Semana em Resumo

A minha malhação esta semana foi consistente e eu me senti forte... Forte no sentido "Eu posso fazer isso," mas não no sentido "Eu posso fazer qualquer coisa que eu quero," Sabe? Tenho bastante espaço para melhorias.

Segunda
Musculação

Terça
Andei para o Parque Villa Lobos com a minha amiga Lu. Esquecemos tirar fotos! Tomamos uma água de côco e alugamos bicicletas. Este parque tem uma ciclovia de 3.4km, e a gente completou 4 voltas = 13.6km

Quarta
5k @ 40' na esteira. Pensei que eu correria mais rápido... mas não rolou. Comecei as 10km/h, diminui para 8, voltei para 9.5, diminui de novo, etc etc. Me senti fraca, especialmente mentalmente.

Quinta
2.5k @ 17' na esteira. Não tinha muito tempo, mas decidi correr pelo menos um pouco! Corri entre 8.5 e 9.5 km/h.

Sexta
Fui pelo parque de novo com a Lu. Completamos mais 13.6km nas bicicletas.

Sábado
13 km @ 1:30. O tempo foi ótimo! Céus azuis, brisa fresca, ensolarado... Saí da casa cedo porque o parque fica super cheia depois as 10h. Mesmo assim, tinha bastante gente correndo lá. Eu poderia ter corrido mais, mas eu parei a corrida num ponto alto e voltei pra casa pra comer um monte de comida. Faz muito tempo que eu não senti tão bem numa corrida longa. Sempre tenho problemas com a temperatura, comida, açúcar no sangue, dor de cabeça, etc. Foi encorajador a correr sem problema nenhum e me motivou a correr mais na semana que vem!

Domingo
Dia de descanso! Estou com dor na coluna e o quadril e tô com medo a machucá-la mais por fazer ioga.

Fiz este suco várias vezes esta semana! Abacaxi, espinafre congelado, um gole de suco de laranja, água fria, e alguns blocos de gelo.

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Você tem uma mistura de suco favorita?

Aproveitou o tempo gostoso esta semana? O que você fez ao ar livre?

Planning for Hanson's Marathon Method

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm tentatively planning on running the Meia Maratona Internacional de São Paulo and the Maratona Internacional de São Paulo in February and April of 2017.

I've become extremely curious about Hanson's Marathon Method. Although I love the idea of plans and checking things off a list, my body is pretty temperamental and gets to dictate what I am doing for the day. A set plan has never worked out for me, though I've always been able to run the distances that I wanted without using a plan. Have I ever told you that it took me a full year to run a couch to 5k? I'll explain more about that in another post.

But anyways, I'm curious. Some bloggers/runners I admire are always quoting Hanson's, so today I read a little more about it and adjusted the Hanson's beginner marathon plan to be in kilometers.

The Hanson's plan is very technical and specific—you should not be running faster or slower than the given goal pace for every single run. Of course the pace is adjusted for where you are at (see this handy Hanson's pace calculator). The idea is that you will be tired all the time, but not overtraining. If you are running too fast, you'll end up overtraining, burning out, getting injured or sick, etc.

Here are my training times calculated at a marathon goal time of 4:00:00. I've never run a marathon or even a half before, but these times look doable for me. When I run easy, I run 6:30-6:50 per kilometer. The speed workouts also look right for where I am right now.

Marathon Training Paces
Goal Pace	05:41 /KM	10.5 kph
Strength Workouts	05:35 /KM	10.7 kph
Speed Workouts	05:00 - 05:13 /KM	11.5 - 12 kph
Easy Days	06:19 - 06:56 /KM	8.6 - 9.5 kph
Long Runs	06:00 - 06:56 /KM	8 - 10 kph

The most intimidating thing is the time commitment. 7-10 hours per week or more! I do have a lot of free time, but I will have to cut some of the things I do in order to make space for training.

The plan is 18 weeks, and it doesn't look tough until week 6 or 7. So in the meantime, I'm going to focus on lifting, core strength, and speed workouts (those really intimidate me and always have).

Have you ever trained for a marathon? Did you use a plan? If so, what worked and what didn't?

2016 so far

This year is drawing to a close, and I'm already planning my race schedule for 2017. I haven't done any races in 2016.

At first I spent a lot of time getting back into running shape after taking nearly a year off (2015) because I was intimidated by the hills in São Paulo and I didn't want to buy a gym membership.

Finally I sucked it up and got a membership at a gym across the street from me. A few of the trainers milling around and giving unsought advice were cool, a few of them were not. But what was really insufferable were the people who worked out there. Stuck-up, rude, vain, rude, self-absorbed, rude... A lot of times I run because I am grumpy and angry, then I get a dose of endorphins and all is right in the world. But it got to the point that the people at the gym made me angrier than before I started running!

During the last month of my membership (May), I did some squats a little too low or I had a weird position or something... and injured my right knee. This was right before I went on vacation to Arizona for a month in July (yeah yeah, you try running in AZ in July if you are on vacation and don't want to wake up at 3am), so I stopped running for two months.

After I got back, I got a gym membership at a different gym with people who don't annoy me to the moon and back, so I've been strength training (once a week) and running more frequently (2-3 times a week).

I'm finally at the point (hello November, you eleventh month of the year!) where I am ready to start looking into racing races. There are a few 10ks left this year, but I'm not sure about signing up. They are kind of expensive and all the photos from previous years make it look like the course is really crowded. São Paulo has gained a lot more runners in the past year due to the expansion of dedicated bike lanes throughout the city. On the one hand, that's really awesome, but on the other hand, races get really full. A few races I saw are completely full and there are still a few weeks to go before the gun goes off.

Training is going really well, I'm just itching for something to train for.

Looking ahead to 2017, the São Paulo half marathon is on February 19 and the full marathon on April 9. Silas gave me some good advice and told me to sign up for the half, and after I see how that goes, I can sign up for the full. So some of my next paycheck will probably end up there.

Do you have any more races on the calendar this year? Are you planning your schedule for next year already?

Race Schedule 2016

Because I have a nice gym sitting right next door, waiting for me to get buff, I am going to plan my 2016 race schedule. Or at least make a wish list. Lots of people say that one of the biggest motivations to keep running is to sign up for races. Have something to look forward to, y'know?

March
10k - Circuito das Estações: Outono

April
1/2 - Meia Maratona Internacional de São Paulo

July
10k - Circuito das Estações: Inverno

September
10k - Troféu Independência do Brasil
10k - Circuito das Estações: Primavera

October
1/2 - Meia Maratona de Sampa

December
10k Circuito das Estações: Verão

A photo posted by O2CorreBrasil (@o2correbrasil) on Nov 30, 2015 at 8:57am PST

There are a few other runs I might be interested in:

• The São Silvestre is a 15k race that happens on the last day of the year. It's a very famous race in São Paulo because it is old. But because it's so famous, it's televised, and thus doesn't start until 9am. It's too hot and too late for me! 
• A Star Wars run happens in November. It's 7k, I think to try to cut down on the amount of participants. I don't really like fun runs though. If I'm running and paying to run, I want to run fast.
• I really want Nike to host a 10k or 1/2 in São Paulo. I've only heard positive things about the way they organize races, and my experience at We Run DXB was awesome.

Meia Maratona de Sampa