Week in Review 5.26.14 to 6.1.2014

We got really blessed with weather this week. Beautiful view from the run this morning.

The first half of the week was dedicated to recovering from VCM while the second half was all about looking up and looking forward. I did some public self-reflection on my strengths and weaknesses and I shared (gulp) my goals for the rest of my open racing career. We’ll deal with Masters when I get there. I ran 256 miles in May, up from 214 in April. I started doubles this week and am feeling generally good.

Monday: Easy 5.25. Quads pretty ripped up from VCM.

Tuesday: Easy 6. Tougher day than Monday. Aiming to be recovered by Thursday.

Wednesday: PT in the morning, then 8.25 mile run on the Causeway. Lifted arms in the afternoon. And by lifted mean driving home was actually difficult.

Thursday AM: 4 easy

Thursday PM: 9.5 in the afternoon previewing the Labor Day 15K course with Joe. Finally feel poppy again.

Friday AM: 7.7 mile cruise interval workout with drills. 4 by 5 minutes at high tempo pace with 1 minute recovery. Felt tough but good. Pace 6:33 for first 3, 6:24 for the last.

My feelings on humidity on Friday.

Friday PM: 3.1 mile easy jog around the UVM XC course and lifted legs afterward.

Saturday: 7.6 easy run around the Intervale.

Pre long run fuel? Joey and I went to a movie on Saturday night and made sure we brought plenty of provisions.

Sunday: 13 mile long run with the chickies. 8:08 pace but actually felt pretty crappy. Allergies bugging me a bit and legs a little tired.

Total Miles: 64.4

Lift: 2 times

All in all, a good week. Psyched I got back in the gym twice and I do feel like I’m building some fitness. Recovery still needs work but I did better on sleep this week and I think it will pay dividends. Cutback week starts tomorrow with the Causeway 15K at the end, so it will be nice to see where my fitness is at after that. Hoping my ankle quiets down a little. Sayanara’s are starting to bug it.

How was your training week? Did you get your extras in?

“You Have Beautiful Form!”

As most runners know, people love to yell things at us. Usually it’s some iteration of Run Forrest Runnnnnn or a slew of angry words because they had to stop at a crosswalk. Yesterday, however, I had an utterly fantastic experience that made my run.

I was starting my warmup on the bike path and trotting down my pre-workout downward spiral of I feel tired and it’s humid out and my hamstring hurts. For whatever reason, when I’m anxious about a race or a workout, my left hamstring feels tight. I panic about until the workout or race starts, then it magically goes away. Anyway, as I was running along, a biker came up behind me and said “You have beautiful form! I aspire to run like you.” I sputtered something back along the lines of thankssomuchareyoutalkingtome. I was stunned both by the fact that someone speaking to me on my run wasn’t quoting a movie from 20 years ago and that someone thought my form was admirable.

Don’t get me wrong. There are good things about my form. I have a quick cadence and I land lightly. In fact, from the waist down minus poor knee drive, I look pretty darn good. Waist up, well, there were Tyrannosaurus Rex(i?) who once ruled the Earth with better arm carry than me. Still, it made my entire workout to have someone say she aspired to look like me when I ran.

Does this mean I just do really good workouts?

Later in the workout, I was on my last cruise interval when she biked by again and said “You are so fast, is that like a 7 minute pace?” “620ish right now” I huffed back at her. “You are AMAZING.” And with that, my amazing random support biker biked off. As I finished the last interval, I was so touched that a perfect stranger would say something, that she dropped so much kindness and support on some sweaty, ponytailed girl huffing along the bike path. I also wondered if my husband planted her to stop my hissy fit. He claims to know nothing.

She wasn’t wearing a cape but this is basically what she looked like to me.

So to the lady on her bike that made my morning yesterday, you might aspire to have my running form, but I aspire to make other people feel the way you made me feel yesterday.

What’s the best thing someone has ever yelled at you on a run? The worst?

Week in Review: 5.12.14 to 5.18.14

You can’t make this shit up: both last week and this week, I ran exactly 57.89 miles. In the past week, summer has arrived in a big way bringing with it a resurgence of my watch tan and lots of hot, sticky runs where I swore I’d get my hydration back under control.

Monday: Easy 8.9 feeling really ploddy.

Tuesday: Easy 9.4 with Annie on trails.

Wednesday: Miserable track workout in 80 degrees and humidity at high noon. Excellent sunburn as a bonus. The goal was 12X400 at 90 seconds with 75 seconds of jogging recovery in between. I timed the first couple but gave up with the headwind/humidity and tractor parked across lanes 1 through 4 and just tried to keep the effort the same. By the end, the lane lines were starting to swirl on me but I survived. 8.5 miles with a heavy leg lift after.

