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e-coaching with Jeff Galloway

March 25, 2014

I had been considering hiring a running coach for about 6 months now but didn’t do it. I wanted to do it last August after pulling my hamstring and needing physical therapy. Then after the therapy worked and I wasn’t hurting anymore I decided I didn’t need to.

After the WDW marathon I came home and wanted to do another marathon sooner rather than later. I didn’t want to wait until the fall and because I had the mileage base under my belt I wanted to get one done in the spring. I found the Providence Marathon. This was perfect! It’s a short drive from home, the course looks nice, the price was good and several other friends of mine decided to run it.

When I went to the Princess Half marathon a little over a month after the WDW full marathon, I wasn’t happy with my training. I was struggling with hip flexor pain and my running was very, very slow. I was hoping to talk to Jeff Galloway at the expo, but didn’t get the chance. When I got home I made the decision. I was going to do e-coaching with Jeff Galloway! Why wouldn’t I? I follow his training plans, I met him twice and I love his training method. I already read several of his books and I believe in his method of run/walk/run. Because I was planning on running another marathon within 6 months of my last, I wanted to do it in a way where I wouldn’t hurt myself, since I seem to be prone to injury. I also wanted to use it as a method to prepare me for a decision to do Dopey in 2015.

What comes with ecoaching?

Individual Training Program to the goal of your choice by Jeff Galloway
A copy of one of Jeff’s books (Galloway Training Program, Galloway’s Book on Running–2nd Ed. or Year Round Plan)
Direct email access to Jeff, for questions and clarifications, with priority
Free Monthly E Newsletter
Opportunity to ride on the Galloway Bus for the New York City Marathon start
Discounts on Fitness Vacations at Lake Tahoe Meet and run with other Galloway Members at races around the world

I am three weeks into the training plan now and I have been very happy with it. I was surprised with the intervals Jeff recommended and the pace for my long runs, but I can see now why they are recommended. I also liked the other workouts he prescribed from cadence runs to hill repeats. I never took those workouts seriously before, but now I see how they are effective for the whole process of building other muscles and to help with speed. My recover on my 2 last long runs were very quick and just this past Friday with my 20-miler I was able to hike Sunday and ran and rode my bike on Monday and didn’t even feel like I ran 20 miles just days ago.

On April 6, Jeff will be at the Harvard Pilgrim Middletown Half & Legends 4-mile run. I hope I get the chance to run with him during the 4-mile run. Every time runDisney had a meetup the guests had the chance to run with Jeff. I never had the chance. If not, I will be sure to get another picture with Jeff! I am also looking forward to participating in his Jeff Galloway 13.1 Inaugural race in Atlanta in December.

Providence Marathon Training – 20 mile run

March 23, 2014

This past Friday I did my long run to prepare for Providence. As usual I was anxious about it during the week prior. I had been under a lot of pressure with work, my son had a stomach bug over the weekend, my daughter had one on Wednesday and I wasn’t feeling all that great either. I had only run on Monday and didn’t have any gas in my tank to consider going for a run on Wednesday considering how crappy I felt. And I NEVER skip a run. I knew that in order to make it out for my run Friday I had to just suck it up and take care of myself. I had a great night sleep the night before my run and that was a savior for me.

The morning of my run was beautiful. I got the kids off to school and then hit the road. It was 45 degrees with wind but the sun was shining, the sky was blue and the spring birds were out. I was determined to have a positive, good run.

Jeff’s training plan was to do 15/30 intervals. I walked the entire first mile, then started my intervals. I had set my timer to 30/1:00 intervals. I did that for the first 4 miles. My endomondo tracker was stating that with my pace it would take me 5 hours to finish. I started to worry because I had to get back home in time to pick up Adrienne from school. So I changed my timer to 30/45. My pace was pretty quick considering it was a long run, but I was feeling very fresh. It was good that I had those days off prior to my run. I really needed them.

My total run took me 4 hours 29 minutes. I was happy with that time, and my plan for the marathon is to do a 5:30 marathon, which is a big stretch for me. My route ended with some hills at the end, but I pushed through them despite tired legs so I think if I push at the end of the race to get some speed I may make my goal.

