Disclaimer: I received an Endure Strong Coaching Package to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!
What a difference a couple of weeks can make! After sorting through my health woes over the last few weeks, I’ve finally had a breakthrough with my cough. As I’ve mentioned before, I started doing an elimination diet in order to figure out what is triggering this chronic cough that I’ve had for YEARS. Now 3 weeks in and starting to re-introduce various eliminated foods, I’m finding what I can tolerate, and what triggers my cough/throat issues. The goods news? Eggs and corn are on the good list! The bad news? Chocolate and dairy are potentially causing reactions.
I’m going to continue to reintroduce other foods, and revisit some of these potential triggers to really determine which aspects are ok or troublesome… but my health has been improving steadily and I really felt the impact this week throughout my various workouts. I am still building up to where I need to be at this stage in my training, but I’m feeling so much better and happy to finally have this shift in my progress.
As a random sidenote, last week, my best friend was in town, and I was able to change up my workout with something a little different… goat yoga! After my fun cat yoga session, I decided to see if the goat variety of yoga was offered nearby. Thankfully, we have a farm pretty close to my house, so I booked one of their weekend sessions and brought my eldest along. He loved sharing his mat with one of the baby goats, and my friend and I laughed our way through yoga as the goats took various positions on our mats, taking up most of our posing space for quick naps or belly rubs. It was a fun, light-hearted workout and perfect for our mental space that weekend.
Back to the half marathon training though… here are the last two weeks of workouts as part of my Endure Strong coaching plan. Two weeks ago I was easing back into a normal routine, but this past week felt strong, and I came close to my original weekly mileage goal. My long run yesterday had a target of 10 miles, but I went in thinking I would only be able to do 8 (given my slow ramp up back in to the plan). Ultimately, I felt so good that I was able to get the full 10 miles, and it was one of those runs that you just enjoy the majority of it. I’ve missed that feeling!
I have two more higher mileage weeks before my taper… this race is just one month away! This week will be a challenge to hit my mileage just because it’s going to be so busy. I’m teaching PiYo twice, studying the new Mossa Power round, and on Friday we leave for the mountains for my brother’s wedding over the weekend. I’m going to try to switch my long run day to early Saturday morning, just so that it doesn’t interfere with our return home plans, and hopefully I can get in a fun route while we are in the Asheville area.
This training cycle has been all about adapting to the various challenges thrown at me. I like that the Final Surge program makes it easy to edit and swap around workouts. I can move workout dates, modify cross training and strength training schedules, and when I have doubts, I’ve been able to reach out to Andrew from the Endure Strong team for guidance. I’ve also really appreciated the encouragement and support from our team message boards. We can bounce ideas off of each other, complain about painful workouts, and celebrate our successes. I’m sad that this cycle is coming to an end, but there’s no time to focus on it… gotta get these last few weeks down!
If you want more information on the Endure Strong Coaching program, check out their website to see the various training plan and coaching options in working with Jared Ward and his team.