Had to check if the lines were actually blurry or if it was me. It was me.

Thursday: 6.5 mile recovery run. Legs really cooked which oppressive humidity didn’t help.

Friday: 7.5 miles, some of which was with Collette. Legs started to feel snappy towards the end of the hour. Still wicked humid. Lifted arms at home.

Saturday: 10 miles. I meant to do a long run but then I took a small fall at about 8 miles. And by small fall, I mean stepped in a huge hole and fell on my face. My knee bled for the rest of my run and was pretty sore when it was time to drop Joey off so I used all of my grown-up judgment and stopped. Total Abs routine.

Sunday: 7 mile tempo run. Drills (go me!!), 2 mile warmup, 25 minutes continuous tempo and cooldown. Hip core after. My Garmin was all sorts of pissed off by the trees but my pace for the tempo section was 6:45 pace, which was right on for a tempo effort over 20 minutes.

57.89 miles

2 lifts

2 core sessions

2 workouts

Reflection: This week was rough weather-wise, but committing to Albany really helped my motivation and my focus on doing the “extras.” I’m not tapering for the half next weekend so am looking forward to a workout on Tuesday and lifting throughout the week.

Total Abs Routine

Hip Core Routine: 45 to 60 seconds for each activity

Squats

Walking Lunges

Calf Raises

Clamshells

Jane Fonda’s

Single Leg Bridge

How was your week in running? Anyone else fall-prone? What’s your approach to running in humidity?

 

March Madness Indeed

It’s been one of the busiest weeks of my life between work, a snowstorm and running 70+ miles, which explains the crickets over here. I’m beyond exhausted and excited for the weekend to sleep and run without balancing everything else. DC went…ok. More on that later, but basically I executed a huge tempo run and did exactly what I needed to do, no bells, no trumpets. Training week has been good despite a late snowstorm and I’m starting to get really excited for VCM.

Dan and I at the start

Results

Error Analysis

One of the frustrating parts of the marathon is that there are so many moving pieces, you can execute a flawless plan and still encounter the unexpected. While I am by no means disappointed with my performance at VCM, I am still naturally inclined towards the error analysis, the “what happened.”

Training Cycle

By the time Christine and I had showered and made it to the barbeque, we’d both come up with the same conclusion about our training cycle: not enough miles at MP and not enough tempo work in general. While we were good about adding marathon pace into our long runs, we weren’t doing enough miles at the pace (maximum of 6) and we stopped doing tempo runs right around the time of New Bedford.

From a mileage perspective, I had consistent mileage, but no real peaks and cut back weeks. Because of school and MCAT preparations, I never got the 3-1 ratio that I typically follow. Instead, I ran a consistent 55 to 60 miles a week for almost 16 weeks. In the next cycle, I want to focus on ramping up miles for 3 weeks, then getting a true cutback week instead of steady mileage.

Race Day

The only controllable error on race day was my pace. While the first mile was right on, I think the overall pace in the first few miles was a tad too fast. I averaged a 6:47 pace through mile 10, when the goal pace should have been more like 6:52 to 6:55. While this doesn’t seem like a major difference, I suspect it was the reason things fell apart in the later miles. The slight increase in effort between a 6:52 and a 6:47 likely taxed my legs just enough to introduce me to the wall. Perhaps a more telling statistic is that my average pace went from 6:47 to a final 7:05, most of which occurred over the last 6 miles.

It’s Amazing

While going over my race plan (again) last night, Matt and I both shared a thought that I’ve often had, but not often verbalized. 26.2 miles is a long f***ing way. It’s the distance from Waterbury to Burlington when you drive on 89. And right this instant, the thought of running 8 minute miles for that distance seems insurmountable despite the fact that I’ve done it in every marathon I’ve run. What we settled on was that racing a marathon is an amazing feat, which bears repeating in the days before the marathon when I’m fixated on hydration plans and race strategy. It’s amazing. As daunting as it seems now, I have to remain confident that I’ve done it before and that I’ve put more into this training cycle than any prior one.

When I ran my first marathon, I had no idea what I was doing. I followed a training plan that peaked at 35 miles a week, did one 20 mile run and crossed my fingers and ran. I felt good for most of the race and upon finishing exclaimed, “When can I do that again?!” I ran a 3:17 on a hilly course.

Well this sort of hurts.

We signed up for what?

Oooh, I won things?

My second marathon (Rock and Roll Las Vegas) just plain sucked. I had done all of my training on nice rolling dirt roads but raced on a flat, paved course. By mile 10, I was in some serious pain. I had also only focused on long runs with no real race pace or uptempo efforts. I came home in 3:15 with a last mile at 9:40. Hello, wall.