I did experience some pain in my hamstring behind my knee that night which concerned me. So I used ice, heat and tylenol to keep it at bay and so far so good. I do NOT want to repeat physical therapy again like last year. I know I had it because I pushed faster for this long run. In my next 2 long runs I will make arrangements to have Adrienne picked up from school so I can continue using the pace and intervals that Jeff has written for me.

Good Nutrition – Better Eating

March 18, 2014

Well here comes a new season which means it will be warmer soon (I hope) and time for shorts and bathing suits. I want to clean up my act in the nutrition department and go back to the meal plan that my chiropractor’s office made specifically for me. The focus on the plan is to increase your portions of proteins and veggies and get your carbs from foods like sweet potatoes and vegetables like carrots and corn rather than through white flour. It also limits the intake of sugar.

This plan has worked for me in the past and I want to commit to it again. But I have to admit, that I am not sure that I am ready mentally. I hope I can stick to it. With my stress from my job I tend to binge on sweets when I get home from the office or when the pressure kicks in. It’s my immediate self gratification. I am human, it’s my weakness.

Something else that I have to say is hard to accept when eating better is the cost. It’s a shame that when you shop along the perimeter of a grocery store to get the fresh food, produce, meat and vegetables, you end up paying a lot more money than you do for the processed, high sugar crap in the center of the store. There aren’t coupons for discounts on apples and strawberries or salad. They run specials on those items, but you can’t walk in there with coupons on top of their specials. That frustrates me.

I was listening to a new podcast on my run today, The Natural Running Network Live Blog Talk Radio on “How to Achieve Racing Weight for Endurance Athletes“. I don’t consider myself an endurance athlete, but I guess training for marathons, I sort of am… Anyway, I wanted to hear their concepts on what they suggest for proper nutrition and it was also a confirmation to me that I need to get on track. So I am hoping the motivation of it helps spark me back into it. 21 times becomes a habit. If I can repeat my good eating habits again, within the first 2 weeks I will become more clean and then it will become more of a habit for me again. When I followed this plan I was actually so full, I couldn’t finish the food a lot of the time! I never felt hungry because the quality and quantity of food was so good.

An example of a day on this plan was quite normal:

Breakfast – steel cut oatmeal with blueberries
Snack – 27 grapes with cheese stick or a chiobani plain yogurt with fresh cut strawberries and a little agave nectar
Lunch- hard boiled egg or egg salad with lettuce wraps or a large salad loaded up with proteins (chicken, eggs, salmon, tuna, shrimp) or a home made vegetable soup loaded up with beans and shrimp or chicken. That was always very easy for me to have because I would heat it up at work and have a hard boiled egg, almonds and shrimp for additional protein.
Dinner – Grillers protein veggie burgers, chicken, salmon (proteins) with veggies, low carbs as a side.
Snack – apples and 17 almonds

So what’s wrong with eating good foods like almonds and apples, grapes and cheese and shrimp? Nothing really, it just takes some work to prepare the meals ahead of time and make them back into a habit. So here’s to starting a new day again and getting cleaner with my eating. I am hoping this will also help me increase my running speed.

2014 Race Calendar

March 17, 2014

While it is already the middle of March, I sat down with my pencil and race calendar to map out what races I am planning on attending for the upcoming year. This needs to align with the training plan Jeff Galloway has set up for me for this spring and then what we will plan for the summer months.

One of the races that I didn’t plan on doing but decided to last minute is the Harvard Pilgrim Middletown Half & Legends 4-Miler. The reason why I wasn’t planning on doing it was because I am doing a 23 mile run days prior to the event so I can’t do the half marathon. However, I realized there is a 4-mile run with the event so I can do that as my shake off run.

I also chose to do this run because like the name of it says, there are Legends attending this run, and one of those legends is my trainer, Jeff Galloway. Amby Burfoot and Bill Rodgers will also be attending this event. Once I heard Jeff was going to be there I HAD to register!

I am looking forward to seeing Jeff again, meeting Amby and Bill, and looking forward to this inaugural race!

