after work. Enough with the rain already!!

Sunday 9/4: 2.5 miles in the morning with the puppies. My father and aunt came from Pittsburgh for lunch and to visit, and I needed to exhaust the dogs so they wouldn’t spend the day trying to body slam them. Mission accomplished:

My sweet princess and her “baby”

Coming up this week…

More taper time. Only this time productive.

End capped with GREEN MONSTER 25k… aka my favorite race of the year. AKA probably not the wisest choice a week before a 50k, but I can’t resist. This was the race that started it all for me. The love for trail running, the addiction to brutal backwoods beat downs – I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Coupled with the fact that I have a huge group from my running club joining me this year, I am really really looking forward to this.

Now it’s off to bed for this broad, though. Here’s to waking up tomorrow ready to get back on track.

Day Late Dollar Short… Weekly Wrap Up

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Martha B

I meant to sit down and write this post yesterday, but after work, my general disposition was along the lines of this:

so instead I ate pizza until I fell asleep on the couch.

I hope nobody was under the assumption that this is in fact a healthy living blog.

Anyway.

Last week was a pretty productive one in terms of runs. I did feel a little more banged up than planned after the Dam Half last Sunday but in a good way. You know you’ve got it bad when you want to go into your training run marathon with tired legs. I swear this stuff sounds a lot better in my mind than it does on paper.

Monday 9/21: REST – It was my day off of work and I had the best intentions, but instead I got sucked into a closet cleaning spree and completely lost track of time.

Tuesday 9/22: 5 easy road miles (about 10:20 pace) with 4×100 meter strides (equal walking recovery) at the end.

Wednesday 9/23: 2 mile pre-marathon shake out. I did 2:1 run walks. I wanted to get warm enough to be able to get a nice long stretch session in and also see where I needed to focus my attention (namely everywhere.)

Thursday 9/24: GAP Trestles Marathon. Plus bonus miles. For a solid 27.8

Friday 9/25: REST – I had a nice 15 hour work day on deck, mostly on my feet. I swear this saved me from just plain falling apart after the marathon. I actually felt really awesome all day because I HAD to.

Saturday 9/26: I was supposed to run 3 miles, but I woke up exhausted and had another long work day plus a wedding to attend (and had to go back to work afterwards), blah blah blah… anyway, I did some Yin Yoga before work to try and loosen up my cranky calves and calm my ass down. Obviously with puppies, it looked more like this:

Because they have a captive audience and my face is delicious. Although it’s better than when they drop their Kongs on my head when I’m in Savasana.

Sunday 9/27: 9 miles on the Quehanna Trail… aka the best run of the week.

I totally stole this from Julie’s Facebook because she is better at this kind of stuff than I am.

Julie had never been on this trail before, and I was really excited to take her out because it’s fantastic. Showing my friends awesome new places to run is one of my favorite activities, and with the fall foliage, this was one of those money runs. I haven’t done this particular segment since probably July, and I remember the first time I did it, I had to lay down when I got to the peak of the mountain (it’s a switchback, but there’s still a lot of climbing!). Today I felt amazing! It probably helped that it wasn’t 97 degrees and humid, but any time I can see a little quantifiable progress, I get pretty jazzed.

So that’s that for the week. Got my last big nasty run in for Sinnemahone, got to share some awesome runs with great friends, and I can climb a hill without laying down. But the best part is…

It’s TAPER TIME!!!

13 days til Green Monster. 19 days til my first 50k. Every run from here on out is hinged on the goal of not getting injured and letting my legs start to feel fresh again.

Now, back to work I go. Hope your weeks are filled with fantastic runs!

Weekly Run Wrap 9/14-9/21

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Martha B

because I feel like that’s a thing that people who blog about their running experience do.

And… it’s past midnight on a Monday, but today time escaped me. For whatever reason I was moved to start ripping apart dresser drawers and putting away summer clothes/donating any of my questionable wardrobe choices, and between that and work, I lost track of time. I wanted to start throwing up a weekly running/lifting/yoga/whatever log because in the past that has always been something I enjoy looking back on. In my bout of organization that was today, I decided that now’s the time.

Though this week started off fairly meh because of the sickness running through our household, I have to say, things got better as the week progressed. The goal this week was to have legs fresh enough to kick out a nice little race at the Dam Half, but not taper to the point of hurting my training for Sinnemahone 50k.

Monday 9/14: 7 easy road miles (~10:15 pace) with 4 sets of 100m strides at the end

I hooked up with a couple girls from my running club accidentally, but I cut them loose fairly quick because I was feeling like running slowly, and also not talking to human beings.

Tuesday 9/15: Nice am 5k on the road before work (~9:30 pace) which was supposed to be followed by 5 miles in the evening with my training partner Jen, but instead turned into 24 hours of flu-like 2015 for me (which incidentally was one hell of an ab workout.)

Wednesday 9/16: Continuation of Tuesday. Unscheduled rest day.

Thursday 9/17: I felt a lot better, but definitely dehydrated. It was a scheduled rest day, and I didn’t think making up miles was really a good idea with a race coming up.

Friday 9/18: The dogs were getting restless with both of their parents being completely useless for the prior few days, so I took them along for 5-ish slow trail miles. There was a lot of hiking going on today. Afterwards I got Yin Yoga drunk while Abby practiced her best puppy pose.

And THAT’s why they call it that.

Saturday 9/19: Slow-ish 5k shake out… I just wanted to get a nice long stretch in before racing Sunday, so I needed to get myself sweaty and limber. Last mile was 2:1 run/walks.

Obviously followed by party time!

Sunday 9/20: Dam Half Marathon. Expectations 0. Goals: sub 3 hours. Actual – 2:34 and some change… aka a 31 minute trail half PR. WTF IS MY LIFE. Disclaimer: course was a hair short. Also, it was a very fast course. But more on this at a later date…

This week it’s tempting to just bask in the joy that is finishing the PA trail runner trophy series (yay! and more on that soon, too), but I’ve got work to do with my first 50k coming up in less than a month. This includes a road marathon Thursday morning (wait, what?) for a nice long training run, and Sunday-runday fun day with my friend Julie on the beautiful Quehanna trail in Benezette.

And now it’s way past my bedtime on a school night, so crap. Well wishes for a wonderful week, folks!