Please don’t make me walk.

Boston was a decent marathon for me. My training cycle was good until 6 weeks before the marathon and the week before was suboptimal, but I balanced increasing miles with uptempo work and turned in a 3:11. I was in good spirits for the whole race and never met the wall.

This is Heartbreak?

Don’t pee your pants, Don’t pee your pants…

For VCM, I have no idea what to expect (per usual). I’ve run more miles this cycle than I ever have and long runs have been almost 2 minutes faster than in prior cycles. I’ve done tempos and intervals and huge weekends of 30 to 40 miles of running. All I can do is go out slowly and be patient until the race starts at 16.

Oh Yeah, I’m Doing This Race Next Weekend

Totally forgot that I agreed to be part of an Old Route Relay team next weekend, running 50 miles on a team of 5 through rural Chittenden County. Since I’m running 20 miles on Saturday, I’ll use Sunday as the perfect time to practice marathon pace on tired legs. The breaks in between each leg will give me time to refuel and the legs are just long enough to be tired!

The best part about relay races, however, are the picture and the inevitable hysteria that results from being in the car with three other teammates for an entire day. I’m looking forward to quality time with friends, music blasting from the speakers and the excuse to eat poptarts for most of a Sunday. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the perfect way to kick off MCAT week.

The Week Ahead

Last week was one of the best weeks of training that I’ve strung together in a long time and I’m hoping to continue the trend.

The start of every training week is hard. You look ahead at your schedule and think “I’ll never get through this.” This is especially true for me at the onset of my quality workouts. On Friday, I had to run 8 to 10 90-second hill repeats. After the second, I wanted to stop and tried to convince my brain to let me do so. By the fifth, I felt better and the last few flew by with little struggle besides the return of my breakfast. Note to self, protein rich breakfast + hill repeats = disaster. Despite those painful repeats, it feels good to reflect on a great week and to ponder what it will mean for May.

This week is a 100% mileage week so I’m going to be tired. Thankfully, the intensity of the quality workouts is stepped down to accommodate higher volume. Here are my key workouts this week:

Q1: 5 by 4 minutes at 10K pace.

Q2: 30 minute tempo run.

Midweek Long: 12 over the last half of the VCM course

What does your week look like? How do you encourage yourself in the middle of tough runs?

Saucony Kinvara 2 Review

I’m miles into my newest pair and still pretty enthralled with the brand. Major improvements over the original version?

*The shoelaces: As anyone who owned a version of the 1 can attest, something about those shoelaces just didn’t work. They came untied all the time. On the 2’s, they are back to a normal lace and I haven’t had to stop every two miles to retie. They are also a better length; no more loops hanging down below the shoe.

*The durability: My original Kinvaras wore out quickly, especially in the salt and wet of winter. We’ve had no shortage of rain, ice and salt this winter, but this model seems to be holding up better thanks to some more reinforcements in the structure of the shoe. The shoe is still breathable and light, but the plastic that makes the frame seems more durable and the seams of the shoe are in places less prone to blowouts.

Besides the still heinous color choices, I like this model a lot and probably more than it’s predecessor. The ride feels a little firmer (but still has a minimal drop), there’s a better toe box shape so my little toes aren’t getting smashed out to the side and they remain light and nimble.

Definite recommendation for speedwork for all runners and as a trainer for those looking for a shoe with minimalist features but some aesthetic appeal.

Know When to Fold Em

Being a coach does not necessarily mean you coach yourself well, an issue I’ve been struggling with for a few months. I know what workouts I should do and what paces I should hit, but it doesn’t mean that I execute well or that I’m objective when I evaluate my performance. As such, I’m really excited to take a new approach this spring and work with a coach. GMAA* is offering coaching this year with Kasie Enman, a female runner about my age with lots of running success. She’s a great fit for me both because we share a training philosophy and because she’s an easy person to be around. History illustrates that I do not thrive with a coach who favors yelling or punishment. After seeing Kasie’s training plan, I feel confident that with another person shepherding my progress, my goals are in reach.

The other benefit to working with Kasie is that I have a guaranteed Tuesday night workout date with Kasie and other runners working towards the same races. Just like long runs are best when you can share the misery, group workouts encourage accountability and cooperation. For example, tonight has 2 to 4 1.5 mile repeats at 10-mile pace (about 6:35 for me). Alone, that workout would be miserable. With company, however, it’s survivable.

Have you worked with a coach before? What were the benefits?

*Coaching with Kasie is open to any GMAA member who plans to run one or more of the USATF races this year. See www.gmaa.net for more information.