Providence Marathon Training Picks Up

March 15, 2014

Last weekend I did a long run of 17 miles to prepare for the Providence Marathon on May 4th. This was a big day for me. I had been struggling mentally with running since I returned home from the Princess Glass Slipper Challenge weekend. I had the BEST time running that weekend, but my legs weren’t good. I had been having issues with my hip flexors. I am also sooo slow!

I typically train by myself and do all of my long runs alone because I remain committed to my plan and am self-motivated. But because of my apprehension about doing another marathon shortly after doing the Disney full marathon in January I decided to hire a training coach. Not only did I hire a coach, I hired the best! I am doing e-coaching with Jeff Galloway. That was a VERY smart decision for me. His instructions for my 17 mile run made a huge difference for me. I just received my autographed book from him in the mail and was excited!

I was just reading the latest Runners World magazine and there was an article from Dimity McDowell about her Iron Man endeavor. You can also read about her Iron Man race on the anothermotherrunner.com site. First of all, I am in awe by any mother who does the Iron Man. That’s just awesome. I met Dimity in February at the Princess Half Marathon weekend and she is so humble and friendly and awesome. But her article hit home to me. She wrote about controlling as many variables as possible. Having a coach to keep you on track is key. I feel that having Jeff to help me achieve another marathon within a few short months of my last one will help me to avoid injury and still achieve my goal.

Proof of this success came when I did my 17 mile run last weekend. All week prior I was having issues with a muscle spasm in my back. I saw my incredible chiropractor three times and it quieted down the issue. He also reassured me that I would still be able to do my run. Mentally I was struggling. I was having doubts about my ability. Even though I did a half marathon just 2 weeks prior I didn’t feel like I had the base of mileage behind me.

When I set out on my run I did as Jeff recommended and changed my interval time to 30 seconds run, 1 minute walk. At first that was nice, but it felt like I was going a lot slower. I kept this interval up for the first 4 miles. Then I changed it to my usual 30/30. I did that for miles 5 – 10 then stepped back down to 30/1:00 for the rest of the run. My average pace was about 13:30 per mile which again, is much slower than I am used to doing. However, I had a lot less pain during and after my run and I recovered much faster during the days after. I know Jeff is my coach and he’s been doing this for MANY years so he knows what will work for me. I have to trust that. Even though it means I will be out on my training runs for 4-6 hours, these runs will help me for my race day so I don’t get hurt.

During the week I do my cadence drills to pick up speed and turnover, and hill repeats to build up the other muscles that get ignored by doing flat runs. Even though I read magazines and books about running it really sunk in for me that each type of training run has a purpose and when you do them all as part of a plan it will make you a more efficient runner. I am maturing in my knowledge about running and hopefully that will help me to achieve my goals and one day achieve a goal of qualifying for Boston. That is a VERY hefty goal for slow little ole me, but it’s out there and hopefully one day it will happen.

Hill Repeats

March 7, 2014

I had always heard of them, but never did them. Now it was time to put on my big girl panties and start to do some “real running workouts”. I thought when you run, you just run. But I am learning that each run has a purpose. My purpose was to always get out there and get moving and have my time to myself. That’s all well and good, but if I want to improve my time or to improve my body, I have to do some other workouts as well. Cadence drills and hill repeats are on the plan for this week. I didn’t do the cadence drills yet, but I did do the hill repeats.

I didn’t hate them, I kind of liked them. But it took forever to fill 30 minutes of time with running up a hill and then walking down and then running back up that hill, then walk down again. Repeat until 30 minutes is up. The purpose of this is to strengthen other muscles that you don’t use as much when running on flat surfaces. I did feel it in my glutes and hip flexors and that is a good thing because those are areas that are very weak for me. I saw an article in Runners World recently and I have to go back to it and read it. Weak glutes and hips are a major cause for injuries which is something I have had to deal with in the past year.

So to help combat those issues, hill repeats are now going to be part of my running workout regime. It is also convenient because I can do it while my kids ride their bikes in the driveway and cheer me on as I run up and down the hill about 20 times!